So new, its scary!!

[Ron]

Sorry to hear the buyer for your house backed out.  I'm sure another will come along.  Besides look at the good points.  Now you have more time to brouse through the RV's and compare.  I'm sure you will fine the one that is just right for you.

 

[Smoky]

Merry:

While you guys are sleeping on  it, take a lot of test drives.  We started out in a 30 foot trailer, and did not take us long to decide we wanted a motorhome when we went fulltime, which we did in June.  The best advice we ever got, came here from the forum.  Which was to TEST DRIVE every motorhome we considered buying.  And when not test driving, taking several days to explore every nook and cranny in it.  If you are a serious buyer, and have a decent dealer, they will let you do all these things.

It took us almost a year to sell our home and land properties.  It is not fun going through all that, but well worth the effort.  Good luck to you!

 

[Jim Dick]

Smoky,

You are right that if the dealer is a good one they will let you look over the coach from stem to stern. We spent two years looking at the first Bounder we purchased. It took that long to sell the boat. The dealer would see us coming and throw us the keys if it wasn't open. We'd sit in it for an hour or more pretending we were living in it. They were so good I now work part time for them. ;D ;D

 

[Merry]

Yes, we did spend nearly four hours looking this one over and took it out on the highway where Richard drove it, turned, slowed down, sped up, changed lanes and merged into traffic (at a particularly hard on-ramp due to short length). 

We will spend more time looking at other brands,, too. 

The home buyers DID back out - we were hoping they simply got jitters and reconsidered, but the realtor called this afternoon, very disappointed.

The good news is, we are actually in NO HURRY to sell.  We have plenty of time and were simply taking advantage of the current seller's market to see if we could.  We are having good traffic here (large building boom going on with no signs of stopping).  The house gets viewed sometimes twice a DAY!  Keeping it shipshape is giving us good practice for living in a smaller space, that's for sure! 


Quick questions - what kind of hand tools should an RVer keep handy? 

Thanks!

 

[Merry]

That's a good start on the list, though. 

The DDs (dear daughters) were asking for ideas for Christmas presents for Dad.  He has a garage full of tools, but I figured he needs to start collecting his RV ones now.  Naturally, we have a lot of what's on that list, but some we don't have, so they've got some good present ideas. 

We're still very enthusiastic and I'll be popping in here to ask questions - probably more so after Christmas when we'll get a breather from preparations for the holidays. 

I've read very little on holidays in RVs - do you all celebrate?  Go visit relatives?  Decorate?  Do the traditional baking and cooking?  Are these questions answered elsewhere on the website?

I went to the homemaking website but its empty so far...

 

[Tom]

Are these questions answered elsewhere on the website?

Merry, if you care to browse our various message boards you'll find all kinds of topics covered. Looking for something specific? Try the Search function above.

I went to the homemaking website but its empty so far...

If you mean our Homemaking message board, it's certainly not empty. Click here to see the topics covered so far.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

The answer to your RVing holidays question is "YES!" to all.  You don't need a lot of stuff to decorate an RV and we carry things for all major holidays, even Halloween. It really doesn't take much space if you are a bit creative. As for visiting, that's one of the grand things about the lifestyle - you can visit most any place, anytime and folks don't mind you dropping in cause you bring your own bed and bathroom with you.

 

[Ron]

Merry,

As Gary said YES to all.  We spent Thanksgiving with several of the RV Forum FRAMILY in Yuma. The last couple Years we have celebrated New Years with the FRAMILY at Alamo Lake.  This year several Framily members will be celebrating New Years at Laughlin, NV.  We celebrated 2000 New Years with many of the RV Forum Framily on the desert south of Quartzsite.  We are now on our way to Texas to spend the holidays with our children.  Last year we celebrated Christmas in Yuma.  When you got wheels you can go where you want to go to celebrate. ;D

 

[PennyPA]

Merry, Hi, I'm a newcomer, too.  I do want to add some of my comments re: MH or TT?  As has been pointed out quite well, your present vehicles are not tow vehicles...especially for something you will be living in full time.  Secondly, while I can understand your changed desire for a MH now, something you might want to consider is that you will be paying insurance on that MH (and it's more expensive than TT or fiver insurance) for all those months you'll be just "sitting".  Also, license tags are more expensive.  PLUS, if you DO go the MH way, you'll be paying for insurance on TWO motorized vehicles instead of one motorized, 1 towed.  These are just two thoughts to add to the pot.

 

[Howard R]

Hi Merry,

Welcome to the forum!

Ref using your Toyota's for a toad, as Gary mentioned check with REMCO, I think you will find you need a driveshaft disconnect for the 4 Runner.  We have a 97 4 Runner and have not set it up to tow yet but that would be our first choice.  Another thing to check is the weight of the 4 Runner vs the allowable tow weight for the MH you choose ... ours weighs about 4200 pounds as I recall, make sure your choice of MH has the equipment (hitch, CGVW) to tow your choice.  And you will need something like a Brake Buddy for the toad (aux brakes) ... there are several options available.

None of the above is meant to discourage you at all, just part of the equation. 

Howard

 

[BernieD]

For Howard and Merry

Don't be afraid of a drive shaft disconnect. Based on Remco's recommendation we installed one on our XTerra in 2000 and it works great. Never had a problem with the functioning of the disconnect and it only takes a few seconds (literally) to connect or disconnect.

 

[Smoky]

In addition to what Bernie said, also do not be afraid of the "axle lock" solution at Remco if your model requires that instead of the disconnect solution.  We had the Remco axle lock installed on our ford Taurus station wagon to make it towable, and it has been totally reliable and successful.  We pulled the Taurus from Maryland to Montana then down to Arizona for the winter and never missed a beat.  Remco really knows what they are doing.  sure beats having to buy a toad from scratch, and also the wagon gave us tremendous additional storage space.