Australians buying a Motorhome in USA

[Maxwnddeb]

Hi all
My wife and I are planning on purchasing a Motorhome in America soon and we are looking forward to spending extended time touring the USA and Canada. We have been there a couple of times for a couple of weeks at a time and absolutely love it. We want to mainly freecamp if we can or do you have other suggestions?

Leaving the visa minefield aside, can anyone offer advice as to purchasing a Motorhome there. We know how to do it in Australia of course but things may be different for us purchasing there, simple things like registering a Motorhome in a local address, insuring it, warranties and other government regulations.

We probably have to leave from time to time to comply with your strict visa regulations so we also need advice as to storage and so on..........so many things to consider. Thanks for your help

[Veebyes]

Visa requirements, or no visa required, vary from country to country. Finding out US requirements for Austrailian citizens should not be difficult.

The biggest hurdle is the vehicle registration. As GeorgeG54 points out there are various ways of doing it. One way is to form a LLC hosted in a state such as Montana.

Buy the rig wherever & register it in MT to the MT LLC, no sales tax. There is the fee to set up the LLC & the annual fee to keep the LLC in MT. All very easy. No annual vehicle inspection.

Establish the LLC before going shopping. Your LLC will own the RV, not you personally. You drive your company vehicle on your Australian license.

[GeorgeG54]

I am from the UK and am spending up to 2 years touring the US and Canada in a Thor Vegas and towing a Jeep Wrangler.

I got a 10 year multiple entry Visa via a visit to the US Embassy in London, and on my first entry at Chicago in June last year was given a 12 months stay. I was advised that if I wanted longer, just leave the country before the year is up and come straight back. I went home for Christmas and got another (concurrent) six months till July, and am going home for a holiday via Vancouver in Canada that month and will seek another six months on my return.

I took good advice and joined Escapees RV Club as well as Good Sam Club before coming to the US. The Escapees RV Club offer a domicile service as well as a mail forwarding facility. I used their domicile address in South Dakota (Box Elder, near Rapid City) as you are allowed, as an alien, to Title a vehicle and pay your sales and vehicle taxes against the domicile address provide by Escapees. The only problem I had was that in order to pay your dues you have to be 'in the system' in S Dakota to make a payment. To be 'in the system' they need you to be recorded against a drivers license number or Social Security number. To get round this they issued me a "Temporary Driving Permit' (at no cost) that gives me my a drivers license number.

I purchased my motorhome via a UK dealer that imports my model. They sold it to me at the American price and arranged for me to collect it from a dealer close to the factory. The dealer performed the pdi and sold me a $5 paper plate in order I could drive the motorhome to South Dakota to register it and pay my sales tax. I realised on arriving here that I could probably got a better deal by speaking direct to a dealer in the US, but that's a different matter!

I purchased my Jeep from a dealer in Rapid City via their web site, eMail, and phone. The dealer took my build requirements, made the factory order and had the Jeep delivered to their showroom ready for my arrival. I paid via an International Bankers Order obtained from my bank the UK. The dealer also recommend a company to supply and fit my Jeeps Blue Ox tow equipment and Brake Buddy, which they had done for me ready for my arrival. They even took the Jeep there with me in convoy with the motorhome so I could be instructed in the attachment and use of the equipment.

Obtain medical insurance before you leave home. Just two months into my adventure I took a fall and spent three weeks on crutches recovering from ligament damage so I have recouped the cost of mine already! There are a number of providers to be found on the internet.

I have had a fantastic time touring the US since last June, and have covered 15,000 miles to date. I most enjoy staying at State Parks where facilities are often basic, and use established campgrounds when I need to. I use Good Sam's Club trip planner to set my routes, bearing in mind they do not show all the campgrounds available in any chosen area so scan the internet for others.

When I returned home for Christmas from Florida I had no problem locating a storage place for my motorhome,and it was not expensive. I am currently looking for somewhere between Seattle and Vancouver to store my motorhome in July when I go home for a holiday (and meet my visa requirements!), which I am finding more difficult. If it comes to it I can always find a cheap 'no frills' campground and pay their monthly rate. I do not think Walmart would appreciate me 'boon docking' on their car park for that long!

I have required warranty work to be done on my motorhome on a couple of occasions. My manufacturer have an excellent Customer Service and have directed me to good local workshops and dealt direct with payment. The only real problem I have met is that workshops are usually very busy and booked up sometimes weeks ahead, so you need to be flexible in planning your journey. I am currently at a campground close to Yosemite N P with a broken windscreen, which has meant an additional weeks stay to arrange a replacement to be shipped and fitted. Insurance cover is something to consider very carefully; my windscreen is covered in my policy, but many are not so ensure you have it. It is not cheap to replace a motorhome windscreen, mine will cost the best part of $2000 to replace, of which I pay the 1st $1,000! Luckily I set a few thousand dollars aside of contingency!

The American RV community are a great bunch of people. Put your home National flag stickers on your motorhome along with a 'State Stickers' map and you will be chatting with your fellow campers before you even set up camp!! I have made many new friends and learned of so many places to visit I had not heard of or considered before. I also put a pretty good schmore together now!

[NYCgrrl]

Visa info:

If you are staying in the US for 90 days or less and carry passeports from Australia you are eligible for a visa waiver. Staying in Mexico, certain Caribbean islands (for sure, Antigua), and Canada, count towards the 90 days. I don't know if you can visit, say, Costa Rico, for a specific time frame to wait out the time needed for another visa but am sure you can get that info from Canberra.

States w/ no or negligible sales tax:

Alaska
Maryland
Oregon
Delaware
Montana

Sorry no idea about legal residency and/or domicile and how it relates to insurance and such.

Free camp sites: write "free camping website" or "boondocking" into a Google search and you'll find a plethora of links.

HTH and have fun out there.

[Kavoom]

Might want to check Montana out. No sales tax and I do know that many individuals in the US buy here when they retire to buy their RV's. And the advantage is that you get to start your trip in Montana with Glacier and Yellowstone in shooting distance. Here is a very large RV dealer in Missoula "Bretz" that specializes and sets up the very thing you are talking about including Canadian out of country buyers. And no I don't work for them but might buy from them. They can have some really good deals on used or new but are in the business of making money so stay sharp. There are other dealers up here who also can get this done. I would shop from down under and find exactly what you want from there. Montanan's are pretty straight forward and similar in nature to Aussies. And we have unbelievably good microbrew beers here, by the way.

http://www.bretzrvbillings.com/rv-resources-outofstate-rv-buyers.

Your trip sounds like great fun. If you wanted to private message me I'd be happy to act as a resource during your travels. I live in Helena MT, but grew up camping with my family. We close our schools three months out of every year and my dad was a principal so we would do 45 60 day trips every year growing up.

Actually, I would also suggest you all head north into Canada also perhaps first. Canadians are very similar to U.S., but more polite. Banff is only a day trip away from the dealership linked above. You could hit the National Bison Reserve that is less than an hour away from this dealership as a day trip while you are engaged in the buying process.

I am strongly going to urge you to head to the Four Corners area Durango Mesa Verde, Grand Canyon N. Rim (personal preference), Estes Park Rocky Mountain National Park and hit Sante Fe so on. These are highlights. So much to do. I personally would avoid Southern California and New York City and a few other areas in the country but so much to do...

[azdryheat]

Strict visa regulations? That's a joke. We've got millions in the US overstaying their visas.

[stickdog]

There are several members of different nations that enjoy traveling in the US and Canada on the Escapee's fourmthat are willing to share their dealings with purchase, registration, insurance, storage.

[donn0128]

Be aware. Sales taxes on purchase is state by state. California has really high sales taxes, Oregon has none. Do your research before making any decisions on where to buy.

[Itchey_Feet]

Suggest you look around South West (Arizona)for example as this is one of the places people travel to and end up buying a permanent home and have no interest in traveling any more. Make sure you are "onsite" prior to buying that way you get to go over the MH prior to purchase. Cannot help on registration of vehicle but if you contact the (DMV) of the state you may buy in they can probably help you thru it. I am sure that you are not the first ones to do this.

[ksg5000]

Try using the forum search feature. This subject has come up B4 - seem to recall that lack of permanent address creates issues in some states.

[3oaks]

I sorry I can't answer your questions but I can tell you that you will not be the first Australians to purchase a motorhome here in the U.S.

Two years ago, while camping in Custer S.P. in South Dakota, we met a very nice Australian couple who flew to the U.S., purchased a used motorhome to tour the states. When their time was up another couple was flying in from Australia to take charge of the motorhome. Then when they were due to fly home, they planned to sell the motorhome for what ever they could get for it before returning to Australia.

I thought that was a pretty good idea. Great thinking on their part. I hope all went well for them. 😉