RV Sold

Rich_by_the_Bay

Rich_by_the_Bay

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To my great disappointment, we sold our 36 foot 2009 Wiinnebago Itaska motorhome yesterday. Family health problems progressively limited our ability to use and maintain it and made the fixed ownership costs hard to justify.

After cutting our teeth on a Class B, then a trailer, we bought the motorhome in 2009, loved it. RVing can be a great recreational lifestyle or alternate "home" and we have no regrets. There is a small possibility we will dive back in in the future but for now it's over. I'll enjoy RVing vicariously through posts here and on the RV boards.

As you might imagine this is not a good time to sell. We took a 40% hit on a 2 year old unit (most of which occurred the day we drove it out of the dealer's lot), though the original purchase price was quite low, too. But hanging on to it with infrequent and limited usage while still paying for storage, insurance, maintenance, and depreciation won out over our pride.

I'll be selling off some towing gear and other odds and ends when I get around to it. We're consoling ourselves (along with DW's 60th, our 40th anniversary year, and my retirement) by taking an Alaskan cruise in August.
 
The Two Happiest Days of Your Life.

The two happiest days of your life are...

The day you buy your big boat.

And the day you sell it.
 
"Family health problems...."

Not sure I like the sound of that.
I see Freebird is planning to sell her boat.
No doubt about it, we're all getting older!
 
Meadbh said:
"Family health problems...."
Click to expand...
It's OK, nothing life-threatening.

RVing entails a number of strenuous or at least awkward chores (sometimes unexpected, like a branch snagged on the roof antenna), prolonged driving despite plans not to do that, being hours from decent medical care, crawling on the ground to solve a mystery noise, etc.

Prudent judgment in our case leans toward putting that kind of stuff on hold, at least for a while.
 
Rich_in_Tampa said:
... crawling on the ground to solve a mystery noise...
Click to expand...
Heh, if you follow your pre-departure checklist and close the black water dump valve, the cops won't pull you over and make you crawl underneath to locate the source of that "mystery noise". ("Honey, why are all those people passing us pointing, honking and giving us dirty looks?").

Or so I've heard... :)
 
Ugh! That is so disappointing, Rich!
Man, stuff like this is why I want to take my retirement like Travis McGee some days.

I am so very sorry to hear that y'all have got some health problems.
At least you can still travel by car to see us again, maybe? :)

And I do agree--the toll that our 1976 motorhome and our 1976 trawler take on both DH and I are pretty extreme, ask me about sanding and varnishing this past weekend! It would be a lot harder to imagine doing that stuff at your age!:hide:
 
REWahoo said:
Yep. Maneuvering around on the roof is tough - especially while using my walker...
Click to expand...

Do the orderlies know you are out of bed again?
 
Oof. So sorry to hear that you couldn't make good use of your RV any more, Rich. I know you loved it.

I am thinking that probably the great joy and satisfaction you got from it as a brand new RV owner, may at least partially compensate for the lower price you got upon selling it.

As you point out, this doesn't mean that you can't travel by other means and continue to enjoy retirement in all possible ways.
 
Sarah in SC said:
And I do agree--the toll that our 1976 motorhome and our 1976 trawler take on both DH and I are pretty extreme, ask me about sanding and varnishing this past weekend! It would be a lot harder to imagine doing that stuff at your age!:hide:
Click to expand...
:D

The old Class B that you saw when we visited might start looking good again in a year or two. Ya never know...
 
Well, Are you going to put temp and pressure sensors on your car wheels to keep track of heating problems. Gotta do something to for amusement.

Hope the family health issues are [-]fixable[/-] repairable. There is a difference!
 
W2R said:
Oof. So sorry to hear that you couldn't make good use of your RV any more, Rich. I know you loved it.

I am thinking that probably the great joy and satisfaction you got from it as a brand new RV owner, may at least partially compensate for the lower price you got upon selling it.

As you point out, this doesn't mean that you can't travel by other means and continue to enjoy retirement in all possible ways.
Click to expand...
Yep, plenty of other things to enjoy.

I think that FIRE lifestyle choices are best treated like asset allocation -- don't put all your eggs in one basket. I have a golf friend who breathed golf from wake-up to bedtime. He suddenly slipped a disk in his neck and can't ever play again. Unfortunately he had trouble discovering other things to enjoy. Shouldn't be a problem for us.
 
Rich, sorry to hear about the health problem and deciding to sell your motor home. Always wanted a class A but never got around to it. When I first retired, had a chance to buy a 35 ft. Avion travel trailer. Had the big Chevy Suburban. Did that three years and cashed it in for a condo in Ft. Myers. Loved ever minute of the RV life but times changed for us also. Glad I did that when I was in my 50's. Couldn't do that today as it's a lot of work also. Best wishes on a speedy solution to the health problems. Never know, you might get back into it some day.
 
We sold our camper trailer when our children reached their teen years and became so ornery that I was afraid someone was going to get hurt and it might have been me.:)

We basically quit travelling until we could travel without them. Now, DW and I take extended car trips. We look at motor homes, but the prices are mind boggling. Also, once you have the thing, you have another ongoing maintenance issue and we already have plenty of those.
 
DH and I enjoyed tent camping in our 20s...
camping in a Coleman pop-up trailer in our 30s...
renting a Mini-Winnie for the occasional long weekend in our 40s...
and now in our 50s, as one of our traveling friends puts it....
Nothing beats an uneventful flight, a rental car upgrade, and a confirmed reservation at a Hyatt near a great restaurant!
 
It's better to have RV'd and lost than to never have RV'd at all.

When DH bought his motorcycle three years ago, he promised he would sell it when his reaction time started to slow down. ...and yeah, I believe him.

Here's to better health and a new interest....:flowers:
 
From a fellow RVer I am very sorry to hear this. I hope you find away to take it back up some day or find an equally enjoyable activity.
 
Rich,
I understand completely. I am sorry you had to part with it but you are correct...having it sit and eat money knowing you are not going to use it in the foreseeable future makes for an uncomfortable quandary; keep it thinking you might use it or sell it with a "maybe" someday in the future we may do it again. Keeping it comes with all kinds of thoughts about losing all the "improvements" you have made to it over the past 2 years as well as finding and fixing all the "bugs" that come with all expensive transportable toys. Selling it involves loss of equity but like you said the annual expenses add up especially if you are not living in it.

We are temporarily parked for a while. DW's business is taking on a life of its own and there seems to be no time to load up and hit the road for months at a time like we used to...not even a full week this year. We actually put it up for sale in several places but got no offers...I guess it was just not to be, yet. We will wait and see if things level out or not. If not, then I will try again around Snowbird season.
 
That's ok buddy (the decision to sell). You got to experience your dream for a few years.

I completely understand where you are coming from... I was a boat owner for several years.

The day I bought it. :dance:

The day I sold it. :dance:

Hopefully the health issue does not restrict your travel. From your posts, I get the impression that you have a little wanderlust in you.

You can always fire up the car and go stay in a hotel, B&B, motel, lodge, cottage, etc. That is how we plan to do it.
 
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