Saving money on RV repairs

Flea collars protect more than pets

As anyone who owns an RV knows, repairs are expensive. We found this out a couple of weeks ago, when we took our travel trailer in for what we thought were minor repairs. The bill was $2,300. Our cost was only $83.50. Luckily, we had bought a service contract when we got the trailer. At the time, we thought the $1,500 was expensive, but this visit more than paid for the contract.  We've still got another four years of service left on the service contract, so this is turning out to be a wise decision.
One way to cut down on the repair costs is to prevent breakdowns from happening in the first place. A flea collar that costs a couple of bucks can save hundreds, maybe even thousands, of dollars in repair costs. Why? A flea collar is good wasp prevention. Wasps love the smell of propane and will set ip housekeeping near an outlet. They don't like the smell of the chemicals used in flea collars, so they'll go elsewhere. My husband's nephew, who is a service writer for a large RV dealership, says they get a lot of rigs in for repair where the wasps -- and wiring -- were fried when the propane pilot light went on. Read more about this tip in an article I wrote for RVtravel.com's newsletter.

Motor scooters and RVs

Touring Yellowstone on scooters

We're planning to take our motor scooters with us when we set out on our RV journey. We'll use these for sightseeing instead of the truck. Our scooters get 100 mpg, the truck only 10 mpg, so it's a no-brainer.

A couple of years ago, we hauled them over to Yellowstone and spent a week touring the park on them. It was probably the best time I've ever had there. We also take our scooters on local camping trips.

Tips for taking your motor scooter along

Here are some tips if you're thinking about taking scooters rather than a towed vehicle:

Regulations vary from state to state on motor scooters. For example, some states require riders of all motor scooters to be licensed, while others only require licenses for scooters that are 50cc or more. Some states don’t require helmets or liability insurance, others do.

To be on the safe side, make sure you have a motorcycle endorsement on your driver’s license, have at least liability insurance and wear a helmet at all times. This way you’re prepared for whatever regulations a state has.

Always be prepared

If your motor scooter’s tires are tubed, always carry spare tubes and know how to change a tire. If a motorcycle repair shop isn’t handy, an automotive tire store can change the tube. They may not have inner tubes that small, so the spare will come in handy. They also probably won’t change the tire on the scooter for you.

Your motor scooter probably came with some basic tools. Always have them with you, as well as some multi-purpose bolts in your scooter’s size in case you need to make quick repairs when a repair shop is tens of miles away. Not everyone is lucky enough to be married to a retired motorcycle mechanic, but even he was challenged when my scooter lost a couple of critical bolts and none were to be had in the small town we were staying at.  (He ended up taking them from a place where they were used for decoration more than for function.)

 

 

 

Tip for keeping dishes intact on the road

Our solution to keeping dishes safe

Accidents happen. Cupboard doors in RVs come open as you're driving down the road. Dishes fall out and shatter on the floor.
This happened to us a couple of times in our old trailer. What a mess!

When we got our new trailer, I wanted to avoid this from happening again. So I came up with the idea of securing a dish drainer to the cupboard floor, and my husband implemented it. It work great! It takes under an hour to do.

Which RV is best for me?

Camping in our trailer

The answer to that question is pretty much a personal decision. It all depends on what you want to do during your travels.
The main types of recreational vehicles are the motor home, the travel trailer and the fifth wheel.

We looked at - and considered - all three, before narrowing down our choice to a travel trailer.

At first we thought we wanted a motor home. There are some really super ones out there. We looked at one so luxurious, I commented to the salesman, it doesn't have a dish washer. He showed me where it was located. Our reasons for ruling out a motor home included price, cost of repairs and lack of flexibility in campgrounds. Motor homes are the most expensive. We couldn't afford a new one, and I didn't want a used one because we'd seen too many motor homes burned on the side of highways. My husband said this was because the owners didn't care for it properly. My husband is a retired mechanic, and we wanted a vehicle he could repair if it broke down far from help. I also thought I would be too afraid to drive one.  Some campgrounds, particularly public ones, have size limitations on the length of motor homes. If we got the size we liked, we couldn't stay in some of the campgrounds we wanted to.

My husband's first choice was a fifth wheel toy hauler. We plan to take our motor scooters with us when we hit the road, and need something to haul them in. Since a fifth wheel fits on the back of a pick-up, that meant we would have to have one with the toy hauler option. I was not particularly keen on having them smelling up our living quarters, nor was I happy we had to give up so much living space to accommodate them.

That left travel trailers, which come in all shapes and sizes. With a travel trailer, we could put our scooters in the pick-up bed. (We bought a wide enough ramp that my husband just rides the scooters up when it comes time to load them.) There are so many floor plans and sizes to choose from. I was really enamored with the Scamp, a small lightweight trailer that can be pulled with a four-cylinder vehicle. This would have been great if we were only going to be gone a week or two, but we needed something bigger since we plan to live in it full time during our travels around the United States.

Then it was a matter of finding a floor plan we liked. This is where we had problems making up our minds. We must have looked at hundreds over a couple of years, getting to be on a first-name basis with every RV salesman in our area. Just when we thought we found a trailer we liked, we'd go home to think about it. We'd have more questions, but when we went back to get them answered, we'd find another trailer we liked better. Everything came together one day last summer, and we have a trailer we really, really like. In fact, compared to our old trailer, we feel like we're living in the lap of luxury, though we only have a mid-range trailer that we purchased used. (Our old trailer, made in 1965, was 15 feet long, and no electricity, bathroom, heat or running water in the sink, not to mention a TV with DVD player and radio.)

Saving on campground fees

Once we hit the road, I expect nightly campground fees to be our biggest expense, though towing our trailer with a truck that gets 7-10 mpg isn't going to be cheap. Actually, I've budgeted the same amount of money for both items. It remains to be seen how well my budget works out, but I'm optimistic the target can be met.

I've come up with a lot of ways to save money on nightly fees. The list starts with the federal recreation lands pass for senior citizens. Not only does it save 50 percent on nightly camping fees, it also gets us into any federal recreational facility, from national parks to historic sites, for free. You can't get any cheaper than that!

We used the pass on our trip to Yellowstone in September 2011. We paid $7 a night at Mammoth campground and $11 a night at Madison. If we'd stayed in a hotel, assuming we could find room at the inn, we would have been paying well over $100 a night.

Last summer, we used the pass for a double discount at a local U.S. Army Corps of Engineers campground on the Snake River. The nightly rate was $24, but they were having a weekday discount of 50 percent because highway construction was making it difficult to get into the campground. That brought the rate down to $12 per night. Not bad, but by using the pass, we got our site for $6, including electricity. Buying that pass is the best $10 I ever spent!

We also plan to stay anywhere from a week to a month or more if we find a place we like. Nightly rates drop significantly for long-term stays.

I discuss more ways to save money on site fees in an article I recently wrote for a website dedicated to the lifestyle of baby boomers.

RV there yet?

No, we're not quite there yet, but soon we will be. "There" is anywhere in the United States that has warmer winters than we have in Eastern Washington. Right now it's freezing outside. Icy. Probably some more snow is in the forecast. Brrrrrrr.........

But we won't be snowbirds like so many retirees are, spending winter in the southern warmer climes and summers in their northern homes. Instead, we plan to live full time in our RV.  Address: anywhere it's warm in the winter. And we'll see the USA along the way. If we find a place we like, we'll stay for a few weeks or months or maybe even settle permanently.

Our plans are fluid. We're putting our house up for sale soon. As soon as it sells, we're outta here. Our new home will be a 28-foot travel trailer.

This blog will chronicle our experiences for family and friends, as well as anyone else who's interested. There's no set schedule right now for writing it, but it will be regular once we get on the road. Until then, I'll write sporadically about our preparations for this excellent adventure we plan to take.