RV Usage

[jrose092150]

My wife and I are retired and travel in our Solitude about 120 days a year. We have close friends who are full-timers (they own a Reflection) and we catch up to them several times a year, mostly in national or state parks. Prior to purchasing the Solitude in the summer of 2020, we caught up with our full-time friends and stayed either in a cabin, a VRBO or an AirBNB near (or in) the park they were staying in. The challenge with this approach is that we couldn't always find appropriate accommodations as close to friends as we wanted to. This issue, coupled with the COVID pandemic and the inability to travel (fly) where and when we wanted to, drove us to the decision to purchase our 5th wheel. Another driver for me personally, was wanting / needing the mental challenge of owning and operating a 5th wheel. In my early 70's, I think it is important to exercise my brain by having to be mentally alert while towing the 5th wheel, as well as during the set-up and take-down process. I think we can all agree that owning and operating a 5th wheel can be challenging! BTW, we also rented a Class A and a Class C prior to purchasing our Solitude. Renting, at least via a dealer, can be quite expensive....as much or more than a really nice hotel or VRBO. At least that was our experience. Good luck in whatever you decide.

[Riverbug]

We've never considered our RVs as cost effective vacation solutions. It's always been about the experience. There's nothing like taking your own bed, shower, kitchen, etc., on the road with you. Prior to purchasing the new TT, we had booked 30 days in a VRBO in FL. I booked 3 weeks of travel in state parks and campgrounds to get down to FL plus 30 days in FL 1 mile from a great beach for $100 less than the VRBO was going to cost. We'll have to add for more fuel, but because we'll be able to cook in our own space, we will not go out to eat as much. I consider the RV, upgrades, and maintenance just sunk cost to get a much better experience. In our opinion...

[Linndoren]

I prolly am not the type you are asking but here is my input. I travel for work. It has been my experience the the RV is indeed cheaper than hotels/Airbnbs with the fuel and maintenance added in. Now that is because I have had the misfortune of staying in $50 or less/ night rooms and this is what prompted me to buy the trailer. For a decent IMO room I usually pay $90+ night and have still been disappointed. Having your own bed and sheets is priceless in my experience. I usually rent weekly or monthly while on site and have been able to pay $50 or less per night, now some times I have to stay farther out but it’s worth it. I am currently in MI and paying only $300/month. I shudder to think what an Airbnb or hotel would be like for that rate. All in all I say crunch the numbers then think about how you may get stuck in a dump and some of those won’t refund your week even if you check out two hours after you arrived. Ask me how I know but I didn’t even put my luggage in the room. I spent that time trying to get a clean room and finally ate the cost and went somewhere nice.

[timkoenig]

Thanks for all your responses. As you have pointed out there are many quality of life pluses to vacationing in an RV, I have been putting together preliminary 2022 trip plans and have no shortage of destinations in the lower 48, Alaska can wait.

[Captcolour]

First vacation years ago with the kids probably age 8 and 6 was in hotels. What did you do at night? Sit and watch TV. That was that. Bought a pop-up and they saw every state in the lower 48. Brought their bikes, played games, etc at night. Awesome experience. Both the first 5th wheel back in 2017 when DW and I wanted to get back to camping. Still awesome to be able to take walks around the campground or sit outside with a fire. I suppose you could walk up and down the halls of a hotel or around the parking lot, but just not quite the same

[dpisano]

Just curious how much everyone uses their RV that are not full timers and have a job that they can not do from the RV. We are coming up on one year, we spent 64 nights in it so far and I towed it about 15,000 miles. So far we have never stayed in the same campground twice, of course we have stayed multiple nights in one visit. Thinking about year two and my only constraints is how much vacation we have and the great distance some bucket list destinations are (like Alaska). So right now i could see more trips in year two, but at some point we may better off selling and renting either RV or cabins wherever we go. Renting right now seems like paying for golf somewhere else when you have unlimited golf in your subdivision.

Both my wife and I work full-time jobs and our 2021 usage will be 45 nights. We pretty much go to the Mountains for a weekend in April firshing, spend nearly ever weekend at the Lake from May-September, with week long trips in July because my wife is off for "track-out". She is also off for 3 weeks in October and we spend 1 week in the mountains the first week and then button it up for the winter until April.

As an earlier poster said, an RV will never come out good on a ROI calculator :-), but if you enjoy it and it gives you access to a place you like to go and cannot rent places, its great.

I think a large portion of the folks who either run out and buy one after "dreaming of glamping" while sitting at the RV dealer often regret the decision when they figure out the work involved for set-up, booking sites, the costs of the sites, and the 14 typical nights the average person spends in their RV (read that somewhere, I think RV Magazine). When they reflect it looks bad and often gets real bad if they signed up for long-term monthly payments. The bloom comes off the rose :-)

[Jammer]

I'm in my first year of owning a camper and have loved it. After our last trip we have planned this year we will have used our camper 31 nights, mostly weekends or long weekends. One trip to Gulf Shores which was excellent by the way, and I'd say make that a destination. If I could get my DW away from work for longer than long weekends, she's a nurse and there is now working from home for her, we'd have had some longer trips.

We travel mostly travel with another couple for most of our trips and we have loved doing it. We bike and golf and hike a lot together and love trying to be healthier while still enjoying the brewery's and restaurants we come across. As many others have said, it keeps you on your toes keeping up with the things that happen at camp or on the road. I'm a very handy guy and love fixing/improving things around my house or camper already so this is just another avenue for my interest.

I have not had to deal with many issues yet, but some of that is due to my upgrading or diligence in maintaining my trailer. My biggest fear is the suspension and tires due to the fact that if they fail you are working on it on its time and not when you'd have all the right tools on your own time.

Unless the purchasing of the camper is a burden I'd say go for it, because you only live once and it's life's adventures that keep us young in our minds. I don't know if we will be doing this 5 years from now but I know I enjoy just seeing the sites we come across and riding my bikes in places I've never been before. I just hope that I get to meet more people that enjoy having a good time and spreading that around.

[mrffrank440]

"....There's nothing like taking your own bed, shower, kitchen, etc., on the road with you...."

This Nov will be our 1-year anniversary with our 22MLE. Since both my wife and I still work, we are regulated to one long weekend a month (Thursday-Sunday) and one full week a year. Since winter camping is not really in the cards for us, our "season" is from late May - early Nov. Doing some math, that works out to be 35 days a year - for now.

Actually, we just got back from one of our trips this past weekend. We went to "Ash Grove" in Brevard county, North Carolina. Super nice people and small campground. The area is known for its great hiking trails and waterfalls in the nearby Pisgah and Dupont parks. Highly recommend ! On the way back, my wife and I discussed moving forward. No doubt the RV life is a much different (and we think better ) experience than VRBO. As so many people have stated, sometimes the expense and bother with an RV is not worth it. Obviously we think it is. We are 6 years from retirement and honestly, we are looking forward to getting out for more than a long weekend at a time.

[RobW-NC]

Just curious how much everyone uses their RV that are not full timers and have a job that they can not do from the RV. We are coming up on one year, we spent 64 nights in it so far and I towed it about 15,000 miles. So far we have never stayed in the same campground twice, of course we have stayed multiple nights in one visit. Thinking about year two and my only constraints is how much vacation we have and the great distance some bucket list destinations are (like Alaska). So right now i could see more trips in year two, but at some point we may better off selling and renting either RV or cabins wherever we go. Renting right now seems like paying for golf somewhere else when you have unlimited golf in your subdivision.

Up until last year we spent just about every weekend all year round in the camper. It was on a leased lot on the river. I changed jobs and we gave up the lot because I am on the road a lot and gone a lot of weekends. Last year we used it two weeks. This year we have used it two weeks together. I took it on one of my road trips for 6 weeks earlier this year. I saved the company a bunch of money by staying in campgrounds instead of hotels. The money they paid me for mileage didn't seem to be worth it. I don't know that I will do that again. The company was happy to pay for the campgrounds instead of hotels. Saved them about $3000.

[RUTrippin2]

After 20+ years of travel trailer ownership, this is 2nd summer we are without a trailer/vacation home. Hubs is now retired and I still have one more year of work. This year, we ended up doing two trips for vacation (now with COVID restrictions lifted). One to Nashville and one to Hershey for the RV show. One we flew, one we drove. We stayed in very nice hotels on both trips. All I can say is we dislike staying in hotels now more than ever. Camping and RVing have changed our whole perspective. The freedom we have in our own RV trumps sitting on a bed or in an uncomfortable chair in a hotel room after an exhausting day of touring, cooking our own meals instead of eating out 2/3 meals a day, and sleeping in our own beds with our own blankets/pillows. COVID really put a totally different spin on our future plans. We thought we'd be able to plan our retirement by taking that cross-country trip with just our car, staying in hotels. The Nashville trip alone inspired us to go to Hershey to the RV show...and ultimately, the hotel stay in Hershey sealed the deal. Our new truck and 17MKE is on order.