Motorhome advice

[jwhite]

I have been thinking about buying a used motorhome and wonder if anyone has any advice or suggestions before I take the leap ?
When I built my trailer I thought I would use it for a couple years and then buy a used motorhome and pull the cargo trailer toyhauler,I would like to turn the trailer into a moble workshop and use the motorhome to live in and go out on the road for several weeks or maybe months and travel the country,the trailer I have is fine for a few days but not something I could spend weeks or months in.
I think I going to buy a C class but I like the look of the B Class and I think they may get a few mpg better than the C class,I would like to know from those that have owned a motorhome what to look out for>?
should I stay away from slide outs I heard they eventually leak?
also I wonder if a older motorhome with the lower miles is better than a later year model that has more miles ?
I have been looking for months now on Ebay and there are alot of them for sale I guess that's good for those wanting to buy one and a bad thing for those wanting to sell?
I guess the 1st time it goes to the shop esp to a dealer get ready for sticker shock> $$
Some have said that the truck with larger toyhauler is the way to go but I don't want to buy a larger truck and toyhauler? and the toyhaulers that are for sale are to large for the truck I have now.
I love my suburban but it is getting some miles on it, that's another reason why I was thinking about the motorhome the one's i am considering have like 10-15.000 miles on them. 20.000 -25.000

Wonder what others think?

[GuitarPhotog]

The biggest issue I see with motorhomes in general is that once you park it, you're stuck unless you tow a drivable car behind it. Once you get the thing situated, the slides slid, and the interior unstowed, you don't want to have to undo all that just to go get milk, or dinner, or....

<Chas>

[pete42]

Not knowing your finances I don't know if the price of gad enters into your choice.
My cousin thought he would retire and travel it only took him 3 trips across the usa
before he parked it and bought a house.
each trip cost him over $3000 just in fuel
he did not have a car in tow once parked he was at the mercy of others
for trips to town he would stay in one place for 3 to 4 weeks at a time.
he now lives in Yuma.

pete

[jeffmutch]

Seeing as this is a site for Travel Trailers, I'm going to guess that most of your responses will lean towards towing the house and driving the car, rather than driving the house and towing another vehicle... Perhaps asking the same question on an RV forum may give you ideas from the other side.

People certainly have their preferences and that's okay. I'll always go with the truck and trailer myself, simply because I only have one engine to put gas in, one starter to die on me, one automatic trasmission to replace, etc...

I also take comfort in the fact that any mechanic can work on the truck. Information is also available if I choose to repair it myself.

Maybe I'm paranoid...

[Shadow Catcher]

I am on the IRV2 forum and the overwhelming feeling I get is the absolutely terrible quality problems. This is skewed no doubt by the 'you only hear of the complaints and problems' and to a certain extent you get the same from most manufacturers of travel trailers. We have done the RV show a number of times and I am appalled at what I see and most folks have no clue what a quality product should look like and do nothing to find out that this is built using the cheapest quality components and construction possible. What tells the tale to me is the warranty on most RV's is a year or two at the most.
As was pointed out you have to have a towed if you want to be other than stuck in your camp site which means you are not towing your tear. We encountered a couple at one Ohio State Park who had one of the van based motor homes who wanted a tour of our tear. Their comment was exactly that the MH had to go with them if they wanted to go anyplace other than the camp site.

[Gonefishin]

When I was younger, my dad had a "dreaded" motorhome. I'd never own one for the reasons stated on here so far. They're all dead-on about flexibility, durability, maintenance, portability, etc. I love the "tow your house" or "drive your house" line! Yes, drive your vehicle and tow your house, not the other way around! And all I remember is my dad fixing this and fixing that and replacing this and replacing that and "the motorhome needs. . . ."

[Smartin436]

We have a 2006 leisure travel free spirit class b on a Freightliner Sprinter chassis. We pull our newly converted to toy hauler, 7x7x14 single axel slant vnose trailer with our 2005 Goldwing trike n it. The kids are older and can sleep in the trailer when they go camping with us. The trailer has tv,a/c, fridge, all the comforts of home almost.
The motorhome has a small 5cyl diesel in it and will average 21mpg running 70mph on the highway. When we add the trailer and Goldwing it drops to 13.5.
The sprinter pulls it well, you definatly know its back there. Will probobly add an equalizer hitch and sway control but its not unmanageable as it is.
This combo fits us for now.....when we retire, a bigger motorhome would be nice....

[Wolfscout]

I considered a motor home before deciding to go with a CTC.
I talked with people at campsites every where we traveled. I heard complaints about maintenance. Complaints about towing another vehicle. I heard complaints about insurance and taxes. a Few rented motor homes but I didn't like that idea when I could buy a cargo travel for one rental. LOL.
yeah its more room.
it's status to some.
But it wasn't very realistic for me.

[8ball_99]

lol I'd agree that on a tiny trailer forum your probably not going to get many if anyone to say get a motorhome..

I pretty much agree with the above.. Most of them get poor milage, your stuck once your camp is setup, Repair costs can be $$$ not to mention road side break downs. Can't just call a standard tow truck to pull you to the shop..

I would also say if your daily driver is getting on up their. I'd buy a nice new truck and pull a cheap used trailer. Seems like a better all around idea then having an older truck and older motorhome.

[jwhite]

Thanks for the replies, I don't really want to sell my sububan or the trailer so I was thinking if I bought the motorhome I would keep and use them all.
I am not into motorcycles but a few miles from where I live there is the top motocross schools in the USA and riders from all over the world come here and go to this school and train and I see that they all have motorhomes they live in and pull the cargo trailers that haul the bikes and mobile shops, so quess that must work for them?

There are some really nice used motorhome in the 20-30.000 dollar range that are like brand new and have almost no miles on them,the one I looked at had less than 20.000 miles on it.
I think I will continue with what I have for now and camp when I am at a gun club during a tournament and stay in a motel if I need to get some work done, I guess I could rent alot of motels rooms for $ 20.000 and not have to deal with any problems a motorhome may have>?

[d30gaijin]

JW,

I am a TT and CT geek. That being said, my in-laws have a huge motor home and we occasionally travel together, us sometimes towing the CT and sometimes towing the 16.5' Jayco. I admire their motor home for what it is, a nice big home on wheels. When we travel together we most often eat inside their motor home or do BBQ outdoors. I have nothing against motor homes, wish I could afford one, and suppose I could if I were willing to sell off a lot of other stuff, which I am not, but maybe will some day.

MY take on it, not having owned one, I would like to have a motor home at some point. As many have suggested, a tow vehicle is nice to have but I don't see it as a necessity. When we camp we spend a lot of time where we land/park. We do like to do day trips but that doesn't always require a vehicle to get somewhere else. Most places we go/camp (regardless of how we get there) are in hiking country, and we hike with binocs, cameras, spotting scope, and cameras searching for birds.

To me the beauty of a motor home is you are home wherever you go, be that along side the road, any road, a Walmart parking lot, a roadside rest, or a remote get away. It is the same as we do with our CT or our Jayco but the difference being we don't have to transfer from the tow vehicle to the trailer. In a motor home where you are is self contained.

Needless to say, all the caveats of commercial TT's, motor homes, and commercial toy haulers apply i.e., they are typically poorly constructed, come with appliances unique to the RV industry, which are notoriously unreliable, and lose value at an alarming rate, and they develop leaks (as did my in-laws $175K bought new motor home) regardless what brand you buy. I would never ever waste money on a new MH. I would shop for a good used one, inspect it thoroughly, and figure you'll have to dump cubic cash into it just to maintain it.

Certainly there is merit in having a vehicle you can separate, or tow, but there is also merit in having everything in one vehicle.

My thoughts only... and I am as tossed (decision wise) the same as you likely are.

Don

[Prem]

I had a 35 ft. motorhome without slides. Worked well for a family of five. Two 33 gallon holding tanks for gray and black water. Hauling that sewage was not pretty. 4-7 mpg.

I had a 22 ft. motorhome for just me. Worked well, except for the 7-8 mpg and having to park in two spaces far out in parking lots because it was 10 feet wide with the mirrors.

I had to spend a night in the reclined seat of a Geo Metro that got 49 mpg. I put my suitcase under my feet and got a full 8 hours of good sleep. That was when I realized that the 22 ft. motorhome was not optimal.

Now I have a 14' cargo conversion and use the tow vehicle (14-19 mpg) to run errands without hauling the living space. I like this set up best of all. I've kept it the longest.