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Old 07-02-2020, 08:18 PM   #25
sourdough
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Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: W. Texas
Posts: 17,601
Quote:
Originally Posted by kb0zke View Post
We're full-timers, and SD is one of the three best States for full-timers. (The other two are FL and TX.) All are without income taxes and all allow the use of your mail service address as your domicile address. Last year we leased a lot at The Ranch, an Escapees co-op between Carlsbad and Artesia. The plan was that we could use that as a winter base. We got back here in November and planned to leave in March. Well, plans got changed. We finally left here in May, headed to IA for a wedding, then to SD to renew licenses. After that we didn't know.

While we were driving through Aberdeen I got a phone call. Our church in Riverton, WY is looking for an associate pastor/head teacher. Such men are out there, but are rare, so they decided that I could fill the head teacher role. (I'm not a pastor, but I am a retired teacher and had certification as an administrator.) The position is a temporary one and part-time. As a result, we visited Theodore Roosevelt NP, then headed south back to The Ranch so we could repack. This weekend we'll head back north to Riverton.

Anyway, we don't have any slides in our Foretravel, so we don't miss them. From what I've read on various RV forums, both brand-specific ones and general ones, slides are the most frequent cause of colorful language. Sometimes they won't extend when commanded to, and other times they refuse to retract. While they do provide more interior room, that room comes at a price of increased weight and complexity. That said, though, part of the reason for switching from the MH to a TT is that a TT is far less complex than our MH. I expect to reduce maintenance costs by at least 50%.

Our 1993 Foretravel U300 is old enough and unusual enough that we've only seen a few other Foretravels in our travels, and only two others similar to ours. I suspect that we'd be in a similar position with a Vantage.

Slides, if functioning properly and cared for, make a non slide unit seem like 1950. The most frequent cause of "colorful" language would not be a slide from my experience. Try water intrusion and other malfunctions.

Slides are the "modern" enhancement to an RV that gives the owner SO much more room, latitude, kitchen, living room etc. vs feeling like you are stuck in a gopher hole (btdt).

MH vs TT? Unless you live in a MH and use the "drivetrain" constantly to warrant the cost and maintenance it's a complete waste of money. When we retired I was going to have a very nice class A pusher. Crunching numbers showed that it was a total waste of 420k. Maintenance, drivetrain, etc. etc. never used for anything. Toad? Who wants one when you can have a wonderful "truck" to drive around?

Mtce costs from MH to TT? I would suspect it would be more like a 75% reduction vs 50%. There are SO, too many, things to constantly keep up with on a nice MH. I visited with a friend last year in this park that had a new Expedition diesel RV. He related that the cost was astronomical for what you got.

Having spent many, many years in the Carlsbad/Artesia area I know exactly where your park is....right down the road from Brantley Lake where I almost sunk a boat.

IMO trying to find, acquire and own an "unusual", never seen before, long discontinued model of anything is not conducive to having fun, being able to fix things or happiness. YMMV
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