Hideout in West Minneapolis Suburbs

[Bombo80]

Hello from Minnesota,
My wife and I are going to look at a Hideout. The tag on the unit show it as a model HI177RD21.
It belongs to the daughter of a very good friend of ours. It is less than a year old, and has a setup exactly what we are looking for.
This is going to be for our upcoming retirement. We want to travel around the country, and checkout many of the craft breweries, distilleries and wineries alla round this great country.
More to come.

[jasin1]

Originally Posted by Bombo80

Hello from Minnesota,
My wife and I are going to look at a Hideout. The tag on the unit show it as a model HI177RD21.
It belongs to the daughter of a very good friend of ours. It is less than a year old, and has a setup exactly what we are looking for.
This is going to be for our upcoming retirement. We want to travel around the country, and checkout many of the craft breweries, distilleries and wineries alla round this great country.
More to come.

Congratulations! …might want to check with the daughter and see if there is any issues that could be addressed while it’s still in the one year warranty window…. Don’t know if that’s transferable. Just a thought since they are friends

[notanlines]

Bombo, have you and your wife actually spent any time inside, sitting down, spending a little time in this RV? The RV is on the extreme low end of entry level travel trailer and will become extremely small to both of you within a week. If the price is superb then you can plan on selling it and moving up, but if you're paying a premium then that is hard money down the drain.
Might I ask what your tow vehicle is? You hopefully can carry some of your goods in that.
Welcome to the forum by the way. I'm not trying to be a downer, just a realist.

[sourdough]

Welcome to the forum Bombo! Lots of knowledgeable folks here willing to help if the need arises.

A couple of good points have been made. I would ask some things; how much time have you spent in an RV? This RV? An RV of that size?

If RVing is new to you then I'm sure this sounds really fun, but on the other hand, that is a small RV for "retirement". What are your plans and expectations for using it? If a lot I would want to sit down in it and "play house" for a weekend or something before I committed.

We've ran the gamut of camping "styles" and probably the most fun and versatile was a pop up...with 2 kids. Could go anywhere, got into more stuff than I should in the outback and just plain fun. And not a fortune when you broke something.

Our first step into a hard sided RV was a 25' (24'?) no slide trailer. I loved it and worked out of it alone. DW and the kids came with me a few times and all said they would not go again because of the size constraints and the way we were staying vs boondocking in the middle of nowhere and never using the trailer except to sleep.

You said you want to "travel all around this country" checking out craft breweries etc. That would lead me to think staying in commercial campgrounds where you have all the amenities to enjoy what an RV has to offer (other than boondocking). Think it through and see if you can't spend some time in it so you can get a feel. 17' will get real cramped real quick....my pop up was longer than that extended.

[dutchmensport]

Welcome to the forums and congrats on your upcoming purchase.

Above posters have given some good advise. I'd like to add mine also.

First, when you purchase a "new to you" camper, you really need to use it at least 1 year before hitting the road full time. Why? for lots of reasons.

You need to learn how to use the camper in all 4 seasons of the year so you have no surprises when things get really tough, especially in freezing weather. Using the camper the first year, with the safety net of your stick and brick home gives you a place to retreat to, regroup, and plan the next outing. All 4 seasons of the year, if that be in the Southern States or the Norther States, have their challenges. You really need to know what to expect out of your camper BEFORE you are in a situation where you have absolutely no alternatives.

Next, you can 100% guarantee there will be mechanical problems with your new camper. Those problems will not unearth until the camper is actually in use, bouncing down the road, getting beat up by every conceivable horrid road in the USA, nuts and bolts, and screws and doors coming loose, falling off, and not to mention appliances that can (and will) fail. These things are all easier to fix in the drive way than on the side of the road.

The next reason to use your camper for a year before hitting the road full time is because you will be making adjustments and modifications to the camper as you get to know it better and better. A hook here, a shelf there, remove this, add that. You need to spend time in the camper to get a feel for it's "flow". And you may find that after a couple week-end trips, the entire flow and feel of the camper just absolutely stinks. If you hit the road immediately ... and you discover within a week that the camper is just wrong, doesn't have the right "feel" any more, and you begin to feel more and more sick about it, well..... you're stuck! No turning back. That's why for the first year, week-end short trips, a couple or 3 two week trips are so vital important.

The next thing you learn over that first year is just how expensive RV'ing really is. It's not all that glamourous, it's not all that fun, it's not all that romantic, it's not all the 'free" as you may be envisioning. The fact is, right now, it's a dog-eat-dog world in the RV market. Right now, in order to get into some campgrounds, you have to make reservations almost a year out. Driving and just finding a campground as you go, is pretty much over these days. If you travel anywhere East of the Mississippi River, you will NOT find public land you can just pull up on, park it for a week or two and live off grid. Those places just don't exist. West of the Mississippi River and you still have some opportunity for that.

If you ARE planning on living off grid, you need water, electricity, and some way to get rid of your sewer waste. If you are planning on campsites with water, electricity and sewage, you are going to pay, and you can expect anywhere from $25 to $100 a night. (depending on where you camp).

Water, electricity, and sewage are always a problem. It takes time to learn what works for you and how to adjust your life style if plan on dry camping or camping off grid. This type of camping takes time to learn to do, so you are comfortable and still content.

If you have never owned an RV before, and you plan on full timing, you really do need the year before you go to learn how to deal with all these issues, to learn the strengths and weakness of your RV, and to learn how to adapt to a little - tiny - space.

Please think about all these things and give yourself that year to learn, adjust and make your plans carefully. RVing is a fabulous lifestyle IF you are prepared to deal with the many, many issues that come along it's way. And you WILL have issues. The year will give you the experience to know how to deal with a lot of these.

[Gegrad]

Welcome from Pennsylvania, and good luck with the Hideout inspection!

[flybouy]

Good advice about the size and utilizing the space. Think about where you will srore variable wardrobes for warm to cool weather. Coats, shoes, raingear, can take up a lot of space. I remember when the first of the baby boomers began retiring there was a huge increase in divorce with the highest increase coming from folks selling out and living on sailboats.

[spicercars]

Welcome from northern MN.

[German Shepherd Guy]

Looks like a nice little layout Bombo80. Should be easy to pull and easy to find places to camp.
This is a great resource for any problems that will come up so don't hesitate to ask.
I am jealous of all the great brews you will be downing.

[curtiscapk]

Bombo,

We have the EXACT same camper. We love ours a lot. We are minimalist, but I don't think there's anyway we'd full time in it.... Maybe a month but that would be pushing it. The fridge is small, there's no oven and little inside storage. The rear dining is what sold us too. We love all the windows. Not trying to talk you out of it just being real. They make a 22 ft RD with a slide that makes for a LOT more room. If you like the 177 get it and try it out I could be way wrong!

Let us know your decision!

Here's a pic of ours with 4 people inside.... and a campsite pic! (aaaah I hate the pics on this forum!) We really aren't sideways.

[jasin1]

Curtis I’ve also been frustrated by my pics being sideways …the workaround for me is edit the picture and move the vertical or horizontal plane in to make it a square picture…you will lose a little of the subject matter but the pics won’t be sideways.

[sourdough]

On our phones I have to turn the phone sideways (lengthwise/landscape) with my button on the right. If I take it with the phone up and down (portrait) as I do with everything else they post just like Curtis' pics. If I put the button on the left the pic is upside down..... Pics from my camera work fine on portrait, just one of those things I suppose.

[Bombo80]

Thanks for all the support.
I have a 2002 Chevy Silverado 2500HD for my towing vehicle.
Plenty of horse power there.
I used to travel around on motorcycle. Going to rallies, and camping. Everything had to fit on the bike, or it wouldn't come.
So I don't think the space will be an issue.
We are going to be retiring in a couple years, and would like to travel around the country. So with this, we can now see how it will work, and if we feel the need for something bigger, we can do it later.
Thanks,
Bombo

[larryflew]

Reiterating what has already been said - make sure the size works for you. This coming from a couple that bout a 27 foot trailer and one LONG trip later traded up to 37 foot 5th wheel as it ended up being claustrophobic in the smaller trailer.

[Jwsnags]

I can recommend the Hideout 177. We actually just sold ours after 1 1/2 years, only because we came across a great deal for a little bigger one with a slide out… and we now just leave it on a property as our cottage now. While we had it we loved it… miss it a little, if I were “traveling” I would buy another… It may be entry level, but with personal upgrades its fine for two people, (as long as your friendly and not living in it). Great thing was… we made 5k on the deal…

[Seawitch714]

Hi, just a little idea to ponder on since everyone else has given great advice on the RV. You said that you want to see Wineries, etc. on your travels. There is a program called Harvest Hosts you can join and then you can boondock at Wineries and Farms for a night or two. I’m pretty sure they have an app. We don’t belong yet as we are still stationary for now. God luck with the RV and your travels.

[Gary R.]

Hello, Bombo, welcome to you and your DW!

Congrats on your impending purchase.

Much very good advice has been offered here, too!

Have fun and good luck!