rvlifer
Senior Member
We have been fulltiming for a few years but medical problems and age caught up with us so we bought a house in Colorado and I am almost finished renovating it. We should be moving out of the RV and into the house before winter sets in. We currently own a Luxe 5th wheel. Not one of the best known brands so if you don't know what a Luxe is here is a link. True Four-Season Luxury Fifth Wheel | Fifth Wheel Toy Hauler
The Luxe is 44ft long, 13ft tall, and has a gvwr of 21k lbs. We set it up to spend most of our time boondocking. It has ~2000 watts of solar, 800ah lithium batteries, composting toilet, soft starts on both AC units, and tons of upgrades.
Once we get the house settled, we will be selling the Luxe. My wife wants to be able to travel back to the East coast as much as possible to visit friends and family so I'm considering buying another RV to help us do that. We have 2 cats and want to travel with them and we want to do shorter trips in it probably up to a week at a time. I know that it would probably be cheaper to jump in the car and stay in hotels but the cats and some other issues make an RV more attractive.
It is going to take me a long time before I pull the trigger on a new RV. It's probably gonna take a very long time to sell the Luxe. We could easily spend a year or two of seeing the sites locally. We have to get some medical stuff taken care of before we could head out in an RV again. I have to make sure this makes financial sense to a certain degree. We can get a lot of hotel rooms for the price of an rv. The planets have to align and I have a lot of work to do before I decide if this is really the way to go. This thread is to help me get started figuring out what kind of rv might be the best fit and also to get ideas to add to my pre-inspection checklist. I need a lot of time to make sure my wife understands what we would be getting into lol. She is gonna have a hard time downsizing from the Luxe to a smaller RV.
My parents owned many RVs and most of our family vacations were in RVs. We have owned several RVs but all have been towables so if I'm going to look at small class As or class Cs I'll need to get up to speed on the differences between motorhomes and towable and learn what to look for on them in an inspection. I will be finding an NRVIA inspector to go over any rv before we buy it but I want to vet them first with my own inspection.
Our requirements aren't many:
- as small as possible but that has a place to eat and a sofa. some of the smaller class Cs I've looked at don't have the sofa but I would consider a dinette only if I could swap the dinette with a sofa and add a removable table in front of it
- a bedroom with a walk around bed as part of the floorpan. We don't want to swap a dinette or sleep in a class C loft
- I'm willing to do some remodeling and repairs but don't want a complete renovation
We aren't gonna try to boondock in it except to park overnight here and there while trying to get to where we are going. I'm leaning toward a class C so we can park it most places and don't have to worry a tow vehicle. I will consider a small towable if it works out that way since I already have a tow vehicle, but I like the idea of not having to deal with hooking up a tow vehicle and it looks like some of the class Cs might let me tow a small trailer behind. I have a 12ft motorcycle trailer that might come in handy if we want to take larger items back east to friends or family or vice versa. GVWR on the trailer is 1200 lbs so I will need to factor that into the towing specs of a motorhome. Might not work lol.
If I do a class C I'm leaning toward a Ford chassis. I got a lot of friends who can help me with almost anything Ford and it seems the Ford V10 is a great option. I'm used to getting 8-9mpg towing the Luxe so the Ford V10 mpg won't be anything new. I don't plan to use a toad with this RV.
I've had some conversations with DonTom about his and he's taught me a lot so far. I've gone through a lot of the threads here to look for info but there's a lot and I have a lot more work to do.
One reason I am starting this now is cause I want as much time as possible to get lucky and find an old RV in great condition. If I can find something less than $20k that would be ideal. I know I will need to get an old one and I will need to budget for a lot of work to get it into good running condition and livable. I would have the chassis end fully serviced, replace the tires, brakes, shocks, etc and know I'll spend a good bit after I buy it. I'm hoping I can find one at that price range that runs and where the RV side is in serviceable condition.
I'm attaching my pre inspection checklist for a towable. It still needs a lot of work and I will edit it once I decide what type of RV to go with. What is different between a towable and a motorhome that I need to think about and add to the list? What type or specific RV would you recommend to do what I want to do?
I can't seem to upload word docs so screen shots instead. If I can get the word doc attached I will update this post to make the pdi easier to read.
The Luxe is 44ft long, 13ft tall, and has a gvwr of 21k lbs. We set it up to spend most of our time boondocking. It has ~2000 watts of solar, 800ah lithium batteries, composting toilet, soft starts on both AC units, and tons of upgrades.
Once we get the house settled, we will be selling the Luxe. My wife wants to be able to travel back to the East coast as much as possible to visit friends and family so I'm considering buying another RV to help us do that. We have 2 cats and want to travel with them and we want to do shorter trips in it probably up to a week at a time. I know that it would probably be cheaper to jump in the car and stay in hotels but the cats and some other issues make an RV more attractive.
It is going to take me a long time before I pull the trigger on a new RV. It's probably gonna take a very long time to sell the Luxe. We could easily spend a year or two of seeing the sites locally. We have to get some medical stuff taken care of before we could head out in an RV again. I have to make sure this makes financial sense to a certain degree. We can get a lot of hotel rooms for the price of an rv. The planets have to align and I have a lot of work to do before I decide if this is really the way to go. This thread is to help me get started figuring out what kind of rv might be the best fit and also to get ideas to add to my pre-inspection checklist. I need a lot of time to make sure my wife understands what we would be getting into lol. She is gonna have a hard time downsizing from the Luxe to a smaller RV.
My parents owned many RVs and most of our family vacations were in RVs. We have owned several RVs but all have been towables so if I'm going to look at small class As or class Cs I'll need to get up to speed on the differences between motorhomes and towable and learn what to look for on them in an inspection. I will be finding an NRVIA inspector to go over any rv before we buy it but I want to vet them first with my own inspection.
Our requirements aren't many:
- as small as possible but that has a place to eat and a sofa. some of the smaller class Cs I've looked at don't have the sofa but I would consider a dinette only if I could swap the dinette with a sofa and add a removable table in front of it
- a bedroom with a walk around bed as part of the floorpan. We don't want to swap a dinette or sleep in a class C loft
- I'm willing to do some remodeling and repairs but don't want a complete renovation
We aren't gonna try to boondock in it except to park overnight here and there while trying to get to where we are going. I'm leaning toward a class C so we can park it most places and don't have to worry a tow vehicle. I will consider a small towable if it works out that way since I already have a tow vehicle, but I like the idea of not having to deal with hooking up a tow vehicle and it looks like some of the class Cs might let me tow a small trailer behind. I have a 12ft motorcycle trailer that might come in handy if we want to take larger items back east to friends or family or vice versa. GVWR on the trailer is 1200 lbs so I will need to factor that into the towing specs of a motorhome. Might not work lol.
If I do a class C I'm leaning toward a Ford chassis. I got a lot of friends who can help me with almost anything Ford and it seems the Ford V10 is a great option. I'm used to getting 8-9mpg towing the Luxe so the Ford V10 mpg won't be anything new. I don't plan to use a toad with this RV.
I've had some conversations with DonTom about his and he's taught me a lot so far. I've gone through a lot of the threads here to look for info but there's a lot and I have a lot more work to do.
One reason I am starting this now is cause I want as much time as possible to get lucky and find an old RV in great condition. If I can find something less than $20k that would be ideal. I know I will need to get an old one and I will need to budget for a lot of work to get it into good running condition and livable. I would have the chassis end fully serviced, replace the tires, brakes, shocks, etc and know I'll spend a good bit after I buy it. I'm hoping I can find one at that price range that runs and where the RV side is in serviceable condition.
I'm attaching my pre inspection checklist for a towable. It still needs a lot of work and I will edit it once I decide what type of RV to go with. What is different between a towable and a motorhome that I need to think about and add to the list? What type or specific RV would you recommend to do what I want to do?
I can't seem to upload word docs so screen shots instead. If I can get the word doc attached I will update this post to make the pdi easier to read.
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