Entering the next stage in my life
Hello good people: I'll try and keep this short but I have a ton of questions and I know I came to the right place. To start, I'm about to retire and considering an RV. First mainly travel thru Tex...
Forum Discussion
We started out with a Class C and knew very little about RVs. It was a 26' rig on an '85 Ford E350 chassis with a carburator-equipped Ford 460. It didn't have any slides and the main bed was an undersized "standard double" corner bed.
We got 6 mpg at sea-level and about 4.5 at altitude (and there's altitude involved just about anywhere we go. We also got the dreaded 460 manifold problems (about $1300 to fix) and serious brake problems (another $1000).
Just into our 2nd season, we decided we loved the RV lifestyle, but not with that piece of rubbish. We consigned it with a local dealership and they were able to sell fairly quickly, but for $4500 less than we'd paid for it.
We waited a few years before we got our current Class A, which we found at a private sale about 25 miles from home. The original owners were selling because of medical issues. We got it for about $8K under NADA estimate, and it's been almost trouble free in the 6000 miles we've put on it. It has two slides, one of which gets us a "shuffle-round" residential queen-size bed.
The only problem at present is that the generator won't run. This is a self-inflicted injury, as I was sidelined by a cardiac problem and didn't get out to exercise the generator for four months over the 2011-12 winter. We rarely use it, staying most times a full gook-up sites, but it's irritating that a generator with only 53 hours on it from new is dead.
We're are dedicated Class A owners after three seasons with this one, and would not consider a "C" if we ever sell the present rig. The only thing we'd consider is a diesel pusher, about 33 feet or so. The F53 chassis doesn't have the greatest ride quality - it's an 11-ton box truck after all - but I'm much more inclined to spend money on gas and CG fees than trying to turn a pig's ear into a silk purse. It's more than adequate for us (DW, me and 2 Labradors)
We got 6 mpg at sea-level and about 4.5 at altitude (and there's altitude involved just about anywhere we go. We also got the dreaded 460 manifold problems (about $1300 to fix) and serious brake problems (another $1000).
Just into our 2nd season, we decided we loved the RV lifestyle, but not with that piece of rubbish. We consigned it with a local dealership and they were able to sell fairly quickly, but for $4500 less than we'd paid for it.
We waited a few years before we got our current Class A, which we found at a private sale about 25 miles from home. The original owners were selling because of medical issues. We got it for about $8K under NADA estimate, and it's been almost trouble free in the 6000 miles we've put on it. It has two slides, one of which gets us a "shuffle-round" residential queen-size bed.
The only problem at present is that the generator won't run. This is a self-inflicted injury, as I was sidelined by a cardiac problem and didn't get out to exercise the generator for four months over the 2011-12 winter. We rarely use it, staying most times a full gook-up sites, but it's irritating that a generator with only 53 hours on it from new is dead.
We're are dedicated Class A owners after three seasons with this one, and would not consider a "C" if we ever sell the present rig. The only thing we'd consider is a diesel pusher, about 33 feet or so. The F53 chassis doesn't have the greatest ride quality - it's an 11-ton box truck after all - but I'm much more inclined to spend money on gas and CG fees than trying to turn a pig's ear into a silk purse. It's more than adequate for us (DW, me and 2 Labradors)
