Buying A New Travel Trailer...Yikes!

soupking wrote:

Gdetrailer wrote:
rbpru makes some very good points..

I should also mention campgrounds tend to be a very expensive way to rent a piece of ground. You will find many campgrounds costing $20 PER NIGHT upwards of $80 per night and anywhere in between.. That is $600 up to or more than $2400 PER MONTH.

State parks are often the cheapest, but many state campgrounds have NO HOOKUPS and often will have restrictions in place about MAX and or MIN length of stay (this may even apply to some private campgrounds)..

Some campgrounds tend to bookup EARLY and popular ones you may need one or more YEARS advanced reservation just to get in on popular holidays.

Doesn't compete with being forced out of your home at the tune of $2000 a month + $4000 in hotels + eating out because we have no kitchen. $2400 is a bargain where we sit. I've been paying roughly $4000+ rent since last September.

Thank you for your concern, but this is not something that I can explain, nor something that people will easily understand. I can guarantee you that it is not an allergy or "building materials" and we wouldn't be approaching this situation if there was another option. The problem is widespread and you either know what we're going through or you don't. If you don't and this dialog makes no sense, that's a positive. If you own, be glad that you do. Ownership is worth it's weight in gold right now.

If anybody has any other travel trailers they'd like to recommend I'm all ears.

Again, thank you all for your support and advice.

You obviously have NOT ever stepped one foot into a RV.

The "kitchens" are small, most now days only have a three burner stove, no oven small microwave and a very expensive SMALL absorption fridge.

MOST RVs are designed MAINLY for PART TIME LIVING and have R3-R6 insulation in the walls, single pane windows.. Those would be in the STARTING price of $24K..

For full time WINTER living such as you have in Oregon, you would be looking at a "FOUR SEASON" type RV with higher insulation package, dual pane windows, heated tanks and so on..

If you were living in more southern states it would not be as much as of problem but winter in the north IS going to be BRUTAL..

You don't seem to understand the gravity of your mistaken idea that you are SAVING MONEY by living in a small COLD cramped space.. You also don't seem to get the idea that you ARE THROWING MONEY AWAY in a RV.. In the end it will only take a couple of years and there will be NO "VALUE" to your RV and you WILL be still paying for it..

Then there is leaks and maintenance, how about warranty? You will HAVE to take it to a dealer to get things fixed under warranty.. Do you think the dealer is going to come to you??? Do you think the dealer is going to let you live IN the RV while it sits on the lot for two months before they get to fix the warranty items???

For the money you CAN buy a HOME and be done with it.. $2000 a month can get you a good size Mortgage now days..

At 4.5% for 30 years you can get a $400,000 mortgage and the payment is $2,026.74!

Not sure what current rates are but they may be even lower like 2.5% which would get you $500,000 mortgage at $1,975.60 a month..

At least if you bought a home you would have some VALUE or EQUITY down the road..

Or buy a MOBILE HOME in a MOBILE HOME PARK, they ARE more suited to full time living and designed more for winter living..

Buying a RV to save money is being rather short sighted..

Can't help on the Hotel thing, that sounds like it should be the responsibility of you company.. If they are making YOU pay for lodging then perhaps it is time to find a new job?

Moving a trailer in the winter isn't much fun either, a darn good chance you will end up STUCK in a bad storm.. Might be a bad thing for your job if you fail to show up for work during a snow storm, don't you think??

Yes, there are folks who do camp in the winter but they often do that for enjoyment in winter like activities.. They also give up things like RUNNING WATER and HEAT to do so.. Often heating the RV to 50 degrees.

Sorry to be blunt.. BUT you NEED to hear stuff like this..

Many come here wanting to do what you are asking about, they never ever report back how enjoyable it is and how much money they are saving.. I think there is a REASON as to why they don't.. Something like they DIDN'T SAVE and it WASN'T enjoyable..

Good luck to you and your "adventure"..