Dipping our Toe into the RV Waters!

[Lisa99]

Just finished making reservations to fly to Arkansas to buy our first RV.

It's a Class C, 1992 TravelCraft 29'. It's an oldy but a goody since it is owned by my FIL and has been babied by him for the last 10 years.

We pick it up on Wednesday, September 21 and have to race home to Nevada since we have to be back at work the following Monday.

Neither DH nor I have ever operated an RV so this little trip will be quite the experience. We've set aside a full day to learn the mechanics and practice driving in the AR mountains before we head home. If all goes well, and we enjoy the lifestyle, the next step once we retire is to RV full-time for the first several years of retirement.

And finally, to help remember all of the RV-required activities I bought an iPhone app called RV Checklist which has extensive lists of stuff to turn off, on and stow both before you leave and once you get to a destination...gotta love technology!

 

[Sarah in SC]

Congrats Lisa! I think you will love it. Will it come stocked with the kitchen supplies and linens already? That is one tip if it doesn't--go ahead and buy one of everything you'll need and leave them packed so it is ready to go all the time. Makes spontaneous trips far easier when all you have to do is pack a cooler and the dog of your choice to take off!

 

[Lisa99]

Congrats Lisa! I think you will love it. Will it come stocked with the kitchen supplies and linens already? That is one tip if it doesn't--go ahead and buy one of everything you'll need and leave them packed so it is ready to go all the time. Makes spontaneous trips far easier when all you have to do is pack a cooler and the dog of your choice to take off!

Thanks Sarah! Our HOA doesn't allow RVs so we'll be parking it in a storage facility. But we'll definitely keep everything but food in it for a quick getaway. And if we take one dog, we'll HAVE to take both. They're all about fair and one having to stay home is just not fair!! (Reading Merle's Door at your recommendation confirmed for me that dogs know all about fair and many other emotional concepts)

 

[REWahoo]

One critical thing you need to do is check the age of the tires. If they are more than five years old I would urge you to consider replacing them sooner rather than later. If they are more than six years old I'd strongly suggest replacing them before you attempt the drive home. How to read a tire date code.

Even if the tires are brand new make sure you have towing coverage on your insurance or subscribe to an RV emergency road service like Coach Net.

 

[Sarah in SC]

REW is right about that--or you'll wind up like we did, heading up to a music festival last month! Blown inside tire. And can I say, AAA-RV Plus not so awesome if you have other choices for road service.

Ah, with only two dogs, you don't have to choose! We've got 6 right now, including 2 fosters. Glad you loved Merle's Door as much as I did.

 

[Lisa99]

One critical thing you need to do is check the age of the tires. If they are more than five years old I would urge you to consider replacing them sooner rather than later. If they are more than six years old I'd strongly suggest replacing them before you attempt the drive home. How to read a tire date code.

Even if the tires are brand new make sure you have towing coverage on your insurance or subscribe to an RV emergency road service like Coach Net.

Thanks for the tips! FIL replaced the tires about three months ago so we're good there. And I'll be adding the RV to our AAA towing insurance.

 

[IBWino]

One critical thing you need to do is check the age of the tires. If they are more than five years old I would urge you to consider replacing them sooner rather than later. If they are more than six years old I'd strongly suggest replacing them before you attempt the drive home. How to read a tire date code.

Even if the tires are brand new make sure you have towing coverage on your insurance or subscribe to an RV emergency road service like Coach Net.

Do tires have an expiration date? The tires on our Dodge Durango are the original ones from when we bought it 10 years ago. I've never replaced tires for any reason other than wear, and these still have several years worth of tread left on them.

 

[Blackwoodt]

You will have so much fun! and Sarah is right, it's just like setting up two households.

I’m on my 3rd RV with DH, the first two were class C’s, I find them easy to drive. We now have a class A with two slides to give us more room to take our two dogs.

Great way to see the country, I think you will love it!

 

[Lisa99]

Do tires have an expiration date? The tires on our Dodge Durango are the original ones from when we bought it 10 years ago. I've never replaced tires for any reason other than wear, and these still have several years worth of tread left on them.

RV tires have to be watched. If the RV sits without being driven the rubber can 'rot'.

 

[Lisa99]

You will have so much fun! and Sarah is right, it's just like setting up two households.

I’m on my 3rd RV with DH, the first two were class C’s, I find them easy to drive. We now have a class A with two slides to give us more room to take our two dogs.

Great way to see the country, I think you will love it!

I think we'll love it too. I introduced the idea of fulltiming to DH last week and at first he was "no way"! I'm working on him though and by the time we get to the retirement date I'll have him there...I SO want to sell all of our stuff, sell the house and just travel for a couple of years. Then when we settle back down, keep it a very simple life with little stuff.

 

[IBWino]

RV tires have to be watched. If the RV sits without being driven the rubber can 'rot'.

That makes sense. Thanks.

 

[REWahoo]

Do tires have an expiration date? The tires on our Dodge Durango are the original ones from when we bought it 10 years ago. I've never replaced tires for any reason other than wear, and these still have several years worth of tread left on them.

Personally I don't trust any tire over 6 years old on any vehicle for anything beyond a couple of miles to the grocery store & back. Definitely not at highway speeds, especially if you decide to load the wife, kids, dog, grandma and a trunk full of luggage. Time, sun, ozone, and underinflation - not necessarily in that order - kills tires.

RV tires are even more susceptible to failure due to the loads they carry.

 

[Gone4Good]

I SO want to sell all of our stuff, sell the house and just travel for a couple of years.

Having done just that for the past 15 months I can unconditionally recommend it. We're having a blast. I'm convinced it is the best way to see North America - and it's so big, you really do need a couple of years to do it justice.

Tell DH to give it a shot. There is nothing that is done that can't be undone if either of you decide you don't like it.

 

[Lisa99]

Personally I don't trust any tire over 6 years old for anything beyond a couple of miles to the grocery store & back. Definitely not at highway speeds, especially if you decide to load the wife, kids, dog, grandma and a trunk full of luggage. Time, sun, ozone, and underinflation - not necessarily in that order - kills tires.

Interesting, thanks for making me think about this in a different way.

I'm putting <300 miles/month on my new Prius so I may never "need" new tires based on tread wear but I may need to replace them someday anyway based on the climate that I live in.

 

[REWahoo]

Do tires have an expiration date?

No, but they do have a 4 digit code showing the week and year they were manufactured. See the link I posted above.

 

[Lisa99]

Having done just that for the past 15 months I can unconditionally recommend it. We're having a blast. I'm convinced it is the best way to see North America - and it's so big, you really do need a couple of years to do it justice.

Tell DH to give it a shot. There is nothing that is done that can't be undone if either of you decide you don't like it.

Absolutely agree! And we will be selling the current house at retirement anyway (it's way too big), so why not give travel a shot. The only issue is DH loves his stuff, so we'll have to rent a small storage facility for his memorabilia, but I'm ok with that.

 

[REWahoo]

I'm putting <300 miles/month on my new Prius so I may never "need" new tires based on tread wear but I may need to replace them someday anyway based on the climate that I live in.

Yep, most folks wear out tires on their cars and suv's long before they 'age' out. RV's aren't usually driven enough to even come close to wearing out the tread before the ravages of time make them unsafe.

 

[IBWino]

No, but they do have a 4 digit code showing the week and year they were manufactured. See the link I posted above.

Thanks, I had looked at that link, and that made me wonder about the expiration date. It's something to consider.

Lisa99, congrats on the aquisition and best of luck on your inaugural trip.

 

[brewer12345]

Yep, most folks wear out tires on their cars and suv's long before they 'age' out. RV's aren't usually driven enough to even come close to wearing out the tread before the ravages of time make them unsafe.

I managed to have tires on my car fail earlier this year due to rot rather than mileage. The car had become a grocery getter/station car that did not get driven more than 2000 miles a year and the tires gave out after 5 and a half years. Still had plenty of tread.

 

[Gone4Good]

The only issue is DH loves his stuff, so we'll have to rent a small storage facility for his memorabilia, but I'm ok with that.

We struggled with whether to rent a storage facility and keep a bunch of things. We ultimately decided that paying for storage for any length of time was like buying 10-year old stuff all over again. We figured we'd save the rental cost and buy new if that time ever arises.

 

[Lisa99]

We struggled with whether to rent a storage facility and keep a bunch of things. We ultimately decided that paying for storage for any length of time was like buying 10-year old stuff all over again. We figured we'd save the rental cost and buy new if that time ever arises.

His stuff is three suitcases full of report cards, awards, letters I wrote to him while we were dating, eagle scout stuff and other personal memorabilia.

He is very sentimental and very attached to his stuff and since it doesn't take up all that much room we might ask if it could be stored in his sister's attic.

Someday, when we're gone, our son will just toss it in the trash but until then his stuff is not going anywhere!

The rest of the furniture, art, rugs, etc would all be sold.

 

[Gone4Good]

He is very sentimental and very attached to his stuff and since it doesn't take up all that much room we might ask if it could be stored in his sister's attic.

Yup, we too have some irreplaceable things squirreled away in relatives' attics.

 

[Nords]

Do tires have an expiration date? The tires on our Dodge Durango are the original ones from when we bought it 10 years ago. I've never replaced tires for any reason other than wear, and these still have several years worth of tread left on them.

Thanks, I had looked at that link, and that made me wonder about the expiration date. It's something to consider.

I managed to have tires on my car fail earlier this year due to rot rather than mileage. The car had become a grocery getter/station car that did not get driven more than 2000 miles a year and the tires gave out after 5 and a half years. Still had plenty of tread.

We have the same low-mileage high-UV conditions in the isles. In our case with our Altima's 10-year-old tires, the car developed a steering-wheel shimmy that grew progressively worse. I was thinking we needed to check a wheel bearing or a front-end alignment. Then one side of the front developed a peculiar speed-related "galumping" noise that was especially bad at 10-20 MPH. A short visual inspection of the tire revealed that the steel belt was breaking through.

We would've figured out this problem a lot quicker if we were in regions that had high speed limits (over 60 MPH) or higher mileage (over 3000-4000 miles/year). The easy answer is to replace the tires every 5-6 years no matter how well they seem to be holding up.

Of course we had two flat tires within a few months of putting on the new ones. One flat was a manufacturer's defect and the other was a Phillips' head screw.

 

[travelover]

RV tires have to be watched. If the RV sits without being driven the rubber can 'rot'.

+1 on this. I come from the auto business where lot rot - meaning new cars parked for weeks - causes problems like tire flat spotting and disc brake rotor localized rusting. The best thing you can do for any vehicle is drive it regularly. Sitting causes all kinds of weird problems. When we did prove out testing, we would try to simulate a lifetime of use in a few months. This prove out entailed driving the vehicle night and day with occasional passes through a salt bath and lots of bumps. We never let a vehicle sit for 3 or 6 months to see what would quit working.

 

[IBWino]

@Nords,
Thanks. I think I'll perform a detailed visual inpection of both vehicles tomorrow. My wife's Durango sits in our grarage most of the time. However, my 2005 GMC pickup sits in our driveway, so its tires might actually be in worse shape than the Durango's, even though they're newer and with fewer total miles on them.