March 28, 2024

Essential information regarding Buying Your First Motorhome or RV

Are you dying to hit the road? Get away from all this mess, Wallstreet and Washington DC? Funny how Wallstreet and DC can affect “Main Street” USA! But here we are completely affected.

Some people dream all their lives of hitting the road when they retire. Some manage to do so before retirement age………not just some but many. We were not so fortunate. December of 2001, right after 9/11, we got laid off and because of our age, no one wanted to hire us. We sat for several years right there in the middle………too young to retire or collect SSA and too old to be hired. There are thousands in this same fix. The smartest thing we ever did was sell our large home and downsized; paying cash for our smaller home. We moved outside the big city to another county even and saved thousands on taxes.

Ok, to make a boring long story short, we decided we might as well make our retirement dream come true and do some research on “hitting the road” and/or fulltiming it! Not a crazy idea but not for everyone either.

We seem to be the type of people that don’t really shop for anything. We do shop the internet but when it comes time to actually going out and looking at what is listed in classified ads, Craig’s list, or wherever, I just know we are going to buy. Not a good idea. You should have some perameters set and stick to them. It never hurts to go home, think about it and then go back. A login can be made at online sites like sell my motorhome. The site will make contact with the person interested in selling the houses and act as a link.  

First, you must decide if you want to buy new with warrantees, guarantees, etc. or if buying used is the way to go. New the RVs are ready for the road. They may need a little tweaking here and there but they are usually safe and ready for taking it out and starting to enjoy your new found life. Buying used from a dealer saves you lots and lots of money and normally is checked over and is ready for the road as well. Check to see if there’s any warrantees when buying used. When buying from a private party, you are taking full responsibility on getting the rig ready for the road and this sometimes can cost a lot of money. When we bought ours, we set a limit on what we would pay and a limit on how much we want to put into it to make it road safe.

Then you have to decide on whether or not you want something to haul like a trailer or a 5th wheel. Remember you then need a truck depending on the size of the rig but will need something to pull the trailer or 5th wheel with. These are liked by many because when you do set up your rig at your favorite camping spot, you still have a vehicle to explore, tour or just plain go pick up groceries, etc. Something to think about. Trailers are usually less expensive for obvious reasons but then you have the expense of the truck.

Many motorhome users, whether it’s a class a or class c, that’s another whole article in inself, tow a vehicle. I just can’t go completely into everything that involves because there’s just so much you need to know to do that. Right down to what type of vehicle to even consider towing.

So you can buy new, buy used, buy class a motorhome, class c motorhome, tow a trailer or 5th wheel or tow a vehicle behind your motorhome. The choice is everyone’s personal choice but please do your homework before and know what you want before buying. What you read here is just barely touching the subject and completely only my own opinion.