Will renting a MH help me get a feel for RVing with trailer?
Here's the situation.
A family addicted to US/Canada travel. A year and a half on the road in total (spread across the last decade). 45 states and 4 Canadian provinces. Never RV'ed but always were fascinated by it and thinking of buying an RV in a few years for another long road trip.
I've been doing TONS of research and I think a pickup towing a TT will be more of our thing. Since we'll be traveling slowly (no rush to see any specific sights as we've pretty much seen them all), I'm thinking staying at a campground for 2-3 weeks, exploring around, hiking etc. with a truck is what we're looking for.
What I'd like to do during the next few years, until we actually retire and buy, is rent for a few weeks at a time to experience RV'ing.
The problem is - renting a pickup/trailer combo seems very complicated and expensive. Renting a truck would cost us around $600 a week when insurance is factored in. Renting a trailer or 5th wheel would be $100-$200 a night. We're talking about $300 a night for the entire setup and that's off-season. If we were to do this for a month, it would cost us around $8K-$9K - before factoring in campgrounds and utilities.
That's pretty expensive but what's worse is the hassle. The only place that rents out trailers is RVShare.com. Which means renting from a person you don't know.
Renting a motorhome seems so much easier. There are 2-3 large chains where you can just reserve any motorhome type you like and voila - hit the road. They have their standards and you know what you're getting. That will cost us around $200 a night (possibly less off-season, depending on the size of MH).
I just wonder how much will we be able to learn from the experience. In terms of hook-ups, driving, camping - anything else that I can't think of now - how would you say RV'ing in a rented motorhome will be like owning our own truck+towable setup?
A family addicted to US/Canada travel. A year and a half on the road in total (spread across the last decade). 45 states and 4 Canadian provinces. Never RV'ed but always were fascinated by it and thinking of buying an RV in a few years for another long road trip.
I've been doing TONS of research and I think a pickup towing a TT will be more of our thing. Since we'll be traveling slowly (no rush to see any specific sights as we've pretty much seen them all), I'm thinking staying at a campground for 2-3 weeks, exploring around, hiking etc. with a truck is what we're looking for.
What I'd like to do during the next few years, until we actually retire and buy, is rent for a few weeks at a time to experience RV'ing.
The problem is - renting a pickup/trailer combo seems very complicated and expensive. Renting a truck would cost us around $600 a week when insurance is factored in. Renting a trailer or 5th wheel would be $100-$200 a night. We're talking about $300 a night for the entire setup and that's off-season. If we were to do this for a month, it would cost us around $8K-$9K - before factoring in campgrounds and utilities.
That's pretty expensive but what's worse is the hassle. The only place that rents out trailers is RVShare.com. Which means renting from a person you don't know.
Renting a motorhome seems so much easier. There are 2-3 large chains where you can just reserve any motorhome type you like and voila - hit the road. They have their standards and you know what you're getting. That will cost us around $200 a night (possibly less off-season, depending on the size of MH).
I just wonder how much will we be able to learn from the experience. In terms of hook-ups, driving, camping - anything else that I can't think of now - how would you say RV'ing in a rented motorhome will be like owning our own truck+towable setup?
