A Women's RV Forum run by Women RVer's!

Hi I’m Andy. My husband and I just completed our first cross country road trip—5000+ miles, 3 weeks (now able to take the time since both of us retired a couple years ago), and visited nine national parks. Stayed in a motel every night, which got old and missed our sheltie, who was with a dog sitter. We saw a lot of campers and decided we should look into doing this since we want to do more exploring and take our dog.

Just started looking to get a motorhome. Very overwhelming since being a complete newbie, didn’t even know the difference between A, B and C. Been doing lots of googling and picking brain of friend, judyjb. She recommended I join this forum.

Thinking of starting with 24 ft C class. So looking to search on this site and get suggestions on many basic things. Examples: Thought wanted gas, but then saw nice diesel. One had “arctic package” ( didn’t even know what that was ) but highly recommended, then a different salesman at same dealership said that it is overrated. Want to drive from Mich to Fla in winter, so have no clue how to do this if need to winterize in Mich but be able to use along the way.

Look forward to learning from this group of women!

OK, you're in! Arctic package is usually just double-paned windows, but I think it depends on the brand. Most motorhomes, arctic package or not, are going to be very hard to keep warm in below freezing weather. You can do it for a night or two with lots of propane burning, but it gets tiring fast. Consider that walls are only 2" thick, and you will know what I mean. And slides leak all sorts of cold air!! They call us snow birds because we head south because like the birds, we cannot handle the freezing weather. Brrrrr.

To drive from Michigan to Florida, you just have to be flexible and plan to leave when the sun is out and the roads are dry, especially in TN and northern GA.

One other thing I forgot to tell you about is to make sure your water tanks (fresh, grey, and black) are enclosed. preferably with some heat down there. Mine are enclosed, and there is a furnace duct that blows hot air down there to keep them from freezing. Unprotected tanks are OK for a few degrees below freezing for a few hours overnight, but you will feel much better if they are enclosed and possibly heated.

Welcome Andy. It’s great to have you here on the forum. Make a list of your questions and feel free to ask. You’ll get lots of good answers. I knew nothing about RVing and RVs when I bought mine. I had never stepped inside any RV and bought the first and only one I looked at. I lucked out however. It was perfect and had no problems that surface sometimes. I wouldn’t recommend going that route, however. What was so valuable to this newby was all the great advice I received from the ladies here on the forum. Take your time, go inside and check out all different sizes, models and configurations, read as much as you can and ask lots of questions. You’ll eventually find the perfect rig. Good luck and have fun.
Sandi

Welcome, Andy! The arctic package would be nice, especially some of the places I've traveled (they'd have the enclosed tanks and a way to heat them that Judy mentioned). That said, I've never had it and have been able to work around it. Personally I prefer gas (maintenance is way less expensive) but those who prefer diesel will laugh at my choice. That's really a personal choice.

Glad to have you with us and, yes, jump in anywhere and ask away.

And I took a whole year and hours and hours of research before i found my almost-perfect motorhome. I suspect you are on my path.

Hi I am wintering in AZ summer in Idaho and am right now in Vegas..
welcome to the forum and we look forward to getting to know you...
I tow a 36 ft 5th wheel... so I still don't understand the ABC of motor homes...
but we are all good at putting in our two cent's worth... one thing you might do while looking
is the pretend game...Pretend you are cooking, pretend you are showering pretend you are putting clothes
away pretend you are using the facilities. Are you comfortable? can you reach everything? is the bed comfortable? does your husband fit in the shower height wise?
this will help in making decisions possibly
remember no question is dumb and if we don't know the answer we will figure it out together
sheila

Hi from South Louisiana. I am so far South that I have never winterized my motorhomes, just ran the heat and put the pink antifreeze in the tanks and drain traps.

A 24' motorhome will be tight for 2 people trying to stay in it a while. My second motorhome was 24'. Someone bought it, drove it 3,000 miles and traded up. I would recommend one at least long enough to have a separate bed room. One can be in bed and one up moving around. Research, research, research before you buy anything. And you can usually take anything a salesman tells you with a grain of salt. If you do a little research you will know more than the salesmen. Take someone that knows about RV's shopping with you. That really makes the salesman mad when you ask questions they can't answer. There are probably Facebook groups for owners of most brands of RV's. See what the owners have to say about them. Some people only want to buy new for the warranty. From most of the complaints on Facebook, once you leave the dealership they are through with you. I see so many posts from people that have bought a new RV, made one or two trips and the RV is in the shop for months. I personally would never buy new. RV's depreciate so fast you can save thousands if you can find a used one you want. Rvtrader is a good place to look.

My motorhomes have all been gas but we had diesel farm trucks. Diesel trucks cost more to maintain and take longer to get in a shop. Sometimes it would take us a week or 2 to get an appointment to bring a diesel truck in. People talk about how much longer diesels last but most people are not going to put 300,000 miles on an RV.

Good luck with you search.

Martha

Welcome to the group. I'm at my home base in Roseville CA. I travel when I can in my class B Leisure Travel Van on diesel Sprinter chassis. I like the fuel economy on my Sprinter and how little maintenance I have had to do. My Mercedes dealer is equipped to service commercial size, -Sprinters of all types, and gets me in often next day, though that's relative because I've only had to have 3 oil changes and one major service in 15 years! Many RVs are Ford chassis and I read on groups it's often hard to find a dealer who has big enough space to service RV, so it's all relative.
Please forgve any typos, I'm day one after cataract surgery and a bit blurry!
Velda

Thank you ladies for making me feel welcome. You already made a lot of good recommendations. Is there a way on this site to respond to each followup post (like you can do on Facebook) or even click “like” to acknowledge you read the post?

Might take time for me to get rv since I’m the type that has to research everything first.

Happy to hear no question is dumb. I was in health care all my life and also college prof—always encouraged questions and happy to answer any question if person didn’t know answer.

I will make new posts asking questions to get your insight and recommendations!

andyviv wrote: Is there a way on this site to respond to each followup post (like you can do on Facebook) or even click “like” to acknowledge you read the post?

Click the "Quote" button on the upper right.

Welcome to the Forum!!

Anne

Cudedog wrote:

andyviv wrote: Is there a way on this site to respond to each followup post (like you can do on Facebook) or even click “like” to acknowledge you read the post?

Click the "Quote" button on the upper right.

Welcome to the Forum!!

Anne

Thank you—that works!

Hi Andy, fellow Michigander here. Welcome to the forum. What part of MI do you hail from. I’m up near Gaylord. Have a 21 ft. Travel trailer as I like the convenience of my tow vehicle for exploring and it’s also my everyday vehicle. Think that if I were to go into a MH, it would be gas. Diesel can get finicky in our colder climate and although they get better mileage supposedly, they are also more costly to repair and more noisy. But everybody has their own likes and dislikes. As to driving south to FL from MI. Leave the MH winterized. You can dewinterize when you get to a warmer climate. Eileen (Beazle) on here does that when thry head south from WI. Maybe she will chime in here and give you some advice. Hope you find the one you want. Ever up this way, give me a holler. I’ll be camping in the U.P. A lot this summer too. Happy trails.

Tina from Ohio here. I often head south towards warmer climates in December after my rig has been basically winterized for Ohio's November weather fronts. The water heater gets drained. I pull all the low point drains and drain the lines and I drain the fresh water tank. I empty the black tank and then put the pink stuff down all the drains. I carry water jugs with me as I head south. I use the water from jugs for washing drinking, washing and helping to flush the toilet. I start out with water jugs that I get from the store and then refill them from campgrounds along the way that have good tasting water. If I am going to be south for a long time I start using fresh water tank and the heater again.... But I travel by myself so showering at campgrounds as needed and/or taking sink bathes and heating water in my microwave isn't that big a deal. When I was little I used to go camping in tents so this is all still an upgrade! Everyone has their own comfort requirements.

My grey and black tanks are not protected from the elements. They have "heaters" but I don't really trust them so in I will travel in cold weather with a a couple gallons of RV antifreeze and when I am ready to head north I will us it in my gray and black tanks to keep them from freezing again.....