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!!
Aloha All, we are planning on going Full time in the next year or 2. I have decided on a used Class A Diesel with at least 1 slide and have heard Foretravel and Country Coach are pretty good, but would like to hear other opinions. Mahalo in advance.
Mahalo Jerry. That seems to be in the date range I would be looking. Also, I see that you are retired Military. Thank you for your service, and could you tell me how difficult the transition from military to the RV life was. The issue I think I will have is that I can't sit still for to long. Even retired, I am up at 5:30 am every morning and off to do projects around my property and if I don't have anything around here I will be off helping others with projects they have. Last week I replaced the header in my garage, and this week I am helping a friend with a room addition. I should probably post the question in another forum also.
Mike, I'm partial to Foretravel since I own one. How important is it to you to have a brand that is still in production? Country Coach is no more, as are quite a few others. Newell is right up there with Foretravel as far as quality. They are generally a bit more expensive than Foretravel, but then each one is a custom coach. They also have 24/7/365 factory phone help available to ALL owners, no matter the age of the coach.
We did several years of research, starting with a blank piece of paper, before we settled on this coach. We looked at how we thought we'd be living (how long will we be in one place, what do we want to see/do while on the road, etc) and compared that with what owners of various types of coaches told us about their coaches. We knew we didn't want any slides, but with out budget that wasn't an issue - nothing we could afford had slides anyway. Once we got used to the idea that something would tow something else we were set to look at specific brands.
I joined several brand-specific owners' forums and asked lots of questions. As we narrowed our search I gradually stopped posting to most of them. The more you know about what you think you will be doing the better the answers to your questions will be. Keep in mind that each answer is likely to raise three or four more questions.
Mahalo for the advice David. We are pretty simple people and are more interested in reliability and function than bells and whistles. We plan on mostly volunteering where we stay in 1 place for about a month (probably not much longer). I like the class A's because we can tow a smaller car to get around in while we are stationary and I would have room for my tools in the basement. We also need to be available to visit/help our parents, which is why we will be looking to volunteer at places for about a month. My Father-in-Law is 83 and takes care of my Mother-in-Law who is 78 and who has just been diagnosed with Alzheimers. He also takes care of my mother-in-laws sister who is 93 and lives alone a mile from them (They live in Florida). We will need to be able to be there to give him a break and so my wife can visit with her Mom as much as she can. My Mom is 73 and lives in South Carolina. I need to be able to visit her more and to some maintenance on the house. We have 2 boys, both serving in the military and stationed across the US right now (one in Kentucky and the other in Colorado) and we like to visit them often. We love to travel and feel the volunteering at places all over the country will allow us to see lots of things (and keep me from being bored as I really enjoy working and helping others). We can also catch up with friends and relatives we haven't had the chance to see since the military has moved us around everywhere the last 25 years.