Switch to houseboat?

[TNGW1500SE]

Has anyone ever considered switching to a houseboat? I'm getting tired of these 50 buck a night campground fees. Everyplace we go there's a nice lake to stay on free. W'd stay for a month or so. I'd have to pay for pump outs, maybe a launch fee or two, run a generator some but other than that, why not???? Once I sold the class A and put that down on the boat, the savings in CG fees would pay for the boat wouldn't it?

Something like this:

[mike_brez]

I grew up on boats. When I was young when school got out we would take off on the boat and not come back until school started back up. My dad and uncle used to build wood boats many years ago.
The last one they built was a 36' with a fly bridge. I had my own 16' glastron in a slip at the marina at 14. At 15 me and my best childhood friend stripped a 18' wood Thompson and many coats of varnish that thing was sweet. I got out of boating in my early 30s and switched to rving. We were burning 20 gal of fuel a hour. Marina overnight slip rates right now are as much or more than a campsite. I was always a DIY type and never had to spend big$$ on repairs.

[dodge_guy]

$50 a night is about on the high end of average! You can find cheaper out there but you are going to get cheaper!

And if you’ve ever owned a boat, you are not going to save any money!

[Jebby14]

no way its cheaper but "whatever floats your boat"

[Expyinflight]

Some years ago friends of mine that had a houseboat always used the expression: BOAT= Break Out Another Thousand....every time they stepped aboard.

I suspect that 'thousand' figure is at least double or triple today.

[Chum_lee]

TNGW1500SE wrote:
Has anyone ever considered switching to a houseboat? I'm getting tired of these 50 buck a night campground fees. Everyplace we go there's a nice lake to stay on free. W'd stay for a month or so. I'd have to pay for pump outs, maybe a launch fee or two, run a generator some but other than that, why not???? Once I sold the class A and put that down on the boat, the savings in CG fees would pay for the boat wouldn't it?

When all is said and done, in the long run, I can't think of any houseboat that would be cheaper to own/operate than a similar sized Class A motorhome of similar vintage. Now, . . . . . if you want to compare a houseboat to an aircraft, . . . . . you may have a valid point.

Chum lee

[sayoung]

We were at Denton Ferry RV Parkon the White River 2nd week of June and a couple set up across the drive from us were in a cabin cruiser type boat. They just had a 3step folding ladder on the back to enter/exit and by the way they setup/closedup they camp in the boat often. First time I have seen this but may be more common along coast or Great Lakes area
When I was in business had a customer had a luxury houseboat on Lake O'Pines they lived full time in tied to a marina dock. This thing was huge, house AC system, beautiful boat. They just had dock rent & electric. Marina on CoE land so they didnt pay any property or school tax on this thing either.

[colliehauler]

Would not work for me with a Collie. Morning and evening walks would be a challenge.

[Lwiddis]

Check that houseboat’s payload!

[ppine]

I grew up on boats. A small houseboat that can be hauled around would be great. You can sleep in it on the road and move it to different lakes. The large houseboats hardly ever get moved. Then you spend the rest of your life on one lake.

[smarty]

great idea until the weather goes bad. No place to hide on the open water...

[Bird_Freak]

Cannot put one on the lake where our house is in Alabama. No toilets of any kind and no house boats of any kind.

[valhalla360]

Not a house boat but we've done both boat and RV.

For similar lifestyle and convenience, it will be at least as expensive, more likely higher cost.

As mentioned, anchoring out gets old real quick unless you like to just sit on the back deck and if you goal is just to go to remote areas to save money, you can boondock in an RV. If you go into marinas, expect a 50-100% increase in your per night cost for equivalent locations.

That said, getting a trailerable houseboat is not a bad idea. Rig it up with stairs and a pump out system so you can use it as either an RV or a boat and you've got a very flexible travel platform.

PS: Trailerable really makes a houseboat a compromise. On a boat, you really want to be able to easily get around to the edges of the boat in order to dock, anchor, etc... but that means you eat into the interior space. A 1ft wide side deck (very marginal) leaves you only just a 6ft wide interior assuming 8ft overall to avoid wide load permits.

[timmac]

I have a small boat and some marinas have charged me $25 a day/night to keep the boat in a slip, so I load boat back onto trailer each day after boating.

I am not sure if a marina monthly/weekly charge is much less than some RV parks, just depends where and what lake/river..

I would like to live on a house boat on Puget Sound in NW Washinton, so much to see and do there plus you can boat into Canada..

[routeforty]

Don't know about TN but Ohio prohibits sleeping on a boat on most lakes. A 'few' have designated areas though. The dock and marina fees are probably going to be much higher than CG fees. If you buy fuel at marinas the cost per gallon(at least in Fl & OH) is much higher than you pay at the auto pump. I considered that awhile back and decided it was cheaper to pay CG fees. Fitznj is right, stay at state & national forests. Gary

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

My first thought would be how boring it might become? How restrictive it could be, depending on anchoring/riparian laws. And having kept a boat at a marina for a few years, how stunningly expensive it could be for repairs, services, etc. Plus... how expensive everything near a boat ramp/marina tends to be (groceries, restaurants, etc) And you're sort of captive during bad weather
tornado hits marina