When to trade

djcjc wrote:
How many years should you keep a trailer before trading up. .

4

10 is a nice round number. With proper care and maintenance there should be no reason to change until your tired of it!

You trade for the same reasons you move into a new house, or you purchase a new car:

1) The camper is beginning to nickle-and-dime you to death. Repairs are becoming too numerous and becoming a real drag!

2) You simply do not like the camper any more, for whatever reason? It might be that corner bed. You're sick and tired of climbing over each other (for example).

3) You're board and just want a change, or you want to move to a different style of RV, for example go from a Travel Trailer to a Fifth Wheel or the other way.

4) You outgrow your current camper because of the addition of kids to the family.

5) Your family reduces because kids no longer go camping with you, so you want something smaller.

I think those are the main reasons why people change. As long as you are happy with your current camper, and functionally it is OK, there's no reason to change.... oh ... one more....

6) You're social-lite friend just bought a new one and now you feel you need to get a new one too .... (very bad reason though, but sometimes this is the motivation). You should get what makes YOU happy and what works for YOU, and remember.... you are not trying to impress anyone. Actually, it's none of their business! The camper is for YOU! Not them!

Hope this helps!

I wouldn't trade until the neighbors have a nicer one :)

I don't think there is a magic number since the reasoning varies as outlined above. We have had our current rig 8 years this coming Spring and it is still filling our needs. We go to all the area RV shows but nothing has caught our eye as of yet. Maybe in a couple of years we'll make a change, but we will not trade in current RV as we plan to place it on a piece of property we own.

goducks10 wrote:
I wouldn't trade until the neighbors have a nicer one :)

:B

Sandia Man wrote:
I don't think there is a magic number since the reasoning varies as outlined above.

X2. We kept our last trailer for 10 years. Aside from faded decals and oxidized front and rear panels, it was immaculate. We traded it because I really didn't have time to sell it myself. The sold it in a month.

But I could think of 20 different reasons to trade and at different times during ownership.

EDIT: I should mention that our reasons for trading had to do with wanting a larger bathroom (wet bath in old trailer) and a slide out.

I traded a Gulfstream Streamlite after one trip. I have kept others 15 years.

Check in your area for the maximum age a trailer can be for a bank to issue an RV loan. At one point, I was told that it is 8 years. I tend to think that if you want to trade, do it by year 5 or keep it for 10 or more years as long as your not having major problems. But....I don't have any facts to base that opinion on, so I'm equally curious as to what others have to say.

If you are looking for a time period as a guideline. I believe it is 10 years.
No hard facts but I feel a well used unit will be showing its age at that point.
It will be easier to trade the unit vs, refurbishing it.
I do believe with proper care and preventative maintenance an RV can easily last more than 10 years,but 10 is a good guideline.
As Dutchmansport mentioned above there are lots of reason to trade that are not based on time or years of ownership.
While time of ownership is often a factor it is seldom the sole deciding factor in determining the trading point.