Renting an RV. Anyone done this before?

Question

We are thinking about renting an RV for a 2 week trip through the southwest. Has anyone rented an RV before? Any tips on best deals, kind of RV, etc.
Thanks!!

Hi Doc and John,
Great answers - thanks. Doc: Yes I did ask a while back. We revised itinerary - decided Texas was too far from NC for this trip. Maybe later. We want to tour the SE - with the Natchez Trace being the center point. Best price so far is Cruise America and they allow pets, which is a must. Just me and my wife and we will probably stay in campgrounds mostly and play it by ear. John - great tip, re: reserving spaces at campgrounds.
Thanks guys!

Answer 1

Steve,

We rented a 39 diesel pusher in Lexington KY, took it to Daytona and back. We rented from a RV dealer, very hard to find someone to rent you the higher end rigs.

The one we rented was five years old, with only 16 thousand miles on it and we blew two tires during our roundtrip. Dealer was very accomadating and apologized and fully reimbursed us for the roadside expense.

Cruiseamerica seems to be the one in this business. I see them by the hundreds at Oshkosh every July.

They may be your best bet for renting, for one, they are nationwide. If you are a thousand miles from home and something serious goes out, they can probably get you in another rig and get you on your way.

If you find a dealer willing to rent you a rig, it will probably be nicer than the cruiseamerica rentals. Probably cost you more too.

I am glad we rented the diesel pusher, we learned a lot that helped us decide what we would want if we bought and it DEFINITELY showed us what we did not want. just because they put a diesel engine in the rear, does not mean it is a quality rig.

We now own a 42' Country Coach with 12 liter cat power, all the goodies and we love it. They are complex machines though, you can either write lots of checks or learn to fix things yourself.

I figured the 39' diesel we rented got about 9mpg. Our CC gets probably 6 on average if you really want to be honest. But then, it weighs 43,500 pounds.

So, consider that the gas rigs that cruiseamerica rents probably get 9 mpg or so and gas is typically cheaper than diesel.

Are you going to camp at campgrounds with facilities like plug in for power, dump stations/freshwater or are you boondocking it ?

You will want to get online and reserve your campsites ahead of time, I am new to this and have been surprised at how busy some campgrounds can be. In Iowa, the state has a great website. A good number of their sites are for prereserved only, others are open on a first come first served basis.

If boondocking, make sure the rig you rent has a generator, if it's a gas rig, it wont be too deluxe, but it will do the job.

Bigger rigs will typically have larger holding tanks. We were super careful and went 9 days between pump out and fill up on 165 gallon freshwater and 65/65 black and grey capacity. That was a stretch though, being super conservative.

You sound like you want to go RV'ing so dont let anyone talk you out of it, dont try to justify it or compare to cost of hotels etc. if it's how you want to spend your vacation, then nothing else will do.

best of luck,
John

Answer 2

You can always stay in a Walmart parking lot--they don't care but if you are going to be there for a week, you should stay in a campground. After all, having your sewage and electricity hooked up will save you a lot of gas for your generator. Unless the temperature is good enough that you don't need to run much A/C. You don't need to stay at a Disneyland campground. Why not just find a local campground? Sure it will be a little further ride to Disneyland but that's fine if you were towing your car. A KOA will be more in the $30-40 a night rate. I have done many vacations in RVs with my family. As for anything important you should know...feel free to email me. Don't get to your campground after dark. It's really hard to back in to your spot. Ask when you check in for a pull through spot or a spot with no one on either side of you yet--though usually the rental RVs have a paint job that says RENTAL RV so they automatically know you haven't driven one of these before.

Answer 3

Hi Steve,

Recently you asked, though not about the SouthWest. I wonder if you ever connected with that company you mentioned? Not Cruise America as I recall. I have to believe they don't have restrictions on travel in the US?

Also have you changed plans or just added itinerary? Smiles.

You also wanted to take your dog. Is that still part of the plan? How many will travel? Will you Camp the RV or use it mostly for the travel and convenience?

If it was me, I'd probably want a Yatch type, LOL, sunken whirlpool tub, full sofas and beds, etc. But the lottery here is up to 43 million, so maybe? LOL.

Steven Wolf