Best fit for family of six?
Hi all, My family and I will be relocating from the east coast (upstate NY) to the west coast (Boise, ID) for work related reasons, but we are currently overseas until next spring. We are in the ...
Forum Discussion
Wow! Thanks for all of the great feedback so far; this is exactly why I joined the group!
I should have provided a couple of additional details:
1) Our jobs are flexible, so we can travel for extended periods of time a few times per year (a few weeks at a time each time). We also home school our kids, so that isn't an issue. We often turn road trips into learning experiences for the kids which we have found really enhances their education.
2) We would use the camper/motor home/travel trailer/whatever for more than just trips back east. Since we will be living in Idaho, there are a ton of places we want to visit that are within a couple day's drive or less. Yellowstone and Yosemite come to mind immediately.
3) Budget is in the sub 30K range. We have only ever purchased used vehicles, just to avoid the immediate depreciation that happens when you drive a new vehicle off the lot. From my initial research, it looks like I can find decent used travel trailers and class C's for this price. By the time I add a tow vehicle to the TT, I start to bump up against (or exceed) my budget which is why I started looking at the class C.
To answer a few of the questions and comments so far (and if there is a better way of doing this than a "reply all" format, please let me know):
- My wife loved the first comment that suggested buying a house back east and renting it on Air B&B when we aren't there. She actually suggested this weeks ago. We have a friend who could be a caretaker when we aren't there. However, there are the obvious issues of owning two homes, taxes, upkeep, etc. I'm not as big a fan of this idea as my wife is, but she is usually right! :-)
- We don't like the pop-ups or hybrid options. My in-laws had a hybrid TT and had issues with leaks in the canvas. Plus my wife likes the idea of a fully hard sided wall between her and the wildlife!
- We haven't ruled out class A, we just didn't think it was an option because of the price. I would certainly like that option, but haven't done any research on it.
- We love to road trip and have family all over the US (though most of them are on the east coast), so we would like to take some of our breaks from work to visit them, and thought maybe an RV of some sort would be a good way of seeing family and also seeing the US.
- My Odyssey is a 2010. I haven't even considered it as a possibility to use as a tow vehicle as I don't want to trash the transmission. It does not have the tow package I would assume we would need to use a tow dolly if we towed it behind a motor home. I don't like the idea of having the drive wheels on the ground while towing, but maybe that worry is unfounded.
Thanks again for all of the feedback so far!
I should have provided a couple of additional details:
1) Our jobs are flexible, so we can travel for extended periods of time a few times per year (a few weeks at a time each time). We also home school our kids, so that isn't an issue. We often turn road trips into learning experiences for the kids which we have found really enhances their education.
2) We would use the camper/motor home/travel trailer/whatever for more than just trips back east. Since we will be living in Idaho, there are a ton of places we want to visit that are within a couple day's drive or less. Yellowstone and Yosemite come to mind immediately.
3) Budget is in the sub 30K range. We have only ever purchased used vehicles, just to avoid the immediate depreciation that happens when you drive a new vehicle off the lot. From my initial research, it looks like I can find decent used travel trailers and class C's for this price. By the time I add a tow vehicle to the TT, I start to bump up against (or exceed) my budget which is why I started looking at the class C.
To answer a few of the questions and comments so far (and if there is a better way of doing this than a "reply all" format, please let me know):
- My wife loved the first comment that suggested buying a house back east and renting it on Air B&B when we aren't there. She actually suggested this weeks ago. We have a friend who could be a caretaker when we aren't there. However, there are the obvious issues of owning two homes, taxes, upkeep, etc. I'm not as big a fan of this idea as my wife is, but she is usually right! :-)
- We don't like the pop-ups or hybrid options. My in-laws had a hybrid TT and had issues with leaks in the canvas. Plus my wife likes the idea of a fully hard sided wall between her and the wildlife!
- We haven't ruled out class A, we just didn't think it was an option because of the price. I would certainly like that option, but haven't done any research on it.
- We love to road trip and have family all over the US (though most of them are on the east coast), so we would like to take some of our breaks from work to visit them, and thought maybe an RV of some sort would be a good way of seeing family and also seeing the US.
- My Odyssey is a 2010. I haven't even considered it as a possibility to use as a tow vehicle as I don't want to trash the transmission. It does not have the tow package I would assume we would need to use a tow dolly if we towed it behind a motor home. I don't like the idea of having the drive wheels on the ground while towing, but maybe that worry is unfounded.
Thanks again for all of the feedback so far!
