Self-sufficient RV question

Let me preface this by saying that I would rather have surgery on my privates without sedation than add an RV to my fleet. Nothing against them or the lifestyle mind you, I just have too much on my plate to add another roof/bathroom/kitchen/vehicle/house to maintain!

Anyway, the wife spent a few days up North where she grew up, about 2 hours away. She came home with the thought that if she had a cheap, convenient place to stay that she would go up more often. So she asked about an RV that she could sleep in and shower in and also drive around in to see friends/family. We have no tow vehicle, so to me that means a van-chassis or Toyota pickup chassis.

While I SERIOUSLY don't want to consider this hair-brained idea, I was curious what the smallest RV is that will allow you to live in self-sustained for 4 days in the dead of winter or heat of summer? (Water on board, sewage on board, 4 days for 2 people)

If the town has a Motel 6 or something of that nature that would be the way to go if you are looking to go cheap. Every time we think about an RV I remember how even the cheapest of rooms is usually warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer and has a shower with hot and cold water. I don't need to tow, maintain or even clean it.

Wally is 100% right on this. Its going to be cheaper staying a motel than the cost of purchasing, paying taxes, gas and insurance for an RV. Winter would be a bitch with frozen pipe fun thrown in there.

Wally wrote: If the town has a Motel 6 or something of that nature that would be the way to go if you are looking to go cheap. Every time we think about an RV I remember how even the cheapest of rooms is usually warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer and has a shower with hot and cold water, bed bugs, roaches, seminal fluid all over the place, feces on the remote, and possibly body parts under the bed.

FTFY

Here is the math I did when I was looking at the same thing for NASCAR race weekends.

How much will the RV cost? How often will you use the RV? What is the cost to store said RV? What is the average cost of a hotel in the area you are looking at?

The problem is the smaller they are the more expensive they are. A van based one is not cheap at all. It's not till you get into a 26-30' model that they get cheaper. Even those are not really cheap. Will she want to drive around in a 26' RV? The other issue is to get the heat and cooling, you have to run the heck out of a generator and most of those are pretty worn out but the time they get into the 12-15K budget range.

I found for me to break even, I would have to use it 17-20 days a year for 10 years not counting any major maintenance which probably won't be the case.

What about camper rental from Cruise America?
They are not cheap but the real expense is in the miles driven. The secret seems to be to rent from as close as possible to your final destination.

As an example, if you wanted one for The Mitty then drive your personal car from PA to GA and then finally rent the camper in GA. This way, you really add very few miles to the camper and having it for 3 days becomes more reasonable.

Sample rates look like $110 per day and $0.34 per mile.
https://www.cruiseamerica.com/

Hotel like rates but in this example, bringing the hotel to the track.

There were some RVs built on the Chevy Astro platform. Some had pop tops while others had fixed and with the 4.3 they moved decently and they were small enough that they weren't a huge pain to park etc.

I've had two (well, honestly FIL owned them but I kept/drove/maintained them). "We" started with a 2000 Ford chassis 24' class C. Everything rattled all the time. Driving it was terrifying on narrow roads. The "furnace" was loud at night and camping in it (twice) on nights that got down to the lower 40's upper 30's involved being surprisingly cold. OTOH, the kitchen was great and the bathroom was surprisingly spacious. 24' meant no dedicated bedroom so big kitchen and bath at the rear and adults slept in the overcab. Paid I think 15-20 grand for it in 2005.

Then he bought a 20' Pleasureway class B+ Ford chassis again. 2006 leftover model that marked down in 2007 only cost $68,000. The newer triton engine and lighter weight meant this one was a hot rod by comparison. And the sleeker style was much quieter on the road. Single rear wheels and long overhang made handling (particularly on the interstate) a white knuckle experience. Honestly felt unsafe at over 70. Probably half the people who tried to drive it just couldn't handle that part.

It's kitchen was a joke, bathroom was tiny and only slept two on a rear folding couch. It was less an RV and more an unwieldy travel van that allowed for kids to use the potty on the fly without interminable rest area stops (a nice feature when you have young kids).

If I had to pay my own money for an RV for the family (and it would have to be totally EXTRA money) I'd look into something class C, 28 or so feet, E-450 chassis, buy in at under 10 grand and spend another 3-4 thousand making the niggly bit work just right. Given those parameters I'd say an RV isn't bad at all but they are closer to mobile campsites than hotel rooms.

If she's visiting friends/family, why would she be using water in the RV? Unless you've got another use for the RV, I'd expect to maybe watch a bit of tv or read a book before sleeping in it.

If you're out in the woods or at a venue with no facilities, yeah an RV is the way to go. I have to agree with the others, Motel 6.

However ......

http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/rvd/5148285223.html

No such thing.

RV water lines are notoriously poorly insulated. RV owners typically winterize their rigs by draining the plumbing.

Septic systems hang under the vehicle fully exposed with no insulation at all.

Small rigs are also less insulated than big 4 season rigs.

Dead of winter + water/ sewer= frozen system.

Career RVers fly South for the winter.

Dead of winter you won't have water or sewage, they'll be full of antifreeze, expect to burn a lot of propane too if you like being warm. Dead of summer you won't survive without shore power to run the oversized (to make up for lack of insulation) ac unit, or a loud generator (on board if you're lucky) sucking down gas.

For reference, there is a brand-new Comfort Suites with a hot tub, pool and free breakfast in town for avg. $150/night. We have to board the dogs for about $140 a day. That makes a 3-night weekend a $1,000 proposition. If you go 4 times a year, that's $8,000 over two years.

By comparison, I assume that an $3000 purchase price on an RV is actually at least $6000, plus 100 hours of my labor. So over three years, the RV "could" make financial sense. At least in my wife's head. But you have no pool. No hot tub. No free breakfast. It is cold. Your showers are tepid and short. It's noisy. And I have to do the maintenance and cleaning.

I think the answer is to buy or rent a cabin/mobile home in the area and just drive up whenever she wants, or get her to hate her family somehow. Hmmmmmmmm

Airbnb.

DrBoost wrote:

Wally wrote: If the town has a Motel 6 or something of that nature that would be the way to go if you are looking to go cheap. Every time we think about an RV I remember how even the cheapest of rooms is usually warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer and has a shower with hot and cold water, bed bugs, roaches, seminal fluid all over the place, feces on the remote, and possibly body parts under the bed.

FTFY

You don't think a used RV comes with all those goodies.

Forgot to add insurance.

I second the motel idea. I have a hard time believing you'll be able to make an economic case for an RV being cheaper than staying a few nights at a local motel.

One weekends worth of RV rental would be an easy/cheap way to figure if investing into this idea is really worth it.

Meaning, try a weekend to see if she really likes RV'ing.

In reply to Sky_Render:

The dog boarding obviously doesn't help with the cost.

I just ran the numbers on renting an RV for the Rolex Motorsports Reunion vs getting a motel.

Motel won by several hundred bucks, and the price for the RV actually was pretty good.

Driving the RV you are camping in to visit is going to be a major PITA. You have to put everything away to drive off. And where are you going to park at your friends? Are there any RV resorts where you could park a camper trailer? Then you could just drive up in the car. Freezing pipes is still a problem and the cost of leaving it there is going to be expensive.

You want a Vixen

6' High, fits in a standard garage and is powered by a BMW Diesel for 30mpg.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vixen_(RV)

Wally wrote:

DrBoost wrote:

Wally wrote: If the town has a Motel 6 or something of that nature that would be the way to go if you are looking to go cheap. Every time we think about an RV I remember how even the cheapest of rooms is usually warmer in the winter, cooler in the summer and has a shower with hot and cold water, bed bugs, roaches, seminal fluid all over the place, feces on the remote, and possibly body parts under the bed.

FTFY

You don't think a used RV comes with all those goodies.

No, never. Oh wait, flashes of National Lampoons Christmas Vacation are jumping around in my head.

It sounds like the answer is less expensive dog boarding vs having an RV.

Don't forget to include the cost to run the generator. The average burn rate is .5-.75 gallons per hour. If you are going to have dogs in there you will need heating and cooling on at all times.

Grtechguy wrote: You want a Vixen 6' High, fits in a standard garage and is powered by a BMW Diesel for 30mpg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vixen_(RV)

The concept is sweet, but they only made 587 of them.

Grtechguy wrote: You want a Vixen 6' High, fits in a standard garage and is powered by a BMW Diesel for 30mpg. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vixen_(RV)

That is awesome.

Oh, I vote slide in, pop up, truck camper. A small one. I just put 3700 miles on mine. It drives like a normal truck. With the popup, it doesn't get much worse gas mileage than the truck alone. As a bonus, with the camper unloaded, you still have a truck that is usable rather than a RV that is collecting leaves, bugs and mice.

I might be a little biased though.

This one sleeps 4 and is probably more than you would need.

Something like this will be lighter and suitable for a 1/2 ton truck.