"Borrow" your camper?

[EnduroRdr]

I don't think so! Most of the times in the past that I have lent out stuff it came back dirty or broken.
Guess Im a scrooge!

[Frank-VA]

Originally Posted by mark0224

Not going to happen here, nobody using ours but us, not our kids or our siblings. Wouldn't let any of my kids drive my truck let alone to my trailer, wouldn't even allow them to use our trailer even if I towed it and set it up. As for siblings GET YOUR OWN, you all have jobs too.

2x that I have let my daughter drive my truck one time

[BuckeyeChuck]

Originally Posted by Wiscampsin

There are places that rent campers and that's where I'll tell them to go. I could tell them to go somewhere else but it wouldn't be polite

X2

[mhartzel]

A "friend" of mine has a wreck of a trailer (and treats it as such) and asked if his family could occasionally use our hybrid. After camping with them one time and watching what they did (setup, use, lack of cleaning...) The answer is a firm no.
The '95 Coleman popup that my in-laws sold us, and we sold to a very good friend of ours, still looks new on the inside.

I'd be surprised if we let the "friends" inside our new trailer.

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[BamaBob]

Originally Posted by B47

My step son had a bumper sticker on his pickup that might be appropriate in some cases here and could be modified to fit your particular situation:

"Yes it's my pickup and No I won't help you move."

HAHA I have that EXACT Magnet sign on our TV Tailgate!

And I am with the majority of the others. Ummmm...NO!

[jwedell]

Say NO they hate you ONCE!
Say YES you hate them FOREVER!

[EnduroRdr]

Originally Posted by jwedell

Say NO they hate you ONCE!
Say YES you hate them FOREVER!

[OL Creeker]

I'd send them the link to rvrental.com! Ain't gonna happen!

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by jwedell

Say NO they hate you ONCE!
Say YES you hate them FOREVER!

Ain't that the truth...

[Lynkage]

Rentals are the way I would point them.

[bitNine]

Here's my thoughts on this:

We have a late 90's pop-up camper that we share within the family, but it is my brother's. When we first got it, I did a ton of work on it to fix broken things, electrical problems, awning, you name it. I used it once, then my brother uses it occasionally. We, together, take good care of it. He has let a couple of friends use it, and that's where the good stories end. People don't care when it's not theirs, or when it's not going to come out of their pocket later. Whether it's care for the awning, making sure it's packed up properly, or making sure it's clean and not damaged, people just don't give a crap.

I just purchased my trailer with the specific intention of putting it into a rental program. I won't have to pay a penny for the trailer, as the amount of income will about equal my expenses. The guy who runs the rental program lets me store it for free, use his sewer dump for free, and basically use the trailer any time I want. We just split income 50/50. He does all the hard work... paperwork, deposits, insurance, walkthroughs, etc. We rented one of his trailers last year, and it was about 6 years old, and was in really good shape. You could tell it had some miles on it, but it was well taken care of. But the difference between this and letting friends/family borrow, is that these people have deposits taken, and agree to pay for any damage, cleaning, tank emptying, etc. It all falls on the renter, and because of that it makes me feel much safer. Their shop does all the repairs if anything is broken, and they don't charge me for it unless it's something that literally failed, like a water heater, furnace, etc. Minor repairs he does for free because he gets income. I rent my trailer out for $180/night, with an average of 60 nights per season. That's about $5,400 income for me.

Loan payments, registration, and insurance cost me about $4k per year. If things go well, and I put the extra cash into the loan, I'll have it paid off in about 5 years, and I will have put exactly $0 into it. I figure I have less emotion in this trailer since I bought it as an investment with benefits. If things don't go well over this summer, I'll lessen the frequency it gets rented, and maybe be more picky about where the trailer is allowed to go. As of right now, I don't allow anything but 3/4 and 1 ton vehicles to pull it, and it's not allowed to go to Sturgis.

So if you want to allow friends to borrow it, you need to set very strict requirements. Make them give you a cash deposit, do a walkthrough, and make them pay for any damage to it. It's only fair, and if they don't want to do that, tell them to go pound sand and rent my trailer for $180/night.

[bkearney]

I might consider it... with a $60,000 deposit.

[John4th]

Nope. Not gonna happen. Plus, you know what? Vast majority of people my age (late 30s) don't drive vehicles that can tow it. Guess what else they'll want to borrow?

Again, nope.

[Weezer]

bitNine,

Ex and I had the same experience with a "family" Motorhome. It wasn't friends that ruined it, it was other family members. We put a ton of work into it, and it seemed that every time *we* used it something had to be fixed before we took it out. NEVER again. Had a tranny bite the dust once, going up the mountain at Carlsbad Caverns. Stuck there for 4 days getting the tranny replaced, only to find out later that FIL had put a stick in the tranny cooler hose while working on the radiator (didn't want the fluid to drain) and forgot to remove it before hooking the hose back up.

Did he reimburse us? ummmm that'd be NO. Didn't find out what the problem was until the tranny failed AGAIN on our next trip. Yeah, we had to pay for that one also.

Loan out our RV? Answer is still; not no, but heyull NO!

Can't see us putting our 5er into a rental program either. I LIKE knowing that no one else has slept in our bed. It's not only cheaper than a hotel room...it's CLEANER.

[bitNine]

Originally Posted by Weezer

Can't see us putting our 5er into a rental program either. I LIKE knowing that no one else has slept in our bed. It's not only cheaper than a hotel room...it's CLEANER.

Wow, what a story!

That's why both mattresses still have the plastic on them in my trailer. Besides, nothing beats camping for free

[Weezer]

Originally Posted by bitNine

Wow, what a story!

nothing beats camping for free

I'll just agree to disagree on this one.

[wmtire]

Hi everyone. There were a few posts that were kinda pushing the edges here, and were for the most part extremely off-topic. The site team has decided to remove them from this thread....even though they may have been humorous and interesting to say the least.

Just letting everyone know, so if you may notice yours (or someone else's) post missing.

[Taranwanderer]

I've been using my camper for 2.5 years now, and I still go through my checklist before going and coming, and there's still times that something gets bent, tweaked, or outright damaged--and that's with me being careful. Rent/loan it to someone who doesn't know all the ins and outs of my camper and it's use? Too many things that can go wrong. Hell to the no! There's no way any rental income will be worth the hassle and headache.

[sunnygirl01]

If there is anything I have learned in my (few) years of adulthood it is that you keep friends and family and money and $$$$ items separate!

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[DougP47]

Buy one, I did.