"A Prevost is a horrible idea for a cheap rv living rig."
Agreed! :thumbsup: But there are older RVs that are well made and affordable. I was fortunate enough to find one that I've been living in full-time for 14 months now. Sure when you have more systems to go wrong some will. But that's life. Even if you can't afford to keep everything working 100% all the time it still has more going for it than doing completely without. What's nice about an RV is you don't have to go without the simple comforts of home, like hot showers, a flush toilet, sufficient space to move around without getting in each other's way, etc.
The key is finding one with good bones, which in my case meant a 20 yr old, low mileage motorhome that had the features I was looking for. But you will have to decide what's important for you, cause everyone's wants and needs are different.
What did I think was important? Like most folk (and many in the RV crowd) here I love to boondock, so I looked for a rig that facilitated this lifestyle. First the basics. Many RVs today have very little carrying capacity as they are lightly built for weekends and week long vacationers who will be staying exclusively at $$$ RV parks, so you have to sort through these "junk" rvs (from our perspective as full-timer boondockers. If you find one of sufficient carrying capacity that is a good indicator of quality of construction. In an RV the size I was looking for this meant I needed one with a tag axle to carry more weight. What kind of weight did I plan on carrying. Water for one. We've found that fresh and waste water capacity are our number one limiting factor when boondocking - and we have 95 gallons of fresh water capacity, 50 gallons of both gray and black water capacity. Plus I carry another 15 gallons of water in my toad in 3 - 5 gallon foldable Water containers. This allows us to just get by the typical 15 day BLM limit before we have to dump and take on fresh water, which works out perfectly.Though this sounds like a lot of water it's less than 4 gallons per person per day. If you consider showering, washing dishes, flushing the toilet, hand washing and drinking this is not really a lot compared to what one might use in a S&B house.
The next heaviest item was our power needs. This means batteries, solar generator and inverter. We're still using FLA batteries because of the high cost of lithiums. And lead is heavy. Plus consider that you will be carrying all of your worldly goods with you. This means a couple weeks worth of food, clothing for 4 seasons, shoes, linens, tools for repairs and maintenance (which are quite heavy) spare fluids, spare tire, propane, electronics, camping gear, kitchen appliances, pots and pans, silverware, BBQ gear, recreational and hobby stuff, etc. Remember that water weighs 8.34lbs/gallon and propane 4.2 lbs/ gallon - so 100 gallons of water and 24 of propane weighs about $935 lbs just by itself. For 2 people, this usually adds up to around 3,000 lbs of carrying capacity. Our RV has 3,500 lbs of CCC so we just made it.
This means you must have an RV suitable for carrying this much weight over rough terrain, if you like to boondock. It should also be properly insulated - the more the better, with dual pane windows being a big plus to minimize heating and cooling costs. Fortunately we were able to find an RV that has worked well for us, meeting all our needs that didn't break the bank - a 99 National Tropical. If you are single, you could cut all the numbers I put out there in half then adjust to your own unique circumstance and I'm sure you will be able to find an older, well made RV that's right for you. It may take some looking though, cause no doubt you will have to sort through a lot of junk, as we did, to find your perfect boondocking rig you can call home.
Chip
