Is it worth it?
Well, we put our fiver away into indoor storage 2 weeks ago after an interesting season.
We took the fiver out of storage in early April and got sideswiped by a new driver one week later on the way home from our first trip out at Easter. $5k damage and a lot of fun with insurance companies and a less than stellar repair facility as I'm sure as you can imagine. It took 3 trips back to the facility to get the unit repaired properly.
We didn't get out as much this year due to my wife taking a 7 month long upgrade program for her career. Great outcome for her and she did excellent in the program, but we spent much more time at home than we normally would have.
Mid August I noticed some cracking in the frame of the trailer which I diagnosed to a lack of crossmembers between the axle areas. $1,100 later we had 6"x4" structural tubes welded in (x3) with gussets to the frame and the cracks repaired to correct the issue.
We also have a few new people in the neighborhood who park all over the street which makes it a real PITA to get the trailer in and out of it's parking spot on pretty much most trips.
We both still work full time and have a 7 year old son. We all love getting out but a weekend trip is a lot of work for the amount of time that we get to spend out.
All of this combined with the cost of the maintenance, insurance, fuel, etc. is starting to make me wonder if this venture is still worth it. We have owned an RV since 1996 and truly enjoy getting out on the rig but sometimes it is certainly trying.
What are other's experiences? I'm looking for a good conversation here so please keep nasty comments out of it. Thanks!
We took the fiver out of storage in early April and got sideswiped by a new driver one week later on the way home from our first trip out at Easter. $5k damage and a lot of fun with insurance companies and a less than stellar repair facility as I'm sure as you can imagine. It took 3 trips back to the facility to get the unit repaired properly.
We didn't get out as much this year due to my wife taking a 7 month long upgrade program for her career. Great outcome for her and she did excellent in the program, but we spent much more time at home than we normally would have.
Mid August I noticed some cracking in the frame of the trailer which I diagnosed to a lack of crossmembers between the axle areas. $1,100 later we had 6"x4" structural tubes welded in (x3) with gussets to the frame and the cracks repaired to correct the issue.
We also have a few new people in the neighborhood who park all over the street which makes it a real PITA to get the trailer in and out of it's parking spot on pretty much most trips.
We both still work full time and have a 7 year old son. We all love getting out but a weekend trip is a lot of work for the amount of time that we get to spend out.
All of this combined with the cost of the maintenance, insurance, fuel, etc. is starting to make me wonder if this venture is still worth it. We have owned an RV since 1996 and truly enjoy getting out on the rig but sometimes it is certainly trying.
What are other's experiences? I'm looking for a good conversation here so please keep nasty comments out of it. Thanks!
