Justifying the cost of a Travel Trailer

rollindowntheroad wrote:
Please let me make it clear that I did not buy the Grand Cherokee in order to towing something. My previous vehicle I couldn't tow anything with. If my intent was to actually tow an RV I would have purchased the correct vehicle to tow what I want. I actually purchased the Grand Cherokee because it can be towed behind a motor home 4 down.

:R

Talk about "putting the cart before the horse" type of situation.

You DO realize that you ARE posting in the TRAVEL TRAILER SECTION and not in the MOTOR HOME SECTION..

Sorry, but since your choice of vehicles was solely aimed at being towed by a Motor Home and not the Jeep towing a trailer you basically have a very poorly setup vehicle for towing a trailer.

Since your vehicle was not equipped with a "towing package" you ARE missing important items required for towing and hence the low towing rating.

You can still go motor home route if you want to pursue that avenue, you can easily find SMALL older motor homes for fairly decent prices which might even have enough power/tow rating to pull your Jeep as a "Toad".

You NEED to be patient to find the deals but they are out there, YES, you most likely will be looking at 20+ yr old small motor homes and YES they will require some "elbo grease" on your part but it is not out of the question to find extremely low mileage small Motor Homes at a reasonable cost.

As far as the "debate" as to whether any "RV" is worth it, if you MUST ask that question then owning a RV is not for you..

Think of RVing/camping as a HOBBY, I have as of yet have never found a "hobby" to earn money or make economic sense. It IS a MONEY PIT as far as money goes..

However, you cannot put a price on enjoying nature, camping and getting away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life for a short time. To me, it is the time I take to get away from the pressures of work and recharge my physical and mental self makes owning a RV worth it. Gives me quality time to reconnect with my family and have fun with them.

As far as "saving money", not really, it costs to buy, costs to fix, costs to tow, costs to camp, in some cases costs to store, costs to insure.

If budget minded, you must think outside the box, used is outside most folks "box" around this forum and that IS where a budget minded person should be looking. Not saying there is anything wrong with buying new, but, with new you are losing a large lump of money upfront in depreciation AND INTEREST.

I stretch my money as far as it can go, somethings I DO like buying new (like transportation that I depend on to get back and forth to work), RVs, not so much...

RVs are "TOYS" that are "nice to have" and I am not depending on a RV to get back and forth to work (work pays for the basic needs PLUS any other "TOYS" I would like to have and therefore A RV plays a minor role in where my income goes.