I can understand what you are saying Do you have any friends who own campers? If so see if you can come along on some camping trips if not why not just rent some different units before you buy its better to make a rent then get stuck with 15 to 30 years of payments and find the kind of unit you have payments may not be of your likening .I think most people will tell you they started of smaller and ever couple of years the traded up but with prices now and fuel cost this may not be a smart move so all I'm saying is look before you leap and get trapped sometime people trade in after they find they didn't like what they got and wind up with what's call and upside down loan which means is the new unit you got is not worth the loan you got.
I'm with the other folks here. Hang out on this board, go to some RV shows, and absolutely rent one (or more) to see if you like it. Figure out what size you think you'll want and go rent one. Maybe rent a class A too if they size you're thinking of crosses between A and C. By living i one you'll also get a feeling for what kinds of amenities you want with yours. You may love sleeping over the cab or hate it. You may be willing to sacrifice a permenent bed in order to have a smaller rig. The one thing you do not want to do is plunk down a bunch of money on one and not be happy.
I bought a book, "The Complete Idiot's Guide to RV'ing". You can't miss it...it's orange and looks like all the other Idiot and Dummie books. We were considering upgrading our popup to a larger travel trailer and I didn't know much about them. The book doesn't give a lot of detail, but there are basic operating tips and a good description of the plusses and minuses of each type of RV.
I pulled it back off the shelf when we decided to look at motorhomes instead, and each time we waffle on what to buy, I flip through it again. Nothing beats a little hands-on time like renting, but it never hurts to know a little background first. I highly recommend the book.
Cris, Carol, Robbie, Cathy, and Reeses the Wonder Dog
2005 Four Winds Chateau Sport 28A
c&cschroed says to get the idiots guide. I've checked at Amazon, Borders and Barnes & Nobel's for the latest version and find it was printed in April, 2006.
I think that's a little old to be helping me decide what to buy even if it has general info pertinent to purchasing an RV. I can't afford to make a mistake.
I'll keep reading here, show going, dealer roaming, RV'r talking, etc. Then, if I make a mistake it'll be mine and not someone else's. Nobody to blame but me then....:-) Dan
Lot's of great ideas here, we looked for 5 years and asked lots of questions. Take a video and/or digital camera when you go shopping, after a while everything starts to run together and a camera along with the brochures helps to sort it out. Don't settle, get what you want 'cause if you're not happy with the choice you'll take a pounding trading up. Can't afford what you want? Wait and save, I'm glad that's what we did.
I can't add much, just remember to take your time. We are on our 2nd MH now, started with a 21 ft. It seemed huge at first, but we soon found it was too small, and now have a 30 ft unit. We would have made a wiser choice if we had looked longer and harder (and asked more questions), the first time around.
Hello danjan, everyone goes about things different but ill tell you that it is not easy ... because if you do hurry and get one any kind without thinking you WILL get one that you wont like and will either not like rving or you will waste money upgrading or downgrading.
for me it took me 2.5 years of researching and talking with my wife and alot of silly questions here.
At first we were getting a class A then realized the price , how huge they were and that they were the least safe motorhome.
wife and i knew we wanted to go touring for about 4-5 day stretches about 8 times per year plus another 4-5 3 day weekend jaunts. we arent snowbirding or Fulltiming it. so that eliminated for us the getting a fith wheel and truck to pull it (all though i like alot of ith wheels) we then though how about a class be for what we wanted .... well we found that some of the class b manufacturers make some very nice units and you will see that on a whole the Class b's industry makes a better built machine than any other RV's in general except for specific luxery brands. but my wife and i found that it was too small for us since each of us was 6 foot tall... we had looked at the C's and liked several brands but most were too big for us.. then we found the dodge sprinter based rv's from gulfstream and winnebago .. we loved the small size but extra room of a mini c of the winnebago View ... then someone told us about Born free and thier mini C's and we did some research into them and found that we liked them best and any purchase we make was a born free.
Well 2.5 years, and hundreds of walk throughs, hundreds a of annoying questions on the forums.thousands of reviews & articles,hundreds of drive throughs. we have finaly decided on our rv and out a deposit on it and go down january 2nd to pick up our 22 foot built for two born free motorhome.
you have to be carefull here as whell when you read alot of answers because many are colored with brand loyalty and im not saying people are deliberatly trying to mislead you.. but some may like thier brand so much that they wont accuratly talk about thier warts (every manufacturer has warts)
My wife and i went with born free manufacturer and while for the last 40 years they have been a top 3 quality premium rv manufactuerer and the safest on the road (not a single fatality in 35 years) there are negatives to them too .. all this comforts and luxury,& saftey and craftsmanship comes at a cost. You will pay about 50% more for a Born free than you would and equivilant georgie boy,winnebago,gulfstream,fleetwood, you wont be able to get any slide outs because part of thier massiviny strong cradle of strength come from a full roll cages through out the coach sno no slide outs at all.
its a small manufacturer that makes only about 300 coaches per yeat by hand so you may have to wait 6 months for your coach to be built and you wont have as many options to choose from as you would as one of the mega manufacturers i named above.
So you need to find all the good and the bads of each rv before making a decision.
Id sugest to do a walk through of each type, Class A,C,B's, 5th wheel, travel trailer. get an idea of what they look and feel like inside each one.
Then decide what will you be using the RV for is it for touring?, or snowbirding,Fulltiming,or only camping 2-3 times a year.
after you decided then you will be able to figure out what class RV you like once you do start reading up on every single manufactuerer of the brands in your class that you picked. then go to every rv show, rv dealer, and start test driving and asking questions dont just rely on the dealer some are wonderfull and some are two bit used car salesmen DONT BUY AN RV ON THW SPOT. go home look about it online sleep on it and make a decision.
it may take a long time and may get boring but its better to get it right than be sorry.. also ill be honest if your getting a $9000 travel trailer you may not 2 years of research like a person who is spending $70,000-$400,000 on a motothome.
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