That's what I was thinking. A dozen cycles of your typical 200+lb lb owner wandering around on the roof may be enough to just about finish it off and cause the seams to start leaking.
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Fancy a RV?
- Thread starter Dirty Frank
- Start date
Well this thread has seriously put me off buying a small camper / RV…
Just rent pp's. Saves most of the hassles.
AllistonGT
Well-known member
It shouldn't. Just don't go cheap.
Just the fact that you're supposed to inspect your roof every 90 days and somehow document it, including all winter long when you can't even see the roof or safely get up to it / on it safely tells you all you need to know about how these pieces of junk are being manufactured.
There was a few manufacturers 10-20 years ago that were doing fibreglass roofs with seams that overlapped the outside walls and raised sections where there was any cuts for things like roof vents (kind of like how my trailer is built) making them drastically more waterproof, but they were harder to repair if damaged and cost more money to build, so yeah, they have mostly went away for most towables at least.
I used to rent it but after last years freak incident and all the hassles dealing with the insurance claim and then replacing the camper, we're not sure if we're going to rent anymore honestly.
For sure. Do your homework. There are still some great RV's out there, you just have to do your homework on what you're buying. A simple place to start is that if it comes out of Indiana or is manufactured by any Thor company, run away screaming.
guzzirider
Well-known member
My first trailer was a Kit Companion 18ft.
It was built like a tank but was also as heavy as one.
The 93 Dodge van did not tow it well even after installing 3.11 gearing.
A GMC 3/4 ton with a 6 litre solved the problem.
When we gave up towing and moved it permanently onto a lake lot we sold it and bought a 26ft cheap unit.
It had the perfect layout with a big back window overlooking the lake and we had no intention of towing it anywhere.
The cupboard door hinges fell off within a month.
I talked to a person who had an identical unite and they where ready to sell after the second outing because it was falling apart.
Sold the GMC because I couldn't justify that much money sitting in the driveway 6 months of the year.
Never buy anything that is sold as "LITE"
Buy a $1,000,000.00 Provo diesel pusher and you can't go wrong.
It was built like a tank but was also as heavy as one.
The 93 Dodge van did not tow it well even after installing 3.11 gearing.
A GMC 3/4 ton with a 6 litre solved the problem.
When we gave up towing and moved it permanently onto a lake lot we sold it and bought a 26ft cheap unit.
It had the perfect layout with a big back window overlooking the lake and we had no intention of towing it anywhere.
The cupboard door hinges fell off within a month.
I talked to a person who had an identical unite and they where ready to sell after the second outing because it was falling apart.
Sold the GMC because I couldn't justify that much money sitting in the driveway 6 months of the year.
Never buy anything that is sold as "LITE"
Buy a $1,000,000.00 Provo diesel pusher and you can't go wrong.
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You can buy one for a heck of a lot less than $1m anymore if you don't mind buying a 10-15 year old one who someone else has ate the depreciation on, but there's lots of beautifully maintained ones out there with some miles for $200-$400K USD. On a commercial chasis something with 200,000-300,000km shouldn't be of too much concern even as these things are built to commercial truck standards that will easily go 1 million km, but to the average non-commercial driver who doesn't realize that trucks going to 1M km is extremely common, people get scared when they see a coach with 200,000km and prices drop precipitously as a result.
The only problem with older units is that some US campgrounds have stupid policies on RV age (some as little as 10 years) and won't let you in with an older unit because apparently you're too "low class" if you only have a 2014 Prevost in mind condition vs a 2024. If you're someone who hapily avoids these sorts of stuck up places, no problem. Personally, my wife and I avoid glampgrounds like this like the plague when we're travelling anyways.
How stupid is this? Here's a nice 2013 Prevost that is now "too old" to be allowed into a lot of stuck-up campgrounds in the USA.
That’s looks like something that requires (or at the very least should) a commercial drivers license.
Oh, don't get me started on that, in many provinces and US states you can drive this thing with nothing more than a regular car drivers license and an airbrake endorsement if so equipped, assuming there are no RV exemptions even for the air brake bit, as there are many places.
About 10 years or so ago here in Ontario they added a new class of license (the AR, or class A Restricted) which was aimed specifically at operating heavier RVs (but wasn't valid for tractor-trailer use), so there's that at least, however I suspect the level of education being provided is still subpar. Considering how many driver mills there are now pumping out class A licensed drivers that can still barely operate a truck safely at the end of their "training", I have doubts that the level of education being provided by some places to obtain the class AR is adequate.
I do road tests at work occasionally for temps and potential new hires and the lack of skills I've seen from some people who somehow hold an A licence is scary. Our system here in Ontario is ****** and no government seems to want to deal with it.
guzzirider
Well-known member
What the picture does not show is the full size Lexus that most of these people tow because the RV is to big to drive to the Casino.
AllistonGT
Well-known member
Or Jeep.
Many casino's actually have huge RV parking areas, many even allowing you to overnight in them. They know their market lol.
Take a look at the Casino rama parking lot and in the back you'll see tons of RV's. We've boondocked ourselves there while travelling a few times, and never gambled a cent.
But anyways, yes, I get your point, many people who drive coaches like this have no choice but to tow a car behind them as they just can't go a lot of places they need/want to otherwise. We used to own a huge 5th wheel and were pushing 60 feet long so I know the pain, but at least with a trailer you can drop it somewhere and then just use the tow vehicle to get around.
Our new tiny camper setup has been insanely liberating in many ways in that there's almost nowhere we can't go. It fits in 2 regular parking spots in any parking lot, can navigate those lots no problem, and we can get into places (and boondock or camp) that we could hever have dreamed of before.
Here was us 2 summers ago in our previous Helio in literally downtown Boston, stealth boondocking in a little surface parking lot. We arrived at 8PM, quietly spent the night, spent the next day touring Boston and having a great old time, and left the next day at 7:45PM, paying only $35 USD for the 24 hour parking rate. Can't do that in anything much bigger than this.
If my wife and I do decide to retire to the RV lifestyle and sell everything and hit the road, we will defiantely have to have a long debate about size and configuration. We've really enjoyed going tiny after a decade of having big (and we travelled coast to coast at the time when our kids were younger), but I'm not sure *living* in something this small is viable lol.
On reading this thread, it still looks like the conversion van seems to be a good way to go - and I mean a modern van that came from the factory with a high roof and long wheelbase, whose outer shell remains intact aside from possibly windows or vents. Still small enough that you can park it most places. The roof isn't going to leak, the side panels aren't going to leak where they join the front or rear or roof.
AllistonGT
Well-known member
And thats why they have become so popular. I'll get a 5x10 enclosed trailer for the bike. The Ford and Mercedes can tow 5000lbs and both come all set up for towing from the factory. Thats our current plan anyways. Could change.
I stumbed across a few of these old U-haul/cube truck total stealth conversions recently and some of them are amazing. One guy was living in his in a downtown urban area of some major US city and because it looks like any old POS commercial cube van nobody bothers him.
There was one that was totally next level and I think the guy was building to order now, but I can't find the video, but this one is close.
There was one that was totally next level and I think the guy was building to order now, but I can't find the video, but this one is close.
How many campgrounds are owned by Thor?
Also, while the 2014 looks great, I suspect the real reason for the age limit is to keep the riff raff out. They want to hang out with people that don't mind a hundred k a year in depreciation on their rv. The plebes that buy 200k rv's are not welcome.
Campground conglomerates is another story yet. There's one rather imfamous one here in Canada that buys up private campgrounds and then jacks the rates, kicks out old units, etc etc etc. People cry endlessly and demand government regulation blah blah (all whilst apparently hating government, but that's another story), but these places are not subject to the regular rules as they are seasonal operations and the can ultimately do whatever they want. Anyhow, that's another story.
As for the riff-raff thing, meh, there's no shortage of riffraff in $1m+ coaches either - just go hang out in some of the RV circles in the USA and you'll see no shortage of stories of people who are bent out of shape because their neighbour pulled up in their $1m+ coach at the $200/night glampground and then proceeds to put up 25 Trump flags, 5 confederate flags, strike 2 or 3 outside structures like dining tents, fire up the outdoor TV and/or loud stereo, turns on all the exterior lights to "surface of the sun" and leaves them on all night, and then lets their 4 dogs out to bark endlessly/terrorize other campers on top of it all.
Main problems with those are that they ride like a chuck wagon and suck fuel like there's no tomorrow.
Depends if you're comfortable with living without all the luxuries fancy campgrounds offer.
It never fails to amaze me how many people own RV's that are perfectly capable (and designed) to be self sufficient that are absolutely mortified of the concept of camping somewhere without full hookups, or at minimum, electricity.
My wife and I spent 5 days camping completely off grid in a state forest in upstate NY last fall and it was glorious. We were tucked away on a little dead end forest access road. We saw literally 1 other person all week walking their dog. I went into the sleepy little nearby town about 20 minutes away once through the week to pickup some more groceries and 30L of water in our little portable tank, and the remainder of that week we were gloriously isolated. I was on vacation and my wife is lucky to be able to work remote, so that was her sitting by the campfire with her laptop.
But if you talked to a lot of RV owners they'd be horrified at the lack of power, the lack of comfort stations with showers, the lack of a pool, no dump station, and when you get into the real high end crowd, they want things like cable TV hookups and concrete pads and such which is actually a thing at a lot of places in the USA.
Me? I'd drive that $1m prevost up in to a place like this and tell society to get lost for a month at a time.
Best part? It was absolutely free.
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