buying an rv; am i missing something
we want to start rving (some camping close to home and maybe one big trip each year where we'd travel a longer distance) and have a limited budget. we have two young children, a family of four. we h...
Forum Discussion
I'm new to this forum but like many others here, I started out tent camping before moving on to a pop-up, then a small TT, and now a little larger one. I have always operated on a tight budget and being a DIY kinda person has been a bonus. I have never paid more than $1300 for a used camper and have gotten some really great deals. New tires and some maintenance on the bearings is usually enough to keep a trailer on the road for years. If you are a DIY person, most other things that can go wrong or need repairs you will be able to handle. There are those that can build an RV from scratch and there are those that call AAA to change a flat tire.
The RV sales lots, craigslist, and news papers are loaded with every kind of camper imaginable that are only a year to a few years old and hardly ever been used. I think this is largely due to a huge base of people that see a new RV, imagine themselves traveling or camping, drop a ton of cash, and then find that they do not have the time or interest and end up selling at a huge loss. Loss because it's used and because they have not gotten much use out of it. I find the same thing goes for boats.
Like others have said, start small, tent or pop-up or truck camper. If you are the type of person that expects everything to work perfectly without fail and if it does fail you have to call someone to fix it...$8000 is a tight budget. If you can fix most things yourself, consider investing most of that in a dependable tow vehicle and make sure the trailer has new tires.
Consider how far you plan on traveling...across the country or within a couple hours or so from home? How familiar are you with towing? Most pop-ups are similar to towing a boat but larger TTs and 5th wheels are more similar to driving a tractor/trailer.
I agree with those that say start small to see how it goes. You could purchase a pop-up this year. If you like it and take good care of it (maybe even improve it), you could sell it next year for what you paid and invest in something more suitable. This also gives you a year to determine what would be more suitable.
The RV sales lots, craigslist, and news papers are loaded with every kind of camper imaginable that are only a year to a few years old and hardly ever been used. I think this is largely due to a huge base of people that see a new RV, imagine themselves traveling or camping, drop a ton of cash, and then find that they do not have the time or interest and end up selling at a huge loss. Loss because it's used and because they have not gotten much use out of it. I find the same thing goes for boats.
Like others have said, start small, tent or pop-up or truck camper. If you are the type of person that expects everything to work perfectly without fail and if it does fail you have to call someone to fix it...$8000 is a tight budget. If you can fix most things yourself, consider investing most of that in a dependable tow vehicle and make sure the trailer has new tires.
Consider how far you plan on traveling...across the country or within a couple hours or so from home? How familiar are you with towing? Most pop-ups are similar to towing a boat but larger TTs and 5th wheels are more similar to driving a tractor/trailer.
I agree with those that say start small to see how it goes. You could purchase a pop-up this year. If you like it and take good care of it (maybe even improve it), you could sell it next year for what you paid and invest in something more suitable. This also gives you a year to determine what would be more suitable.
