All about automotive blog | vlogam.com

Posts Tagged ‘RV’

As the baby boomers retire, the recreational vehicle industry has seen an upsurge in sales. For many people, nothing measures up to the independence and flexibility of enjoying the open road in a recreational vehicle (RV). There is certainly much to be said for taking your hotel with you wherever you go, and the savings on hotel costs can more than pay for the initial cost of an RV.

RV travelers realize the cost savings of this type of travel. There are no hotel rooms to book and dining in your RV can save an enormous amount of money compared to eating in restaurants every day. Owning a fifth wheel or travel trailer, whereas you can unhook your RV from your truck, saves you from having to book a rental car. For those in motor homes, many travelers will tow a vehicle behind them.

When considering the purchase of an recreational vehicle, you will be faced with three choices; a fifth wheel which is pulled by a pick up truck and attaches to a wheel inside the truck box (hence its name fifth wheel), a travel trailer which is usually pulled by a truck with a rear hitch, or a motor home. All three types of RV’s have their pros and cons and each point will need to be considered based upon your needs and your budget. Other consideration for the RV lifestyle is the price of gas. However, it is still more economical than staying in hotels and eating at restaurants every night.

Traveling in a recreational vehicle or motor home is often a good choice for those who want to travel to different locations; however, it may be less suited to those who visit the same location year after year. Travelers who visit the same location every year may find it more economical to buy a vacation home. Buying a vacation home, and renting it out when it is not being used, can be a good way to both save money on lodging and build equity for the future.

Many RV travelers come to love the freedom of the open road and the easy care lifestyle. Traveling cross-country and stopping a various parks along the way is a wonderful adventure. The traveler can choose to stay a day or as long as they want at a particular location.

A well-known fact in the RV community is the free camping at Walmart. In most states, you are allowed to camp in a Walmart’s parking lot for as long as you like. I am sure you have seen recreational vehicles lined up in Walmart’s parking lot at least on one occasion. This is a win-win situation for the traveler and Walmart. The traveler has a well-lit place to camp for the night, at no cost, and Walmart receives income from those RV owners who frequent the store. However, recently there has been an uprising among campground owners against Walmart’s free camping policy. Therefore, it is well advised that you check with the local chamber of commerce before you decide to stay a week at Walmart.

I fancy buying an RV darling. Ok Honey, go out and get one and we can spend all our vacation time in it and have great fun. Wrong, very wrong. Do not buy an RV if this is how you are thinking. Your RV will just be a waste of money.

Buying an RV is an important decision and something the whole family needs to be involved in. An RV is also an investment, an investment in time and cost but you will not see a profit on an RV, well not in financial terms but it can have a huge payback in terms of satisfaction and enjoyment but if you just rush out and buy an RV without giving it a lot of thought then it could be, at best, an expensive waste of money, and an RV can be, at worst, a marriage breaker. I know as I have seen it happen.

When we were trading up to a larger and newer RV, my sister in law from Atlanta decided she was going to buy our old RV. The trouble was it was her idea and not a joint family decision. She had been on vacation with us a few times and liked the lifestyle, thought it would be great for her daughter to spend more time in the countryside but she never really considered if her husband wanted an RV. He was the type who would choose a sports car to drive without thinking of where his daughter was going to sit. He liked speed, acceleration and easy maneuvering, not something you tend to find with an RV. It lasted a few years with him being unhappy with all his vacations in the RV, he bumped into a few trucks and did some damage to the RV, (which I had to repair), and was just generally unhappy with the whole idea of having a vacation in an RV. It got to the stage of seriously damaging their marriage. What went wrong? Well my sister-in-law did not sit down and really think about an RVer’s lifestyle.

Think about it, RVs can be small, they can be cramped compared to your house, RVs can be hard to drive and you can end up spending all your vacation just driving around. What she should have done is to rent an RV first to try things out. This way she could easily have seen if owning an RV was going to work.

So what do you look for when renting an RV.? Well I would think the most important is where it is at. Pick the area you would like to vacation in and they look for somewhere to rent one from. Think about how you are going to get there. Driving allows you to take more things with you than flying, so if you are flying then you may need to make sure that you rent an RV which comes fully equipped as some do not have things such as kitchen utensils in them or towels and so on, although many companies will supply these but sometimes they come at a price.

What about the size of your RV from small to large. I suppose this depends on what you want to achieve. If you are a family then you need a larger RV and so on. Just make sure that everything you need is available but remember this may mean extra rental cost. Do you want to tow a car behind your RV.? Some companies will let you, some will not and if you are in a hire car, does the hire company allow it to be towed behind an RV. Is the RV you want to rent capable of towing a large car or only a small car? These questions could go on but the best people to answer them are the RV rental company you are dealing with. They are the RV experts so ask them.

I could go on with information like this but it is just commonsense. Think about where you are going to vacation in your RV, think about how to get there, think about your RV in terms of size, think about the equipment you need for your RV, think about pets in the RV if you have a pet and think about who to rent your RV from. Get several quotes from RV rental companies and then compare them and read the fine detail to see what you get for the price and what extra you need to spend.

Once you have done all this pick a suitable RV to rent and a suitable company to rent your RV from and then just do it. Once you have tried renting an RV you will then have a much better idea if being an RV owner is for you and can then make the commitment to buy an RV Good luck and just enjoy it. I do.