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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Also, please be aware that people are giving examples of how much they spent on their first RVs, but most of these happened a long time ago, and you cannot repeat those numbers today. Your budget, even twice your budget, is going to get you a money-pit motorhome. If you already own a pickup truck, you can get a lot more RV for your money by buying a trailer.
 
I would make sure your insurance company would insure a salvaged vehicle. I agree with Judy there is probably more to the story.
 
Back to the trailer suggestion. OP has to be driving something, though they have not said what. Find a teardrop trailer and start your camping experience. Stay in campgrounds with showers and restrooms and enjoy getting out and about.

Charles
 
Back to the trailer suggestion. OP has to be driving something, though they have not said what. Find a teardrop trailer and start your camping experience. Stay in campgrounds with showers and restrooms and enjoy getting out and about.

Charles

I have said that my current vehicle is not a truck and I do not wish to purchase one and I also explained why...
 
Teardrops can e pulled with small SUV's, even Teslas.

Slim Potatohead has spent several years pulling first an A-liner and more recently a small fiberglass egg, with a Jeep Liberty, all over Canada and the US.

Small Casitas and Scamps are pulled all the time by smallish cars and SUVs. A truck is not necessary to pull a camper.

Charles
 
I have said that my current vehicle is not a truck and I do not wish to purchase one and I also explained why...

Don't get frustrated with all the responses here. I think folks are trying to be generally helpful, especially not wanting you to buy something that could be a nightmare. It's often helpful to go back to an original post for calibration.

What I am looking for is a 20-24ft RV and my budget is <$10K. I'm leaning towards the Ford Econoline series/model/whatever. I realize my small budget puts me in the 80s/90s models, so I have engine/drivetrain condition as the most important component. I also surmise that roof leaks are the bane of the RV world, but how bad is bad?

With all the posts so far and your desire to stay with a class C, I still think a 24 footer is doable. Avoid anything to do with water damage at all unless you really know what you are doing. If there is moisture in the walls, even if fixed, it's like cancer and will continue to spread and wet the walls.

Here is an rvtrader.com search for coaches <$15k which may give you some things to look at.

 
Is a salvage title something to steer clear of?
Maybe. There may be some headaches involved, e.g. an insurer may be reluctant to provide collision or comprehensive insurance, and some states may require an extra safety inspection to verify its road-worthiness. On the other hand, a lot of RVs get "totaled" simply because the cost of even common repairs can be extremely high. And the resale and trade-in value is definitely affected - some buyers will be scared off. whether any or all of those is a problem for you is hard to forecast.
 
Don't get frustrated with all the responses here. I think folks are trying to be generally helpful, especially not wanting you to buy something that could be a nightmare. It's often helpful to go back to an original post for calibration.
Not frustrated, just pointing out that I had stated what my current mode of transportation was; I don't like it when someone says I did/didn't do something when the opposite is true.
 
I would make sure your insurance company would insure a salvaged vehicle. I agree with Judy there is probably more to the story.
Excellent point!! You don't want to put money into something which could be stolen or burn down and never get reimbursed. Ditto for being broken into and your stuff taken.
 
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We are really not trying to scare you (and most of us are not being sarcastic), but we have seen a lot of people on this forum who have bought a really cheap motorhome and then realized too late how much it will cost to make it livable.

At least most of us are trying to save you a ton of time and money in the long run. If you don't believe it, you might want to get second opinions from people on other forums or in your local campground on what their experiences have been with older motorhomes before you commit a bunch of money.
 
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Not frustrated, just pointing out that I had stated what my current mode of transportation was; I don't like it when someone says I did/didn't do something when the opposite is true.
I'm sorry if I missed something, but there are 88 posts in this thread (this is #91) which is unusual, a very long thread, but sometimes thinking outside the box is good.

Charles
 
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Put all of the posts together and you will have a nice concise manual of the very trying job of shopping for an RV of any type, used or new. Some points are relevant, and some you just disregard. But, all of the points come from experienced and knowledgeable RV'ers who I would call RV Professionals in their own right.

It's not like buying a car or truck where there will be hundreds of choices within a small radius of your location. If it was that easy, I would be looking to change out my current rig because of the expense it has put me through this past year. But, I don't feel like looking all over tarn-nation so I keep what I have with fingers crossed as we plan next year's trips
 
Was just now watching another 'RV/nomad life' themed video and realized that I have not seen much talk about clothes storage. Since space is limited in a smaller rig, what do you guys do for clothes storage and how much clothing do you keep on hand?

I also have a 2nd possible RV to look at while I'm visiting my brother in GA next week. Meanwhile, one RV (the closest one to me so far) sold a week after I contacted seller and got radio silence, and I've gotten radio silence from another RV seller I sent a message to over a week ago...guess this is just how it goes, eh?
 
Are you solo? I can take a 2 week airplane trip with just a carry on bag, a carry on bag wouldn't hold just the shoes DW thinks she needs to take. The driving criteria (practically speaking) is how long you can go before you hit a wash machine. I don't need "matching sets" of clothes and have no issue wearing something more than once as long as I'm seen before smelled, so part of it is personal preference. Clothes need to go through the dip tank eventually so it's something to be accommodated, like dumping tanks or a grocery run. I haven't taken a ton of long RV trips but for us it amounts to just deciding at some point during the trip we're going to stay in an RV park with facilities (which also affords tank dump/fill, internet, long hot showers, etc) or a stop somewhere in a town to a laundromat and accompanying long lunch, shopping or whatever. I've known folks with washer/dryers onboard but they can wipe out your tanks so that could be a stop in itself, so don't see on board washer/dryer to be an automatic solution. Last year I camped next to someone that had a 'manual' washer, amounted to a tub with a plunger then had to hang the clothes up. The time, effort and water fetching seemed like a chore to me, my house is on wheels so once every week or so to take care of that detail is just one among all the others that need attending to in an RV.

Mark B.
Albuquerque, NM
 
Was just now watching another 'RV/nomad life' themed video and realized that I have not seen much talk about clothes storage. Since space is limited in a smaller rig, what do you guys do for clothes storage and how much clothing do you keep on hand?

I also have a 2nd possible RV to look at while I'm visiting my brother in GA next week. Meanwhile, one RV (the closest one to me so far) sold a week after I contacted seller and got radio silence, and I've gotten radio silence from another RV seller I sent a message to over a week ago...guess this is just how it goes, eh?

We mostly have summer clothes that we keep easily accessible. Mostly shorts and a few long dress pants and khakis along with mostly short sleeve shirts and a few long sleeve dress shirts and flannel shirts. Because we migrate north and south with the seasons, that’s all we really need 98% of the time.

We have jackets and sweaters stowed under the bed for when Mother Nature acts up. I have one suit and a few ties for weddings and funerals (and Laura some dresses). We also have boots and winter coats stored with a relative in Ohio for our Christmas trip back there.

I was surprised to find out how much a pain shoes would be for us. Hard to keep them stored where easily accessible but not in the way.

You, like everyone else in the market, are looking or the low-priced gem. If you call and commit to going to look at in a week, the seller is going to keep it advertised and will show it to anyone who comes along… and will sell it to the first to make an acceptable offer. I’m not saying jump on something with haste, but going to see it in haste will serve you well.
 
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Was just now watching another 'RV/nomad life' themed video and realized that I have not seen much talk about clothes storage. Since space is limited in a smaller rig, what do you guys do for clothes storage and how much clothing do you keep on hand?

I also have a 2nd possible RV to look at while I'm visiting my brother in GA next week. Meanwhile, one RV (the closest one to me so far) sold a week after I contacted seller and got radio silence, and I've gotten radio silence from another RV seller I sent a message to over a week ago...guess this is just how it goes, eh?
Storage of all kinds is limited in any RV, not just small ones. It just gets worse as the rig gets smaller. As for clothing, it's not a lifestyle for a clothes-horse. Make do with a small selection and its likely fine - near-all RVers are very informal. Depending on their background, women may have more difficulty with that than men. If you are a long term traveler, carry one outfit suitable for more dressy affairs, with one pair of dress shoes. We always said that if we got invited to a wedding or funeral while on the road, we would just go shopping first (and we did just that for my brother's unexpected funeral).

With our bigger class A rigs, we packed cool-weather clothes in Rubbermaid tub and packed them tight. If you carry a vacuum cleaner, maybe use vacuum storage bags.
 
As you've no doubt gathered from the above posts, clothing you take along depends on what you think you need for the trip, AND on how much storage space you have on your specific rig -- it's a tradeoff with everything else, too. But, as Gary says, RVers tend to be rather casual, rarely dressing up. Even in our 38' DP, we didn't carry suits or her equivalent, just jeans and nice slacks, with shirts to match, plus enough underclothes to make it between washing sessions, which were every few days with the on-board washer and dryer (stacked) that we had.

In the Trailmanor TT, which was our first RV, we took a lot less, and took mostly shorter trips, but were dependent on campground washing machines on longer trips. But we also had relatively little on-board storage, too, though we had some room in the pickup we towed with.

So it all boils down to a careful balance of your personal needs and the storage space available, along with what other things might be needed for the trip.

No two folks/couples will come up with the same answers, though (even with identical rigs), so you need to carefully evaluate your needs.
 
Storage of all kinds is limited in any RV, not just small ones. It just gets worse as the rig gets smaller. As for clothing, it's not a lifestyle for a clothes-horse. Make do with a small selection and its likely fine - near-all RVers are very informal. Depending on their background, women may have more difficulty with that than men. If you are a long term traveler, carry one outfit suitable for more dressy affairs, with one pair of dress shoes. We always said that if we got invited to a wedding or funeral while on the road, we would just go shopping first (and we did just that for my brother's unexpected funeral).

With our bigger class A rigs, we packed cool-weather clothes in Rubbermaid tub and packed them tight. If you carry a vacuum cleaner, maybe use vacuum storage bags.
As you've no doubt gathered from the above posts, clothing you take along depends on what you think you need for the trip, AND on how much storage space you have on your specific rig -- it's a tradeoff with everything else, too. But, as Gary says, RVers tend to be rather casual, rarely dressing up. Even in our 38' DP, we didn't carry suits or her equivalent, just jeans and nice slacks, with shirts to match, plus enough underclothes to make it between washing sessions, which were every few days with the on-board washer and dryer (stacked) that we had.

In the Trailmanor TT, which was our first RV, we took a lot less, and took mostly shorter trips, but were dependent on campground washing machines on longer trips. But we also had relatively little on-board storage, too, though we had some room in the pickup we towed with.

So it all boils down to a careful balance of your personal needs and the storage space available, along with what other things might be needed for the trip.

No two folks/couples will come up with the same answers, though (even with identical rigs), so you need to carefully evaluate your needs.
If the temps are moderate, I could live in shorts, T-shirt or tank top, ballcap, and hiking boots all year. Ask me how my wife feels about that. :sneaky:

Her: "Aren't you going to a doctor's appointment?"

Me; "Yes, leaving in 10 minutes."

Her: "Are you going to wear shorts?"

Me: "Yes, it like 98 degrees outside." Her: <eye roll>.

Me: "Hey, at least I traded my tank top for a T-shirt."

Hey, I have nice legs... :cool:
 
Was just now watching another 'RV/nomad life' themed video and realized that I have not seen much talk about clothes storage. Since space is limited in a smaller rig, what do you guys do for clothes storage and how much clothing do you keep on hand?

I also have a 2nd possible RV to look at while I'm visiting my brother in GA next week. Meanwhile, one RV (the closest one to me so far) sold a week after I contacted seller and got radio silence, and I've gotten radio silence from another RV seller I sent a message to over a week ago...guess this is just how it goes, eh?

We had a short wall (back of dinette) near the entrance door and I used a couple of these for a our day to day shoes. Boots are stored in outside lockers.

You definitely need to do laundry every week and pick your wardrobe carefully. With a full berth there was really no issue for just wife and I. She also can pack a week in a carry on.

This is another good reason to driveway camp after you get the rig. If you don't wear it in about a week you might not need to bring it.

It seems pretty usual to get ghosted these days once an item is sold.

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Most RVs today have either a large under-bed storage area or like in many TTs a large outside locker, a good amount of clothing can be packed in plastic storage containers. Another spot is with booth dinettes there is usually pretty ample storage under the seat cushions. The miracle of jeans has simplified dressing needs.

Watch YouTuber "Traveling Robert" as he and his wife spend six weeks in Alaska Summer of 2023 with his total trip over two months long traveling in a 17' Winnebago TT. Jeans and a clean T-shirt for each video.

Fortunately for my wife and I, we have a lot of storage in our motorhome. Sometimes, having too much room can lead to using every square inch of space available. I don't pack for trips, long or short. What stays in the rig is what I wear except maybe throwing in a few extra pair of underwear and maybe one or two nicer shirts. My wife is a bit more choosey and she'll rotate her clothes more often between the rig and home. For both of us, the biggest PIA is shoes. I never settle on one or two pairs of anything to wear and my wife needs several types of sandals so they match her outfit of the day.
 

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