How many miles on your cars?

[RonBoyd]

Interesting, Ron. Since we already had a tow vehicle that was rated for 3500#, we ended up with a travel trailer that has all the amenities you described. It was a lot less expensive than a motorized RV and fits us for now. But if it were just DW and I, a roadrek would be at the top of the list. We generally use the camp's showers as well, as the bath in the trailer is functional but tight.

Yeah, but... You do have to include the cost of the tow vehicle. There is somewhere (and I did search for) a blog that listed ALL the costs involved in the purchase of a Travel Trailer setup. IIRC (and most likely not), the trailer itself cost in the $70k range and the total ended up around $140k.

In any event, in my earlier post, I was thinking of a Class C RV and the towed vehicle being pulled by the RV. A TT would (for me) add a whole different slant to things. TT are great for camping but pretty impractical for (our type of) traveling. While I said that we use the Roadtrek as our hotel room, the actual intent is to use it to get to places where I can get out of bed and take photographs without having to drive for 25 miles -- Arches National Park comes to mind. Dragging a big ol trailer doesn't sound like much fun for that. Since our purchase was late in the year, we have not been able to use it in this manner but watch out next summer.

But, yes, I do agree that a TT is an excellent choice. We have two friends that have TTs and wouldn't have it any other way. But, then again, they are campers.

BTW, the photography thing is what brought me to consider an RV in the first place. I was led to this website. Now, that's expensive. A Roadtrek was my compromise.

Again, in full disclosure mode. We purchased the Roadtrek because we both were retired last spring. We have always traveled extensively and were looking for a way to eliminate the travel "industry" --airlines and hotels, specifically -- as much as possible. An RV seemed a perfect fit. However, after we purchased the Roadtrek, DW was asked if she would be interested in doing FCC Compliance Inspections of radios using frequencies owned by the Airlines. This would require going to airports and off-site locations. The fact that there was a hefty hourly rate paid as well as all expenses -- hotel, travel, food, etc -- made it a little hard to refuse. As a consequence, our travels, thus far, have been dictated by the location of target airports. (Nevertheless, on routes that we would have taken anyway.) Performing this duty, BTW, is without pressure of any kind so we do it "as we travel."

 

[brewer12345]

I agree that a big honkin' TT would be a hassle. That's why we ended up with a 16 foot bunkhouse model (Fun Finder 160X). I have hooked it up and struck camp in under 30 minutes with minimal help from DW (who was dealing with the kids) when very motivated by heavy rain. Its not as easy to drag from spot to spot as turning the key on the Roadtrek, but we generally plop the trailer down for a couple days or more and then sightsee/move around in the tow vehicle (minivan) if we wish to do so.

As for the cost of the setup, we already owned the minivan as a daily driver. The trailer, hitch setup, the additional equipment the van needed and all the trimmings came to less than $20k. If we had gone used it could have been significantly less.

 

[tryan]

02 : 122k (mine)
02 : 77k (DW)