Is Motorhome Magazine any good? GS RV Travel/Saving guide?

We dropped our subscription to Motorhome Magazine after about 25 years, during the 2008 downturn in the economy. Around that time the publisher cut the number of pages in half and increased the advertisements, of those 90% seemed to be about Camping World related companies and products. We are FMCA members and Family Motor Coaching Magazine does fine for us.

Every now and then there is some useful information but mostly not.

JimInMich wrote:
I'm not looking to buy anything new, so the MH ad's and reviews won't do me much good. Other than that, is it worth getting a subscription? Can get 1 year for $12 or 2 years for $20. ...

It seems to me that there's usually at least one article every month that I find useful and keep for future reference. This month it had two. Plus, reading the "reader's tips" every month is fun. For a buck every month, I find it to be worth it.

Now and then I write destination articles for the magazine so I am definitely biased.

But I honestly have always enjoyed reading all the other articles as an RVer. I first got a free one-year subscription for attending an RV show in N.C. and kept it coming because I liked the articles (long before I was writing for them).

I've been following a fun series lately called "The Classic Ride" which profiles people who have vintage RVs and tells about their experiences with them. Also another series about National Parks. Always enjoy the tech info, tips from readers, pictures of mods others have done, etc.

By the way, the magazine's editor, Eileen Hubbard, is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. I've been connected with numerous publishing organizations over the years, good and bad, and these folks do a first class job.

I enjoy reading the magazine and continue to subscribe. Not sure how one puts a value on it. I like it, cheap for a magazine, I buy it.

I purchased, using the Good Sam discount, two year plus extra issues subscription for $20. Not a bad deal. We just upgraded from a Class C to a Class A diesel. Needing all the info we can gain. We are also Family Campers magazine readers.

Trailer Life and Motor Home magazines are very similar and produced by the same company (Good Sam organization ... the company that sponsors these forums).

I use to subscribe to Trailer Life and a friend of mine gave me his used Motor Home magazines when he was done with them. I think for about a 2 year run, I found both magazines to be absolutely GREAT! I really looked forward to the next issue. I think I even memorized every article in both of them. Yes, they were worth it.

But then, after a couple years, I found they weren't all that interesting any more. Maybe, because I now had experience with my own camper. Maybe, because the articles seemed to be repetitive. Maybe, because I realized (at that time) it was more advertisements than articles. Or maybe, I simply burned out.

I then realized Trailer Life has a web site. Trailerlife.com as does Motor Home, MotorHome.com. And actually, many of the same printed articles could be found on their internet sites. I actually found this much more satisfying than a paid subscription. Now I know, the web sites will not put as much information and as many "current" articles there, as they would put in their magazines, but it's enough to satisfy my curiosity.

I suggest, before getting the subscription, you hang out on BOTH web sites for a while and see what you think. Trailer Life has some good stuff, just like Motor Home does, things are common to any RV. (And oh, this was another observation I made about both magazines also). So the web sites are really GREAT! They really are! For the information they've added there. Give them a shot first, see what you think?

MotorHome Magazine

Trailer Life Magazine

And one other thing ... Both of these web sites have links to these same forums! If one "portal" is not working, or not working right, you can access these forums by going to the other site. Same user ID and Password.

Also... Check out Woodalls.com ... another "portal" entry to these forums.

It's a relatively cheap magazine with a few good articles and LOTS of ads. I do like some ads as there are some innovative products on the ads.

What about the Good Sam RV Travel & Savings Guide? Worth the $7? Front cover shows " $1000 in coupons ".

JimInMich wrote:
I'm not looking to buy anything new, so the MH ad's and reviews won't do me much good. Other than that, is it worth getting a subscription? Can get 1 year for $12 or 2 years for $20.

What about the Good Sam RV Travel & Savings Guide? Worth the $7? Front cover shows " $1000 in coupons ".

Been getting it for many years and I still smile when it shows up in the mail box. It's maybe one dollar per issue I have no problem justifying that expenditure.