I've been worrying about this. I've yet to buy mine, but I've been looking at them for about a year now, and I can say that my ideas on which one to buy have changed a lot.
At first I was planning on a trailer did a lot of online study thought I found the perfect one, a 15' teardrop, but than after looking at them in person, I realized, a trailer, big, small, 5th wheel, or otherwise, just is not going to cut it for me, and I had to rethink my options.
Next I was looking at a motor home instead, but I started out looking at really big ones - 40'. Read up on them, books, websites, thought I knew what I wanted, finally thinking THIS is the right one, I headed out to a local dealer to see the real thing up close...uhm...yeah...40' and all that living space sounds great on paper, but seeing the real thing, I realized there is no way this is what I need, time to rethink things yet again.
I than realized, I had to change my way of researching, because I was going about this all wrong. I was looking at the RV from purely an outward appearance value. I didn't realize that's what I was doing, but as it turns out, that is what I was doing. I was looking at it going "Nice paint job" or "Nice shape".
So I made a list to answer a bunch of practical questions:
WHY am I getting a motorhome?
WHAT do I want it for?
HOW am I going to use it?
WHEN am I going to use it?
WHERE am I going to use it?
WHO will be using it with me?
etc.etc.etc.
Well, I'm not looking for a vacation rv, I'll be living in it full-time, and living in it full-time in an area that routinely gets -30F weather and 9foot blizzards, so that's a major thing to consider right off the bat.
Ny reason for getting a motorhome is simple, we lost our house to a flood 6 years ago. We lived in a tent for 3 years and have lived in a car ever since. I planned to get/build another house, however, this is not the first time I've lived on the road. I come from a family of Scottish Travelers and was born and raised on the road and was 9 years old before I lived in a house. While living in a house, we went off on long road trips every 2 or 3 months for the next 30 years. Being without a house these past 6 years made me realize I don't really like living in a house to begin with. I've lived in a car more than half my life and I kind of prefer it so why the heck am I trying to get back into a house when I don't want to be in a house to begin with?
The answer to that question was: I have cats and it's kind of hard to live in a car with cats. I can continue living in a car fine, I need a house for the cats. I have cats because my house had also served as an animal shelter and when the flood took out the house it took out the shelter too and these cats are the last remaining of the shelter animals, and due to their "special needs" they were never adopted out.
After answering the above questions and about 50 more, I realized what I needed was a bed, a kitchen, a workshop, and a place for the cats. And that's when it hit me: floorplan is the thing I need to focus on.
So I got brochures from all the motorhome companies and next thing I knew I was crossing out most of them because floorplans were unusable to me. It made my search so much easier because it narrowed down my options. And than it was off to see the real things all over again.
And than, ready to buy what I thought was the perfect motorhome, something else occurred to me: do I really want to pay $130k for a new motorhome? What if I don't like it? What if it's not what I need? What if....
So, now I am looking for a used motorhome and living in a resort area walking distance for over a dozen RV Parks, every body and their cousin has a used motorhome sitting in their yard so I can just walk up the street and talk to people about their motorhomes and now looking at all the motorhomes that are sitting around in people's yards I discovered one last thing, something I had never thought of before: I like motorhomes from the 1970s. I prefer motorhomes from the 1970s. I grew up around motorhomes in the 1970s. What a REALLY actually WANT is a 1970s Winnebago.
So, now I'm looking for a Winnebago from the 1970s to live in full-time.
Eventually I will get my first motorhome, and when I do I'm sure I'll come up with all sorts of mistakes I made in the choice, but at least I can say it'll be less mistakes than it would have been had I just run out and bought the first one I saw.
