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GavinHardison

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Joined
Feb 27, 2014
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11
Im looking for a life of travel and adventure. I want a class A motorhome that is cheap in price (used) maybe from the 80's. Which RV will best suit me? Im on somewhat a budget. I want this RV to give enough power to power my 600 watt gaming computer with ease. Should I modify it to my will?
 
Just about any RV from the 80s can power your computer. Most will have a generator of at least 5000 watts. Most all can be hooked up to shore power 110 volts for even more power.

You need to understand that RVs that old usually have lots of problems. As a general rule if you spend under $10k on an RV plan on at least spending the purchase price again just to get it into usable shape. Refers, tires and engines are not cheap.
 
SeilerBird said:
Just about any RV from the 80s can power your computer. Most will have a generator of at least 5000 watts. Most all can be hooked up to shore power 110 volts for even more power.

You need to understand that RVs that old usually have lots of problems. As a general rule if you spend under $10k on an RV plan on at least spending the purchase price again just to get it into usable shape. Refers, tires and engines are not cheap.
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I see your point. How much would a fairly new (late 90's and up) class C be? Are they cheaper? Better on gas? Please help im EXTREMELY new to RV's but always wanted to live full time in one.
 
Clicking on this link will take you to PPL RV, a company in Texas that sells thousands of RV's on consignment. Their listings might give you some idea of the range of pricing and floor plans available. Keep in mind your seeing asking prices, not necessarily selling prices.

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/used_rvs_for_sale.htm

Out of curiosity, have you given any thought to how you will handle Internet access for gaming? Campgrounds have notoriously poor Internet service.
 
NY_Dutch said:
Clicking on this link will take you to PPL RV, a company in Texas that sells thousands of RV's on consignment. Their listings might give you some idea of the range of pricing and floor plans available. Keep in mind your seeing asking prices, not necessarily selling prices.

http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/used_rvs_for_sale.htm

Out of curiosity, have you given any thought to how you will handle Internet access for gaming? Campgrounds have notoriously poor Internet service.
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Thank you for your help and yes Ive given thought to it. I will have a portable WiFi source from VZ or other networks. It is gonna be rough. Gaming with these weak signals can be a hassle. But thats what the open road is for! To get me away from my gaming. But I still need it for my work and well... occasional games.
 
Ok, good luck with your search for a suitable rig for your needs and budget! I use a hotspot account with Millenicom, a VZ MVNO, for 4G Internet access, and this month my post-retirement part time editing work has chewed through almost 40GB at a cost of $140. I mention that just to give you an idea of what's available outside of VZ, but still having VZ's coverage. For comparison, figure out what a VZ direct hotspot account charge would be for that much bandwidth. Of course, if you're fortunate enough to still have one of the old unlimited data VZ accounts, then I'm jealous...  ;D
 
GavinHardison said:
I see your point. How much would a fairly new (late 90's and up) class C be? Are they cheaper? Better on gas?
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I have been living for the last three years in a 1994 class A 32 footer that I paid $6500 for. I have put a few thousand into the unit. Used class Cs and class As tend to be about the same price for a given year. And they tend to have the same gas mileage.

You need to visit an RV dealership and test drive a few different RVs first. And then when you decide on a class you should rent one for a weekend trip to see how you like it.
 
Gavin, you really need to take your time.  For the kind of money you want to spend there are LOTS of RVs out there.  The trouble is how were those RVs used and abused and cared for.  Find a few you really like. Find an RV technician to check them out for you.  I don't care how knowledgeable you are, if you're not knowledgeable about RV systems your knowledge is useless.  All else being equal, look very carefully at storage and floor plan & remember you'll have to live with it.  Something that wouldn't bother you for a weekend might drive you crazy in a permanent situation.  Unless the seller can PROVE to you that the tires are less than 5 years old, you WILL need to buy tires (learn to read and look for the date codes ON the tires & take NO one's word for it.).  You may need to have a professional take care of some of the systems if it has not been used often.  Look MOST carefully at the roof and side walls.  If the roof leaks or delamination has begun you may be opening a huge can of worms.

In this economy it's very likely you can find a great, not too old RV for your money & find it in great condition too.  But without a pro to tell you that, be very careful.  Also, high mileage is NOT a bad thing.  High mileage means it's been worked and an RV that has not been worked is more likely to have problems that have been neglected due to lack of use.  High mileage on a diesel means it's just been "broken in".  Diesels can easily carry millions of miles.  Gas, not so much, but a gasser with high mileage has probably been taken care of & as long as you are careful about maintenance too, no problem.

MPG?  Pooh.  You are talking about driving a house here.  If you manage to get 8 mpg or better on an RV built before 2008 it will be a miracle.  Figure the cost of fuel into your expenses and let it go.  It won't get better.  There are so many other expenses you will be giving up by living in an RV it shouldn't matter anyway.

There are numerous options for wifi.  For me, the best one has been Millenicom, offering 20gb per month for 70$.  They use Verizon's towers and support is excellent.  They have an unlimited hot spot plan also, which I had originally, but after you use up so many gb you're going to get slowed down anyway & the additional cost was not worth it to me.  If I'm gonna be slowed down to a crawl anyway, I might as well switch to campground wifi if I go over my allowance (which I never have).  If you plan on streaming live content however, all bets are off.  You will never have enough bandwidth unless you have a satellite provider, which is expensive.

Best wishes.....
 
[quote author=bertnspike]Gavin, you really need to take your time....[/quote]

Thank you for taking this time to make such a thoughtful reply! I agree with everything you said completely, Ill test some roving houses and see what I like. Since its permanent residence I want something with space but I know that cannot happen in the budget. A C class gasser for 7 grand sounds fair to me but I would for sure get the RV inspected by a professional before laying down some Benjamins. I appreciate the help. My main problem would be a source of income while on the road. My photography will only work while im in one place, which wint work since ill be off to god knows where after a few weeks in one location.

Edit: Reduced excessive quote.
 
SeilerBird said:
I have been living for the last three years in a 1994 class A 32 footer that I paid $6500 for. I have put a few thousand into the unit. Used class Cs and class As tend to be about the same price for a given year. And they tend to have the same gas mileage.

You need to visit an RV dealership and test drive a few different RVs first. And then when you decide on a class you should rent one for a weekend trip to see how you like it.
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6500 is well in my price range! Thank you for the info and about how much MPG do these get? Plus I love the though of getting into an RV through a regular van door rather than a class A side door, though it does not matter.
 
I don't know what my gas mileage is because I don't care to know. All RVs get lousy gas mileage, usually between 6 and 10 mpg and there is really nothing you can do about it except drive slow. I set the cruise control on 55 just about everywhere I go, even on Interstate with an 80 mph speed limit. My motto is - Life is too short to worry about gas mileage.
 
Tom have you repaired your transmission yet? This was the last I recall you discussing your RV.
 
Jeff said:
Tom have you repaired your transmission yet? This was the last I recall you discussing about your RV.
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No, in fact I started it up and drove it out to get propane and when I went to park it the engine died and would not restart, so things are getting worse. I had CoachNet come out and winch me into my spot since it died 50 feet from where I was going to park it.

My plan is to live in Florida the next few years and this summer I will buy myself a park model and sell this thing as scrap. I actually have a real car now. 8)
 
You can look into volunteer workamping to help cut costs, you trade work for rental perks which usually means you don't pay for park lot rent and utilities. Some of the workamping does pay cold hard cash, but it's usually not much, so its' nothing to build a career around, but in my case workamping part of the year bridges the gap in my budget to enable me to enjoy my rig year round.

Campgrounds are still miles behind in providing decent internet access and many simply provide nothing at all. I have fast internet sometimes in a few campgrounds but mostly I get by on slow erratic USB internet card. Frankly, if I could make an income with zero internet, I would be happy to toss the whole mess at the dump.

But I have tons of interests outside of the internet. If you really need or want super fast fulltime internet 24/7, then RVing may not be for you at this point and time.

There are many places I camp that are in the country or woods or far flung places that have no internet and sometimes no phone service at all either.

 
DearMissMermaid said:
Campgrounds are still miles behind in providing decent internet access and many simply provide nothing at all.
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Some campgrounds, not all of them. I am currently on the parks Wifi and I get about 15 gig up and 5 gigs down. If you want to use the park Wifi you need to find out in the office where the antenna is and get a site as close as possible to it.
 
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