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Forum
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RE: Help me narrow down from 3 choices...
I doubt if any of those vehicles are up to a 30 ft+ trailer. We tow a 25 ft. 5th wheel(gross wt rating of 7,500) with a half-ton truck rated to tow about 7,500 lbs.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/18/12 01:26pm |
Tow Vehicles
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Personal Question $$$
Posting a topic here that might be interesting or maybe not if it's too personal and people won't care to respond. The question is- How much do you owe on your RV today and about how much is it worth or would you realistically hope to sell it for and how long have you had it? We paid about $10,000 (hard to tell when you traded something in)for our 1999 small 5th wheel in 2002. Now the book value is maybe $2500-$3500.It still serves our needs well and we will keep on with it until we find a replacement too good to pass up.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/18/12 01:20pm |
General RVing Issues
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RE: Going to Fulltime + not retired = many ????
If you will have "not quite enough" income, consider workamping. See Workamper News magazine or the workamper topic on this forum. You can get seasonal, short-term jobs although some of them are volunteer, not for pay. However, rely on this only if you do not need much additional income. Under the best of circumstances 2 of you together can hope to clear about $500/week in this manner.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/17/12 02:24pm |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Non Paying Jobs
For 8 summers we worked in and around Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks and always each worked about 40hrs/week , got paid for all hours and had an RV site provided at low cost. Those jobs are all still available but none of them were in campgrounds. We thought we might try volunteer campground hosting, hoping for fewer hours and easier, outdoor work. But so far it isn't working out, partly for the reasons stated above of too many hours, too long of a commitment and sometimes not full hook-ups for the RV site. If we volunteer we want to feel we are more in control than the employer re: length of commitment, number of hours, etc. No way would I ever work for no pay for a private, profit making campground. Hopefully, the trend is for more and more of us to pass on some of those positions and get back to a requirement of around 20 hours/week total and flexible commitments.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/17/12 02:17pm |
Workamping Forum
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RE: Camping VS Hotels
You didn't say if you already have some kind of RV or do you plan on tenting? If you have an RV or are tenting, then camping is way cheaper (around $25/night) in the short run and you can cook most of your meals. However, if you plan to buy an RV just for this trip or for short, occassional trips only, then RVing will cost much more. Why--Depreciation of the RV which many RVers conveniently forget to factor in. We much prefer traveling by RV and hate motels but it's not necessarily low cost.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/16/12 01:34pm |
Family Camping
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RE: If you dont travel with the FW tank full???
Water weighs 8 lbs/gal so it is an issue. We travel with about half a tank in case we overnight at someplace like Walmart and we will have some water to shower, bathroom, etc. For drinking, we always have at least 2 of those big clorox bottles full of water.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/16/12 01:29pm |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Is 31 foot too long for small campgrounds?
Well; too long for me by about 5 ft. Big is OK if you are willing to plan ahead carefully and avoid a lot of public campgrounds.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/15/12 10:36am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: What are the advantages to a 5th wheel?
Your mileage will not improve. Advantages- hookup and unhook is easier because you can see the pin and hitch through your back window, you don't need to line up perfectly, and no hitch bars or chains to mess with. They tow like the trailer and truck is all 1 piece. A 5th wheel is not easier to back but possibly you can put 1 into a tighter spot.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/15/12 10:33am |
Fifth-Wheels
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RE: Water in FW tank sitting for 3 weeks -- dump and sanitize?
I would go ahead with the water in there but then we don't drink the water out of our tank; just dishes, shower, etc. If I planned to use it for drinking, I think I would drain and refill.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/15/12 10:29am |
General RVing Issues
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RE: LatestDiesel Fuel Cost
It's just over $4 here. As we travel around the country and observe the average difference between gas and diesel seems hard to justify diesel?
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Jayco-noslide
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05/14/12 05:57pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Fix & Keep or Trade for New
When to trade is always an interesting question but for staying on the road at the least cost over the long run; it is always cheaper to not trade. It's all about the depreciation. All vehicles depreciate but much more on a new one the 1st few years. So spreading it out over a lot of years and miles helps a lot. The costliest is to trade for a new 1 every 2 or 3 years. The least is to buy used and keep long term. You didn't say how many miles is on it. Over 200,000 is way different than if it has less than 100,000. The way I look at it; most repairs now days will be less than just the sales tax on a new one. Of course there are factors other than the economics.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/14/12 05:55pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Young family potentially hitting the road soon
I sense your desire for the adventure of the road but it sounds scarey to me, financially. 1st of all $6,500 isn't enough to get a decent trailer and tow vehicle that won't need a ton of work and have ongoing problems. Secondly, don't rely on workamping for an income. The great majority of those jobs will get you maybe $500 a week clear and that's if you can find 40 hr/week jobs for both of you. Not enough for a family to live on the road.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/14/12 09:08am |
Full-time RVing
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RE: Full time 5th wheel...extra car?
We have a small 5th wheel which we tow with a half-ton Chevy and have workamped and been on the road for up to 12 weeks. We not only just use the truck for our transportation when on the road it's also our only vehicle when home. In spite of the poor mileage, it's still cheaper than the purchase, depreciation and other costs of owning a 2nd vehicle. I would do that even if we had a 3/4 ton truck. I figured that, if we had a small, high mileage car to drive around it might save $100 a month on fuel and that's not enough to make up for the extra costs. That wouldn't even pay the sales tax on a new Honda Fit.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/14/12 09:01am |
Full-time RVing
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RE: Balance Between Planning the Trip and Being Flexible
That's a tough question with answers that will really depend on lot's of factors. Our tendency, after 40 years of RVing across the country, is to plan more rather than less. But it still depends on lots. If you have a place (like Yellowstone) where you are really set on staying, my advice is to reserve. You could always find someplace to stay around the area but the distances may be high. If we are going to, lets say southern, coastal Fl in mid-winter; plan and reserve. However if we were heading to the more vast, less crowded southwest we might not make a single reservation. It takes a lot of experience to know which places will probably be full if you don't reserve and which almost never fill. Also, I have a low tolerance for finding a campground full in late afternoon and having no place to stay. That doesn't bother some at all. However you do it,stop early and have a Plan B.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/10/12 10:26am |
Beginning RVing
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RE: Do I Need A WDH
I would spell out what a wdh is. Took me awhile to figure it out.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/09/12 01:57pm |
Towing
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RE: How to break the ice with our CG neighbors?
We have RVed a long time and whether or not we meet other campers and become friends or not really varies. Sometimes at the end of a long trip we really haven't met anyone beyond very superficial. Other trips we may meet someone and maintain a relationship for years, even if just e-mails. I never hesitate to speak to a neighbor and will usually ask them something about their RV, where they are from, etc. But then I try not to push things and try to read whether or not they want to socialize. If we get "positive vibes" we may invite them over for desert or to share a campfire. I think the type of campground makes a difference. Real private sites surrounded by vegetation are not conducive to meeting neighbors.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/09/12 01:49pm |
RV Lifestyle
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RE: Real-world 5th wheel towing capability question
I would compare the gross weight rating of the trailer you plan to tow. (That would be the weight of the trailer fully loaded to its capacity.) with the tow rating for your truck and make sure the truck is rated to tow at least that much if not more. Half-ton vary greatly in their capacity. For my 2007 Chevy, it is about 7,500 lbs.so I can tow only the smallest of 5th wheels, 25-26 ft. with 1 small slide, maybe. The strongest half-tons., maybe up to 28-30 ft.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/08/12 12:40pm |
Tow Vehicles
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RE: Trouble Getting into smaller sites?
You will have people tell you it won't be a problem but for us it would be. We have a 26 ft. 5th wheel and can get into most sites. But even that small, there are lots of sites in national parks and national forest that can be a problem. So, I think it depends on whether or not you will be content to bypass a lot of those campgrounds or else research them thoroughly or just use private RV parks only.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/07/12 06:27pm |
Toy Haulers
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RE: First class C should I increase our budget?
I don't have answers but just wonder if you have thought about depreciation. This is the biggest cost of RVing. That is, how the value of an RV will plunge over the years that you keep it. All RV's depreciate but new, expensive ones depreciate more.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/07/12 06:22pm |
Class C Motorhomes
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RE: How long does your Propane Last?
A 30 lb. tank last us 1 month, give or take a week.
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Jayco-noslide
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05/07/12 06:14pm |
Class B - Camping Van Conversions
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