How long to keep camper

[Donedroolin]

So here is my question I pose to everyone. Especially you guys like me who are paying monthly for our rolling vacation homes. How long do you keep the trailer for ?, until you are ready to buy a new one. Now the term for a camper loan is longer then a car loan. So my thinking is, if I want to continue to own a camper, I should always keep a payment in my budget. I figure every five to six years before I would start having any major problems. I always up keep my camper all the seals etc. But whats the roof good for ten years. So I think I would trade in soon and get a new one and start all over. Before any problems develop. Now my wife feels otherwise we should keep it and payoff. But by that time what is the camper really worth, especially for trade in. Problem solved they need to start LEASING campers LOL. Even though I would never lease a car. Camper that's different. Wonder if they could figure a way to lease campers. Anyway just my thoughts.

[Jopopsy]

I always heard for a MH its like ~6-7 years. After that 2 sales people told me prospective buyers have to pretty much buy the rig outright b/c banks won't put a loan on a MH that is like 8 years old or something like that.

Is that true?

[Camper_bob]

I figure if there are going to be any major problems, they will show their ugly face in the first few years. After that it's my job to keep the unit properly maintained (well, before that too, I don't want to be the cause of problems). So, I figure if I keep my trailer properly maintained and in good repair, it should last as long as I want it to. Of course, some things will wear out, or get damaged. But I can fix those things as they happen.

We take care of our "toys", so I expect them to last a long time. That goes especially for the trailer. My neighbor has told me repeatedly that if we have a garage sale, he's coming shopping because he knows my stuff is taken care of.

The trailer we plan to keep for at least 10 years, and we plan to pay it off. When I sell it later on down the road, I will price it fairly for what it is at the time, and likely start again with a motor home (if DW gets her way. I'd rather have a fifth wheel). And we'll keep that one for a long time too.

So, no, I don't think I would lease an RV even if it were available.

[lightcs1776]

I keep it until it is not financially prudent to invest in any repairs. I also pay the loan off with 48 months, then set that money aside to reduce future loans.

Sent via mobile - Chris

[RogerR]

Several factors:

Until you can afford a new one ( or a good used one) Until that happens hard to suggest buying new that you can't afford. Hard to make payments and not have the money to travel in it.

If it no longer fits your family. (to many or to few beds and space.)

No longer worth the repairs.

New has bells and whistles that you want. In our case a walk around bed and simpler set up. (our old one was a Trailmanor hard side fold down with a lot of setup and hard to enter bed.)

Change of use. Now we don't have kids we go and see, stop and stay longer, wanted more homelike instead of a bed on wheels like a popup.

Your spouse wants it. LOL

sure there are many others!

[DocBrown]

Last 2 trailers we purchased new and we had them for 10 years each.
Both were worth about 50% of the original purchase price as private sales. They were in excellent condition. I don't like payments and enjoy them far more when they are paid for.

My dad's travel trailer is a '77 20' Jayco. Yes it looks old but it's in pretty good shape.

You have to decide for yourself what you want to put up with.

[hboy]

just my two cents. I would keep as long as it is being utilized for it's intended purpose and is serviceable.

Trading out campers is rarely a "good deal". Typically people trade in campers for under market value. Purchase campers at retail cost. Pay excise tax. If you can afford this, then great.... I would not recommend to a friend to unload a perfectly serviceable trailer for a new payment.

[abarkl]

Our preference is about 10 years.

*We only buy used and only pay cash. If we can't pay cash we can't afford it!

[lightcs1776]

Originally Posted by RogerR

<snip>
If it no longer fits your family. (to many or to few beds and space.)

Great point. My wife and I already know we will trade in the camper in another 7 years or so as our kids continue to move out. We want something smaller (20' or so, 25' - 27' if a fifth wheel) when it is just the two of us camping.

Sent via mobile - Chris

[Kim Gass]

When I have saved enough to buy a new one.. I cannot for the life of me understand paying interest on a depreciating asset.. its not like a house.

Same for the car.. drive what you can pay for.

[repacs0103]

Originally Posted by Kim Gass

When I have saved enough to buy a new one.. I cannot for the life of me understand paying interest on a depreciating asset.. its not like a house.

Same for the car.. drive what you can pay for.

Because I'll only live once. Because my kids are only kids once. I work hard so that I can enjoy my life to the fullest, and if that means I pay some interest which in turn keeps the economy and my livelihood moving, then so be it.

To each their own.

We kept our pop-up 4 years and our first TT 8 months. The plan is to keep our 5th for a bare minimum of 5 years, but time will tell.

[dewey405]

If you're like me then 1-2 years apparently. Bought a 2016 23MBH last May and plan on replacing it this next offseason. Realized we were too big a family for it, but it was the largest my previous truck could tow so we made do. Our next one we plan on having for ~9 years until the youngest heads off to greener pastures and then full timing for us.

[BuddyRay]

I've only owned 4 RV's in my life:
#1 - A Ford E150 Van that I built out myself into a camper (well - I did have a pop up top put on by someone else.) To be honest, my folks bought that truck for me as a graduation present. I drove it for 21 years until the birth of my 2nd daughter. It only had 3 captains chairs in it (strange setup I know) so my wife put her foot down.
#2 - A Rolite hard side popup. Kept that trailer for 20 years (some overlap with the E150). Only got rid of it when carpenter ants got in it without my realizing and pretty much removed the 2X2s in the wall.
#3 - a 20ft Sunline the wife and I bought once we became Empty Nesters. 18 years on that one - traded it in on the current Jayco when we retired and decided we wanted something a little larger to make longer trips. But honestly - I could have gotten another 10 years or more from that Sunline - excellent rig in great shape.

Never bought with credit in my life. My Dad was run off his father's farm in the 1930's by the depression. As time went on, he had a mortgage which he paid off early. He never borrowed to buy cars, boats or RV's. My mom was a secretary at Coca Cola, Dad sold men's clothes retail - neither of them made a lot of money.
But Dad always said - if I don't have the money in the bank to buy it - I can't afford it.
They always made "car payments" into a bank account and when there was enough in the account they paid cash. Once they got this system started, they could actually buy new cars more often than our friends. They used the same approach on RV's and a ski boat and a vacation cottage on a local lake.
I know we sometimes waited a few years to buy stuff - but I never remember feeling deprived.

I've used the same finacial principles in my life.

[Crabman]

Our first one, only 10 months. We soon realized it was way too small and had several shortcomings for our needs. Luckily we bought it used and sold it for what we paid for it. The Jayco we kept for 7 years and I would still have it if the floorplan still worked for us.

[Camper_bob]

Originally Posted by Kim Gass

When I have saved enough to buy a new one.. I cannot for the life of me understand paying interest on a depreciating asset.. its not like a house.

Same for the car.. drive what you can pay for.

That's nice in theory, but in reality it doesn't work like that any more. "Things" are a LOT more expensive than they used to be, and wages have not kept pace with the price of "things". So now we finance. As long as interest rates are low, I will finance an item (with as much down payment as I can come up with) and pay it off as quickly as possible. This allows me to enjoy my life while I'm young enough to do so, enjoy my time with my kid(s) while they're young enough to enjoy spending time with me doing the things we love to do.

Don't get me wrong though, I hate having debt. We keep our debts as low as we possibly can while still living our life. And we save up for most things, or forego them completely (dang, I sure would like a new rifle, but nope) and don't carry any credit card debt. We finance at the lowest rates possible and pay off early, so we don't end up paying all that much interest. Except for the house, and we'll probably make a bunch of that back when/if we ever sell it (we may just die there, hopefully no time soon).

[bansai]

I never have enough cash laying around to pay cash for anything of consequence.

If I have more than 500 bucks in my savings account, I'm being a moron. That money needs to be making me more money somehow.

I would rather pay 4% interest on an RV payment, than lose 10% by not investing those dollars.
No matter how you look at it, an RV is considered 'bad debt', but I'd rather have a little bad debt and some awesome memories to go with it than to sit at home all year saving my pennies. You only go around once.

As far as the OP's question, I think every 5 years or so and the bug bites strong enough to upgrade. Requirements can change a lot during that period.

If you can upgrade every 5 years and not derail your retirement, go for it The day you are no longer 'upside down' on the equity, is the day trading in makes at least some sense.

[clubhouse]

This is such a subjective answer. I don't have a loan in mine, bought 2 years used so I could afford to not finance. However my first one was bought new and financed, we kept it for 25 months till we had kid #3 and wanted a bit more space. We initially tried to trade it in at 10 months but was hindered by the loan since it was worth less than we owed. It took 10 more months and selling private party to get out of that deal. We then looked for a few months before finding exactly what we wanted, bought it private party at a very fair deal.

In my opinion you keep what you have till situations change that necessitate something different. Maybe that's kids growing up, babies being born or you run into a pile of cash. I would not base a replacement strategy of financing, I would pay off what you have as quickly as possible and keep it as long as possible.

Note that after 10-12 years these RVs are only worth a tiny fraction of original purchase. I would not expect a useful life or much residual value after about 10 years, which is something to keep in mind when purchasing. At 2-3 years old it's not hard to purchase at less than 50% of MSRP.

[Jagiven]

When our needs change we'll look for a new one. I suspect that will be when the kid is off to college. At that point the htt will be 10 years old. So far I've been keeping it in excellent condition and I see no issues in the future.

[TCNashville]

Our Eagle will be 5 years old in March. We traded in our 08 Flagstaff and paid cash for the difference. It is white, smoothed sided fiberglass with a white fiberglass front cap and looks brand new. It has been an excellent, well built trailer to this point. No plans on replacing it in the near future unless something catastrophic happens. Frankly with RV sales at an all time high, I'd be a little nervous buying one now with the way these factories are spittin em out.

[norty1]

Most used campers are hardly used. We have 3, 1 used and 2 new ones. We paid cash or only financed long enough that we paid the last one off in 2 years. Take care of it and use it as long as it is not a cash cow and it fits your needs.

TT will always be less expensive than a MH.

If you are new at camping and not sure, but a good used one and save the big bucks for the next one.