Choosing our First RV on a Too Small Budget

There are so many factors that go into purchasing an RV. I’ve read countless articles that detail how to select just the right one, whether it’s a travel trailer, fifth wheel, class A, B or C. So, I won’t go into all that again. 

For our family of five – dad, mom, two teenage girls, and a golden retriever - we knew we wanted/needed a class A motor home. A travel trailer or fifth wheel would not work for us because then we’d also have to purchase a truck. More importantly, the kids fight when they’re cramped together in one spot for too long, the dog gets restless on long trips, and I seem to need a bathroom at least every couple of hours.  A motor home would give us the ability to get up and move around a little bit if we needed to and to have easy access to a bathroom.

While it would meet some of our needs, a class C also would not work for us because we need the basement storage. And a converted bus, think Prevost or Eagle, was out because even if we could find one with a purchase price to fit our tiny budget (I hear you laughing), buses typically only get about 5 miles to the gallon, which absolutely does not work for us.

Michael insisted on having a diesel pusher, which hopefully would hold up well for all the many miles we planned to put on it. Unfortunately, limiting our search to diesels significantly reduced our chances of finding not just the right rig but any rig. There just aren’t many diesels in our price range.

There were five criteria which our new motor home had to meet: 1) Cheap. Our budget was nearly non-existent. 2) Dependable. Here is the issue- cheap, as we define it, and dependable are usually mutually exclusive when talking about motor homes. 3) Diesel motor.  4) Road ready.  5) Looks half-way decent. 

Our budget was our most limiting factor. The overwhelmingly vast majority of motor homes we found that fit our meager budget could not even come close to meeting factors two through five. We were willing to sacrifice layout, size and comfort to get good bones and readily accepted that we would need to forget about luxury and go for basic.

After searching for several months, we found two good candidates. One was a beautiful, exceptionally clean, shiny 36-ft Fleetwood with two comfy fold out couches (one for each kid), a booth dinette that can sleep even more,  washer/dryer, a small bathtub (oh yeah!!) and a beautiful layout. Aaahhhh, I practically drooled over it when we went to look at it. It was absolutely perfect for our family, except for the price. Unfortunately, it was about $7000 plus tax over our budget, the dealer would not budge that much, and there was just no way we could afford it.

The second one was a 40-ft Holiday Rambler with 20 years of dust hiding in the crevices (not exaggerating), and in my opinion, an awkward layout for our family. With dinette seating for two and the only extra bed a not-so-comfortable jack knife couch, it was built for two passengers rather than for five. It has a washer and shower, but no dryer or bathtub. The dryer is no big deal, but I’ll really miss having a tub. The design of the kitchen limits us to a sectional style sofa in the living room, no room for two regular couches and no space to build any bunks. Priced at $3000 less than the Fleetwood, the seller agreed to reduce his price by $4000 more, and we stayed right on budget.

On the plus side, the coach is very roomy, has good solid cabinets and counter tops, and has an aluminum roof. It also has a bigger, more powerful Cummins engine, which will come in handy for towing our car. It has a pack brake, which we will definitely need when we descend mountain roads. Thankfully, the rv cleaned up very nicely after several generous doses of extra strength elbow grease and actually is in pretty good shape over all. Most importantly, it meets all five criteria we set. 

Yes, there are things I would like to change about it, but I feel very blessed to have been able to find something we can afford that meets our needs. And, if you were to ask Michael, the Holiday Rambler is perfect just as it is and is so much better than the Fleetwood. We agree to disagree.

Update: Since buying the Holiday Rambler, we have added one crazy cat to the family, but I’m pretty sure he can’t be pleased no matter what, so no need for me to weigh in on his preferences. And much to our sadness, our golden retriever has decided to stay with his grandparents.