Greg and Cori,

Welcome to one of the friendliest RV forums around.  The folks here are eager and willing to help.

You are wise to look at the RV shows, but also spend more time at the dealerships.  When at shows, there are constant interruptions when one is trying to visit with a dealer or manufacturer representative.  On a dealer's lot, one generally has more time to look and see how one would accomplish common ordinary chores and functions.  Stand in the shower...is it too small or too narrow?  Look at the storage size and location in the kitchen....is it convenient and large enough?  Sit down in the living room and see how easy it will be to see the TV.

If you like looking out at scenery, where would you want windows to be?  Is there enough storage in the bedroom and closet areas?

A lot of times, one doesn't really get to see all that because of the number of people walking through at RV shows.  However, if you are trying to narrow things down, the RV shows are better for seeing different types of RV's, different brands of RV's, and seeing what one offers that others don't have.

When looking, keep in mind that the frame, suspension, axles, tires and wheels serve as the very foundation of the rig.  If you are considering full-time RV'ing, make sure that the "foundation" is solid enough.  Once you start to narrow down to certain brands/models, check to see if you can find an owner's association or forum where you can read more about owner's experiences and ask questions.  Even though you may see a lot of circumstances where folks are looking for a solution for a problem, don't necessarily think that the brand/model isn't any good.  You can always ask participants there if they would buy the same brand/model again if they were to buy again.

Good luck with the research and planning.

Terry

Welcome....we will also start full or part  timing in late 2014 or 2015....another good show is the super show in Tampa Florida, normally the third weekend in January...so many RVs!  We are on our 8th one....!  Sounds crazy, but its a long story....finally figured out what was important to us....we decided we did not want a rubber roof....too much work to keep clean and maintain, so it limited us to brands of RVS when we got our final one.  Also even though slide outs are so comfortable, we did not want one because we have had them leak, not retract, and when closed hard to navigate inside, so we opted for a no slide out option....also, we wanted two separate sleeping private areas since hubby snores, and we had done wifey sleeping on LR couch way too much....anyway, our needs were OUR needs, and our rig while we love it, would most likely not be right for someone else!  I wish we had really thought thru what we needed first, rather than our trial and error (and expensive) way of buying and  trading RV's, but that was our learning curve.

What we ended up with was a 2012 Dodge 2500 Diesel 4x4 manual shift truck with standard cab, pulling a  2013 Forest River Work n Play 34.5 Toyhauler 5th wheel with a Gooseneck hitch, a 45 gallon transfer tank and tool box mounted in truck, with a 2008 HD Heritage Softail Motorcycle......The other thing we did, was we are buying a 1.5 acre RV lot in a gated community, so that when we spread our wings we still will have some footprint in the real estate market and a "home base" that is maintenance free....our development is called Ridgebrook of Blue Ridge, lot #27!

An questions, shoot me a private message at EBendana@yahoo.com