Overseas visitor wants to buy small, older RV

[Ex-Calif]

The easiest way would be to go to the envelope icon to the upper right corner and click on it to send a private message. I attempted to send you a private message but you have them blocked.

Newbies can't do PM/DMs until a certain number of posts. Somewhere between 5 and 10.

 

[Kirk]

Newbies can't do PM/DMs until a certain number of posts.

I forgot about that. Apparently they can't receive them either. Any suggestions for us?

 

[Tom]

I forgot about that. Apparently they can't receive them either. Any suggestions for us?

He's over the threshold.

 

[Aussies]

The easiest way would be to go to the envelope icon to the upper right corner and click on it to send a private message. I attempted to send you a private message but you have them blocked.

Thanks, I had a look at my settings and as far as I could see I am set to

The easiest way would be to go to the envelope icon to the upper right corner and click on it to send a private message. I attempted to send you a private message but you have them blocked.

Thank you. I couldn't find anything in Settings to indicate I'm blocking PMs.

 

[Aussies]

I forgot about that. Apparently they can't receive them either. Any suggestions for us?

Ahh. Well that explains it

 

[JudyJB]

Can I ask what your reasons are for choosing a shorter vehicle? There will likely not be a big difference in gas mileage, and a longer one is likely to have a permanent bed. That was one of my big requirements when I bought my motorhome because I wanted the option to stop along the freeway somewhere and take a nap if I needed to. Mine is a bit bigger than you probably need, but I think you will find the space in a Class C that is about 24' and longer to be better than a 19" motorhome. Also, there will be a lot more choice in something a bit bigger.

Also, I would thoroughly check out that company that wants to handle the details for $1,000 per year. Make sure it is licensed and has a real address, etc. Might also want to contact the Better Business Bureau and post the name of the company on more than one forum to see if anyone has used it.

 

[Aussies]

Can I ask what your reasons are for choosing a shorter vehicle? There will likely not be a big difference in gas mileage, and a longer one is likely to have a permanent bed. That was one of my big requirements when I bought my motorhome because I wanted the option to stop along the freeway somewhere and take a nap if I needed to. Mine is a bit bigger than you probably need, but I think you will find the space in a Class C that is about 24' and longer to be better than a 19" motorhome. Also, there will be a lot more choice in something a bit bigger.

Also, I would thoroughly check out that company that wants to handle the details for $1,000 per year. Make sure it is licensed and has a real address, etc. Might also want to contact the Better Business Bureau and post the name of the company on more than one forum to see if anyone has used it.

I think a little longer than 19" is fine with us, like 24", and a permanent bed sounds great, but the reason for wanting smaller is simply that we intend to use the RV predominately in National Parks. We are currently busy researching the hundreds of remote scenic drives across the continent, and it seems to us that many are going to be quite tricky with a really big RV.

However, a significant factor is also easy and fast resale. We want to buy something that we can easily sell two or three years later, so popularity for US buyers matters as we don't want to hang around too long trying to offload it before heading home.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Not quite sure what the protocol is for sharing email addresses on this forum but if allowed I'm certainly happy to share one of mine to discuss further with them if they are willing.

Strictly caveat emptor. You can publicly display your email or not; your choice and you live with the results.

 

[JudyJB]

I think a little longer than 19" is fine with us, like 24", and a permanent bed sounds great, but the reason for wanting smaller is simply that we intend to use the RV predominately in National Parks. We are currently busy researching the hundreds of remote scenic drives across the continent, and it seems to us that many are going to be quite tricky with a really big RV.

However, a significant factor is also easy and fast resale. We want to buy something that we can easily sell two or three years later, so popularity for US buyers matters as we don't want to hang around too long trying to offload it before heading home.

I have a 32' motorhome and have had very very few problems with getting sites in national and state parks. In fact, I often see 40+ feet long rigs parked there. Tip--in Grand Canyon south rim, stay in trailer village inside the park. Near shuttle stops, full hookups, and lots of friendly elk wandering around!!

I have also stayed at Yellowstone, Zion, Yosemite, and a bunch of others with no problems.

As a test, go to recreation.gov and look up each park. Type in test dates and select Filters, and then enter RV motorhome and your length. It should give you a list of sites that your vehicle can fit into.

 

[Isaac-1]

To address the RV size limitation, we have a 28 ft class A (29'5" bumper to bumper actual length, with a 178 inch wheel base), for the first few years and 20,000ish miles of travel we vacationed around mostly the western and central US ranging from Florida to Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon without a towed car, before buying a small run about car to drag around a couple of years ago.

Based on our experience we never had trouble finding a place to stay, though sometimes that meant getting into sites that were too small for many other RV's. Of course there will always be sites that we would not fit into where only the smallest vehicles could fit, having said that length was often not the limiting factor for us for RV access to parking, etc. instead overhead clearance, tail dragging, and turning radius, which is somewhat separate from length were often the limiting factor. Having said that even at nearly 30 ft overall we almost always could find a way to access places, though it may mean parking a block or two away, and scouting routes out on google streetview, etc.

Keep in mind a standard full size parking space in the US is 22 ft long, this means if we can back into such a site and overhang the curb we can just about fit in a standard parking space, something we have taken advantage of at museums, visitor centers, and other attractions. Attached are a few photos of us fitting into such sites, as well as sub 30 ft RV sites at national / state parks, one of which has a 30 ft max length limit in the campground due to turn radius on the camping loop roads.

Ike

 

[Kirk]

the reason for wanting smaller is simply that we intend to use the RV predominately in National Parks.

We lived in a 35' class A motorhome for 12 years and in that time we spent many nights in national & state parks as well as a wide variety of other public campgrounds. I can only recall 2 national park campgrounds that we couldn't fit into and in both cases it was not the only campground inside of the park involved. You do need to have advance reservations for most national parks. A bigger factor for the length of the RV is if you plan to tow a vehicle to drive, or if it will be your only vehicle. If you only have the RV, then you may want to stay with a smaller RV because larger RVs mean parking further away for shopping and even many attractions.

However, a significant factor is also easy and fast resale.

Easy resale is an entirely different issue. No matter what size an RV is, the season and location it is put up for sale, the current market conditions, the state of the economy, and a host of other things play a far greater role than size of RV. The only advantage in selling a smaller RV of a bigger one is in that it will probably cost less.

 

[Aussies]

I have a 32' motorhome and have had very very few problems with getting sites in national and state parks. In fact, I often see 40+ feet long rigs parked there. Tip--in Grand Canyon south rim, stay in trailer village inside the park. Near shuttle stops, full hookups, and lots of friendly elk wandering around!!

I have also stayed at Yellowstone, Zion, Yosemite, and a bunch of others with no problems.

As a test, go to recreation.gov and look up each park. Type in test dates and select Filters, and then enter RV motorhome and your length. It should give you a list of sites that your vehicle can fit into.

As a test, go to recreation.gov and look up each park. Type in test dates and select Filters, and then enter RV motorhome and your length. It should give you a list of sites that your vehicle can fit into.

Great suggestion. Thank you