Rent your RV as opposed to paying for storage?

I Feel the same as the other respondents. Although I'm not RVing now, I feel the worry about what strangers are doing to my RV wouldn't be worth the monetary gain. Besides, I was a full-timer and would never have an opportunity to rent my "home" to somebody, even if I wanted to. A stranger probably wouldn't be as careful with your RV as you would. IMHO.

If you are comfortable renting your bed & bathroom with strangers...then I suggest selling the RV. Use the proceeds to stay in hotels instead.

If the revenue from the rental is a necessary financial factor (as opposed to a nice-to-have), then I respectfully suggest you have too much RV for too little budget.

I was an auto theft detective for a police department for several years. I’ve gotten calls about lease vehicles from 2nd parties when the renter didn’t return it on time. Because of all the paperwork the District Attorneys didn’t want to file theft because we couldn’t prove intent because the renter could’ve been stranded somewhere or other legitimate issues. So the rental company wasn’t out anything but the real owner was.

If the dealer is sending you your share of the receipts, he will also send you (and the IRS) a 1099 at the end of the year. The IRS will want to know about that, and your insurance carrier will want to sell you a high-priced commercial policy since your RV is now a commercial endeavor.

When our RV is in the storage yard, it is stocked with all our needs, basically everything except our underwear, socks, and fresh food. If you're going to rent it out you can't leave any personal items, or anything you don't want to lose, in the unit - that means emptying it out, and refilling it, each time you wany to use it.

One last thought, if you do decide, to go for it. If it were me I would increase your personal liability insurance into the stratosphere ( like 3 million)

No doubt, I can be a little paranoid at times, on things like this. But just suppose, for some reason your renter, pulls to the side of the road. Maybe a flat tire, or smokes a wheel bearing. And he is hit and killed by a drunk driver, with no insurance, Eventually, they will get around to coming after you, claiming trailer was unsafe to begin with, improperly maintained and so on. And if not for that, accident would never have occurred in the first place.

Never good to lose a lifetime of work for the few bucks, one would get from renting it.

Likely scenario no, possible yes. And that would be enough to keep me from doing it. But like I said, I can be a little paranoid at times

We have hundreds of rental RVs pass through every year. I am going to echo the thoughts of another poster, what are you going to do with your one horse rental when something goes wrong. With the Cruise Americas of the world, they have several options. They might send them to a repair shop where Cruise America pays the bill. They might have the renter drive to a local Cruise America rental center and pick up another unit. They might send another RV to them. Or they may just give the customer a deep discount or total refund and maybe even future concessions on another rental. How many of those options are either acceptable or available to an individual renting their RV. Will you be willing to give your credit card and open ended authorization for an immediate repair at a repair facility you have never seen or dealt with? Do you have the ability to send them another RV? Would you pay to rent them another RV locally to use while yours is being repaired? Would you be willing to compensate someone for a lost vacation and be willing to shrug off the knowledge that your RV ruined someone's dream vacation?
Cruise America works because they buy and rent nearly bullet proof RVs with very little bling to go wrong. They don't even have televisions. It also works because they have multiple RVs to handle the logistics of rental times. With a one horse rental you would need to schedule several days between each rental to anticipate the fact sometimes they don't returned on schedule or someone is wrong when they are returned. You also can't be flexible in rental dates. If someone is renting from June 1st to June 9th and someone else wants to rent from June 9th thru the end of the month, you have to turn down whichever rental request comes in last because you have no way to handle two rentals on June 9th. Plus, Cruise America gets to keep all the money, not 50 percent. I wouldn't do it.

It's hard enough for us experienced folks to keep our rigs in good shape, when newbie's get in anything can happen.

Places, like cruise America seem to make a very nice living in the RV rental business so I think it could be done.

However they are not emotionally attached to their rigs, they see them only as an income generator. That would be your first adjustment, if you are indeed attached to yours.

Second would be what is your expected income gain as opposed to your costs to maintain the rig? More wear and tear will accelerate depreciation, and people will break it. You can put aside a part of the rental income for those expenses. Because you can be sure someone, at some point is going to cause significant damage to it

Insurance would be another issue for me, I would not take the dealers word for it, as far as what it covers. For example what happens if a renter improperly hooks your trailer up. it comes loose on the highway and kills a family of 5?

If it breaks down 3k miles from home, who is responsible to see it gets fixed? Who compensates the renter for the time loss? who gets the trailer home?

I have been a landlord for over thirty years, and it has paid off quite well. But I would not rent my RV out, not because I am all that emotionally attached to it. But rather because I don't see any expected income being worth the risk, and the hassle. And don't forget if you do it above board the IRS is going to want their share

With all that said, end of the day, it could work out really great for you. You just have to do the math and calculate the risk, reward and hassle factor thing, for you and you alone

I'll pile on some more....
Think morning bacon and sausage grease and think of this grease poured down the drain in the kitchen....

Heck. It's hard enough keeping our RV'ing going when WE use them. Think what a mess you are going to have when someone else uses it.