Ski RV's, who's sleeping in parking lots?

[snowaddict91]

You'll be more than fine in that thing with winter tires. You could go a touch narrower than stock to really do well on anything that's not bottomless, but probably unnecessary.

[SchralphMacchio]

You'll be more than fine in that thing with winter tires. You could go a touch narrower than stock to really do well on anything that's not bottomless, but probably unnecessary.

Was about to suggest the same thing!
Hakka LT3 Studded for the win … though General Grabber Arctic studded might get you like 85% of the Nokian performance for like 60% or the price. No idea. I had General winter tires before (for my Subie) and I think they are made by Gislaved from Sweden. Worked great but wear life wasn’t spectacular and I had a tread separation on the tires 4th season.

[Dromond]

Was about to suggest the same thing!
Hakka LT3 Studded for the win … though General Grabber Arctic studded might get you like 85% of the Nokian performance for like 60% or the price. No idea. I had General winter tires before (for my Subie) and I think they are made by Gislaved from Sweden. Worked great but wear life wasn’t spectacular and I had a tread separation on the tires 4th season.

Thanks for the tips. I don't think I will put a huge amount of miles on this, so dood performance with a bit shorter life might be ok. Since I live in the PNW lowlands also, I should probably go studless to avoid noise and road wear.

[DanoT]

I'm not sure about Alberta but in the B.C. interior 3PMSF tires OR M&S tires are the only legal winter tires.

A skier who several decades ago owned a ski shop in Kamloops B.C. sold the store and moved back to Calgary where his family owned Canadream RV Rentals, hence the winter ski trip rentals.

The campground in Lake Louise has several plowed plug-in sites as well as a shower and washroom open and potable water available in winter and is less than a 5 min. drive to the lifts. The drive from Calgary is mostly 4 lanes and flat.

[apex dave]

X2 the Lake Louise campground. Last season we went to Marmot and stayed in the Wapiti campground 15 minutes from the hill. It is also Parks Canada and has the same great amenities as LL. I wanted to see the Columbia Ice Fields before they melted and LL and Marmot were a great combo.

[Yukonrider]

Anybody here have a Winnebago Revel? The more I look the better I think it is as far as a deal goes. Seems building custom will be a pain, and hard to end up with the same value as a pre-built.
Plus, I can finance a complete, much harder to finance a build. What say the collective?

Needs are: 144", 4x4, shower, probably Sprinter for the 4x4

[SchralphMacchio]

Plus, I can finance a complete, much harder to finance a build. What say the collective?

I can’t speak to the Revel, and I’m sure this opens an Internet can of worms, but have you owned an RV before? Financing a large portion of a rapidly depreciating and costly to maintain asset* can be a red flag, of course knowing absolutely nothing about other aspects of your finances. Regular maintenance Is often underbudgeted and so is leaving a cash reserve to pay for unplanned emergency repairs (needing a remote recovery tow and a set of 4 or 5 LT tires, dealing with water in your diesel or a SCR issue from bad DEF, electrical haywire issue caused from a short circuiting deep cycle battery or what not, repairs due to a frozen/cracked water system, etc).

*Obviously where you are buying into the depreciation curve in terms of age, and how much purchase percentage and for how long you are financing can make a big difference here. But boy I tell you there are a lot of RV owners right now trying to sell off a high-inflation pandemic purchase and realizing they are underwater on their loans because the resale market has become saturated and is dropping out …

[simple]

The revel is a good deal if you can get for the $165k mentioned earlier. It is very well equipped. Not perfect but no van RV is

[Trackhead]

X2 the Lake Louise campground.

Stayed there two nights on our way to AK when we moved there, damn trains blast through that campsite all night long. Super loud place, it sucked for us.

[Dantheman]

Stayed there two nights on our way to AK when we moved there, damn trains blast through that campsite all night long. Super loud place, it sucked for us.

[fastfred]

The revel looks like a good deal I like them

Just hate to he the guy who bought one for 200k and now they are at 165k

If I was I'd go w the story telleroverland they offer financing

I've never punched the numbers to see what a 20 yr rv loan looks like I'd probably go w a heloc if I could but I've milked all my equity getting a dick enlargement

[Iowagriz]

I just bought a new Jayco Swift 20T - 33% off the MSRP. A buddy bought a similar van, but a 2024 model, not quite 30% off MSRP. Just for reference points. I had heard 33% is a standard "good deal" off these. (the more you know)

Loving the #vanlife so far, it took about 15 years to convince the spouse to try it. The tipping point for her approval was a much larger bath/toilet area than comparable vans. If they would have made a 4x4, I certainly would have considered it (this one has low clearance). However, the reality of getting her to go too deep into the backcountry is low.

[Trackhead]

Said every RV park, ever.... they are all built right next to grand central station!

[Yukonrider]

You can get a brand new 2023 Revel off the lot for $139 right now, so many people are under water. Seems that 20 through 22 can be had from 100 to 130. The price of new is going to rock a lot of peoples re-sale, I saw a 2023 with 5k on it just go for 125k.

I know a van will never math out, but I think I'm okay with it, figuring I lose ~8k a year if I buy right and hold for 4 to 5 years.

My somewhat plan is to wait a bit, and see what deals start popping up in August and September when people start getting done with their summer trips. I would like to have on purchased by early or mid September.

[Yukonrider]

I've never punched the numbers to see what a 20 yr rv loan looks like I'd probably go w a heloc if I could

I haven't talked to the bank, but Good Sam will do 8% at 20 years, better than my HELOC which is 10% for however long.

[fastfred]

When I bought my van shell and started building it out it was painful and stickr shock it was pissing money into the wind

At this point it's worth the money

The pure enjoyment it provides is worth every penny

Then again I'm a regular user year around

The bummer is building up some fantasy in your head of how awesome it's going to be go out purchase one then never use it cause of a wife kids or just plain old life getting in the way or maybe you made an expensive mistake and it's not really your thing

[SchralphMacchio]

Yukon looks like you’ve been doing homework on the numbers, so my only other comments on the topic are to vet the annual O&M (and random upgrades) budget with other diesel Class B owners and increase your cash or liquid reserves by at least $3k for some of the random shit I mentioned above.

I’m also still in disbelief that RV loan interest is tax deductible in the US!

Okay I’ll get off the money topic now. I would love an adventure van over a towable, but I am just not willing to even attempt to try with our 2 young kids and dog!

[Dromond]

I’m also still in disbelief that RV loan interest is tax deductible in the US!

WTF really???? That has to just be a major handout to the RV industry and nothing else. Why are we paying for people's RVs by giving them a tax break?

[Yukonrider]

Yukon looks like you’ve been doing homework on the numbers, so my only other comments on the topic are to vet the annual O&M (and random upgrades) budget with other diesel Class B owners and increase your cash or liquid reserves by at least $3k for some of the random shit I mentioned above.

I’m also still in disbelief that RV loan interest is tax deductible in the US!

I appreciate your comments though, that is something most don't think about. I am mostly worried about the reliability of the Sprinter chassis. Paying 7k to fix a DEF system would suck no matter how much cash you have to burn.

WTF really???? That has to just be a major handout to the RV industry and nothing else. Why are we paying for people's RVs by giving them a tax break?

Yup, I asked my accountant about this, and the catch is that often the interest on an RV loan isn't greater than the standard deduction which for me is $13,000. So really it doesn't make a difference until you're paying well over 13k in interest.

If your standard deduction is different than mine then maybe it can work.

[SchralphMacchio]

WTF really???? That has to just be a major handout to the RV industry and nothing else. Why are we paying for people's RVs by giving them a tax break?

Dude where have you been your whole tax paying life, tax codes are full of tax breaks for people with money who don’t need them / could be paying more of a fair share.

Educational loan interest tax breaks are capped by income but home and RV loans are not? HSA accounts are not taxed on deferment, you can invest them in various fund vehicles, and withdraw earnings tax free for medical expenses or just pay income tax after retirement if used for no medical (so it’s basically an additional 401k above the annual limit, for people who can afford to pay cash for medical expenses and save more than $24k a year for retirement). Yes this is polyasshat thread drift, but new RVs and tax breaks are both a wealthy person’s game …

[Dantheman]

It seems a little unfair to drag HSAs into the same discussion as fucking RV loan interest being deductible. As far as I'm concerned until America has a proper universal healthcare system all OOP healh insurance premiums and medical expenses should be above-the-line deductions.

[SchralphMacchio]

It seems a little unfair to drag HSAs into the same discussion as fucking RV loan interest being deductible. As far as I'm concerned until America has a proper universal healthcare system all OOP healh insurance premiums and medical expenses should be above-the-line deductions.

Totally unfair and we can chat about that in polyasshat (but I don't go there for a reason).

So anyways, lets get back to random device specs and issues.

Like, I wonder if I could ever replace my ducted Suburban Furnace with a Truma Vario heat, as the multi-stage burner on the Vario has me intrigued. I'd love to have a Truma Combi but they say to winterize that thing in below freezing temps, which of course sucks if you want to run wet in not-super-cold winter conditions.

[apex dave]

That Trumo Vario Comfort looks really nice. I particularly like the lower power consumption @ 5.4 amps max. I did the conversion from KW to BTU output and came up with 12,690 BTUs. My 24 foot class C (no slides) has a 33.000 BTU furnace and although probably not nearly as efficient as the Trumo, it is good for -25C. I'm not sure the Trumo would be enough for my unit but would be great for a van but at that point it's competing with cheap diesel heaters.

[SchralphMacchio]

I agree it’s probably not enough heat for a cabin larger than a Class B or small C, ironically because of the fact that it’s *not* the Combi. Think about it, what’s the efficiency of an RV gas furnace heat exchanger when you are just dumping exhaust gas with no recirculation system? 20%?
With the Combi you are not just heating air in the exchanger but you can heat water as well and store some of the propane’s BTU in water heat, then recirculate that back to the air. I feel like the next step for Truma is to create some kind of next Gen Combi that can handle running wet in the winter though a higher volume of maintained water with some kind of recirculation system that can run thermostatic heating cycles just to keep that thing from freezing regardless if the cabin air thermostat isn’t calling for hot air.
Increasing the efficiency of the heat exchanger by twofold can make a 15 kbtu furnace act equivalently to a 30 kbtu furnace!
Maybe I’m wrong, I’m not an HVAC guy.

[Foggy_Goggles]

I know a van will never math out, but I think I'm okay with it, figuring I lose ~8k a year if I buy right and hold for 4 to 5 years.

I assume that's just your depreciation? $165K at 8% for 20yrs. is $1.3K a month. And then you have operating expenses? It use to be that if it flies, floats, or fucks don't make payment's on it but I guess throw vans in the mix. It's your money and I make no judgement, but I feel like I must be missing something. That seems like a lot of sunk costs for a toy. We all get value out of our money in different ways but this seem nuts.