Getting Tough to Keep RV'ing

[sherman12]

This has been a tough year for us to continue camping. A big part of it has been expenses for repair on our motorhome. To date, we've spent $1200 for a slide-out topper replacement (my fault), $1300 for a slide-out cable replacement, $1000 for two new front tires (still have four more to go), $600 for a new dash AC compressor (almost to the day only 2 years old, one year warranty, trash by Evans), and over $6000 just yesterday for a new radiator. On top of this, I need to repair a frameless window that broke away from its anchoring support, and I need a slide-out floor replaced (the same one that the cable broke).

Adding insult to the above, it is becoming harder and harder to book a campsite within say a couple of weeks thought of somewhere you'd like to visit. And, to get a site at a state or federal campground, just about forget it. Besides all that you have to couple in that chain campground groups such as KOA, Sun, Encore, Jellystone, and more are buying up the private mom-and-pops and jacking the rates up so much that you might as well drive your car and get a hotel.

My DW and I are tough and we are trying hard to persevere, but darn it sure is taking a lot of the fun out of camping!

[fipntdot]

I acknowledge your frustrations. That definitely seems a "when it rains it pours" situation.



Here in the midwest (Iowa) it seems we have a glut of COE and state campgrounds and usually can get one often on a day's notice, but I am sure NY is much harder. I also have stayed away from the commercial sites. Remember liking them when I was a kid, but now always seem overpriced for what you get.

[Reverse_snowbird]

We feel your frustration. Rving can be expensive and frustrating. Hopefully things will get better in the future.

[bshort]

We often have to reserve out 364 days if you want your favorite spot on any holiday weekend. About 6 months on an average weekend.

Also, 6K for a radiator seems a bit steep.

[tomkatb]

We have spent over $25,000 on repairs, maintenance and upgrades in the past 5-6 years on our fifth wheel.

Big rv's cost big bucks to maintain.

Motor homes are the most costly to maintain.

You will not like the price on a new floor in the bedroom. $2500 is sort of the going rate.

[D W]

Campground reservations aside, it sounds as if you've now entered the dreaded "money pit". No way out unless you make some wholesale changes. I saw a report on the news that said it costs 16% more just to live this year than it did last year. Sad.

[kenandterry]

Originally Posted by sherman12

This has been a tough year for us to continue camping. A big part of it has been expenses for repair on our motorhome. To date, we've spent $1200 for a slide-out topper replacement (my fault), $1300 for a slide-out cable replacement, $1000 for two new front tires (still have four more to go), $600 for a new dash AC compressor (almost to the day only 2 years old, one year warranty, trash by Evans), and over $6000 just yesterday for a new radiator. On top of this, I need to repair a frameless window that broke away from its anchoring support, and I need a slide-out floor replaced (the same one that the cable broke).

Adding insult to the above, it is becoming harder and harder to book a campsite within say a couple of weeks thought of somewhere you'd like to visit. And, to get a site at a state or federal campground, just about forget it. Besides all that you have to couple in that chain campground groups such as KOA, Sun, Encore, Jellystone, and more are buying up the private mom-and-pops and jacking the rates up so much that you might as well drive your car and get a hotel.

My DW and I are tough and we are trying hard to persevere, but darn it sure is taking a lot of the fun out of camping!

Damn I feel your pain.

Adding up all our expenses over 10 years with the Georgetown (hydraulic system overhaul, new flooring front to back, 6 tires (not including one blowout, and then the dreaded sidewall separation) never came close.

Downsizing to a used 25 footer has made things go pretty smooth (so far)

Hopefully you can pull through.

[Jim34RL]

I feel your pain. But I never went into RVING to save money. To me it is a money pit from day one between the expense of owning and operating the 5er and tow vehicle. If I had put it in the bank, I would be better off (maybe).

What you need to focus on is your enjoyment of the RV experience and the places that you have traveled to over your life of RVING. To me this more than out weights the cost of ownership and fees when traveling.

[Sunseeker16]

Painful as it is you are not alone. Some of your repairs seem a bit steep but who am I to judge. For me, 6 tires, catalytic converter stolen, ac/heater blower repair, had to have the slide pulled to make some repairs, new furniture because of the dreaded peeling, microwave went belly up and the slide will need some more work some day. Then there is the storeage fee every month. It never ends.

[rsdata]

sherman12...

yes repairs are expensive, even more so if you have to rely on an RV dealer to make them... hopefully you can do some DIY... almost a necessity at times

Federal and state campgrounds have been tough to schedule now since 2015-16

You really have to plan a year in advance and that is not always feasible...

If you can camp without electric and water out west you have it much easier to find a spot West of the Rockies... in the East you have to spend a lot of time scouting those (often county run or Fed) primitive spots that are not always easy to find, but they are out there... HOWEVER first come first serve is a problem for planning on them...

There are some youtube channels that specialize in promoting primitive/free campsites in FL, and the south US ( especially near the Mississippi), however sometimes the info is not up to date...

good luck to you and hope more good times are in front of you

[5picker]

I feel your pain. It is expensive and newer units seem worse. Best of luck to you.

Luckily, I can do just about any repair that comes along but when I sit back and look at what some others have to spend because they can't do them, I think to myself, there's no way I could afford to keep camping.

I too have to question the 6k for a radiator??

My Uncle recently made the same decision to pull back on trips and finally sold the R/V.

[lazyjj]

Expenses add up quickly for sure. I had a mobile RV tech who owns a 5vr himself tell me a couple months ago that the best thing to do is get a new one every two to three years. That convinced me what most of us old timers have said for years is that they are basically built like junk.

As for reservations, I have been a host in one of our more popular State Parks here in SC last year and this year. If you don't book a year out you want get what you want. One of the problems are weekend warriors. I get it, but they take a lot of sites on the weekends that makes it harder for those that can get a full week or so on one site.

[rowdy boys 3]

No offense to any one or any post here, but we have to remember one thing, RV's are luxury items.

Like any other luxury item a person owns, it either becomes worth having or it doesn't. And as someone posted earlier, i to didnt get into RV'ing because it was cheap, there are to many other pros of having your own RV, to include traveling this great country of ours.

I've been RVing since 1999 (started in a po-up), i've had TT, a 5th wheel and now back to a TT.

Short story, in 2005, i broke a leaf spring in Amarillo, TX, near the big texan restaurant. We managed to get the TT to a campground, for a few nights, while we located a leaf spring to change it out (my ex father in law) was traveling with us in his MH), and then we were back on the road.

Bottom line up front (BLUF), i wouldn't change my almost 25 years of rv'ing for anything else...

Semper Fidelis,
Warren Seher

[sherman12]

Jim34, is spot on. When the radiator went we had a month-long trip through New England planned. I was taking the rig into the shop to have the dash AC looked at when the low coolant/check engine light came on. When we got the news the radiator was all rotted out along the bottom our immediate response was to fix it, then sell it. Regarding the cost to repair it, the radiator alone was almost $3000 from Freightliner. And, because the rig is a DP it is no simple procedure to remove it. The shop we use charges $155 an hour and after reading the repair bill for what had to be removed from the RV underneath, I can understand the cost.

So as this came as a surprise we were forced to cancel the New England trip. When it rains it pours, all of the New England campgrounds we had reservations at keep your one-half down deposit if you cancel within 14 days of arrival. There is a guy on Google Reviews who got diagnosed with cancer and told not to travel by his Dr., and the same campground we had a reservation at keep his $900 deposit!

But perseverance is the key as I mentioned. Less than a week after having the rig at the shop my DW and I really missed our rig. We missed missing our NE trip. We started to look around at maybe downsizing to a class C and saw a couple at MHSRV in Texas, but I didn't feel like flying to Texas. A local dealer has a decent-looking Super C, a Renegada Veracuze, but priced used at a price that by my estimate is about $25K more than it should have sold new, I figure it's overpriced by a minimum of $75K. Don't think the dealer would drop their stupid price that much so no use going for a look-see.

So after considering our options, putting some figures down on paper to change out our DP, and considering the price range we would be looking at and taking on additional debt now at 8%-9% interest instead of 4.5% paying now, it makes financial sense to continue to dump more $$$ gradually into the Sportscoach, enjoy it, and enjoy the journey.

So what did we do, of course, we found a campground in Lake George, NY that had availability (been there 3 times) next week, then added a few weekdays at a NYS state park in the Finger Lakes Region on the way back(go figure), and we're going camping.

[dahagen]

I hear you. I gave up RV travel this summer. Motorhome became too xpensive and hard work. $3300 for new tires, $1000 for gas from Arizona, through Denver, to Idaho. And at 80 tough to hook up and unhook at every stop. Sold the motorhome, bought a plot of land and a cottage trailer and settled down,.

[RVwino]

Agreed. Motorhomes aren’t cheap to maintain. Switching from used DPs to a gasser has reduced our maintenance costs by a lot. Trading time for FHUs (workkamping) has also worked in our favor, but wouldn’t be everyone’s cup of tea. I like your exit strategy and think we may do something similar when the time is right.

[D W]

Operating and maintaining any RV has it's costs. You have to plan correctly and build yourself a "contingency fund" the same way that you should for everyday living situations. Both my bride and I are retired. We live comfortably, all big ticket items are paid for, and we still manage to do our usual RV outings. We often plan for the worst just in case. In the past 2 years we've had to cut-back on some trips due to fuel costs and general inflation. Most of our camping trips are centered around sport and subsistence fishing during our short camping season. We enjoy a sizable return on our recreational exploits with lots of fish for our freezer. We haven't bought fish in a store in over 20 years. So far, we haven't struggled to make ends meet. One thing we will not do is throw good money after bad. If that situation should arise we'll definitely do some rethinking.

[KMP44]

Originally Posted by sherman12

then added a few weekdays at a NYS state park in the Finger Lakes Region on the way back(go figure), and we're going camping.

No easy answer for the pain from repairs, but for booking sites, at least NYS parks, check out CampADK.com if you haven't already. They constantly monitor cancellations for all Park Service and DEC campgrounds. in NY. You set filters for park / dates / site length and other things and it will alert you cancellations in real time. We've pretty much quit trying to play nine month (plus 14 day) game. Had much more success scoring cancellations. Its $20 a year to get access to the cancellations, but only need to score one or two reservations for it to be totally worth the cost.

We got a lake front site for 5 nights at Cranberry Lake ($20/night) and a couple weekends at Sampson that way this summer.

[Nick Danger]

I can sympathize with your situation. Not that my story makes your any more acceptable; but...

When we did our de-winterizing this spring we learned that our 2 year old propane/electric fridge crapped out. The manufacturer gave us a free replacement but we had to pay $1200 in labor to remove old and install new because it wouldn't fit out the door. Most expensive "free" fridge I ever had. A month later noticed door droops down because plastic hinge split. Turns out whoever screwed it in, over-tightened it to the point it cracked. That was a cheap fix I did myself but there was some swearing involved.

Next year will be our 5th season in this TT. Already budgeting $1500 to replace 4 tires in spring to minimize chances of catastrophe.

Only saving grace I tell myself is "that it's cheaper than a boat!" My neighbor has one and he tells me what it costs to keep that thing in the water. Yikes!

However, we've started doing extended travel and I look forward to the new adventures. Hopefully I can control the costs. Best of luck in your endeavors.

[Sbadocko]

The OP's expenses is why DW & I moved from motorized to looking for a travel trailer. Expensive toy, expensive repairs. Complicated toy, expensive repairs. Plus getting chassis service on a motorhome is next to impossible now (at least where I live).

Just upgraded the truck to be able to pull whatever we want within reason (we won't go over 28', preferably 26'). The truck is my daily driver so that cuts away some of the hobby's expense. We'll find our trailer over the course of the next couple of years.