I would like to know:
- What do you think of Motorhomes
- Would you like to buy one or live in one
- What are some interesting Motorhome Stories that you have
In my experience, motorhomes are huge immobile fixtures in suburban neighborhoods, often attempting to camouflage themselves with dirt, moss and leaves but literally “flushed out” by their owners once a year or so. A common motorhome fashion is plywood skirts over the essentially decorative “wheels,” and it seems to be the style to let these skirts age naturally over the years. Once in a while, the interior lights up as a particularly obnoxious family visitor comes to stay for a few days; they can usually be seen smoking outside the motorhome.
After a goodly time, motorhomes sprout FOR SALE signs in their curtained front windows, and after the sign has peeled, yellowed or collapsed in on itself, the motorhome drives away, never to be seen again. This is not a sad event, for a larger, shinier and more aggressively-named replacement will be along soon to continue the cycle of “freedom.”
Inexplicably, motorhomes are seen to vanish at brief and infrequent intervals. Maybe someone else has an explanation for these possibly illusory events.
To me they are like retiring and taking a job as a bus driver - but nobody pays a fare and you buy the gas… Then you decide to sell it and discover everyone else has one to sell as well.
I love motorhomes but I would never own one. I’ve rented several from Cruise America and have been very happy with the experience. No motorhome storage, no maintenance, and they will even supply bedding and cookware (for a price). They even offer some one-way rentals if you’re going their way.
Learning to drive a 30+ foot vehicle was the biggest challenge. I had Walkie Talkies (2-way radio transmitters with VOX (voice activated) and headsets) for backing up and tight turns. Emptying the grey (sink) and black (toilet) water holding tanks was the most unpleasant part. Mileage sux but so does paying state hotel taxes.
On the plus side, there were no hotel reservation. No where that we HAD to be. No schedule. Stay or leave. Our choice. Park by a stream or a beach. Pull into a highway rest area for a night if you miscalculate distance or daylight. Leave early or leave late. Pull over and have breakfast at any time. Or a sandwich while you drive. If you get caught in the rain (or fell into a lake or had a snowball fight), clean, dry clothes are waiting for everyone just inside the door.
If you add the cost of renting a car to the cost of staying in a hotel and eating in restaurants, the cost is comparable.
Our longest trip was Chicago north to Canada, west to Niagara Falls, south to Colonial Williamsburg, VA, and back to Chicago. Driving up and down the twisty roads of the Blue Ridge mountains was a real workout. I felt like I had been digging ditches all day. The kids loved it.
Our most dangerous situation was being caught IN a thunderstorm near Estes Park, CO. With the black clouds rolling over the mountain tops towards me, I decided it was better to do a 9-point turn on a two-lane mountain road and head back up to a State run observation/tourist building. Whew. I thought we were all gonna die. The kids loved it.
Isn’t this your second thread on this today?
I own a Class C motorhome. I use it to travel to jobs out of state. While it’s not a new model, it was a near top of the line unit when it was manufactured 15 years ago.
It’s not bad…but living in one is not for everybody.
Some reasons:
[ol]
[li]It’s a gas hog - It gets roughly 9-11 miles per gallon on the highway, meaning that I don’t take it out on casual trips.[/li][li]Registering it is expensive - If I didn’t use it for work, I would have gotten rid of it long ago.[/li][li]It requires a LOT of maintenance on occasion - Since I have tools and I’m somewhat handy…I can do most of it. What I can’t do (or don’t have the time to do) costs a pretty penny.[/li][li]It’s hard to drive in heavy traffic - While I always take routes around major cities, you can’t always predict construction and you can never predict accidents. I have waited as long as 25 minutes to change lanes just to get around an obstruction in the road. Try that on for patience.[/li][li]It’s a burglary magnet - They don’t them very secure and people watch your comings and goings when you park in a RV lot. I have been hit twice; however, I kept all of my real valuables in the vehicle that I tow along and take to work with me.[/li][li]It can get claustrophobic - If you cannot see yourself spending 8-12 hours a day in a space smaller than your living room (or in the case of the bigger models, two rooms in your house) I would advise against it as it can get really close sometimes.[/li][/ol]
While I don’t regret buying one (I worked in North Dakota briefly about four years ago and it really came in handy then) I probably wouldn’t do so again unless I won the lottery or I found a method to become wealthy as it is an expensive luxury, not a necessity.
The other thread is about camping. Similar but not quite the same thing. IMHO, of course.
For any motor home, there’s an airplane I could buy for the same price. Now, when I think of ‘motorhome’, I think of Class A – the biggest. The Class Bs and Class As I look at as ‘campers’. Incorrect, I know; but that’s how I think of them. I’ve just taken a very brief look at local prices. Used 2014 year-model Class As are $140,000 to nearly $400,000. Older ones built in the 2000s start at about $60,000 to over $100,000.
I could buy a fairly recent (in airplane terms) Cessna 182 Skylane for those prices. An almost new Skylane is only about 10% more than a couple of 2014 Class As I saw that have a couple thousand miles on them. A late-'70s to early-'80s Skylane (again, not ‘old’) is in the range of the less-expensive Class As I saw. FWIW, the 182 is a pretty capable airplane that can cruise at 160 miles per hour, and carry four people and fuel.
So why am I talking about airplanes? Because I drive a lot. The less time spent on the road, the better. They say that ‘the journey is the reward’. Getting there in a motorhome is part of the reward, right? Sure. But you have to drive a slow, lumbering bus that gets terrible mileage, pissing off everyone driving behind you. A journey by small airplane is more fun, less fatiguing, and you get to your destination faster (weather permitting). Gas mileage? Sure the plane also gets about 10 mpg (or more, if you slow down or have a lower-powered airplane). But IMO you get more for your gallon than you do on the ground. Camping? Pack your tent and sleeping bag and fly off to some remote strip. Or rent a cabin at your destination. I wouldn’t want to sleep at my destination, in a vehicle I’ve just spent days driving and sleeping in. What about stopping at Trees Of Mystery or some other tourist place? Land in Crescent City and drive a rental for half an hour. Want a good steak on your trip? Harris Ranch has an airstrip onsite.
So… What do you think of Motorhomes?
Wouldn’t want to drive one, wouldn’t want to ‘camp’ in one. For the money they cost, I can get something that I consider more fun and makes what I consider a better use of my time.
I guess that’s why they make motorhomes and airplanes and cars and cabin cruisers and…
It might be cool for retirement to go see all the places you never got to see when you were younger. But fuel is too expensive these days. Maybe when they develop electric engines for trucks it will become affordable again. Maybe in 50 years, when I’m dead.
My wife and I have been enthusiastic “campers” our entire marriage (34 years) and have tried most of the methods. We’ve owned tents, popup campers, one travel trailer and a couple of 5th wheels.
We tried renting a motorhome on a few occasions and found we didn’t like it for a couple of reasons.
-
Without some careful arranging/packing, your kitchen rattles constantly (imagine your kitchen at home going down the road and all the cups/silverware/plates making a continuous racket).
-
Once you get “there”, you need some way of getting around, so you tow a small car behind it (and probably can’t back up).
We came to the conclusion that it was easier and quieter to just tow a big camper behind the pickup truck. You’re going to be towing anyway, so why not have the truck/camper combo? You get a nice truck out of the deal, it can double as a daily-driver when schedules prevent carpooling, and it’s a lot easier to get maintenance on the road.
Additionally (as we found out in New Mexico) when the truck does break down, you don’t have to leave your entire home in the mechanic’s shop. We managed to limp off the road into a KOA and have the truck towed to the Chevy dealer. We just stayed in the camper while it was being fixed (we rented a car later and spent a few days exploring Route 66).
Not sure if this is a local or an international nickname, but the drivers of these are known here as “grey nomads”. New retirees who are cashed up and want to hit the road…
They are almost universally seen as a menace on the roads. What you generally have is some old guy who has spent a working life driving a car to an office job in a city, and is now driving something truck-sized on narrow rural roads, with little or no training. They weave all over the place, cut across the centre line, etc.
Like most experienced country drivers, I wait for a chance to overtake safely, pull wide, jam it down a gear, floor it, and generally put as much distance between that motorhome and me as I possibly can.
Yes I know. We oldsters with our RVs are a dangerous menace.
This fact is reflected in the insurance rates, as mine went up a whopping $98.00 per year when I added the 5th wheel to our fleet. My liability insurance for driving my rig (12 wheels on the ground and 70 total length) increased exactly zero dollars. It’s the same as it was for just the truck.
Seriously, there are no non-profit insurance companies. If we were that dangerous, State Farm’s actuaries would’ve noticed it by now.
Sorry to have hit a nerve. It may just be a cultural difference. You mentioned driving a “truck” previously. Americans have a long history of driving very large vehicles, and doing so on good quality roads. Not the case here. SUVs are only recently becoming popular, but they still tend not to be US-sized ones. Most Australians drive cars. Also, with a population about the same size as Texas, but with a continent nearly as big as the USA, our taxpayer base is tiny, and as a result, our roads are crap. Many main highways between state capital cities are two lane, winding blacktop. Between regional places, many are still dirt. Added to that, we are a highly urbanised country, and many folks almost never leave the cities. Result? Inexperienced folk driving huge tanks on dangerous roads. So, as ever, your mileage may vary.
False. There are motorhomes available at just above what it could get for scrap on up.
Check your local Craigslist. For example I see:
“1977 NUWA Class C Motor Home - $1400
Has A chevrolet 400 motor with 72000 miles. Needs TLC as roof has leaked, and seats are a little worn . Very strong running and tight handling. Perfect starting motorhome , haven’t tried air but refrigerator doesn’t work. First $1400 drives it home or to your favorite fishing hole.”
Anyone see anything comparable for airplanes?
Most 1977 airplanes don’t need ‘TLC’. Of course, you can find ‘projects’ very cheaply. Applying TLC is the expensive rub in any vehicle.
Note that I was comparing newer motorhomes. Every motorhome I’ve seen on the roads in this area has been much newer than 1977. Also, I specified that my definition of a ‘motorhome’ is a Class A motorhome. (Note: I mistyped ‘Class A’ when I meant to type ‘Class C’ when I was referencing the other classes in my post.) Class C is basically a big camper to me, and not a ‘motorhome’.
The cheapest Class C motorhome at the Poulsbo RV (a big dealer up here) website is a 1993 Gulf Stream Scenic Cruiser 3340WFB for $30,000. The cheapest Cessna 172 Skyhawk (1959 – again, age doesn’t mean much in airplanes) has a nice interior, a nice panel, and only 200 hours on the overhaul for $18,500. For $34,900 there is a 1978 Cessna 172N. A young couple landed at the airport where my dad worked in a Piper J-3 Cub. They had camping gear lashed to the struts, and were camping across the country. If you want ‘low-and slow’ in a classic plane that can land just about anywhere, I see one for $27,500. Or you could get an Aeronca 7AC Champ for $20,000. Or there’s a 4-seat Beechcraft Musketeer for $25,500. Or a Piper Cherokee 140, 160, or 180 for $27,000 or less. So for my idea of a ‘motorhome’, there certainly are airplanes you can get for the same price or ⅔ the price.
And my apologies for the snarky response. I didn’t realize where you were. 
What nonsense. I think by “universally seen” you mean “by me and a couple of my mates”. I’ve never seen this weaving and cutting you mention. Ever. Grey nomads tend to be slow, but that’s about it. If there is weaving with grey nomads it’s a bit of tail wag with caravans not motorhomes.
Between you and who?
You’re the one who’s brought facts to the table, not TLD. Insurance rates for older people (driving motorhomes also) are lower in Australia same as the US, and as you say that is pretty much conclusive evidence that the data shows they are safer than average. Attempts to pull the “things are different in Australia, trust me” card notwithstanding.
My impression of motorhomes (esp. the $100K+ class A beasts) is that they are like swimming pools - great enthusiasm and lots of use - at first. Then it becomes “that thing” - the one which needs constant this and that, and gee, we really don’t use it as much as we used to…
At least, with a motorhome, you can sell it and recover most of your investment. You can’t bive away an above-ground pool, and in-ground’s eventually either requiring $6000 - $10,000 in upgrades or it is a liability to the property.
Rent one for a month - esp. if you plan of using it for 2 weeks - you’ll get a sense of “the thing”.
When I moved in, there was a huge class A down the street - with very expensive covers on both the home and each wheel. After awhile, a “For Sale” sign appeared, followed by a “For Sale” on the house - followed by a “Foreclosure” sign.
I do hope they didn’t take out one of those junk mortgages to finance the thing, but this neighborhood is not one of people who can spring $200K out of savings.
Rent first
What is the law that mandates they be decorated with gaudy, artless stripes?
Just remember they depreciate just like a car - about 10% a year. So a $300,000 motorhome is worth $30,000 less the next year.
My parents were part of an RV ministry where they lived on a church site and did construction on it. A couple of times they snowbirded to Arizona and Texas.