Going Thru "The Change"

[Smeel]

We travel with the Brother-in Law. Our conversations are more. Where can we go when everyone is retired. And mulling over whether pr not to leave the campers home one trip and either renting a cabin or tenting just for a change....well mostly just for a change. A couple spots being considered to camp, we might as well leave the campers home. No services other than access to a lake/river and outhouses. These spots don't even have duml sites or garbage collection. And the Brother-in law doesn't agree with stopping at a campground on the way home to empty the tanks, grey or black.

Last time we left the camper home(bought backwards. Bought the camper before buyong a vehicle to tow it). Wife spent a trip uneasy the entire time thinking someone may have stolen it. Even with locks all over it.

There's even been talk of getting into seasonal camping after retirement.

 

[Jamnpete]

My wife and I are just hitting 70, have thoroughly enjoyed our years in tents, popups, and now our 3rd Class C, this one was new, 2015 Greyhawk 29mv. Nobody has talked about considering care and maintenance, and what I'll call 'road stress', or driving these rigs in all sorts of traffic and/or weather! Does everyone have help or pay for mechanic and detailing services. We recently found a very reliable mobile RV tech, and had a mobile wash/wax service come take care of our rig in the driveway, but that being said, in retirement, the costs are heavy. Yeah, I know that's what we signed up for, but at what point is it just too much?

 

[Smeel]

We have a 2022 SLX 174BH. SO FAR*knocls ok head* we've only had tiny issues that I've solved myself like the batteries not charging at all even with solar. Because the Positive wire was corrorded due to the Marret filling with water during the Spring Thaw(stored outdoors). And have only needed to get the annual Safety inspection, in which making the appointment took longer than the inspection did.

As for when does it get too much. If your RV fund is draining significantly quicker than it's being replenished and you're begining to question the worth.....as awful as it sounds. It may be time to at least start thinking about fewer or better yet closer trips.

Personally with me pushing 50(in about 2 weeks)and the wife staring down the tunnel of 60. I'm not lookong forward to the "is it worth it anymore?"conversations.

My wife and I are just hitting 70, have thoroughly enjoyed our years in tents, popups, and now our 3rd Class C, this one was new, 2015 Greyhawk 29mv. Nobody has talked about considering care and maintenance, and what I'll call 'road stress', or driving these rigs in all sorts of traffic and/or weather! Does everyone have help or pay for mechanic and detailing services. We recently found a very reliable mobile RV tech, and had a mobile wash/wax service come take care of our rig in the driveway, but that being said, in retirement, the costs are heavy. Yeah, I know that's what we signed up for, but at what point is it just too much?

 

[Jayhawk 29]

Since I have my lifetime of experience with boats, costs related to taking care of trailable boats and in general owning boats, within reason the work of fixing and keeping things up on my modest TTs over the years is actually less. And I can use my TT more, good or bad weather even though I am much older and find less time to do so.


But whatever i own I do enjoy taking care of and improving things as a past time. The needs and the understanding that stuff happens and these days most modern stuff in the low end price range is junk and must be addressed.

So the need for replacement and upgrade is more frequent on just about every add on that we see on these rolling pieces of junk. As long as I don't have water coming down on me from the roof top and the sides and slides are not leaking, so be it for whatever rears its head that is calling me to correct on a given day. These things are nothing more than an enclosed workshop on wheels..

Folks and bean counters are the factory would not like me to oversee their day's work. I look under the skirts on these rvs at all boat shows and would drive most of the workers nuts. I mean how hard is it to run in a 3/4" screw instead of a 1/2" screw to hold a cabinet door on the face frame?

 

[F350guy-JAY]

As in all things the finance end of any "hobby" has to fit in the budget. Upkeep and repair of an rv is a factor. We've been thru all kinds of rv's and found that the diesel pusher we had for 7 years was more than we could tolerate, hence our decision to go back to a truck and fifth wheel. No condemnation of motorhomes, we just found it to require some maintenance and repair that I couldn't do myself increasing our cost of ownership.

So far our Pinnacle has been great in the after purchase care. The few things that have gone wrong were repaired before the warranty expired and the other things have been small, like replacing a defunct carbon monoxide dectector. Hope I didn't jinx it. The one major thing we did was have a Flex Armor roof sprayed on. With my 2 knee replacements in the past 18 months I just don't want to get on the roof any more. An expensive way to solve an issue but I don't even think about it now.

When we do decide to hang up the cleats it won't be a financial decision but more in line with health and desire to continue.

 

[Forelyndogs]

As is obvious by the responses here, many of us are thinking about the end of our RV lifestyle. I am 82 and my wife is 81, we’re living in the town and home in which we hope to die. (Not hoping to die, just hoping to do the inevitable where we want.) We have been camping since the late sixties, got our first 13’ foot trailer in 76, and 19’ in 79, two more trailers, a Class A in 98, downsized to a Class C in 03 and got our final larger Class C in 14. We’ve had an amazing run in all those years. Visiting wonderful places, enjoying the drive and being able to stop where there was a place to park. Loved having our own bathroom, our own bed linens, and especially our own kitchen. Not only have we enjoyed eating at “home”, but enjoyed too, eating in all kinds of wonderful restaurants and having a fridge to store all those leftovers. We’ve traveled with our family of dogs and never worried about who was taking care of them, because we were. The RV sits next to the house, with power and water and we keep it ready to go if there is ever an emergency. Not only does that mean it is easier for us to evacuate (which we have never had to do) but it also means our dogs will be safely with us. But with age comes new horizons and we know our horizon is way shorter than it was 20, 30, 40 years ago. Doubt it? Read the obits and check the ages! So do we get rid of the rig? It will save us paying for insurance, CoachNet, RV warranty, and licensing, plus the inevitable repairs that the deductible doesn’t cover. That would be a welcome financial relief. But!! Are we really ready? We acknowledge it is getting closer, but not just yet. There are still short trips to make, friends with RV’s to travel with, and that trip that came up that we didn’t expect. So, do we have the answer? Yes, no and maybe. We just aren’t there yet and we’ll bet many of the folks on this list are in the same boat. I just hope our boat is not the Titanic!

 

[spark of insanity]

I started camping with a tent back in the 80s with my mother. It was her idea to start this and I went along with it. We had fun until I got married and went camping with my husband and separately with my mother. It was not until 2005 my husband and I went camping with some friends of ours who never went camping. An E 0 tornado hit us and well that was the end of camping for all of us. In March 2006 my husband and I got a pop up and that was fun until we had issues and in 2016 everyone was done camping. So I bought a small trailer that was for me only. Yeah that one got traded for a bigger model and then my mother passed away April 2020. My family went camping the summer 2021 and afterwards we truly were done camping. So I alone decided to go by myself camping in Maine and found a job. Hate to say got a bigger trailer and parked it on a seasonal site. So yes, my family and me are done camping. If my husband and I go any where we get an air bnb. No camping no trailer. We toured Nova Scotia PEI and New Brunswick renting air bnb. Loved it. No hassles and very private. And well the small trailer bunk model now sits behind my house in NC waiting to be used again that I think will never be used ever again. While a bigger model sits on a seasonal site in Maine. So I hate to say it if I travel it will be in an air bnb not at a campsite. If they want to visit me I am in NC. Good luck but my husband and I are very impressed with air bnb over hotels. So for us we are done camping while traveling.

 

[F350guy-JAY]

My wife and I have continued our discussions and we both feel like we are ready for something different. We've done this for 40 plus years and thoroughly enjoyed it but the luster has somewhat dulled over time for a variety of reasons. For financial reasons we've pretty much limited our trips to the rv type. The wife has said she would like to expand our travels to see other parts of the world before we can't physically.

We visited her great great grandparents graves in Wisconsin on this trip who were immigrants from Sweden. She says it has been a dream of hers to go to Sweden as she heard so much about it from her grandparents and parents. I said let's do it. So an rv trip we have scheduled in early November will probably be our last. I'll probably wait until spring to list the Pinnacle. My only concern is for our truck. I really don't need a long bed diesel and will likely end up with an F150 which is all I will need to pull our bass boat to the local lakes. I just got the F350 in May so the depreciation may be a bit much to swallow and I'll have to hang on to it for while longer.

Life goes on, at least we hope so.