Older Diesel or New Gas - Newbie question
Let me preface this by I've read the faqs on gas vs. diesel and have been doing a bit of research. I know diesels will ride smoother, quieter, pull better, and go longer between maintenance intervals...
Forum Discussion
elhajj33,
About the "2005 Dodge Caravan SXT", sccording to Remco you can put a lube pump on that car to flat tow it. Otherwise you'll need a dolly and you'll have to add the weight of the dolly to arrive at the total towed weight.
If you want to add seatbelts, I can recommend GotBelts.com. They have the longer lengths needed and a variety of colors and mounting hardware. You most likely WILL NOT be able to find anyone willing to install them for you due to "liability reasons".
As I had mentioned, ours came with 12 belted positions from the factory. That gives the kids some options so they can change seating positions as we travel. Two of the dinette belts are rear-ward facing, and sometimes that can add to motion sickness problems if any of your children are susceptible to that. Oh...I added the extra seatbelts to the bed so that when we travel at night, the kids could sleep on our bed and if I had to slam on the brakes, they wouldn't all go rolling off! LOL It actually worked pretty well. We had all four of them snuggled in back when they were smaller. GotBelts had mounting hardware so the eye-hooks stay mounted but we can completely remove the seatbelts when we don't need them.
I find that 18,000 lb. figure hard to believe. My rig wasn't completely empty when I weighed it at 18,800, (I was in it LOL) plus some other stuff...but I don't think it was 600 pounds worth. Although...come to think of it, those original CRT sets alone probably accounted for an extra 100+ pounds. And I probably had some water in it as well. I know the gas tank and propane tank were full. That could be almost 500 pounds if the Forest River weight doesn't include fuels.
Oh, and yes, that old "engineering brain" thing often works overtime for me, too. I think it's kept me from making a lot of mistakes, but it also causes me to over-analyze things until my wife is ready to kill me. :)
As for the age of the motorhomes, ours is now 11 years old and I have no reason to not expect it to last at least another 11 years, and I'm hoping much more. If you buy a quality 10 year old DP, I think you can expect a lot more life out of it. As was mentioned, though, repairs can be steep, so you have to a chunk of money set aside "just in case". Since this will be your home, you'll be "homeless" if the rig has to go to a repair facility for a couple of days or even weeks. Also, most campgrounds won't allow you to work on your rig at your site. Minor stuff can usually be done, but anything major and you'll probably be at the mercy of paying a repair facility to do the work even if you could do it yourself. Having an extra $6k-$10k readily available would not be a bad idea, if you can arrange it. Or good credit cards! LOL
We home school too, although we just started a few years ago. The curriculum we use has online resources and our kids can do their studies while rolling down the road by way of a cellular Wifi hotspot and their iPads. Unfortunately, my job precludes us from going full time, but I do have most of the summer months off.
Obviously, families are different, so what works for some won't work for others. You and your wife know your family dynamics better than anyone. Some kids/family need their own space and the bunks are a real requirement. Our kids have no problem sharing the space, even though it's getting more crowded as they get older! LOL Kids can sleep anywhere and usually do. The parents, also, need to be well rested or we get cranky (so I've been told!). :) We also need our "cuddle time", so make sure you think about ways to satisfy those urges as they arise. I never thought about this when doing our research. Unbeknownst to us, it became apparent that wifey actually got "friskier" when we were out camping. It was nice to have all of the kids up front on those nights. ;)
Anyway, as I said, take your time so you choose the right rig the first time.
~Rick
About the "2005 Dodge Caravan SXT", sccording to Remco you can put a lube pump on that car to flat tow it. Otherwise you'll need a dolly and you'll have to add the weight of the dolly to arrive at the total towed weight.
If you want to add seatbelts, I can recommend GotBelts.com. They have the longer lengths needed and a variety of colors and mounting hardware. You most likely WILL NOT be able to find anyone willing to install them for you due to "liability reasons".
As I had mentioned, ours came with 12 belted positions from the factory. That gives the kids some options so they can change seating positions as we travel. Two of the dinette belts are rear-ward facing, and sometimes that can add to motion sickness problems if any of your children are susceptible to that. Oh...I added the extra seatbelts to the bed so that when we travel at night, the kids could sleep on our bed and if I had to slam on the brakes, they wouldn't all go rolling off! LOL It actually worked pretty well. We had all four of them snuggled in back when they were smaller. GotBelts had mounting hardware so the eye-hooks stay mounted but we can completely remove the seatbelts when we don't need them.
I find that 18,000 lb. figure hard to believe. My rig wasn't completely empty when I weighed it at 18,800, (I was in it LOL) plus some other stuff...but I don't think it was 600 pounds worth. Although...come to think of it, those original CRT sets alone probably accounted for an extra 100+ pounds. And I probably had some water in it as well. I know the gas tank and propane tank were full. That could be almost 500 pounds if the Forest River weight doesn't include fuels.
Oh, and yes, that old "engineering brain" thing often works overtime for me, too. I think it's kept me from making a lot of mistakes, but it also causes me to over-analyze things until my wife is ready to kill me. :)
As for the age of the motorhomes, ours is now 11 years old and I have no reason to not expect it to last at least another 11 years, and I'm hoping much more. If you buy a quality 10 year old DP, I think you can expect a lot more life out of it. As was mentioned, though, repairs can be steep, so you have to a chunk of money set aside "just in case". Since this will be your home, you'll be "homeless" if the rig has to go to a repair facility for a couple of days or even weeks. Also, most campgrounds won't allow you to work on your rig at your site. Minor stuff can usually be done, but anything major and you'll probably be at the mercy of paying a repair facility to do the work even if you could do it yourself. Having an extra $6k-$10k readily available would not be a bad idea, if you can arrange it. Or good credit cards! LOL
We home school too, although we just started a few years ago. The curriculum we use has online resources and our kids can do their studies while rolling down the road by way of a cellular Wifi hotspot and their iPads. Unfortunately, my job precludes us from going full time, but I do have most of the summer months off.
Obviously, families are different, so what works for some won't work for others. You and your wife know your family dynamics better than anyone. Some kids/family need their own space and the bunks are a real requirement. Our kids have no problem sharing the space, even though it's getting more crowded as they get older! LOL Kids can sleep anywhere and usually do. The parents, also, need to be well rested or we get cranky (so I've been told!). :) We also need our "cuddle time", so make sure you think about ways to satisfy those urges as they arise. I never thought about this when doing our research. Unbeknownst to us, it became apparent that wifey actually got "friskier" when we were out camping. It was nice to have all of the kids up front on those nights. ;)
Anyway, as I said, take your time so you choose the right rig the first time.
~Rick
