Looking to buy that first RV

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

EnderQON

New member
Joined
Aug 21, 2006
Posts
2
Hello all, I'm Sam from Ohio. My parents are moving to California, and my wife's mom is moving to Texas, so we're planning to get our first (used) motorhome so we can take the 3 kids to visit grandma and grandpa in style. Probably looking for something in the 25-30k range, should be enough to get our feet wet and see how we like the lifestyle. Who knows? After the kids move out, maybe we'll go full-time!

Anyway, glad I found the forum - I'm going to head off to the library now and try to learn something. Let me know if you have any advice for a first-timer, both on the purchasing and the actual usage side of things.

Thanks!
 
Hi Sam and welcome. Let us know if we can answer any questions.
 
Welcome aboard, EnderQON,

What size and type of motorhome are you looking for? With three kids, you will need some room, I would think.  You could probably get more room for your money with a bunkhouse-style trailer.

Anyway, keep us posted as you do your research and shopping and we will try to help all we can.
 
Might I suggest that with a family that size I'd be looking at something a bit higher in price.  Something 36 to 37'  or larger with 2 couches in a Class A with at least I large LR/Kit slideout.  That would then have almost be  a 98 are newer and probably 35 to 50K,  They are a little more comfortable and more room.  Traveled with 3 grand Kids to BMX bike races from the midwest  to both coast and border to border as well as to the Fl Nationals.  So been there done that and saw the way others traveled and many went in smaller units snd saw the envey for space by them when they saw how we and other in larger units functioned.  Just advise but everyone has to do their own thing.  When attending the Grand Nationals in Tujlsa and a few of the other National races,  We felt the same as they, our 37' was small in comparison.  Good luck
 
Hi Sam,

Welcome to the RV Forum.  Please join in on any of the ongoing discussions or start, start new discussions, or ask any question that you have.  Thanks for joining us.
 
Well, I'd love to get a larger coach, but I'm not sure finances will allow at the moment. Basically, we want something we can travel in more comfortably than our 7-passenger minivan - we've taken a trip to Florida in it, and while we all enjoyed the trip, it was a bit cramped. I've been looking at 34' Class A's, mostly with no slides (due to cost). I'm not sure I could pull a trailer with the minivan, plus we want the kids to have a bit more space while we're on the road, as opposed to only being able to stretch out when we're stopped. The twins are already 14, so I don't want to wait much longer before buying something, as I doubt they'll want to go on family vacations for too much longer. There's a '96 Pace Arrow on ebay at the moment that I'm keeping my eye on - bid is currently about 21k, if it doesn't go too much higher in the next few days I may look at it more seriously.

Some of our concerns are the costs of upkeep, insurance, and storage, not to mention fuel. Don't want to push the budget too far on the monthly coach payments and not have enough left over to afford to actually go anywhere! What kind of upkeep costs should I budget for?

Also, what is everyone's opinion on where to get the best deal on a used RV? Dealer or private party? What sort of questions should I be asking?
 
HMMMMMMM Paced  Arrow    Making me think I ought to sell my 37'  Been wanting a 40 to 45'er.  Just thinking.  But it would take more than that to buy this 98 with 30K on it. n HMMMMMMMMMMM  Food for thought tho.
 
Sam:

Our 3rd m/h was an 83 34' Pace Arrow and after our 21' ans 22' it was like the Taj with three kids. Pace had a great floor plan back then that had an accordion divider right behind the front hide-a-bed that provided privacy from the dinette that our son slept on. We gave the rear bedroom to our two teen age daughters to keep all their junk out of the living space.

The kids all seemed to spend a great deal of travel time in the rear br playing music or e-games.

We started with 11k miles and it was sold with 112,000 miles so it gave us great service.

Good luck with your search.
 

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
131,749
Posts
1,384,209
Members
137,520
Latest member
jeep3501
Back
Top Bottom