Motorhomes Versus Fifth Wheels: What’s Behind the Choice?
2015 Thor Outlaw 37LS Motorhome
Heartland Cyclone 4200 Fifth Wheel
By Valerie Coffey
With our experience of having stayed in well over a hundred RV parks and having met numerous owners in the past two years, we know that the most common choice of RV for people who plan frequent use or full-time travel is often either a fifth wheel or a motorhome. (Read my previous post for the definition of various RV classes, What Type of RV Should You Choose?)
Why do some people choose motorcoaches and some choose fifth wheels?
By Valerie Coffey
Love camping and travel? Dreaming about buying a recreational vehicle (RV)? When it comes to shopping for an RV, the choices can be overwhelming. Where do you start? The answer depends on numerous factors with a tangle of pros and cons, and is quite different for everyone.
When you start your search, you’ll need to understand the different classes of RVs. Each type has its pluses and minuses.
By Mitch
Before we purchased our new RV to begin our journey as full-time RVers, experienced RVing friends warned us that a new motorhome would be fraught with problems and that we would be better off buying a used one that was already broken in by someone else. So we first narrowed down the type of unit and features we wanted and the manufacturers we liked, then we looked very aggressively both locally and on the internet for a used unit that met our requirements.
Unfortunately, after many months of unsuccessful searching, we were butting up against the time frame we needed to begin our travels. We just couldn’t find a used coach that offered the layout and features we were looking for at a reasonable price point. So we broadened our search and look at new units as well.
When we found the unit we wanted in Florida (we were living in Massachusetts at the time), we put down a deposit, flew to Florida, drove the coach around some before we made the purchase; it seemed pretty good. I (Mitch) had previously rented privately-owned RVs for weeks at a time while vacationing so I was pretty familiar with using many of the subsystems in big coaches. But we knew to try and address every problem before we took final delivery of the vehicle.
The dealer hosted us at a beachside RV park nearby our first night. When we returned to the dealership the next day, we had a “punch list” of 24 items that we found that were nonfunctioning or defective in the unit. In a few cases, we just had questions about operation that neither we nor the dealer could answer. The dealership agreed to resolve everything before we took delivery, but they required a month to do so. We flew home to Massachusetts.
Five weeks later, in July 2014, the dealer had replaced all the parts in question and resolved (nearly) everything on our punch list. We took a one-way flight to Florida and drove the coach back home.
Val and Mitch taking delivery of the Thor Tuscany in Florida, July 2014
After three days and two nights on the road and in RV parks on the way home to Massachusetts, we amassed a punch list of ten more items. None of them were critical, but we hoped to get a few of them fixed while in New England the month before we started our year-long journey. But no dealers had room in their schedule to help us.
Our blog at RVLuckyOrWhat is a labor of love, but we always thought it could possibly be more than just a way to record our travels. The information we’ve learned can be useful to RVers and RV travel dreamers everywhere.
Recently, we found a company we believe in that has made a difference to us in our travels. How often can you say that? As such, Mitch and Val at RVLuckyOrWhat are proud to announce our first cross-marketing affiliation with Wholesale Warranties!
We reached out to Wholesale Warranties to ask if they wanted to affiliate with us, full-time RVers who are blogging and recording our experiences. We’re going to talk about them anyway, so we thought they should know. And they agreed to talk about us too, because we represent the essence of their customers — people who just want to get on the road and go!
As affiliates, we are pleased to recommend and refer readers to this reputable company we like, and they in turn will help promote our site and message. We do not intend to inundate readers with information they don’t care about. We will continue to share our story just as we always have, and help keep you all RV dreamin’!
Who is Wholesale Warrranties?
By Valerie Coffey
A new great post on Outdoor Online from American writer and previous full-time RVer, Katie Arnold, Raising Rippers, goes a long way toward confirming that owning an RV — any RV — is an exercise in patience. All dreamers of this dream (even atheists like me) have a sort of “come to Jesus” moment in which they have to ask if all the trouble is worth it.
Continue reading
This is just one of too many stories to count about break downs in RVs … but just like us they are still loving the life!
Boo!
I must admit it has been rather a MIXED BAG since our last post, we reached California:
Woohoo!!!!
Saw one of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever witnessed in Trinidad:
Wowzers!
and reached San Francisco:
We caught up with our gorgeous friend Bonnie who works at Skywalker sound- GEORGE LUCAS’S studio, and mixes sound for Disney films:
Bonnie and Rich
On leaving San Francisco we got about 14 miles South on highway 1 and broke down going up a hill…. Our ‘marvellous’ breakdown company ‘Good Sams’ turned out to be devils in disguise and refused to help tow us off the highway for TWO DAYS!!!!!!! (Don’t worry, a sternly worded email has been written, received, and apologies have been made)… We ended up with a parking fine and a warning from the SHERIFF that he would tow us off the hill in 72 hours:
yikes!
Luckily Good Sams…
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