This is a continuation of the Considerations for Selecting an RV article that covers our answers and decision process for the first RV that we purchased.
What is your goal in buying an RV?
- We wanted to disconnect from technology, work, and life stress. We wanted to improve our mental and physical health.
- We had been camping in tents and cabins multiple times, and packing for trips was tedious and time consuming, so we camped less. We expected the RV to allow us to keep clothes, gear, and bedding always packed; we just had to add food and toys, such as bikes, camera, and computers. (Note: It is not less time consuming to get ready or set up, but you get greater benefits from the time.)
- We were limited in taking long trips because we needed someone to care for the cats. A hard sided trailer with A/C would allow us to bring the cats with us instead of leaving them at home with a pet sitter.
- We were tired of being uncomfortable in the rain, heat, and humidity. When the weather is bad, we planned to stay in the RV watching movies, reading, or playing board/card games versus going home or being miserable. When the weather was good, we expected to be outside hiking, biking, reading books, doing random crafts, and making ‘Smores.
- We expected that the benefits of the RV would encourage us to camp significantly more than we previously did.
What type of travel are you planning?
- Do you want to camp locally or remotely? We planned a combination of several distant trips intermixed with shorter closer weekend trips.
- Do you plan to do touring or extended stays? We planned on destination camping where we go to a place and stay there and leave.
- What utilities/amenities are you expecting at campgrounds? We planned to stay at national, state, and local campgrounds, preferably with partial to full hookups.
What is your budget?
The cost differences between staying in a cabin or RV will be due to the difference in gas mileage while towing, site cost versus cabin cost, RV/Vehicle cost, and RV/Vehicle maintenance. We planned for:
- 8 trips totaling 30-32 days of camping and about 2400 miles round trip.
- 2 one week long trips (18 days). Week long trips were no more than 5 hours away (600 miles round trip).
- 6 weekend trips (12 days). Weekend trips were no more than 2 hours away (200 miles round trip). A few would fall on holiday weekends to be 3 days long.
- A gas engine vehicle with gas costing $3 per gallon
- Keeping the tow vehicle and travel trailer for 10 years.
Our goal was to avoid being too much more expensive than cabin camping, so we planned to get an RV that our current F150 could tow. Its tow rating was only 2000 pound, which was insufficient.
- We estimated cabin camping at $4360 per year with cabin costs at state and national parks at up to about $125 per day and 20 mpg driving. With 30+ mpg in a car verus a truck, it would be a bit lower. The majority of the cost is the cabins. $4360 = [$3 x (2 x 600) / 20] + [$3 x (6 x 200) / 20] + [$125 * 32].
- We estimated RV camping at $7400 per year. We expected to finance up to about $50k and paying about $54k after financing. Partial to full hookup camp sites at state parks cost up to $40 per day and 10 mpg towing. The vehicle and trailer would be used for 10 years. Maintenance would be minimal because we would do the basic maintenance (i.e., recaulking, winterizing, sanitizing, etc.) ourselves. $7400 = [$3 x (2 x 600) / 20] + [$3 x (6 x 200) / 20] + [$40 * 32] + [$54000 / 10]
We expected the RV camping to cost about $3k more per year on average. This was more than we hoped, but we felt it was a worth while investment to us to improve our mental and physical health.
Do you have medical/accessibility concerns?
N/A
Do you plan to spend most of the time inside or outside?
- A significant amount of time outdoors hiking, biking, or swimming for several hours 5 times per week
- Other times would be reading, tablet games, board/card games, cooking, and fires with ‘Smores
How do you plan to use your inside space?
- Cooking experiments on the week long trips
- Reading books
- Board and card games at the table in the evening
- Play occasional video games.
- 4-6 movies just in case
What do you plan to do when weather is bad (hot, humid, rainy, or windy)?
- Stay camping, except for extreme weather conditions
- Indoor activities noted above
- Local museums, nature centers, visitor centers, or eating out.
What climates do you plan to visit?
We planned to camp mostly in the spring through fall in a temperate climate skipping some of the hottest months of the summer.
What sleeping arrangements are required?
- Just two people would be sleeping in the RV
- Extra separated sleeping would be good for snoring and insomnia
- Guests are unexpected
Do you travel with pets?
- Glamp with (2) Cats
- Cats would ride in the vehicle free roaming, if passive, or in carriers, if active
- Sleep with us or nearby in cat beds.
- Litter pan location away from the kitchen
- Food and water away from foot traffic
- Toys were relatively small, so storage was not a big concern
- Need a place for crates
- Need good visibility outside to stimulate the cats
- Need pet safe modifications; cats climb and explore
Are you willing and able to make modifications?
- Decided on a new RV because we unfamiliar with RV internals
- Capable in carpentry and can handle simple electrical and plumbing tasks
- Capable to devising simple to moderately complex solutions to most problems.
- Capable of repairing things with some reference material
How much will you travel while at a camp site?
We planned to travel several times per week to hiking and scenic locations during our camping stays.
Weight and Capacity?
- Limited camping gear, such as camp chairs, side table, axe
- Limited RV gear, sewer hose, fresh water hoses, hitch, collapsible ladder, broom, outdoor rug
- Week of clothes, rain gear, hygiene gear
- Limited toys such as, books, DVDs, tablets, games, and bikes
Towed or Towing?
- Owned an F150 truck
- Used for carrying trash to the dump and materials for home renovation
- Had 2000 pound towing limit, which turned out to be inadequate
- No vacation only vehicle (i.e., extra car used only for camping)
These impacted our decisions in the following ways
- Based on our goal, we needed to be able stay long enough to decompress from work without cancelling trips (Mid or Large)
- Short and medium single destination camping trips (Mid RV or Large RV)
- Budget has to include a motorized vehicle (Small or Mid, Towed or Towing)
- Mixed inside and outside time (Mid or Large)
- Inside usage varies (Mid or Large)
- Bad weather (Mid or Large)
- Mild climate (N/A)
- Two person sleeping (Small or Mid or Large)
- Pets accompany and stay in RV (Mid or Large, Towed or Towing)
- Make Modifications (N/A)
- Travel at location (Towed or Towing)
- Weight of gear (Small or Mid or Large)
- Tow (Towed or Towing)
Based on our plans to bring the cats and destination camping with sight-seeing, we needed either a motorized RV with a towed vehicle or a RV with a towing truck. The cats could not be brought to scenic locations and left in a hot car. Even if the cats could be kept cool at scenic locations, the extra driving is undue stress on them. It is also a pain to have to pack up the house several times a week to hike or visit other locations.
Based on our budget, a small or medium RV was affordable. Based on our expected usage, a medium or large RV was preferable to give the cats room to roam and us room to function. This narrowed it down to either a medium RV and towing vehicle or a medium motorized RV and towed car. Our current car could not be flat towed, and we owned an F150 (with inadequate towing capacity) that was periodically used for carrying construction materials, dump runs, etc.
- A mid-sized motorized class C RV costs as much as a tow vehicle and trailer, but we would still need to buy a vehicle that could be flat towed.
- A motorized RV could not serve the role of a pickup truck at home, and we could not afford an extra vacation only vehicle.
Based on this, a mid-sized trailer and towing vehicle was the only viable option. The towing vehicle would replace the current F150, and our current car would be kept. At the time, an F150 with a 6000 pound towing capacity was about $25k, if you were willing to accept what was on the lot.
We knew the trailer had to sleep two with an extra sleeping spot, have counter/table space for cooking, table space for board/card games, a couch for straight on TV watching, and litter pan space away from the kitchen. Now, we just had to look at online floor plans and RV stores to find a travel trailer $25k or less, in the 20′ to 30′ range, less than 6000 pounds GVWR, and with a layout that worked for us and the cats. A fifth wheel might have been an option too. The height of the fifth wheel caused us some concern due to our lack of experience in RVs.