Learn Me Budget RV vs. Travel Trailer

wae wrote: I know that ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ had some pretty epic issues with his, but my experience has been mostly opposite. I'd stay pretty far away from anything under about $6,500 but just like pretty much anything else with an engine, you'll never go wrong following the advice of "buy the nicest example you can afford".

I was working with about half of wae's budget, and will happily admit that I both cheaped out and pushed the thing too hard. It wasn't my intention to convey "ZOMG never buy an RV," but I do think I've confirmed through experimentation that they are indeed pieces of crap when you shop the very bottom of the market

I think the ideal camping rig, for someone who wants to also haul a race car, would be a 3/4 ton or better Truck or truck-based SUV, and a trailer with a tidy living quarters and space for a race car- or a truck with a truck-bed camper and a car hauler trailer.

We have a small pop-up trailer (Esterel, google that one) that my wife tows with her Suburban. I have a dually K3500 that tows a car hauler- and if she comes on race weekends, we have to drive separately. So that's two V8 gas trucks, each hauling trailers, each getting barely double digit fuel economy. Right now, the kids are too young to come to races, so I just go by myself, but when they get older, we'll probably have to adjust our tow rig/ trailer/ camper arrangement.

Jaynen wrote: I guess the question is, with the price of some of the burb 2500's as everyones favorite tow vehicle (it does rule out a 5er) could you afford to buy one and just park it and would that be any better than the motorhome.

I park mine beside the garage when not using it, so it's readily available for Home Depot runs or runs to the landfill or winter use where the 4x4 is nice. All things that a motorhome parked next to the house is not good for. I don't daily the Suburban at all, but I do use it often enough that it's not sitting forever which is bad for any vehicle. This would be the same for a crew cab truck that COULD tow a 5er, but at a lower price point than a diesel crew cab.

Yeah as much as I love diesels I am pretty sure I would be looking for an early 2000's LS powered 3/4ton probably something with less than 200k on it. My big question as a TV was if having 2 little kids they would fit fine in the "extended" cab vs the crew. The 3/4 ton crewcabs seem sooooo looooong with the full beds also

In reply to Jaynen:

When I bought the GL, I was originally shopping pickups. I've rented a bunch of extended/quad cabs and I took the whole family to the auto show and put them in crew cabs and quad cabs. I've got three kids, not two, so maybe not the same for you, but my girls are 10, 9, and 7 and they were really crammed in the extended cabs - and we tried Ford, Chevy, and Dodge. The crew cabs were much better and honestly I think the Dodge seemed like it had the most room for the rear seat passengers.

You're right about how freaking big the crew cab long bed truck is. With the right tonneau cover, you could point it into the wind and conduct flight operations on the bed. I had a Dodge 2500 as a rental and it was a crew cab with the long bed. It was enormous! While having the full size bed is nice sometimes, I was concerned with maneuverability when getting my trailer in and out of its storage garage. There's right about 30 feet from the garage opening straight across to the other garage door and the trailer is already 20 ft long so the shorter the tow vehicle, the better. Unfortunately, the upcharge to get the crew cab short bed is pretty steep, although to be fair I was looking primarily at half-ton trucks.

In reply to wae:

Yeah full size trucks are nothing small. Mins has 3' of frame added too....

FWIW, I love my box truck, if your thinking summer only you could go that route with cots for cheap.

I also had a 97 winnie, look for delamination in the sides. It will kill all of them eventually. Normal issues from sitting a lot, but that truck was pretty damn good for a cheap class C.

We're sold on crew cabs. We tried a few extended cabs, and even with the rear doors they're just...tight. Now I have a crew cab dually, about as big as you can get. And I don't find it bad to maneuver. it's 23 feet long, bumper to bumper, and I pull a trailer with a 20' deck- so another 23 feet of trailer. As long as you plan what you're doing, and expect to walk a bit (you can't park in the spots right next to the store, for example) it's not bad. Heck, I used to pull a 37' trailer behind a crew cab long bed pickup, and even parallel parked it once!

I had a crew cab F-150 it was great but it only had the 5.5 bed which you would not want for pulling a 5er, not sure what the length is on the 3/4ton short beds. If you are not pulling a 5er and won't use the bed a lot then the 2500 burban makes a lot of sense with its nicer interior etc

volvoclearinghouse wrote: I think the ideal camping rig, for someone who wants to also haul a race car, would be a 3/4 ton or better Truck or truck-based SUV, and a trailer with a tidy living quarters and space for a race car- or a truck with a truck-bed camper and a car hauler trailer. We have a small pop-up trailer (Esterel, google that one) that my wife tows with her Suburban. I have a dually K3500 that tows a car hauler- and if she comes on race weekends, we have to drive separately. So that's two V8 gas trucks, each hauling trailers, each getting barely double digit fuel economy. Right now, the kids are too young to come to races, so I just go by myself, but when they get older, we'll probably have to adjust our tow rig/ trailer/ camper arrangement.

I took a 2 ton Chevy truck and mounted a camper on it behind that I had a ramp which hauled one race car and pulled a trailer to split the costs of getting to and from the race track.. We'd have as many as 10 people in the camper/truck so whenever a driver was tired he could have a fresh replacement ready to take over.. More than once the switch was done while driving down the highway..