ROTF!!! LMAFAO!!!! THATS SUM FUNNY STUFF RIGHT THERE!!!!

 

I like my RV because I like to cook,sleep,and not use a toilet
that 15 nasty people have used the week before.

 

I own a couple of hotels and I spend a lot of time in them, especially in the winter when it's too cold to stay in the 5th wheel. But I'd rather be in my 5th wheel!

 

Some people save buy having an RV. 12 times a year going racing gets exspensive with a family of four for hotel and food so my wife stopped going I bought a toyhauler now we all can go and she stopped complaining abought the racing expense because she has a good time with our house on wheels.

 

From a strictly dollars and cents standpoint, I have to agree with you completely.(cost of trailer , tow vehicle,fuel, insurance etc)
BUT...most folks do the RV thing for the fun of it, just like boating and such.
Fun, but fun costs.

Having said that if I were on a road trip just to get somewhere quickly and with the least hassle, I would go the hotel route.

 

We have a 2005 Mountaineer 327RKS from Keystone - NO PROBLEMS what so ever with it. The one we owned prior to our current one was a Fleetwood Mallard which we could not get rid of quick enough due to many serious problems and would not recommend to anyone. Oh sure we had to replace the tires but I have to do the same thing on my truck.

We do a lot of traveling and if you do the math and only include the percentage of expense for the tow vehicle where it is actually used to tow the RV you would be surprised how fast the payback is over expenses for hotels/motels and restaurant food. We use ours a great deal because most hotels do not allow pets and I like having my dog with me. I have found the benefits of owning an RV far out weigh the costs of ownership. We also use it as a guest house when we have company visit.

Now you have my 2 cents.

 

Most people who have RVs should probably not have one. Add the yearly cost of insurance, monthy payment and extra gas for the year. Then divide by the # of times you take it out. You could stay at the penthouse suite of the best hotels in town for MUCH cheaper. However, I live in new mexico and love the flyfish, trailride and hunt in NM/Colorado. My wife and I both have 3day weekends sun/mon/tues. We go to remote area of NM and colorado rivers for great flyfishing. We go higher in elevation as spring progresses. Anyway, if you live in the west you have a much bigger reason to have a camper than midwest/east. I love it, not to mention my elk hunting in the fall. Try waking up to hear a elk bugling outside your camp or a water fall putting you to sleep by your camper. Pulling your camper down to a remote beach. Having dinner cooked at 10,000 ft sitting under the canopy in a reciliner in the summer looking over colorado mountain ranges. I think I stick with my camper.

 

Last year , 24 weeks in my Truck Camper, LOT cheaper than Motel & Meals.

 

What SSweeny said!

It also depends on how you go about it. If one can only think in terms of the newest, latest, greatest 40' Land Yacht Deluxo with triple pop-outs and a 2007 1 ton Cummins 4X, yea, takes a lot of motels to equal that cost.

But there's a whole bunch of folks that already have a good tow vehicle and who are wise enough to buy a used RV of a modest size. You have all the comforts of HOME and you can take it with you anywhere. None of those 'No Vacancy' signs, plus you get nutritious home cooked meals, all the amenities and complete privacy. I believe there's greater security in an RV. If somebody wants to steal something they have to get by me and Mr. Mossberg first but motels are often a target for thieves. There are many reasons to go RV whether dollars and sense or whatever....

 

I agree with Rockhound. I have a 2004 Everest 37' Quadslide. I was having a problem with the bedroom slide sagging. If you can't get help from your dealer, call the factory direct. They took very good care of me. My unit was off warranty by 9 months, but I told them I felt the problem was structual defect and poor workmanship. I had to pay the dealer $300.00 to give an evaluation to the Keystone factory because of it being off warranty, but it was worth it. The dealer told the factory that it appeared to be a structual problem. The dealer dropped the ball and didn't follow up to see what would be done so I contacted the factory my self and they couldn't have been nicer. I spoke with Darrel on a Thursday and he had a truck pick up my rig on Tuesday and on Wednesday they were working on it. They found that Lippert, they company that installs the slidouts cut away too much frame to allow wiring access. They removed the end cap and bedroom slide. They had Lippert come in and re-enforce the frame by adding some gussets and an extra cross member and painted the new metal. They did a upgrade on the slideout mechanism (replacing the roller system with a full teflon slide bar), replaced the slideout floor and side walls, repaired a small crack by adding a flex seam in the gel coat so it won't crack again. I mention that the back coner of the rubber roof was "spungy". They found the flashing that make the radius wasn't fastened tight so they released the sides of the rubber the full length on both sides and replaced and glued all the screws and refastened the roof. They would have delivered the rig back to me, but I wanted to go to the factory to check things out. It was worth the trip and we did a tour of the Everest - Challanger building. Just before we tool the tour, I showed George, the service manager, a decorative "birdhouse style" moulding that I could never get the dealer to replace. They kept telling me they couldn't get it. The service department replaced it while we were on tour.

Yes, there shouldn't have been problems like these, but Keystone stood behind their product and I wouln't hessitate to buy another.

 

Maybe I missed it, but did upersleder ever say what the outcome was with his parents trailer?

 

I have a 2001 36 TKB triple slide challenger that I bought new from the lot for my work as a traveling turnaround inspector in refineries. I live in the trailer from an average of 9 to 11 months year. A trailer is the biggest paying slot machine in my type of work than any other thing that I have purchased for work.

I have had numeous issues with this trailer from
the fresh water tank falling out of the bottom
crappy construction,
leaks,
popping fuses,
cracks in the gel coat at slide out
Bad invertor
5 years 5 batteries
Popping and leaking water lines
leaking shower.
General lets peel all the rubber Tires.
Caulking on the roof leaks
Split seals on the slide out that the first time it rained within on week of purchase was swimming in my bedroom.
The whole back end of the trailer is sagging as in structural problems.
All fixtures and speaker have even after tightening have fallen at least one time or more.

The list could continue but I think the point is made.

The dealer that I bought it from made it great to own for the 1 1/2 years while warranty was good. All else I have repaired or replaced while time allows.

I myself will NEVER ever buy another keystone products for as long as I live and I tell all other that I work with on the circuit that are considering a purchase to look elsewhere.

IF you ever want to see anything about crappy work, go in the storage area and pull one of the felt covered vertical boards that will give you access to the water heater, furnace and water piping and make list of all the pieces of board, loose fiber glass, sawdust. cut pieces of wire and anything else that you might find in you particular model.

I had the trailer repaired in 06 for damage from the tires that peeled one on each side and tore everything up. Would you be glad to know that on a 5 year trailer that the parts are no longer made by keystone.
Some may say that for living in this trailer for that amount of time that there would be issues but to those most of these problems were found inthe first year and I have had to stay on top of them to keep them from worsening.
There are a lot of better made trailers out there and I would recommend that these be considered as compared to a Keystone.

Just my $.02

 

I' guess I'm gonna have to sell my camper then, just no need for it up here in the nor'east.

 

All I have to say about this thread is that if you pull an RV off the lot without doing at least a 2-3 hour thorough PDI, then you are asking for it.

These things are built on an assembly line, if you can call it that, barely.

It is a rolling house on wheels. If you expect it to be perfect, buy a $250,000 Class A and then you have something to complain about when the marble flooring pulls loose.