Upgrading TT, 5er or Motorhome

[gravedgr]

We are enjoying our current TT, but have already begun thinking about what is next for us. I've noticed several other threads where people are talking about buying or ordering 2018 models, and many of them mention having a 1-5 year old RV of some sort.

Is it common to trade or upgrade your RV every few years, especially as you work your way through "starter" units and discover what you do like / don't like?

Those of you who trade or sell a relatively new RV as part of, or prior to, your new purchase, are these mostly paid-in-cash or "paid off" units? Or do you apply what equity you have towards a new unit (or possibly roll any extra post-sale/trade debt over to a new purchase)?

How many of you trade vs. sell & buy?



Sorry for any dumb questions. I tend to flip cars pretty frequently (every 1-2 years for myself, every 4-6 for my wife) and have a decent handle on the financial costs, benefits, pros & cons. I have no idea about RVs, other than what I know from my folks - my dad is a cheapskate who only buys used, haggles over the last penny, and will hang on to something until he gets what he thinks he wants for it even if it means years (ignoring the opportunity cost of not having what he wants/needs during that time).

We bought our 23BHM knowing we wouldn't keep it very long - it was a (relatively) inexpensive way to get our feet wet. We'd love a Class A so we could take my folks and my wife's father places with us, but that's likely not going to happen until the kids are out of school (8-9 years). So we're thinking about what is in between the two and when we should/want to make a change.

[PlayersZ28]

Pretty hard to come up with a definitive answer to your question. All anyone can do is relate their progress thru camping/RV's and you can take it all with a grain of salt.

We tent camped for years and when the boys were nearing their teens we got a popup. Used that for a number of years and then got a 30' TT that sat on a seasonal lot. Sold that and bought our current fiver (used, 1yr old) when the kids weren't coming with us camping. This summer after using it for 2 winters I thought of downsizing to a TT again so that we could get into smaller parks. When I looked at what space we wanted I figured a 30' TT wouldn't reduce our overall length at all (truck & trailer bumper to bumper). I really like the look of Airstreams but you either buy an old project and rebuild it or pay thru the nose for near new. Then I started thinking diesel pusher so we could pull a Jeep for offroading. At this point we will use the fiver again this winter but maybe a MH next year.

I've never bought an RV new or from a dealer. I've always paid cash as I don't finance toys. I don't finance vehicles either unless it makes sense (can't refuse 0% financing) as I don't want to owe on something that loses value faster than the loan goes down.

[gravedgr]

Originally Posted by PlayersZ28

Pretty hard to come up with a definitive answer to your question. All anyone can do is relate their progress thru camping/RV's and you can take it all with a grain of salt.

We tent camped for years and when the boys were nearing their teens we got a popup. Used that for a number of years and then got a 30' TT that sat on a seasonal lot. Sold that and bought our current fiver (used, 1yr old) when the kids weren't coming with us camping. This summer after using it for 2 winters I thought of downsizing to a TT again so that we could get into smaller parks. When I looked at what space we wanted I figured a 30' TT wouldn't reduce our overall length at all (truck & trailer bumper to bumper). I really like the look of Airstreams but you either buy an old project and rebuild it or pay thru the nose for near new. Then I started thinking diesel pusher so we could pull a Jeep for offroading. At this point we will use the fiver again this winter but maybe a MH next year.

I've never bought an RV new or from a dealer. I've always paid cash as I don't finance toys. I don't finance vehicles either unless it makes sense (can't refuse 0% financing) as I don't want to owe on something that loses value faster than the loan goes down.

Yeah, I was just looking for first hand stories or anecdotal information.

Our plan for the MH will be like your (pull the wife's Rubi for off road fun and trips to town/sightseeing). I'd love to do it now while the grandparents are still travel-capable, but don't have the cash for that big a purchase and don't want to finance at RV rates. We did finance our current TT because we were feeling out the whole RV owner ecosystem, but we set aside $25k in cash to pay for it. I think we've made 3 payments at double or triple the std payment, and will probably make the call to pay it off or do something else with the cash come tax time next year.

I also bought 3 other new vehicles this year (17 Rubi for the wife, 17 F150 to tow the TT, and 17 GT350 for play), all financed on short term loans around 1.5-2% for whatever balance was left after trade (the Xterra and Taco were both paid off). So I've been talking with my financial guy about debt reduction vs. more investments in this market and haven't pulled the trigger. Speaking of financing, I generally always finance (autos) because even during the Obama years we were earning way above the 0-2% cost of financing, but I don't buy anything I can't pay off in 2-3 years or so. Cars are my only real love/vice aside from family, so the wife encourages me to do whatever I want.

[RedHorse1]

We are on our 2nd RV. First was the HTT, amazing little thing, good beds for 4 with another 3 spots I didn’t particularly like in a 24’ towed length. We slept 5 people a couple of times and it worked well, just a bit tight inside if everyone wanted to be moving around at once.
Our next venture was the 5th, a super roomy comfy way to travel. But, it’s meant for 2 people. The fold out sofa bed is pretty bad (reports from the son and DIL) so we use an “inflate-a-bed” which fits in the fold-out space and the g’son sleeps on an air mattress in the kitchen area, he’s 10 so he doesn’t mind. Mornings and evenings are a bit of a problem as both beds have to be either brought out or rolled up and the kitchen, living areas are not usable with the beds deployed.
Most of the time it’s just the two of us so we just deal with the hassle of extra guests.

My take is unless you get something with multi dedicated sleeping areas or a bunk house the unit will be better suited to travelling couples. I feel this is pretty much true for TT’s, 5ers or MH’s. If you travel with your parents you might wind up giving the BR to them.

[Jagiven]

I have been around camping my whole life, car tenting, mountaineering, HTT, TT, rented MHs. I have never slept in a 5ver. We have started looking for our next camper. Last kid will be out the door in 4 years. Our goal is to keep this HTT, until then. Then what? I don't know.

What I liked about the rented MH’s was the ability while on the road for people to get up move around, grab a snack or use the bathroom while in route. What I did not like was the noise, of the dishes rattling. We also never had a toad, so if we wanted to go anywhere we had to fully pack up. We did not like that.

We have looked at a number of 5vers. I like some, hate the layout of others. I like the idea of having one vehicle that does everything. One engine to maintain. One thing I am not sure I like about 5vers, is all the stairs. Long hike into the rig, and again more steps to get up front to the normal bathroom and bedroom location. One of the things I like on some is the rear living room with double slides and all the windows to look outside, for when you’re stuck indoors. One of the things I we have discussed is buying a goose-neck horse trailer camper and gutting out the horse stalls to haul our Model T.

Personally, if you are thinking of a MH, I would rent one first for a week.

Good Luck,

[Rustysocket]

I don't think there is a "perfect" solution ... each rig comes with some positives and some trade-offs. I've had a Pickup Camper, two pop-ups, several trailers, a toy hauler, a motor-home and now a 5th wheel. As our lives and interests changed each rig served a purpose.

I have also paid cash, financed through my credit union, sold privately and traded in rigs. As stated, you have to look at each transaction individually and factor in opportunity costs, cost of time and tax implications to see what is the best thing to do at the time. The most valuable and limited resource I have is my free time.

For now our current 5th wheel suits our life style and gives lots of room for our kid and friends. Who knows what we will want in five years or so... I'm positive this is not our last rig and that is part of the fun.

Of all the rigs we have owned, I despised the pop ups because of the set up and having to set them up at home and maintain the tenting. I'm not sure why we even bothered with the second one, but we did. In our rainy climate it was always something to contend with, but they were easy to tow and didn't take much room to store.

The next worse choice was the motor-home. It required the most planning and because we did not have a toad it really limited what we could do once we were at the campsite. It was a pain to go grab something forgotten from the store or to really do any sight - seeing once at destination. I could see doing a motorhome again in the future, but a suitable toad would be a requirement and not an afterthought.

[crumgater]

We had a truck slide-in camper first... started with an inherited '67 unit (with the '67 F250 to go with it), then an '03 (and upgraded truck to a '95). In 2010 we sold the camper on craigslist for cash and bought a new 5'er. We had that paid off well before we traded it in on a used Seneca earlier this year.

I tend to look at $/night... Using purchase price minus trade-value and nights spent in the unit:

New Truck Camper: $91/night (7 years)
New 5'er: $95/night (7 years)
Used Seneca: over $4k/night (for the first year... this will go down over time)
If I consider current NADA value on the Seneca - and we were to sell it today - the $/night would drop to something like $250/night

I would say, as we go up in luxury, we make it a point to spend more time out enjoying the unit, too... which helps the $/night calculation go down.


We loved flexibility of the Truck Camper, but wanted more space.
We loved the space in the 5'er, but wanted something easier to park.

We love the ease of setup/tear-down with the motorhome and it drives great down the road. We didn't give up much space, but did have to whittle down our cargo a bit to fit in smaller storage spaces. We also still need to get a toad setup, but haven't really missed having transport at our destinations (so far, we've always have a friend or an uber available).

Note - all three options we've chosen have gotten the same gas mileage: 10mpg
The truck camper was a '95 gas F250
The 5'er with a '10 diesel F350
And now the '15 Seneca diesel Freightliner

[koko]

We did the "trade after a year or so" thing on our last four trailers over a period of 7 years. We just couldn't figure out what we really wanted. We lost $3,000 even on a "Little Guy 5-Wide" that we owned for a year and a half. We then owned an "Aliner Sport" for another year and a half and lost $5,000. We went from the Aliner to an "Rpod" that we owned only for a year and which we would have lost $6,000 on - we sold it to one of our sons so that he'd get the deal instead of the dealer. Insult to injury, with the Rpod we had to trade in our Jeep Liberty (only a year old) for our Dodge Durango, because it overheated when we towed the Pod. That cost us an $8,000 loss on trade-in. After that, we bought a "Keystone Premier 19" which we owned for 2 1/2 years. The only reason we got rid of that trailer was because we decided to buy a motorhome. Trade-in on the Premier would have been a loss of another $6,000, so we sold that one to another son at trade-in price. We went through all these transitions because we just didn't know what to do after we sold our Shasta trailer we'd owned for 22 years after our children all grew up! Don't know if we could have done it any other way; but our advice to you is think long and hard about what you "really" want before you purchase, or it can be very costly. We purchased all of these campers new. We probably could have sold the Little Guy and Aliner ourselves and not lost as much, but it just seemed such a hassle. Our boys are very happy with their steal-of-a- deal purchases.

[Rustysocket]

As they say.. A good education is expensive.