RV or Motel?

OldBiker

OldBiker

Member
Location
Central Texas
RVers,

What are the Pros and Cons of having an RV or traveling by car and staying in Motels?

We usually stay at Best Western and equivalent not at Marriot, etc.

I'm on the fence on getting an RV.

Is a travel trailer or 5th wheel a better choice?

Is a Class "C" or "Super C" a better choice than getting a Class "A"?

I've been told to get a Ford or Chevy but to stay away from a Dodge Ram truck. Any comments?

Your honest opinion will be greatly appreciated.
 

I don't know anything about RV's but may I offer;

With an RV- you know your sheets and towels are clean. Maybe not as comfy as a motel, but motels are not always what they seem.
 
When we moved across the United States from Idaho to Alabama, we came out in an older motor home. We were traveling with little dogs, and sometimes it is hard to find a motel that takes pets, and is where you want to stop for the night.
There were benefits and drawbacks; but overall , it worked for what we wanted.
Since we had to stop several times each day for the dogs, we were able to walk around, and not just drive all day. However, we did get some sidewinds that tried to blow us off the road, and wore my husband out driving. Every trime a semi came by, that would blow us sideways, too.
We stayed at roadside campgrounds at night, and were able to shower there and put the dogs out (on their tie-out chains) so they could do their chores and exercise for a while.
We really enjoyed staying at the different campgrounds each night, and if you have a campground membership, then there are some really nice campgrounds with swimming pool, laundry, and often little stores and rec areas, which makes it really nice.

It depends on how much traveling you are going to do, in my opinion.
If you are only going to use the RV for a week or two, once a year for vacation, then I think that a car or minivan would be better, and staying at motels at night.
If you intend to do a lot of traveling, then I think that it is worth getting the motorhome and a campground membership like Thousand Trails.
 

If you break it down to just dollars and cents I think it would be cheaper to invest the money intended for the RV and take the interest along with the money saved on insurance, maintenance, camping fees, etc... and rent a motel room when you travel.

IMO the whole RV thing is more about a lifestyle and not about making a sound financial decision.

If the whole thing is new to you look into renting a motor home for a short vacation and see for yourself if it is something that you would enjoy.

Good luck!!!
 
We had a Brougham motorhome on a truck chassis and a Chevvie 350 V-8 power plant.

It had everything we needed in it. H6eat, A/C, stove, micro oven, TV, CB radio, generator etc.

We drove it cross country several times and shorter trips many times. Only drawback is going into town for groceries.

However, it was small enough to park in the shopping center car park. Beds were very comfortable. We kept it for 5 or 6 years
and then sold it to a couple for only a few $$ short of what WE paid for it.

I almost wish I still had it after hearing about what goes on in hotels and motels;; like sleeping on a bed that who-knows- who (Or what)
slept there. And, forget about those plastic glasses in the bathroom....the maids just blow in them and put them back in the wrapper.

Better just stay home.
 
OldBiker said:
RVers,

What are the Pros and Cons of having an RV or traveling by car and staying in Motels?

We usually stay at Best Western and equivalent not at Marriot, etc.

I'm on the fence on getting an RV.

Is a travel trailer or 5th wheel a better choice?

Is a Class "C" or "Super C" a better choice than getting a Class "A"?

I've been told to get a Ford or Chevy but to stay away from a Dodge Ram truck. Any comments?

Your honest opinion will be greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

Based on your screen name I figured you would be going with a sleeping bag and a Harley.


dennis-hopper-easy-rider-bird.jpg
 
We had a 32' fifthwheel, big GMC to pull it, probably made 4 trips with it and decided RVing was not for us.....too much hassle, too much work...I'd take a nice hotel any day over RV.
 
39" fifth wheel, Ford 250 diesel pick'em up. We spend 4-5 months at a time in ours. Have hit 44 states so far; probably not going to get to Hawaii or Alaska, but I hope North Dakota, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Michigan will get ticked off the list one of these days.

It's a toss-up between RVing and motels.

Advantage's of driving a car and staying in motels:

1. You can almost always find a motel for the night. Sometimes you can't find an RV park for the night.
2. You just check into a motel. Takes five minutes. Grab a bag and go in. It takes considerably longer to set up an RV and sometimes it has to be done in the dark and under adverse conditions. If you're planning on crossing the country and only staying for a day or two at each place, that setting up every night gets old real fast.
3. You pretty much have to have either a tow vehicle for your trailer or a "toad" (vehicle you tow behind a motor home) so you can go sightseeing.
4. You can't just say "OOH, OOH, look at that tourist attraction" and pull into the parking lot with a large RV. You can with a car.
5. You'll buy a LOT less gas. It will be a LOT easier to gas up the car than to gas up a large RV. You pretty much have to go to truck stops with an RV.
6. Break down, get a flat tire, etc., you can call AAA. Do that with a large RV and you'll have to call for a special tow.


Advantages of RVs:

1. As someone said earlier, you know what's in your bed. You know how clean the carpet, the shower, the toilet is. If it isn't clean, you know who to blame.
2. You can prepare healthy meals. You don't have to eat all your meals at restaurants or live on sandwiches.
3. If you're staying several days, a month or a season, you just set up once and then you have your home base. You can crank out the awning, set out the chairs and get to know your "neighbors".
4. Easier to take your pets along. Almost all RV parks accept pets with well-behaved owners.
5. You can have a washer and dryer (or washer/dryer combo) in your RV. No using laundromats.
6. You can take more clothes with you, which comes in handy if you're going to be in 100 degree temperatures one week and 30 degrees the next.
7. If you like to meet interesting people, you'll probably meet more at RV parks and state/national parks than in motels. In fact you'll meet a LOT of interesting people.....some you'll wish you hadn't.

Price-wise? Probably a wash. Depends on whether you can stay at Motel 8's and the like or if you prefer something with room service. Car/motel, you'll likely eat the majority of your meals in restaurants. Very few people can keep their RV's at their house, so you have to factor in storage costs for the rest of the year.

Depending on whether you want to visit big cities or the wild woods, you'll find proximity to those vastly different. Most RV parks (but not all) are away from the city centers. Hotels/motels will get you closer to "the action". On the other hand, if you want to see an elk wander through your campsite or a bear helping himself to your dinner, you won't find at that the Ritz Carlton.

Trailer/fifth wheel/motor home? Cost, cost, cost. Ranges from very low for a pop-up camper to close to a million for a top-of-the-line motor home. We would have loved to have a motor home but we could afford a fifth wheel.

"Pull-behinds" (trailers) tend to be smaller with less outside storage. They also are harder to maneuver and are more prone to swaying on the road. BUT, you can pull them with a smaller pickup or SUV.

Fifth wheels demand good sized pick up trucks, but have more outside storage and a lot of very livable room inside. There are fifth wheel "toy haulers" that allow you to bring your motorcycles, dirt bikes, golf carts, even Smart Cars along.

Motor homes range from modest to YOWZA! The nicer ones can pretty much level themselves and do almost everything for you. Hook up the water, electricity and the cable and you're set for the evening. Motor homes come in Class A, Class B and B+, Class C and Bus conversions (which will REALLY set you back). Depending on the size of the motor home, you can pull just about any vehicle behind you, either 4-wheels-down, on a 2-wheel dolly or on a separate trailer. You can also pull a boat or a motorcycle trailer. But not all three, natch.

The lowest rank of "motor homes" are the campers that slide into the beds of pickups. Not a lot of room inside but some are set up very cleverly. They usually have "wet baths", which means the whole bathroom is also the shower. These are the easiest to get around in. You can park them anywhere.

Pop-up campers are usually best for young families just starting out in "trailering". Though some are a bit fancy, they're usually pretty spartan in amenities.

Then you get into the ultra-small tear-drop trailers. Don't even think about those. They're really cute and trendy but they're for a certain "type" of camper....the ones who like really, really small places and don't have much stuff with them.
 
Trade said:
Based on your screen name I figured you would be going with a sleeping bag and a Harley.
Click to expand...

Had to give up 2-wheeling recently due to old age.

I sure do miss the wind on my face.

Started in 1960 while living off base (Marines) and used it to commute to Camp/Post.
 
Thanks to all of you that responded. Information was very helpful. Right now I'm thinking RVing is too much of a hassle and not as much fun as it appears to be like on "Going RVing" on TV.
 
I have no experience with RVs, except for the pop up slide in truck camper we have now on our '92 Dodge Ram 3/4 ton cummins diesel and our old slide in truck camper that wasn't a pop up. We started out camping by using tents over 40 yrs. ago and traveling in a pickup with a shell and aluminum boat on top. Once in awhile we'd stay at a motel, we always had a dog with us so we'd have to find one that accepted pets. Usually after our stay, we'd realize that we didn't like motels, lights, noise, lack of privacy, poor cleanliness, etc.

I rarely ever stayed at paying campsites, and I know that with RVs that can be expensive and limiting also with privacy and pets. Since we've been using our camper, I much prefer stopping in a nice area, off the beaten path, off dirt roads rather than highways. We've only been on trips that were 2 weeks to 2 months long, so we're far from full time campers. As far as Dodge Ram RVs, don't know anything about them, but my husband bought a new one when we first got together and it was reliable for many years, then we got a new one in '92, the diesel. He said if he got another one for a smoother ride, better suspension, ease of handling (automatic), then he would definitely get another Dodge Ram 3/4 ton diesel.

attachment.php
 
SeaBreeze said:
I have no experience with RVs, except for the pop up slide in truck camper we have now on our '92 Dodge Ram 3/4 ton cummins diesel and our old slide in truck camper that wasn't a pop up. We started out camping by using tents over 40 yrs. ago and traveling in a pickup with a shell and aluminum boat on top. Once in awhile we'd stay at a motel, we always had a dog with us so we'd have to find one that accepted pets. Usually after our stay, we'd realize that we didn't like motels, lights, noise, lack of privacy, poor cleanliness, etc.

I rarely ever stayed at paying campsites, and I know that with RVs that can be expensive and limiting also with privacy and pets. Since we've been using our camper, I much prefer stopping in a nice area, off the beaten path, off dirt roads rather than highways. We've only been on trips that were 2 weeks to 2 months long, so we're far from full time campers. As far as Dodge Ram RVs, don't know anything about them, but my husband bought a new one when we first got together and it was reliable for many years, then we got a new one in '92, the diesel. He said if he got another one for a smoother ride, better suspension, ease of handling (automatic), then he would definitely get another Dodge Ram 3/4 ton diesel.
Click to expand...

I hadn't considered a Truck Camper but it looks as convenient as a Class "B". You can still park it at a Motel parking lot sometimes, like when it's laundry time or to a laundromat in town. I would get the Regular Cab not the Crew Cab, with the 8' bed.
 
SeaBreeze said:
I have no experience with RVs, except for the pop up slide in truck camper we have now on our '92 Dodge Ram 3/4 ton cummins diesel and our old slide in truck camper that wasn't a pop up. We started out camping by using tents over 40 yrs. ago and traveling in a pickup with a shell and aluminum boat on top. Once in awhile we'd stay at a motel, we always had a dog with us so we'd have to find one that accepted pets. Usually after our stay, we'd realize that we didn't like motels, lights, noise, lack of privacy, poor cleanliness, etc.

I rarely ever stayed at paying campsites, and I know that with RVs that can be expensive and limiting also with privacy and pets. Since we've been using our camper, I much prefer stopping in a nice area, off the beaten path, off dirt roads rather than highways. We've only been on trips that were 2 weeks to 2 months long, so we're far from full time campers. As far as Dodge Ram RVs, don't know anything about them, but my husband bought a new one when we first got together and it was reliable for many years, then we got a new one in '92, the diesel. He said if he got another one for a smoother ride, better suspension, ease of handling (automatic), then he would definitely get another Dodge Ram 3/4 ton diesel.

attachment.php
Click to expand...

Nice photo. You can't sleep out there in a 5th Wheel or Class "A' Motor Home but the Truck Camper works beautifully.
 
We have a class B rv. Essentially, it is a tall van. The couch folds down to a bed. It has stove, microwave, refrigerator, sink, shower, toilet, tv, dvd player, closet and cabinet space and is very comfortable and easy to drive. We can park it on the street when stopping at an interesting town along our journeys. The roof has solar panels, so the batteries charge while we are parked.

We love to find out of the way campsites in national and state forests. We don't need rv hookups, so the choices are abundant.

To us, the journey is as important as the destination, so it fits our lifestyle well.
 
OldBiker said:
I hadn't considered a Truck Camper but it looks as convenient as a Class "B". You can still park it at a Motel parking lot sometimes, like when it's laundry time or to a laundromat in town. I would get the Regular Cab not the Crew Cab, with the 8' bed.
Click to expand...

Oh yes, you can park it anywhere, whether you get a pop-up or a hard top truck camper, it's self contained and can be parked anywhere. Our truck is what they called a Club Cab, just an extended cab that we use for tools, pets and other things we need to take with us...no door or anything.

I have to say that I had no trouble opening up our pop up until last year, I found it difficult on my own and now my husband does it, I can do it in a pinch. Good thing about the pop up, it drives like a regular truck with a shell when the top is down, no problems with wind, and driving in heavily treed areas isn't an issue because you don't have the height to worry about. They come with electric assists too, but due to little space, we chose not to get that, plus it's just one other thing that may malfunction in the middle of the woods somewhere. :D

OldBiker said:
Nice photo. You can't sleep out there in a 5th Wheel or Class "A' Motor Home but the Truck Camper works beautifully.
Click to expand...

Thanks, we see a lot of nice big RVs, but they don't get to the places we do, there are limits.
 
We camped off and on since 1969. We bought our first travel trailer in 1998, before that there were a number of popup trailers and a couple of VW Campers. For 20 years I was a commercial traveler, flying sometimes and mostly doing road trips, staying in a variety of motels. The memorable trips were all either camping or overseas. We favored small travel trailers because with one exception it was just the 2 of us, so the small trailer was sufficient. It was also more maneuverable and better on gas. We got 16 mpg towing a Casita 17' with a Nissan Xterra. Fueling was never a problem. Insurance is just a rider on the tow car policy. If we were just stopping for one night I would never unhitch, just plug in the power, water and sewer line.
We went from Florida to Nova Scotia, out to see the kids who had moved to Washington state, moved to Arizona, took trips into Mexico, down the BAJA and on another time to Mazatlan with a side trip up to the copper canyon. We moved back to Florida 2 years ago, took a trip up to the Great Smokey Mountains and sold the trailer to a nice young couple from north Florida. At that point we were ages 81 and 80.
 
My 10 year (solo) RV experience was in the 1990s. I first had a 22 ft. Class C Motorhome fully self-contained with solar panels and deep cycle batteries plus a generator. Sometimes stayed in campgrounds (national and state park campgrounds were great) but often dry camped (without hook-ups) especially in the desert southwest. Solars and storage batteries provided plenty of power for everything but microwave and AC and they needed generator. Frig. and stove were propane.

'Maiden 'voyage' was cross country from Florida and up the west coast into Canada and then Alaska where I spent a full summer. Traveled in this one for 3 years seeing the Canadian Maritimes and more of the U.S. Then up-graded to a 30 ft. Class C similarly outfitted plus a mini satellite dish for TV. Now I towed a Geo Metro for sightseeing, shopping, laundry, etc. Travels in it included Baja California and more of Canada and U. S.

It was not an expensive lifestyle as I was not supporting a home base. My daughter's basement gave me a 'home' address and storage for my 'gotta keep that' belongings. Spent a winter in Baja California and saw lots more of Canada and the U. S. before giving it up and planting some roots.

My ten year adventure would not suit everyone but I loved sleeping in my own bed, cooking in my own kitchen, using my own bathroom, going where I wanted, when I wanted. I sometimes traveled with small groups of like-minded retirees (Alaska and Baja trips particularly) and sometimes just off by myself. For me it was an ideal way to leisurely see our beautiful country but I'm not certain it would be as safe as I felt it was then. Made some wonderful memories.

For anyone considering an RV experience, I would suggest only using one large enough for your own creature comfort. The larger the vehicle, the more limited as to where you can go. 40 footers give great living space but you're probably limited to interstate highways and luxury campgrounds.
 
Wandrin said:
We have a class B rv. Essentially, it is a tall van. The couch folds down to a bed. It has stove, microwave, refrigerator, sink, shower, toilet, tv, dvd player, closet and cabinet space and is very comfortable and easy to drive. We can park it on the street when stopping at an interesting town along our journeys. The roof has solar panels, so the batteries charge while we are parked.

We love to find out of the way campsites in national and state forests. We don't need rv hookups, so the choices are abundant.

To us, the journey is as important as the destination, so it fits our lifestyle well.
Click to expand...

Solar panels is the way to go.
 
Manatee said:
We camped off and on since 1969. We bought our first travel trailer in 1998, before that there were a number of popup trailers and a couple of VW Campers. For 20 years I was a commercial traveler, flying sometimes and mostly doing road trips, staying in a variety of motels. The memorable trips were all either camping or overseas. We favored small travel trailers because with one exception it was just the 2 of us, so the small trailer was sufficient. It was also more maneuverable and better on gas. We got 16 mpg towing a Casita 17' with a Nissan Xterra. Fueling was never a problem. Insurance is just a rider on the tow car policy. If we were just stopping for one night I would never unhitch, just plug in the power, water and sewer line.
We went from Florida to Nova Scotia, out to see the kids who had moved to Washington state, moved to Arizona, took trips into Mexico, down the BAJA and on another time to Mazatlan with a side trip up to the copper canyon. We moved back to Florida 2 years ago, took a trip up to the Great Smokey Mountains and sold the trailer to a nice young couple from north Florida. At that point we were ages 81 and 80.
Click to expand...

What do you think of the Casita?

How do you rate it?

Their factory is close to where I live.
 
We had the Casita Spirit 17', we took a lot of trips with it and enjoyed it a lot. I got a geezer card and we stayed in a lot of National Parks and National Forests. One NF cost us a whopping $4 an night. There are 2 websites for Casita enthusiasts and you can learn a lot from them. There are gatherings for them where you can meet other enthusiasts. The last one we went to was in Quartzsite AZ, there were 80 rigs there mostly Casitas.
We visited the factory in Rice TX and they showed us how they are built. We enjoyed the visit a lot.
If I were buying new I would look at the Escape as well. They come in different sizes and have a good reputation. Scamp does not make a 17'.
 
Manatee said:
We had the Casita Spirit 17', we took a lot of trips with it and enjoyed it a lot. I got a geezer card and we stayed in a lot of National Parks and National Forests. One NF cost us a whopping $4 an night. There are 2 websites for Casita enthusiasts and you can learn a lot from them. There are gatherings for them where you can meet other enthusiasts. The last one we went to was in Quartzsite AZ, there were 80 rigs there mostly Casitas.
We visited the factory in Rice TX and they showed us how they are built. We enjoyed the visit a lot.
If I were buying new I would look at the Escape as well. They come in different sizes and have a good reputation. Scamp does not make a 17'.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the info.
 
van.jpg

This is my "Campervan". Not sure what you call it in the US. We're "fair weather campers" - we use the van in summer and hotels in winter.
Although it's compact, it has 2 beds, a full cooker, fridge, toilet,blown air heating etc.. We don't bother with TV -we're glad to get away from the rubbish that's on these days.
As others have noted, it's a lifestyle.
 
That's beautiful, Capt.L

I can hear it now, "RV there yet?" :cool:.....but that's not considered an RV is it?
 

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