I got interested in RVing after seeing a neighbor's cute, stylish and clearly EXPENSIVE B class RV. I finally asked them to let me see their Pleasure Way (on a Mercedes Sprinter chassis) - it's gorgeous - 22' long and very compactly, luxuriously and snugly put together. It also lists at over $120K.
So I started researching, and then Charles and I started going to RV dealers and taking tours of various vehicles. We started considering that the B platform was just a little too small for us, and started looking at 25' Class Cs, with a bump out. We were trying to find one that fit into our 25' driveway - which is shortened on the house side by the overhanging roof about 2.5' - and I thought we found what we needed in a Thor Siesta 24SR, with two slides.
Last week, we went to a dealer to look at one of them that was listed for $89K. Charles wasn't impressed with the quality or size. The dealer led us around to look at other models.
And then out in the parking lot with the used vehicles was a 30' Class A (Coachmen Mirada 30qb) - a 2005 with less than 25K miles on it. And Charles liked it, and now we've gone and (almost) bought it - without even driving it, although we did go back and look at it more carefully, and turned it on. We agreed to $27.5K out the door for it, including a tip to tail 1 year warranty. Plus we're making them store it until the end of July.
We decided that even if we end up hating RVing in this thing, we will only need to take about 8-10 trips to recoup a substantial part of the cost, and still have a spare room (wish we'd had it while we were remodeling!). And I'm hoping that we can get the kids to go camping with us (with them in TENTS, not with us!).
(It turned out anyway that the 25' RV would NOT have been legal parked in the front of the house - it would have to be on the side behind the gate - but the overhanging roof that makes that impossible. So we have to find a place to park it miles away anyway.)
SO - my practical questions:
We are going to need to fix up a few things - rear view camera, new TVs (the one it has is a tube TV!), maybe a couple of fans. I don't like that the front seats don't have shoulder harness seat belts. The plastic potty should probably also be replaced with porcelain, plus a butt-washer hose. We'll go to CampingWorld shortly to see what they have.
What do you want to bet that now that we did this, that something is going to come up that makes it totally stupid that we did? (Besides the obvious thing that buying one without even renting one once to see if we like it is stupid.) But I really think we're going to like it. I envision myself working in the mountains or beach (with a hotspot) and taking walks in between. I don't know why - there's nothing stopping me from doing it here ... but, how could I pass up a walk in the mountains or at the beach?
So I started researching, and then Charles and I started going to RV dealers and taking tours of various vehicles. We started considering that the B platform was just a little too small for us, and started looking at 25' Class Cs, with a bump out. We were trying to find one that fit into our 25' driveway - which is shortened on the house side by the overhanging roof about 2.5' - and I thought we found what we needed in a Thor Siesta 24SR, with two slides.
Last week, we went to a dealer to look at one of them that was listed for $89K. Charles wasn't impressed with the quality or size. The dealer led us around to look at other models.
And then out in the parking lot with the used vehicles was a 30' Class A (Coachmen Mirada 30qb) - a 2005 with less than 25K miles on it. And Charles liked it, and now we've gone and (almost) bought it - without even driving it, although we did go back and look at it more carefully, and turned it on. We agreed to $27.5K out the door for it, including a tip to tail 1 year warranty. Plus we're making them store it until the end of July.
We decided that even if we end up hating RVing in this thing, we will only need to take about 8-10 trips to recoup a substantial part of the cost, and still have a spare room (wish we'd had it while we were remodeling!). And I'm hoping that we can get the kids to go camping with us (with them in TENTS, not with us!).
(It turned out anyway that the 25' RV would NOT have been legal parked in the front of the house - it would have to be on the side behind the gate - but the overhanging roof that makes that impossible. So we have to find a place to park it miles away anyway.)
SO - my practical questions:
- The toilet should handle DS poop, but I don't want to put the paper in the holding tank too - does anyone know of a wet-wipe equivalent of a Diaper Genie that would keep the soiled wipes under deodorized wraps? (I will use the campground toilets when available, but possibly not first thing in the AM.)
- Living in San Jose, where would you go for a few first-time runs? I want mountains and the beach (on different trips, of course!).
- I want to go to Yellowstone and Glacier Park - is late September-early October too late? Are we going to get snow?
- Trying to figure out the "this thing is too damned big to go into town" issue - how do you handle it? We have Charles' 1999 M3 Beemer, but flat towing it seems like a terrible abuse to that car, and having a trailer seems like a MAJOR PITA. Rent a car in each place we're going to stay for a few days? Some kind of very compact motorized vehicle?
We are going to need to fix up a few things - rear view camera, new TVs (the one it has is a tube TV!), maybe a couple of fans. I don't like that the front seats don't have shoulder harness seat belts. The plastic potty should probably also be replaced with porcelain, plus a butt-washer hose. We'll go to CampingWorld shortly to see what they have.
What do you want to bet that now that we did this, that something is going to come up that makes it totally stupid that we did? (Besides the obvious thing that buying one without even renting one once to see if we like it is stupid.) But I really think we're going to like it. I envision myself working in the mountains or beach (with a hotspot) and taking walks in between. I don't know why - there's nothing stopping me from doing it here ... but, how could I pass up a walk in the mountains or at the beach?
You guys need to come!!!
