DaGoose
Canton, IL
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Joined: 08/20/2007
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I'm still about 4 years from retirement but the DW and I plan on becoming snowbirds. I have a 2003 Nash 5th wheel that works well now but I'm wondering if I should consider getting a newer trailer now so I'm not pulling an 11 to 15 year old trailer accross the U.S.? Does anyone currently snowbird in anything around 15 years old? The same thing goes with my 2005 GMC 3/4 ton diesel truck.
I'm just not sure how hard it would be to swing these new payments but if I need to I'd better do it while I'm still working.
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WTTCS
freedom , U.S.A.
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Joined: 07/28/2003
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Funny you should ask. A year ago, I found a 89 Nomad that had been used at a deer (or shud I say dear) lease. It had sat for 5 years. I got it for a song and dance amount. Took it to my site, cleaned on it for 5 days, checked the water lines, elec lines, replaced some lite bulbs, painted the front and rear bumper areas and the tires . The tires were in bad shape from sitting, so I put 4 new ones on it. I checked the a.c and found that it was one year old. finally a week later, I started the a.c./frig.waterheater/flushed the toilet, after checking all the tanks, all the lights etc.
I was amazed at the good condition of this unit. So, I hooked her up in Okla, took off for Corpus. 14 hours later, I had her set up in her new park. I spent 5 weeks in that trl and it was great. Nothing went wrong, everything worked as normal. Now I use that trl anytime I want to go down there and fish.
I believe that the year model does nothing but tell you when it was made. People who take care of their rvs hardly have trouble of the major kind. If yours is that way, whats the big deal?
I would hook up to that trl today and go anywhere without any doubts. And I originally bought the trl to resell and make a few bucks, but it was so good, I decided to keep it.
1997 chev crew cab 454, 5 sp. 4.10
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B GAGE
Colorado
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Joined: 10/06/2003
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I'll be retiring in 4 1/2 years and plan on using our 2004 Arctic Fox to see the country including Canada & Alaska. I do plan on replacing the TV around then but, see no reason why we will need to replace the TT.
Bill & Donna
2004 Arctic Fox 22GQ, Loaded
2003 Dodge 2500, Quad Cab, 4X4, CTD 5 Speed
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runway18-2
missouri
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Joined: 12/03/2008
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We started with an older trailer (1982 HiLo)in good condition. It served us well & we did learn what we wanted on the cheap. The next trailer was demo from camping shows. Bought it for the queen size bed & slide. After we drug it miles & miles I started noticing metal fatigue so we traded it for a DP.
Condition (roof, tires, brakes), Floor plan, Bed, ability to tow & livability are the most inportant things to look for for a snowbird trailer.
If you can't live in it you will not like it.
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Gruffy
monominto mb ca
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Joined: 10/02/2003
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The snag here is that a lot of parks have a rule ... no trailer over 10 years old.
Most will make exception for a well maintained good looking trailer but you are served at their pleasure .... if they have lots of newer business you will be first to be turned away. The older your trailer gets the more chance of this happening.
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pawatt
Brainerd MN / Mission TX
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Joined: 01/19/2005
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Gruffy wrote:The snag here is that a lot of parks have a rule ... no trailer over 10 years old.
Most will make exception for a well maintained good looking trailer but you are served at their pleasure .... if they have lots of newer business you will be first to be turned away. The older your trailer gets the more chance of this happening.
Actually very few parks have that rule.
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Gruffy
monominto mb ca
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Joined: 10/02/2003
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pawatt wrote:Gruffy wrote:The snag here is that a lot of parks have a rule ... no trailer over 10 years old.
Most will make exception for a well maintained good looking trailer but you are served at their pleasure .... if they have lots of newer business you will be first to be turned away. The older your trailer gets the more chance of this happening.
Actually very few parks have that rule.
All parks in the Encore system .... that's over 100 right there. It's a full timer destination Snowbird thing. Not always enforced. Never enforced in the poorer parks.
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WTTCS
freedom , U.S.A.
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Joined: 07/28/2003
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Every KOA in america has the 10 year rule AVAILABLE if they wish to use it. But do they? Are you kidding? turn down 75 bucks? Not KOA !
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RoadXYZ
OR-WA-ID-CA
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Joined: 08/09/2003
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We have only been asked once what year our TT was and that was an over the phone reservation .. we saw a 15 yr old Beaver MC that looked brand new .. he had it garaged in the summer and only used it the other seasons and also had it detailed every year ...
Our TT may soon be a 2006 .. the rv parks we have used never asked for a registration for verification .. and when that time comes, I will not use that rv park if they become that nit-picking. We have some travel rash, but nothing right now that a good detail job wouldn't take care of to make it flashy clean again .. it was done a coupla years ago, and will be done in the next few weeks when we get home and thereafter done yearly.
We have traveled continuously for 22 months now and only been asked twice for the year of the unit .. haven't really stayed at any resorts except a coupla ones and they were not as questioning as some of the smaller rv parks.
Travelers 3 - Granpa (N7SJN), Granma Marji & Petunia (9 lb Chi)
"Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait for the answer."
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Rick & Cheryl
Texas
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Joined: 09/28/2007
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Make the payments to yourself, ie save up as if you were buying a new/newer one. Then when you retire, you can make your decision, and save paying interest.
It's not so much how new your rv is, its whether it meets your needs as a snowbird,,and keep in mind that a 8 year old trailer will then be 12 or so old, and you might just want a nicer/newer rv regardless of cg rules.
I will say that the nicer snowbird parks tend to enforce the 10 year rule, but its also about as likely that those parks that do, wont appeal to you for one reason or the other.
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