Motorhomes

[anonlooker]

With one DD in 12U TB and the other 11 y.o. (and her horse) starting competitive show jumping this summer, I'm thinking it's time to get a home we can take on the road with us.

Current thinking is to get something we can pull with the truck, so once we get there we can unhitch and have some normal transportation around town.

And no, the horse won't be traveling with us, he ships separately.

Looking for feedback, advice, pros, cons, dos, don'ts. Much appreciated.

[Tucson]

Go to a retirement type community (Phoenix, Ft. Myers, etc.) and look at ones that are a couple years old. There are plenty. Go a little bigger than you are thinking. Things start to close in after awhile.

I actually prefer to drive a RV, rather than pull a trailer. You might have a vehicle that is small enough to tow.

Make certain that the shower is usable (big enough) and the plumbing accepts toilet paper.

See how many hours are on the generator. My mother always seems to have trouble with the generator.

Check Craigslist for your area.

[bleachercoach]

No matter if you go motorhome or trailer, make sure you get one with a slide. More than one is even better. They tend to add a fair amount to the weight of a trailer but, you'd be sorry (like I am) if you didn't get one. Being able to move your table or couch back a few feet makes an unbelievable difference

Good Luck

[melsdad]

[quote="anonlooker"]With one DD in 12U TB and the other 11 y.o. (and her horse) starting competitive show jumping this summer, I'm thinking it's time to get a home we can take on the road with us.

Current thinking is to get something we can pull with the truck, so once we get there we can unhitch and have some normal transportation around town.

And no, the horse won't be traveling with us, he ships separately.

Looking for feedback, advice, pros, cons, dos, don'ts. Much appreciated.[/quote



Anonlooker, where does your DD show, My DD also jumps ( 2' 9" ) eq, jumping, hunter, we try to show once a month, kinda hard with tb but she loves both, it sure keeps her busy.

[Powerbait]

http://www.cactusropes.com/
http://www.fthr.com/

[Bill_B]

With one DD in 12U TB and the other 11 y.o. (and her horse) starting competitive show jumping this summer, I'm thinking it's time to get a home we can take on the road with us.

Looking for feedback, advice, pros, cons, dos, don'ts. Much appreciated.

We made a decision a couple of years ago to go with mobile lodging entirely as a result of softball. We travel a little farther than most for practices and games. We figured that having all the amenities of home would help our kid be rested, iced, hydrated, and properly nourished.

Someone said something about going big. We started with a trailer, went to a gas MoHo and now have a 40 ft Monaco Camelot diesel pusher with four slide outs and most of the kinks worked out. Sounds great eh?

Diesel fuel is now about $5.00 per gallon and that monstrosity has a 125 gallon tank. Why the big tank? It's very thirsty. Folks at the gas stations get a big kick out of our pump total. Maintenance can be very costly if you don't know how to do it yourself and repairs are horrendous.

Once you get where you're going with your MoHo you either need to have towed a vehicle, which gobbles more fuel, or rent something when you get there. If you go with a trailer rather than a MoHo the vehicle problem is solved but now you're really putting a lot of wear on the vehicle towing the trailer and it's quite a bit more involved getting hooked up and moving. You also need a little more skill at backing trailers than MoHos. Incidentally, the speed limit for trailers is 55 MPH while the speed limit for MoHos is the same as cars.

The big MoHo is really a bear to get clean on the outside. You can pay to have the cleaning done at about $100 per cleaning but that's hard to do. Cleaning the inside is also very much the same as cleaning your house. Preparation for a trip requires stocking with food, clothing, utensils, and a bunch of incidentals. Deciding who does that little chore can be a challenging discussion between spouses

Now for the clincher. Our daughter would much rather stay in hotels with the team than stay in the MoHo, even if we park at the hotel. She gives me grief about this and that is the thing we failed to consider when we went this way. Admittedly, the team doesn't swim in pools, run through the halls, and has bedcheck to ensure that they are ready for the games. Even so, she really prefers to be in the same hotel as the team to the extent that it is an issue.

I find these days that the MoHo sits far more than I like.

[DonnieS]

Anon, your experience is almost exactly like ours, though we had a kid in the service we used it to go visit, and our kids were heavily into competitive swimming along with softball. Every big swim 'natatorium' or whatever in Texas has been graced by our motorhome purring outside. As we pulled loose from swimming, we ran into the same thing with our daughters wanting to stay at the hotels with the team, these were their best friends, and they also dont run wild, but the do love to sit in the rooms together, get ready, do their hair together, all that kind of thing though the older has out grown some of that. Had we gone the whole enchilada with the mh like you did, ours is a 38 foot gas with no slideouts - we purchased it right at the time they were coming out and all the horror stories about the stuck slides, etc. so rather than waiting - we bought. But I got to travel to USMC bases from Parris Island, South Carolina, to the lovely Yuma USMC base visiting daughter and after a while, marine son and granddaughter. Regarding the car, on the longer stays, we rented a little s/b when we were staying somewhere for very long. It was a great idea for a while.

[Cen Cal]

My daughter plays travel soccer and softball and we really enjoy our 32' motorhome. It helps that 4 or 5 families also have RV's so half the team is together. I don't like being stuck in a hotel room either. the main reason we went to a RV is because I don't want my kid playing around the hotel. My 32' RV is easy to drive, easy to park, and with 2 popouts is also roomy enough for 5 people. Bill B if you can afford a 40' Monaco I'm suprises diesel prices are bothering you.lol. We have been extremely happy with our purchase.