Hi Everyone. Well, after 15 years the RV-Dreams Community Forum is coming to an end. Since it began in August 2005, we've had 58 Million page views, 124,000 posts, and we've spent about $15,000 to keep this valuable resource for RVers free and open. But since we are now off the road and have settled down for the next chapter of our lives, we are taking the Forum down effective June 30, 2021. It has been a tough decision, but it is now time.
We want to thank all of our members for their participation and input over the years, and we want to especially thank those that have acted as Moderators for us during our amazing journey living and traveling in our RV and growing the RV-Dreams Family. We will be forever proud to have been founders of this Forum and to have been supported by such a wonderful community. Thank you all!!
We have been snooping around this site for some time now and it got to be time to get involved.
We honestly don't know what our status is. We are looking at getting an RV and something to pull it with. We intend to get serious about this endeavor after spring of 2017. We have a "once-in-a-lifetime" trip scheduled then and want to ensure we have our finances balanced (i.e., we don't want to borrow to make this trip).
Our interest lies in travel trailers. Personally, my biggest fear is pulling a trailer since I have never pulled anything before. We had a Class C for vacation when I worked but, we never towed anything behind it. We sold it after we retired from Arizona and moved to Oregon. Needless to say, the Class C did not do well during the Oregon rainy season after spending some seven years in the sun.
Because of my concern regarding towing, we intend to start out with a trailer that is under 30 feet. Assuming that we remain excited about full-timing, we would trade it in after a year on something more suitable.
We had the opportunity to tour the Arctic Fox factory. Peggy is into construction and one of our fellow tour companions is an engineer. So they had many technical questions that gave us a sense of comfort regarding Northwood's manufacturing processes.
My principal interest in joining this forum to do "fact-checking" as we go through the process. Specifically, we will hear many things said by manufacturers, dealers, friends, etc. we are hoping you can help us separate the facts from the other stuff.
For background, I was 20 years in the nuclear navy (submarines), 20 years staffing the nuclear plant in Arizona and the last 10 years as the Corporate Treasurer for a Monastery. Peggy has been a secretary (back when that is what they were called), a professional auto mechanic (when mechanic was the appropriate term for what they did with automobiles), an animal behaviorist; in other words, a Jill of all trades. We have been married 40 years this November and look forward to meeting many of you beginning middle of 2017.
Welcome Richard and Peggy! My first suggestion would be to buy something 2 to 3 years old so you don't take the first hit of depreciation and still have a nice rig to use and sell when you make you mind up on what you want. But you might consider getting a new 1 ton dually to pull it with. Then you are set up with the tow vehicle for just about any towable. I believe a new truck with the incentives isn't that more than a used 2 or 3 year old and you get what you want. Your choice of brand is fine, they will all do the job.
Welcome to the forum. Lots of knowledgeable people on here so ask away!! Red's advice is good advice as depreciation is something to consider if you're just trying it out!! It's great that you did a factory tour as that will give you a good point of reference. You will notice a wide degree of quality variations among manufacturers!!
