New to RVing

[codyne]

Hi all! I'm retired and planning to move to central New York from California later this year, and want to buy an RV to travel across the country in, and to use for occasional vacations after. I'm still trying to decide what to buy, and am a bit nervous because I've never driven an RV of any kind (motorhome, trailer, truck camper) before!

It will just be me and my two cats, so I don't need or want it to be big, but I do want it to have all the basics: bed, kitchen, toilet.

Since I need to buy a new truck anyway, my current thinking is to buy a truck, which will be my everyday vehicle in NY, and either a truck camper or small travel trailer for the trip. I'm also considering a van conversion, and either buy a truck once I'm moved, or get a van I can use for my everyday vehicle as well.

Anyway, I'm here to explore the possibilities and get some advice before I make my move.

 

["EZ"]

Welcome from Georgia!

 

[dbarnes]

I suggest that you go to the nearest RV show that handles all sorts, brands and prices.
What you expressed a need for there can be a wide variety. If you plan on leaving the cats in the RV that also is a major factor.
Keeping them cool and healthy while you are away from them is definitely a design consideration that needs to be addressed in any RV.
At first consideration if you can be comfortable with towing I might suggest a compact 2 piece fiberglass trailer like Scamp or Casita.
They are small, easy to tow and can be functional home base for you as you travel. They can be pulled by lighter weight trucks or SUVs.
But honestly there are too many factors to consider in how you expect to travel, where you stay, would you only go to parks, etc.
RVs that are small and inexpensive are always going to limit your decisions. Small tank sizes, no generator, limited solar capacity if any and so on.
Make yourself a list of how you expect to live and where you will go. (mountains vs desert) it all helps to make a decision.
Then hit the RV show.

 

[dbarnes]

On follow up, after the show consider renting what appeals to you and trying it out.
Be forewarned RVing requires some degree of being "handy".
That won't matter if it is a Class A or pop up tent trailer. wherever you end up you may have some periods to test those skills.
Being a "newbie" to RVing is always a test of a lot of things for people not familiar with the life.
For many they wouldn't have it any other way, for others it just isn't worth the trouble.

 

[codyne]

On follow up, after the show consider renting what appeals to you and trying it out.
Be forewarned RVing requires some degree of being "handy".
That won't matter if it is a Class A or pop up tent trailer. wherever you end up you may have some periods to test those skills.
Being a "newbie" to RVing is always a test of a lot of things for people not familiar with the life.
For many they wouldn't have it any other way, for others it just isn't worth the trouble.

Thank you for your suggestions! I wish I had had time to go to RV shows and compare different options.

As it turned out, things went a bit sideways during the last few months before my move. Due to the pandemic, chip shortages, and probably other things, both trucks and RVs of any kind were in very short supply, so it quickly became a matter of what was available and what I could afford, more than what I wanted. Also I was super busy getting my house ready to sell. Whether it sold before I moved was a big factor in how much money I had to spend. About a month before my move, I managed to buy a new Ford F-150 with the Heavy Duty Payload Package and Max Trailering Package, only because someone else who'd special ordered it months before backed out of the deal, and the salesperson remembered that I'd wanted to buy it. But that, I thought, was the limit to what I could buy before I sold my house and had money to pay for it.

A few weeks before I was scheduled to move, my house still hadn't sold, and I was resigned to just driving my truck and staying in hotels, when I got an offer on the house. Crossing my fingers that the sale would go through, I searched for any kind of trailer my truck could tow, that was available in reasonable distance from me, and that I could afford with what money I had left (with the assumption that I'd pay off any loan as soon as the house sale closed). Ended up buying a 2014 Keystone Hideout 19flbwe and driving it home less than a week before I set out for the east coast.

A couple of days before I was set to move, the home sale fell through. Oh well, too late now, the trailer was already bought! I packed up myself and my kitties into the trailer and truck, and headed for New York, having never pulled a trailer before, and barely used to driving my new truck. It was quite an experience, and not the way I'd recommend anyone to get into RVing! But we made it! Seventeen days from Tehachapi, California to Windsor, New York, driving around 150 - 200 miles a day, learning how to handle pulling, parking, and setting up a trailer on the go, staying mostly in KOAs (pull-throughs only, I wasn't about to try backing into a site), in the heat of summer (thankfully, the air conditioning in the trailer worked!), through thunderstorms and traffic jams.

Now I'm going to give my trailer a rest while I get settled in to my new home. But I'm looking forward to taking it out for a real camping trip, sometime when it's not super hot and I'm not in a big hurry to get anywhere.