Creative Ideas?
My situation is unusual. We want a good trailer for a single, 6-month trip. We won't need it after that. Given what I've heard in this forum about resale values, I'm searching for a way to make this...
Forum Discussion
Hmmm. We did sort of the same thing -- we bought a trailer as an experiment, not sure if we liked camping at all. (We had never gone camping before, and we are not young.) We bought a cheap little used trailer. Surprise! We loved it, we kept it, we fixed it up, and then after six years we sold it. We did lose money, but not much -- we bought it for $7000 and sold it for $4000, after using it for about 400 nights. Doing the math, that means it cost us $7.50 per night, not counting campground fees -- not a bad room rate!
We then bought a similar trailer, brand new, for $12,000. We then put more money into it, in the form of upgrades to the undercarriage. We have used it between 60 and 90 nights a year for the last four years.
So in light of my own experience, here are some thoughts: yes, it is absolutely possible to buy a decent used trailer, keep it and use it for a while, and then sell it for a reasonable loss. But watch out -- you may discover, much to your shock, that you actually like camping and that you want to keep the trailer!
I note that you live in Reno -- this is essentially ground zero for camping heaven. This shot was taken in August of 2015, less than three hours from your house:
There was no one within several miles of us. This is what this area looked like at night -- you can see the lights of the trailer in the lower right corner of the shot:
My point is that it may pay to get a trailer that you think you might keep, because there is a good chance that you will, since you have so much world-class camping at your doorstep.
So now, give us some guidance so we can help you -- what sorts of things do you like to do? Are you a hiker who loves to stay in remote places? Or are you a sightseer, happy to stay in an RV park? Have you done any camping? Do you think you might camp in cold weather? Are you handy with tools?
All of these factors (and more) would be relevant in selecting a trailer.
We then bought a similar trailer, brand new, for $12,000. We then put more money into it, in the form of upgrades to the undercarriage. We have used it between 60 and 90 nights a year for the last four years.
So in light of my own experience, here are some thoughts: yes, it is absolutely possible to buy a decent used trailer, keep it and use it for a while, and then sell it for a reasonable loss. But watch out -- you may discover, much to your shock, that you actually like camping and that you want to keep the trailer!
I note that you live in Reno -- this is essentially ground zero for camping heaven. This shot was taken in August of 2015, less than three hours from your house:
There was no one within several miles of us. This is what this area looked like at night -- you can see the lights of the trailer in the lower right corner of the shot:
My point is that it may pay to get a trailer that you think you might keep, because there is a good chance that you will, since you have so much world-class camping at your doorstep.
So now, give us some guidance so we can help you -- what sorts of things do you like to do? Are you a hiker who loves to stay in remote places? Or are you a sightseer, happy to stay in an RV park? Have you done any camping? Do you think you might camp in cold weather? Are you handy with tools?
All of these factors (and more) would be relevant in selecting a trailer.
