Researching stages

Thank you so much for your advice!

BRLA
Welcome to the world of RVing. As others say do not jump into anything too fast. What is right for others may or may not be right for you. We can all tell you what we did but that is what seemed right for us. You will find that most of us started in Tents and moved up to a travel trailer then a fifth wheel. We then progress into a Class C or A and settle out in what we are comfortable with. We did just that and it has been an evolution over thirty five years. We bought our first class A seven years before we retired. We liked it even more then we thought we would and after being retired for three years we went to a 40 foot class A. We had no problem traveling with our 37 foot gas motor home. When we went out west and hit 15 National Parks we never had a problem fitting into a park. In fact Colter Bay in the Teton National Park had a lot of forty two foot Class As camping. We do tow a car and enjoy doing so. Hook up is simple and we tour from what we call our base camp. One rule of thumb most large Class C and gas model class As can tow toads up to 5,000 pounds which is a nice tow vehicle. The Diesel models tow up to 10,000 pounds. Even though ours can tow 10,000 pounds we only tow about 3,500 pounds. Others worked up to a pop up and stayed with that and that is right for them. Bigger is not better unless that is what is right for you. As others have said renting various different size units for a weekend is a good idea. Also take in a good RV show and see everything that is out there. Don't get caught up in all of the glitter. Getting a quality brand as well as the right floor plan for you is most important. Also don't jump into anything at a show as they will more then likely offer you the same deal after you have a chance to sleep on it. But before you get into it too deep rent one and do some camping to see if it your cup of tea. Do lots of research and ask lots of questions. It is what everyone on this forum likes to do but it is not for everyone. If you do not use what you buy a lot it will never pay out for you.Enjoy the process.

Hi neighbor! Is this your first RV? I always recommend the rent route before a purchase if you have never experienced camping. Seen too many for sale soon after they discover it's not what they thought it would be. Otherwise, go for it. I hope you like yours as much as we like our TT. I don't know that much about MHs, but I would make sure the gen gets fuel from the main tank. Laissez lez bon temp roulle! GEAUX TIGERS!

Going used is always a good idea, especially due to the fact the value decreases quickly when purchasing new. I would suggest that while attending RV shows is always a good idea you might be better off visiting RV dealerships that have a good number of used units on their lots. You can go through those units to see how size, layout, and interior quality is for the various brands. You might even be able to rent a unit that you really like. Salespeople may be willing to let you rent especially if you are interested in purchasing.

After going through many different used units you will quickly be able to determine which ones you prefer.

Read what Roy&Lynn wrote....
The only thing I will add is that, If you can, rent (or borrow) something like what you might buy. That may change your might very fast.

We have a tiny antique class A. We love it and I carry bicycles most of the time rather then drag the towed. A towed is a pain, but if you coach is too large to be maneuvered everywhere you might want to be, then you kind of need some way to get there. A friend never drags anything, but they do make plans to rent a car when they are traveling to someplace that they will want be able to get around the town.

Matt

If I understand correctly you are inexperienced at RVing and have no RV now? If so, buy used and buy cheap because you most assuredly will be buying again. There is no way to determine what works best for you and what you want without the actual experience of RVing.

Pugapillar wrote:
Thanks, Roy&Lynne, We do plan to tow a vehicle. I need to research that topic too.
Also do RV manufactures who own different lines treat them like American Car lines such as Ford/Lincoln/Mercury or Chevy/GMC/Cadillac?
How does that work with RV's.?

It works differently at different manufacturers. Sometimes different brands are basically the same (Winnebago-Itasca come to mind) and differences in size and trim are model lines within that brand.

Sometimes different brands represent increases in size and cost, Forest River and Thor are currently doing this, but Thor used to have competing semi-parallel brands, as many as three equivalent brands in some cases.

Monaco Corp, once it had acquired several other companies, overlapped Monaco and Holiday Rambler at the low end, added Safari at low-middle, and Beaver in the middle, carrying only Beaver and Monaco brands to the top. Within each of these brands there were as many as a half dozen different model lines scaling in size, equipment, and cost. That was before they collapsed, I don't know how the re-organized company is doing things.

Fleetwood did a little of both. While all were Fleetwood, they would sometimes have two parallel brands with model lines within (e.g. Tioga-Jamboree), or just two equivalent model lines with the Fleetwood brand (e.g. the Terra-Fiesta pair).

Others are just one brand (like Newmar) with different model lines covering different sizes and price points.

Badge engineering to create differently priced versions of the same car is to support a social status use for the buyers. That doesn't work so well for RVs because hardly anybody understands which one is the Chevy and which one is the Buick.

And you might want to subscribe to Motorhome Mag. It has tons of great info.

I forgot to mention another thing, the kind of camping you plan to do and where you plan to camp also makes a difference. If your mostly going to stay in private parks, then going 35' 40' is fine, but if you want to go camping in National Forests, State etc, going much beyond 30 foot is also something to consider. They just don't fix in many places.
Not sure I understand your question about towing. We don't so I can't answer that.

Thanks, Roy&Lynne, We do plan to tow a vehicle. I need to research that topic too.
Also do RV manufactures who own different lines treat them like American Car lines such as Ford/Lincoln/Mercury or Chevy/GMC/Cadillac?
How does that work with RV's.?