I may regret posting this but it’s so darn perfect! I may not wake up tomorrow but oh where has this video been my whole life? 
My brother (as well as you other awesome peeps) make some very valid points in the comments section, but to properly respond I’ll respond here.
Steinar Andersen said …. “Erik, these aren't personal attacks. This is a conversation (please take it as such). The pusher can be moved at any time, hence my opinion. I think staying at Blackhawk (at one park), is something I would never do. I also have a 90 foot driveway to keep my trailer at, whereas you have a small driveway. If you want to just stay in 1 place, then take the 5th wheel. If you think 1 year of warranty (with a 15 year loan) is worth it, then go for it. Again, it's your life. I just know you.... and my gut sez that the Diesel Pusher is what you'd be happy with over the "long term". If you get the 5th wheel, I suggest you get an inexpensive Dodge or Ford truck with a diesel (that is about 8 to 10 years old so you can move it on occasion). Again, your choice. You've been pining for a Diesel Pusher for 4 years and you are within reach of one now. If the price is 750 a month, forget about it. If less (closer to 550), I can't imagine you not going for that. But then again, as I said before... its your life. All I can do is offer my opinion.....
Steinar – I never took anything anybody said as personal attack(s), I’m confused to why you would think that, I asked for opinions and I’m open to them, I just think you missed some of my points or we both did.
Let me take your points one at a time and I’ll explain hopefully better than I did before.
1. Regarding being at one place, we purchased the deck and shed for our spot pretty much ensuring we would be mostly one place. We like Blackhawk and I feel we have made that pretty well known, we both know I like to go different places but sometimes we don’t get all that we are hoping for. I’ll give up traveling for a few years until we can afford a truck What I’ll miss the most, is our Halloween trips to Geneseo, maybe we’ll rent a truck for that.
A 5th Wheel is much better suited in fact perfectly suited for sitting in one place, no matter what we can both agree NO motorhome is good at that and if we bought the Pusher I would do as I always do and take it for drives to keep everything working well, you know me I have OCD/ADD, basically everything ending in a D, I have, it will look better in 10 years than it does now.
2. Warranty, I think this one you missed twice so I’ll make it more clear. We aren’t settling for a 1 year warranty but even if we were my response is heck yes, brand new with a full warranty is something important. So much so we will be making sure it has a 5 year warranty that covers everything.
3. Yes, I, let’s make that clear I in BOLD, prefer the diesel pusher, since this isn’t just for me I have to take Ronda’s opinion in this very seriously because she is the one who does the cooking and we have family over much more than we have in the past. I have to think about what works best. Entertaining people goes much better when you have more room and we both know the Fiver rules in this department. The only Pusher I have found (this Newmar) that is good enough for me to want to buy (can afford) has zero warranty and 85,000 miles, the miles don’t matter but I don’t have a slush fund for repairing something as expensive as a full on top of the line Pusher and this Newmar cost $340,000 when it was new, I can’t afford to take that chance after thinking about it for over a full week now. Maybe that will change when we take a closer look.
You know me, I buy first, think second, for the first time I am going over every aspect top to bottom and my gut and my brain for the first time are saying the same thing, my heart disagrees but the heart doesn’t have to be right. Having said that, we will be looking over the Newmar, who knows maybe Ronda will have a change of opinion, we’ll see.
4. Here is a great bit of news, the re-finance of our house is going to free up funds that we are going to put into savings for a truck in the future if it goes to the 5th wheel this weekend. I find it highly unlikely it will be an 8 or 10 year old truck, you know me so you know this won’t happen. It will be newer, with a full warranty, but we have 2 seasons to think about and save for it. The dealer will move the 5th Wheel for us to the campground and storage if we need to move it later. Also the campground can move it for us if needed.
5. At this point after negotiating with DCU and the dealer I have the Newmar within $48.00 a month of the 5th Wheel, if that doesn’t tell you how hard I have been working at this nothing will, it started at $200.00 a month higher!
6. Why not go with a straight regular trailer, um no…
7. Ok, there were other points, too tired to get into them, I just hope this long drawn out post clears things up a little. We are buying what works best for us and we are working hard on making the right decision, all of everybody's input has been very valuable and we thank you all for it..
Last, let me explain a little (I know, too late!!) why I am ok with not getting the Newmar if we go with the 5th Wheel.
Paint checking, the 2001 Newmar has the full body paint package, this means even the slides are painted on the walls that retract into the RV, it really is beautiful but I also know if the checking isn’t repaired it can get ugly and bad pretty quick, which means expensive, admittedly this gives me great pause and selfishly is a huge reason why I’m going to be very open to the 5th Wheel this Saturday.
Speaking of the 5th Wheel here it is, since this post has gotten so huge why not add some pictures right? This model has 1.5 bathrooms, one of which is huge and the other is off the kitchen This is truly full time capable, I find the main bathroom a bit large, might be taking away from family room space, we’ll see this Saturday when we look at it.
Under the TV is a desk that slides out, perfect for me to work at.
Full sized refrigerator.
Large kitchen island.
Downstairs bathroom.
Upstairs bathroom, see reflection, the bathroom is bigger than the one in my house! A sink for her and a sink for me!
Queen sized bed I believe.
Large closet with a hamper that angles out.
20 comments:
So much the sexy :), just four feet too long for my new site (Max we can get in there is 36'-37' before the nose runs into a tree).
Been looking at a number of 10 year old units, saw a three slide 2003 Montana in nice shape for $18,899 a little while back, missed out on that one.
Matt - We will be pushing the boundries of our site as well. We may need to park Ronda's car sidways! Hopefully not.
that fiver is a beauty!!! it gets my vote if that counts for anything!
Steinar - Ronda and I are going to be going through both options very seriously Saturday. It seems to me we are looking at a luxury home instead of a camper, maybe I've had too much time to think about it I'm not sure but right now it feels like we are buying to entertain guests instead of why we originally bought.
I haven't slept much this week so maybe I'm not thinking straight...
Sue and Doug - Yeah it sure is, do you think we're crazy?
The trailer you are looking at is a thing of beauty but not practical. Your plans are to park it so I'd be looking for a used unit Especially a Travel Trailer in good shape instead thus saving yourself some big bucks. Even as a travelling trailer there is a lot of wasted space in the forward bath/change/closet room and that all adds up to added weight requiring a larger tow vehicle and lower fuel milage. Both you and your wife using your own sinks at the same time won't be practical because you'll be bumping into one another and the water pressure would be practically nil.
The people who design RV units have probably never used them for any periods of time if at all. They are only Designers to make it look good than an Engineer has to figure in the mechanical workings of the unit. Even our own trailer I am always making modifications to make use of the wasted space areas.
My belated advice to you is to think of a more practical unit and save yourself some money. Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
We looked at a few new 5th wheels, before getting the 07 Alfa DP? Size and lack of truck were a consideration. But the biggest negative was the pervasive new glue smell we found in all of them. Not new ar, New glue. Craig is very sensitive to chemicals and smells. This was noticed in several brands, including a beautiful Montanna like yours.
We found that the motorhomes were built much better than all the 5th wheels.... Heavier wood and nicer interiors.......
You have to price trailers and trucks at the same time to compare them to a motorhome..... Sure buying half a camping unit will be cheaper than the whole thing......
I thought about my comment and wanted to add that this is not meant to be a negative comment about fifth wheels. We have never really looked at new Class A's because they would be way out of our price range. 07 bought in 11 was the best we could do. My comment was more to explain why WE went with a motor home that was 5 years old. It had lost that new smell!
Looking forward to hearing what you decide. I think a motor home is what Erick wants.
Rick - If we were being practical we wouldn't buy anything and would put the money in the bank. Neither of us are fans of regular travel trailers. We have yet to find a layout we like but I see your point and my brothers as well regarding them, you can save a lot of money, we will look at some this Saturday.
Merikay - I didn't take it as a negative, some people don't like the new smell where I try to preserve it, I'm a bit crazy though, just ask Ronda.
Rod - Here is what I like about the Montana, the walls are built to motorhome specs, in fact all of the cabinets are real Cherry, not just the faces but the cabinets themselves, everything about it save the lack of a generator and battery bank was as good as I have seen in very good motorhomes.
We'll see more Saturday...
Posted by Ronda who made excellent points so I'm reposting -
"We haven't made any final decisions on a 5th wheel yet. I haven't seen any of the ones we've been looking at in person yet. I agree that this specific one might not be practical (but it sure is purty ;-D!)and when we actually get to the dealership that will be taken into consideration.
Erik brought up the 'entertaining' aspect and I have to make a comment on that. When we have people over, we are RARELY in the RV. We sit around the campfire when we have people over. They might go in and use the bathroom or help me in the kitchen, but other than that, it's rare to hang in the RV. (Mainly because I keep it a nice cool 65-68 degrees..hot flashes...what can I say).
When Erik first brought up trading the RV we have, I was against it. There is nothing wrong with our RV. It's nice, it's comfortable and it fits our needs. That 14% interest has been driving him nuts though and I fully understand that. So, when it turned out that we can cut that in half and the 5th wheel became an option, it opened up a whole new world in my mind.
Erik and I work very stressful jobs and going to the RV on weekends helps us escape for a few days. One of the problems though is that when there are problems with the RV...even little ones, it stresses Erik out which then stresses me out. With us now having an option at a 'new' unit without having to deal with the added pressure of maintaining a motorized vehicle and having to go throughout the off season to drive it and keep it running and so forth, I'm hoping that will help him.
I'm not going to lie and say that this isn't a luxury having such a beautiful 'vacation' home, but I also have another thought in the back of my mind concerning this and to me this is the main factor that I believe knocks everything else out: If Erik loses his job (which could happen at anytime in this economy), we would most likely lose our home.
That 5th wheel (or a similar one) is more like a home than the one we have now. Yes, we could live in the one we have now, but if we have the choice (which we do)...I'm opting for the 5th wheel.
We can keep it in the same place until we can afford to buy a truck. When we are able to get a truck, that opens up all kinds of options as to where we can go. For now, Blackhawk works just fine.
Ok...I'm done. Got that all off my chest. :-)
Steinar - Very true, hauling a car behind has been a pain, Saturday will be interesting and of course, raining...
Erik do you get FMCA's magazine? There is a full page ad for Essex Credit financing the recreational industry for over 30 years. They also finance full-timers so maybe they understand lending to the Rv people better than banks or credit unions. The ad shows 3.99% to 4.87% and they say new, used, or refinance. www.essexcredit.com/fmca or 866-377-3948. I know you mentioned the age of your rig being an issue for getting better terms but this might be worth a phone call. Keeping the rig you have sure does keep money in your pocket.
Bruce
Bruce - I misunderstood your comment so I deleted my response. Now that I have read it properly I can respond correctly. :)
Essex won't touch anything that old, otherwise we would simply re-finance the Endeavor. In fact this was our initial goal but nobody will go back 14 years for any decent rate.
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