Renting RVs

[Bird]

Bill Engvall claims to have rented one and said RV stands for "Ruins Vacation". I've never rented one, but I've owned a slide-in pickup camper, two conventional travel trailers, one fifth-wheel travel trailer, and two motorhomes. We were full timers for about 6 years. Both my brothers are still full timers, both have been, and one still is, in the business of RV service and repair. Maintaining one is almost a full time job. It's a great way to travel and there are a lot of beautiful and interesting places to stay, but it's definitely not a cheap way to vacation.

 

[dave1949]

I rented a Class C RV once long ago. From peoples comments, things haven't changed much. They suck gas, ours sucked at getting over high passes too. It hadn't been maintained or tuned up. You don't realize that until you are climbing a 8000' pass. The frig in our unit broke, so you can choose between killing time and missing vacation trying to get it fixed, or buy a cooler and hit the ice machines.

Sometimes there are things you see and would like to stop, but there are no parking spaces/areas big enough. The Sprinter would be better in that regard. There used to be lots of nice National Forest tent camping areas with limited facilities but very natural and peaceful and low cost. Depends on what you are focused on. Most RV's wouldn't be able get to the more remote camping areas, just too big for the access roads.

One nice thing about an RV is you can fix your own meals usually and save a bit of time and money there.

If you are amenable to more rustic camping, a pickup with cap or a van is a good compromise. You can carry all you need, have shelter for all weather. Can hit a motel every couple days if you want, and go about anywhere at half or less the fuel price of an RV.

Dave.

 

[Uncle Doug]

We rented one of the larger motorhomes a few years ago. Me, the wife and 6 grandkids made the round trip from Houston to Orlando to see the mouse. The kids were aged 5 to 13. It turned out to be one of the best vacations ever. No single vehicle would of held that many plus would of needed 2 rooms every night. Base price then was about $2,500 for 7 days plus excess milage over 100 miles a day. Gas was a little cheaper then but was still over $100 to top off the tank, we tried to keep from getting to low on fuel as be did not want to get stranded someplace. Mileage was about 7-8 mpg for a estimated 2000 mile round trip.

It was like driving a bus, very scary at first but this unit was new and handled well. We used the rest area's on I-10 for a couple of nightly stops and a KOA in Orlando with pull through site.

It worked out well with the kids as they could spread out and play their games. Wife could fix lunch without stopping. No frequent potty stops. Even had a TV that you could play DVD's.

Would I want to buy one, don't think so. Would I rent one again, sure if it met my needs for the trip. Because of some of the excess milage fees what we had considered doing is driving to someplace like Denver then picking up the RV for a trip into the mountains.

 

[caver]

Cruise America is the most common rental I see out west.
My Dad and I looked at a larger rental a few years ago as I had just sold my old Chalet pop-up. The prices were as much if not more for a motel. We ended up finding a place that would rent a pop-up similar to what I had just sold.

 

[Bird]

There are a number of RV rental places that work on commission; i.e., if you own an RV, you leave it with them, they might do some advertising, and they handle all the paperwork to rent it out. They clean it up after each rental, service it when needed (but the owner pays for the service). I'm not sure of the details now, but years ago, they kept half the rent money, the RV owner got the other half. I checked into it when we had our first little motorhome, but decided it was just too much risk to suit me. And of course, the owner has to plan ahead and reserve the motorhome for his/her own use. Otherwise, when you get ready to use your own RV, it might be out on a rental, or it might have been reserved for the time you wanted to use it.

 

[RadarTech]

About 12 years ago, me and the ex spent a week and a half camping from Palm Springs to San Fran and back to LA on both sides of the mountains.

We stayed in several KOA's and hit some camping cabins, and 2 hotels...
of course I was a somewhat younger and bolder Marine.. and we used a tent...
It was a great experience.. Now if we would have had kids, that would have been difficult...

But I would not have traded it for anything!

Tent camping is not bad in the right conditions...


J

 

[tungularafishcamp]

We have rented several times over the years from a outfit called El Monte Rents and their coaches besides coming in all sizes have always been first class. We have taken them to Baja several times, one time for a month and have never had any problems. If you rent in the off season and for a longer period of time you can usually work out a great deal and we have always been able to get enough free miles have never had to pay extra. If we are going to stay put someplace we have also had good luck renting a used RV from a dealer that has it for sale. Those can be really cheap per day but stiff on the miles so they are good if your stayin put. For us it was a pretty economical way for a family of 6 to travel for a bit and no restaurants is a big savings.

 

[Dargo]

A few years ago I was going to rent a 45' class A diesel pusher for a 2 week trip out west. By the time I added the rental charges, mileage charges and fuel, it was going to cost me well over $6k.

So, I waited a couple of years and kept looking for a "great deal" on a really low mileage unit that was less than 5 years old. I finally found a deal, thanks to our deep recession, and bought one early last year. It takes a while to get used to, especially that big and towing a vehicle behind you. Once I got comfortable with that, it's been great. If I run the speed limits, I get just under 10 mpg. It has 3 different TV's in it so some kids can play video games while others watch movies during the trip.

My wife won't even consider driving it, so we do have to stop and 'camp' at rest areas when I'm tired. Still, that takes about 5 minutes from the time we pull in until all the slide outs are out, blinds pulled, levelers down and we're in bed. With all the diesel trucks running, nobody even hears my 10k diesel generator running. If it's winter, I can get by on just the house batteries for at least 10 hours since the furnace runs off propane. I like it. To me, it's sort of like taking a little bit of "home" with you on your trip.