Although shopping for an RV is fun, it is also quite scary.
EEK, what if I actually find the right one?
I really want to hear any and all of your thoughts, either thru comments or emails. Your experiences and insights will be very helpful.
I have been looking at the forums too.
I also am thinking about a towed. I really want to choose the least expensive option there! We had talked about using a tow dolly with the Prius, but that probably wouldn't be a good option for a smaller gas class A.
A correction for yesterday's post. For those of you that know this area, the Winnebago dealer I went to is Pan Pacific in Morgan Hill.
When I started this blog, I hoped to have the house on the market this fall and be able to go full time in Spring, or whenever the house sold.
Because Craig is still working, and all of our weekend time is taken up by the house, I still don't see any trip time until after he retires at the end of the year.
One of the things I was thinking is that there are more big dealers in Southern California than up here. Since we will be going down to San Diego for a week before the Rose Parade we would have several days to look at dealers there. Also we wouldn't have any pressure to hurry home after the parade and could spend a couple of days in the LA area. Possibilities!
I'm thinking that if the right rig comes up before then we should go ahead a buy it, but if not, that's OK too. But since I think the best way to pay for it is to finance it instead of pulling the money out of our retirement account and pay income tax, it might be easier to do the financing before he retires.
Hmmm ... I hate paying interest, but I hate paying taxes even more!
If we don't find the right rig by November, I might just pull a second on the house. We have plenty of equity, and they don't need to know he plans to retire.
Any advice is welcome. We may ignore it, but it is welcome.
I tow a Ford Focus stick shift. It gets very good mileage, and I towed it with my 29' Winnebago Sightseer with no problem.
ReplyDeleteYou are so right to avoid using your retirement savings. Could you finance the rig with the plan to pay off the loan before Craig retires?
ReplyDeleteIt certainly seems an ideal time to buy a gently used motorhome. So many people are upside-down on them now. (Sorry I can't cite a source to back up that statement, but I did read that recently).
We tow a Honda CRV with our 38' Winnebago (gas) MH and have had absolutely no probs. We bot our MH & tow at the end of '08 when the market was crumbling -- both MH & toad are '07s -- MH was new & they needed to get rid of it. One thing you might want to think about when towing with a tow dolly is what you will do with it when you arrive at your destination -- lot of parks may not have room to accommodate a tow dolly. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteI would really think you'd want a toad that you could tow four down. At least that would be my preference. We tow a Chevy Avalanche with our 38' gas motor home. But that's a lot of truck which Jim uses for towing and launching his boat. Definitely finance before you retire. Much harder to get approved if you don't have a job.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with whatever you choose!
ReplyDeleteyou both will do what ever feels right!..you will know the rig for you when you see it!!
ReplyDeleteWe have a 33' gasser & towed our 03 Hyundai Santa Fe 4 wheels down with no problem. Towing our 06 Jeep now with 4 wheels down & no problem again. Both our Santa Fe & Jeep are standard transmissions & that's one of the reasons we can tow them without a dolly. I never did like the idea of having to tow something on a dolly.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what has already been said - in terms of financing - your cash flow will look much better if you purchase while Craig is still working.
ReplyDeleteGood luck finding the perfect rig for you!
Jeep Wrangler!
ReplyDelete