Family doing 3 month summer trip, Class C or Travel Trailer?

Veik wrote:
Folks, for those of you who boondocked/dry camped in travel trailers - how do you manage the A/C.

Do you run generator at night?
Or do you follow the seasons and go as far north as possible to avoid heat during summer month?

all non-hookup campgrounds, that i know of, don't allow generators running at night. they all have quiet hours.

if you are in boondock areas, like the national forests or the desert, then run the generator to your heart's content.

bottom line, if you want to run the a/c, then get a place with hookups.

Any boondocking in summer is best done by changing elevation to cooler temps. Then you don't have to run a generator.

Folks, for those of you who boondocked/dry camped in travel trailers - how do you manage the A/C.

Do you run generator at night?
Or do you follow the seasons and go as far north as possible to avoid heat during summer month?

Good morning; We started out similar to you and probably many others; small children, pets and limited time. Now retired with a class A.
We found a trailer was the best option as we could leave it at the campsite and then use the tow vehicle to venture off for the day to local attractions, medical emergencies, etc. without having to unhook everything.
Do your homework as to where you want to go, how long you will be at specific places and other factors.
Eventually you need to decide what will serve you best and with the least amount of concern.
Have a good day and enjoy camping and family.

And if you decide to go the truck route, make sure you understand 1/2 tons vary greatly on towing capacity. axle ratio matters as much as engine. You can learn a lot on the tow vehicle forum. You will also see some say you have to have a one ton. Hybrid will keep weight down without taking away all your space.

OP: I highly advise that you read this long post of a family's summer RV vacation. It will give you lots of ideas of where to go and how to manage cramming everything into a vacation with kids.

I'm sure if you wrote the poster he would gladly give you some ideas of what kind of RV you should be looking to buy. After this big vacation he wrote that he did buying something different.

Big Summer Trip with Children

Veik wrote:
Thank you all so much for great ideas.
I am running some numbers here
A good used TT - around 10-15K, something probably under 25ft
A good used truck, around 20-25K (tacoma or f150)
Now a good used C-class would probably run me 40-50K, am I right on that?

I found a decent older 18 ft TT on CL for $3200 then spent close to $800 on setup and upgrades. It's dry weight is 3400lbs so I can tow it with my Tacoma. It took me 5 months watching CL almost daily to find it. Most of the trailers in the price range that I looked at had dry rot and/or other problems.

If I was buying a vehicle specifically to tow a trailer, I'd get something with a V8, not a Tacoma. My Tacoma can handle the trailer fine, but it's not as ideal as something with a larger engine.

If your trailer is light enough, your tow vehicle doesn't necessarily have to be a truck.

Replace one of your vehicles with a suitable truck. Get a TT for around the $15k price range. Enjoy and go camping. But I will tell you this, do not wait too long. The longer you wait, the chance of missing out on some good choices. Other people with kids will start doing the same thing in the summer. Get something as soon as you can and work out the kinks and gettign used to it. Then when your trip starts, you will be ready to go.

We are one of the planners as mentioned before. But that's because we both work and have limited time off and have a child in school to contend with. We've been planning a what was going to be a two week trip to the keys to now a one week trip to the keys since December. The trip is not even until the middle of July. And we had very limited choices then for reservations at state parks down there. Keep that in mind when going to popular places...

I would buy a 8 to 12,000 dollar truck a 23 to 25 ft trailer for 5 to 7 and go have a blast. Sell or keep as fits at the end of the trip. Probably would only cost a few thousand after recouping close to your purchase price on sale.

Grit dog wrote:

Veik wrote:
The idea is to spend time at national parks, state parks, and nice campgrounds, not in a motel or hotel.
I have rented C-class multiple times.
C- class rentla for 90 days will run close to 20 grand.
I rather spend that money buying an RV and selling it later.

Hey Veik, you have to understand, a lot of people on here have nothing but time on their hands, so "advice" usually gets waaaaay off track as you've seen! Lol. Everything from someone's complete RV life history to you should get a tent or stay in a motel. Lol
As you can obviously do the math, $20k down the drain to rent plus all the same associated operating costs other than unexpected repairs is wasting money.

Perhaps some do not know the rental rates these days.
Most places rent out cheapest C-class money can buy for about 200 a day.