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Is Motorhome Magazine any good? GS RV Travel/Saving guide?

JimInMich
Explorer
Explorer
I'm not looking to buy anything new, so the MH ad's and reviews won't do me much good. Other than that, is it worth getting a subscription? Can get 1 year for $12 or 2 years for $20.

What about the Good Sam RV Travel & Savings Guide? Worth the $7? Front cover shows " $1000 in coupons ".
Current: 1987 Georgie Boy Encounter 34',John Deere chassis,460c.i./C6.
SOLD-2012 Cougar XLite 27RLS
SOLD-2008 Aerolite 24FB
SOLD-2004 Shadow Cruiser Fun Finder 189FBR
Just the Wife and I.
14 REPLIES 14

Rwake901
Explorer
Explorer
I subscribed to it for three years then dropped it for like two years. Resubscribed to it again about six months ago or so. It does give you ideas of places to go and I like reading about problems people have had with their motorhome and what they did to solve them. Just in case it happens to me. lol

Bill_Satellite
Explorer II
Explorer II
Being a Good Sam member is worth it if you use good 'ole fashion campground and not time shares or membership campgrounds. You save 10 percent per night which pays for itself right away. The bad news is that they are going to send you their magazine whether you want it or not. Since we use a mail forwarding service that means we have to call, ask them to send us our mail and throw any all magazines and junk mail to save on postage. I really don't think I have missed anything. I am also an FMCA member (tire savings) and that magazine is available online if I want to look at it.
What I post is my 2 cents and nothing more. Please don't read anything into my post that's not there. If you disagree, that's OK.
Can't we all just get along?

donkeydew
Explorer
Explorer
i think we get better author's on here. i don't care for all the gushing and caring on some of them do.they must get paid by the word.

ddndoug
Explorer
Explorer
What else are you going to do for $1 a month? You can't even buy a soda for that. lol

Seriously, I like others scoured the magazine and read every article for the first couple of years that I subscribed. But, now I'm a little more selective about what I read. Yes, there are lots of advertisements. I enjoy reading the destination articles and readers tips the most.

Sorry can't help you with the Travel and Savings guide.

Doug
2009 Four Winds Hurricane 33T
F53 Ford Chassis w/Triton V-10

Two_Jayhawks
Explorer
Explorer
JimInMich wrote:
I'm not looking to buy anything new, so the MH ad's and reviews won't do me much good. Other than that, is it worth getting a subscription? Can get 1 year for $12 or 2 years for $20.

What about the Good Sam RV Travel & Savings Guide? Worth the $7? Front cover shows " $1000 in coupons ".


Been getting it for many years and I still smile when it shows up in the mail box. It's maybe one dollar per issue I have no problem justifying that expenditure.
Bill & Kelli
2015 DSDP 4366 pulling a 21 JL Unlimited Sport
2002 Safari Zanzibar 3906 gone
1995 Fleetwood Bounder 36JD gone

JimInMich
Explorer
Explorer
What about the Good Sam RV Travel & Savings Guide? Worth the $7? Front cover shows " $1000 in coupons ".
Current: 1987 Georgie Boy Encounter 34',John Deere chassis,460c.i./C6.
SOLD-2012 Cougar XLite 27RLS
SOLD-2008 Aerolite 24FB
SOLD-2004 Shadow Cruiser Fun Finder 189FBR
Just the Wife and I.

crasster
Explorer II
Explorer II
It's a relatively cheap magazine with a few good articles and LOTS of ads. I do like some ads as there are some innovative products on the ads.
4 whopping cylinders on Toyota RV's. Talk about great getting good MPG. Also I have a very light foot on the pedal. I followed some MPG advice on Livingpress.com and I now get 22 MPG! Not bad for a home on wheels.

DutchmenSport
Explorer
Explorer
Trailer Life and Motor Home magazines are very similar and produced by the same company (Good Sam organization ... the company that sponsors these forums).

I use to subscribe to Trailer Life and a friend of mine gave me his used Motor Home magazines when he was done with them. I think for about a 2 year run, I found both magazines to be absolutely GREAT! I really looked forward to the next issue. I think I even memorized every article in both of them. Yes, they were worth it.

But then, after a couple years, I found they weren't all that interesting any more. Maybe, because I now had experience with my own camper. Maybe, because the articles seemed to be repetitive. Maybe, because I realized (at that time) it was more advertisements than articles. Or maybe, I simply burned out.

I then realized Trailer Life has a web site. Trailerlife.com as does Motor Home, MotorHome.com. And actually, many of the same printed articles could be found on their internet sites. I actually found this much more satisfying than a paid subscription. Now I know, the web sites will not put as much information and as many "current" articles there, as they would put in their magazines, but it's enough to satisfy my curiosity.

I suggest, before getting the subscription, you hang out on BOTH web sites for a while and see what you think. Trailer Life has some good stuff, just like Motor Home does, things are common to any RV. (And oh, this was another observation I made about both magazines also). So the web sites are really GREAT! They really are! For the information they've added there. Give them a shot first, see what you think?

MotorHome Magazine

Trailer Life Magazine

And one other thing ... Both of these web sites have links to these same forums! If one "portal" is not working, or not working right, you can access these forums by going to the other site. Same user ID and Password.

Also... Check out Woodalls.com ... another "portal" entry to these forums.

bleeder_guy
Explorer
Explorer
I purchased, using the Good Sam discount, two year plus extra issues subscription for $20. Not a bad deal. We just upgraded from a Class C to a Class A diesel. Needing all the info we can gain. We are also Family Campers magazine readers.
Beau, Ninon and "The 6 Samoyeds"

Amateur Radio "N1MJD" monitoring 146.520
2008 Damon Astoria 3772

imgoin4it
Explorer
Explorer
I enjoy reading the magazine and continue to subscribe. Not sure how one puts a value on it. I like it, cheap for a magazine, I buy it.
Howard,Connie,& Bella,
One spoiled schnauzer
2007 Newmar KSDP
4dr Jeep Wrangler

NCWriter
Explorer
Explorer
Now and then I write destination articles for the magazine so I am definitely biased.

But I honestly have always enjoyed reading all the other articles as an RVer. I first got a free one-year subscription for attending an RV show in N.C. and kept it coming because I liked the articles (long before I was writing for them).

I've been following a fun series lately called "The Classic Ride" which profiles people who have vintage RVs and tells about their experiences with them. Also another series about National Parks. Always enjoy the tech info, tips from readers, pictures of mods others have done, etc.

By the way, the magazine's editor, Eileen Hubbard, is a real professional and a pleasure to work with. I've been connected with numerous publishing organizations over the years, good and bad, and these folks do a first class job.

Kaz
Explorer
Explorer
JimInMich wrote:
I'm not looking to buy anything new, so the MH ad's and reviews won't do me much good. Other than that, is it worth getting a subscription? Can get 1 year for $12 or 2 years for $20. ...

It seems to me that there's usually at least one article every month that I find useful and keep for future reference. This month it had two. Plus, reading the "reader's tips" every month is fun. For a buck every month, I find it to be worth it.
Skip
K4EAK
2013 Thor ACE 30.1

wildtoad
Explorer II
Explorer II
Every now and then there is some useful information but mostly not.
Tom Wilds
Blythewood, SC
2016 Newmar Baystar Sport 3004
2015 Jeep Wrangler 2dr HT

Teacher_s_Pet
Explorer
Explorer
We dropped our subscription to Motorhome Magazine after about 25 years, during the 2008 downturn in the economy. Around that time the publisher cut the number of pages in half and increased the advertisements, of those 90% seemed to be about Camping World related companies and products. We are FMCA members and Family Motor Coaching Magazine does fine for us.
'06 Phaeton 40' QSH
'14 Ford Flex SEL AWD Toad
'04 R-Vision Trail-Lite 213
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