Renting an RV

i know a lot of you own toy haulers, etc.

That’s not in the budget, nor do i want to own a tow vehicle for such a rig. What i am considering is either renting a rig, or buying an older one.

Renting would be a trial run on ownership, but i’m Playing with the idea of doing a 30-60 day trip with 2 adults and 5 kids across the country.

Rental would run a solid $7k. I could buy an older, but low mileage RV for under $10k. Really questioning how soft the sales market is though. Will i be able to sell it at the end of summer? Am i asking for misery by buying a 20 yr old RV?

I can front a lot more than $10k if i know i’ll Get 80% of it back when i sell...

 

Stuck with 5 kids in an RV for 2 months. What you need is lots of alcohol!

 

That and a psychiatric evaluation.

 

So realistically if you bought a unit, used it for a few thousand miles, then sold it for 3-5k loss your still way ahead $$$ wise.

Only issue is whats going to break while your using it...thats the risk. FWIW people have recently started doing this with small planes for training (buy use for a year or so to train and build hours then sell for almost no loss), and the biggest risk is something expensive happening.

You looking all cash or financing? If you could buy one with financing for about 20K, new enough to have good market and not be worn out but still cheap, use it then sell it if you had some cash to cover any loss when you sell. Thats probably better than renting, but still has risk.

have you looked at RVshare.com or other P to P RV rental sites?

 

1.) Bought new, 7/17, for $77K.
2.) Major health issues force life change, 3/18.
3.) Consigned, 7/18.
4.) Sold, 5/19, ~$50K.

I was lucky to get what I did.

Four Winds 24F, loaded, had 4400mi, full-wall slide, never used anything in the kitchen or bath (used public/work facilities, businesses, pissed in the dirt). Had it consigned at two different dealers. The selling dealer and I agreed to both take hits to get it gone to the one serious buyer we had in ~10mos. I owed ~$45K and that was roughly what I received from the sale of it. For ~$32K in outlay, in 22mos, I have nothing to show for it.

The only way to ever buy new is if you can easily afford the depreciation and you’re keeping it until death. If you think you have any plans of ever selling it, buy used.

 

I bought a 1978 Dodge 24' motorhome for $2,500, put 25,000 miles on it and had a blast for every single one. Sold it 5 years later for $2,500. The 6 MPG definitely sucked though...

EDIT: I was able to fix anything that went wrong myself though. As Mongo said earlier, if you're handy with cars, homes and the crossover between them, you should be fine.

 

If you are going to use an RV for a 30-60 day tour living out of it daily and driving it around, you are going to break something. Renting one for $7K could be OK, but is that a new unit? If not, how is it any different than buying one ~5-6 years old and then keeping or selling when done for ~$5K less than you purchased? If you blow a tire on a rental, you're gonna be buying new tires anyway. If you break something on a rental, you're going to be out the security deposit at minimum.
Unless the rental is a brand new unit under full warranty, I would think with this length of a "vacation" you'd be better off finding one that's already broken in and had the first wave of repairs done and then selling when the trip is over. When something goes wrong, you will only have yourself to deal with rather than some back and forth with the owner of the unit.