REduce burn rate with an RV. A used one?

[SteveR]

We just concluded the rental agreement on a RV garage less than two miles from my house. It will make it a lot easier to keep the rig out of the nasty weather this winter and give me a place to go to work on it as needed since we have no space at the house to store this beast. I can easily pull it out and run it around the city a couple of times a month to keep the batteries charged and the oil and other fluids moving.

Our first camping trip looks to be in January to St. George area. No vacation left until then unless we can sneak away in November before the snow get bad around here. Otherwise, we might just try and overnighter in the driveway to check out all the stuff before we winterize it and put it into storage.

Here is a photo of a similar rig...ours does not have the fancy ($5000) paint job on the skirts but is exactly the same otherwise.

 

[youbet]

I went and checked it out on the mfg's web site. Very, very nice.

Now....we gotta get ya RE's so there's plenty of time to enjoy!

 

[audreyh1]

OOOOOooooo! You bought a BornFree?!?! Very, very high quality product. Congrats. I have often admired those rigs. Too small (for us) to full time in now, but the kind of rig I imagine using if we ever go back to living in a house and want a smaller RV.

Of course we'll have to pare my husbands monster camera equipment way down before we'll ever fit in a smaller rig. I wonder if my husband will ever tire of running around with a his huge 600mm lens and giant tripod (with gimball head) that it requires.

Audrey

 

[Martha]

As Audrey says, ooooohs and ahhhhs on the Born Free. Lovely motorhome and the new heavy duty chasis too. The demo model sounds great. Born Free really makes the interiors nice.

You might consider a battery disconnect switch for the off season. We did that so we didn't have to worry about the little electrical things running down the charge.

 

[SteveR]

Thanks for the ooooos and aaaaaaaaaaahs

We are very happy with our choice. We traveled to Colorado over the weekend to see and drive a sister unit to this one. The guy we visited was very very knowledgeable and spent half the day with us allowing us to go over it with a fine tooth comb and to drive it on many different kinds of roads with him supervising and advising on how best to drive a rig that is 10 feet wide, 11 feet tall, 32 feet long and weighs over 17,900#.

In fact, the unit we were originally interested in was his old rig until the demonstrator appeared on our radar screen.

This coach is just the right size for the two of us for non-full time RVing. We looked at the Bigfoot 32 and 35 Kodiac models with the Born Free right next to them (Bigfoot dealer was more than happy to check out the Born Free). There are many pluses and minuses to either rig and if were to go full time we might go with a 35’ Bigfoot mostly because of the extra storage and the all weather insulation and heating systems for the tanks. Since we plan on getting AWAY from the snow and cold during the winter this was not a priority for us.

Our rig has cherry cabinets that are custom made with solid wood and the finest craftsmanship I have seen in any RV and most high end kitchens. The leather chairs and sofa are very nice and the bed is a SelectComfort. There are many many items that make this a good choice for us. It also includes: battery cut off switch, china toilet, full fiberglass shower with sliding door, LCD TVs both in the living area and bedroom (both are HDTV), in-motion Kingdome TV satellite dish, tank flushing system, air ride system, etc. etc.

The only real negatives we have are the limited sleeping space (4 adults), small amount of clothing storage and limited outside basement storage. We don’t plan on full-timing it so these things can all be addressed through using the dingy for storage of some item like hanging clothes, extra bulky stuff and extra water or food, tents, sleeping bags, etc.

Once we drive it back we will have a nice long list of things to do, buy, fix etc., I am sure.

Looking forward to next year when we can really do some traveling. Maybe we can have a FIRE rally somewhere.

 

[Nords]

Looking forward to next year when we can really do some traveling. Maybe we can have a FIRE rally somewhere.

Sturgis?

Seriously, though, our alumni magazine has a section of newsletters from the various state/area chapters of the alumni organization. The unique chapter is the Recreational Vehicle group... maybe every major school has one.

 

[Sam]

... and advising on how best to drive a rig that is 10 feet wide, 11 feet tall, 32 feet long and weighs over 17,900#.

I think you're mistaken. 8.5 feet wide is more likely.

Anyway, congrats. It's a nice nice toy. How much discount, percentage wise, did you get from msrp?

 

[audreyh1]

Steve - your rig is not 10 feet wide! 102" (8.5 feet) is the legal limit on US roads. The mirrors don't count (safety devices are allowed to extend beyond 102").

But at 11" tall, and 32" long, it's no much smaller than our class A (12.5" tall, 37" long).

But ours ways almost 30,000 pounds LOL!

It doesn't have slides does it? I haven't noticed a Born Free with slides.

Audrey

 

[SteveR]

I think you're mistaken. 8.5 feet wide is more likely.

I stand corrected.
It just FEELs like it is 10 feet wide.

Anyway, congrats. It's a nice nice toy. How much discount, percentage wise, did you get from msrp?

The factory is treating it like a new rig as far as warranty and title are considered. They did discount it for the miles on the rig. The way I look at it is that the factory drove it as a demo so they did the "shake down" of the rig and fixed all the little stuff that happens with anything with this many parts assembled by humans. We negotiated some changes and additions in addition to the price adjustment like an upgraded hitch and additional awning and a couple of other things.

Audreyh1,

No slides....Dodgen Industries will not make a rig with slides and they are much like Lazydaze with their reasoning....safety, noise, leaks, mechanical complexity, weight...but mostly safety since no one has ever died in a Born Free accident. We are OK with the smaller living space since we don't have to worry about not having enough space if we were somewhere where slides could not be deployed. The living space is also wider when in-motion because it does not have slides.

We have the Kodiac C5500 Chassis with a gas Vortac 8L engine. I will be putting a Banks Power Pack on it next spring to boost the performance in mountain driving.