Sunday, June 7, 2009
INDECISION
I spent 24 years in the military and in my mind indecision is a bad thing! Lately though I am having trouble making a decision. Which RV do I want to live in for a few years of my retirement life?
I thought we had decided on the Mobile Suites, but more information has come to light and I am again researching fifth wheels. I am currently trying to find out all that I can about Excel fifth wheels. All of you that own Excels please let me know how you like them, what you like about them and what you aren't that fond of about them. I need all the information and help I can get!
My brother in arms, Rollie Thurston decided on the Excel (he has no problem with indecision) He and his better half, Gina seem to be well satisfies with the choice. Check out there adventures at All Because Two People Fell In Love. Don't you just love the title?
If there are other choices out there that you would like to recommend, please let me know. At this point I am getting closer to that time to buy and still no firm decision.
Enough whining for today, till next time, God Bless You All.........
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4 comments:
We looked long and hard at various kinds of campers and ended up buying a Bighorn by Heartland. We looked at the Excels and really liked them, but Heartland had a floor plan that we thought would fit us better.
Two years later, even though we were upside down in the loan, we traded it in for a small motorhome.
The fifth wheel was nice, but if we wanted to go camping AND do the kind of camping we like to do, we were going to have to get something different.
Even though we got the shortest model available, the Bighorn was still a high profile camper. It was too long to fit in many of the national forest and other public campgrounds that we enjoy visiting. Even in private campgrounds, we sometimes had trouble getting in. At two different KOAs the campground staff had to trim trees and at a membership campground in Missouri, a tree branch actually tore the roof liner.
On top of that, my wife couldn't get used to the front of the fifth wheel looming over us as we drove down the road. Parking the camper also bothered her as it often seemed to her that it was going to tip over. I don't think she quite bought my explanation that it was bottom heavy, not top heavy, and that it would have to be a quite severe incline before it would turn over.
In short, it got to the point that just the thought of going anywhere with the fifth wheel would give her anxiety.
For 30 years, we had been planning to travel and camp after I retired and in order to be able to do that and visit the places we like to travel, we had to make drastic and expensive changes.
We are now in a 24'5" Navion IQ by Itasca. It is built on a Dodge Sprinter frame. It does not have any slides and storage space is limited. Yet, we've been on two relatively long trips with it already and we enjoy it much more than the fifth wheel that had so much more space -- and some of the travel was during weeks with very rainy weather.
I wish that we would have been able to have made a better decision before we bought the fifth wheel. We settled too quick on something we really liked before we really knew how it would fit our travel and camping style. It was an expensive lesson that we are still paying for... but we are heading out at the beginning of August for a 2 month trip in the Rockies.
Good luck in your decisions on your new RV.
Mike Goad
at home in Arkansas
Haw Creek Out 'n About
OK being a Carriage owner I would be remiss on not mentioning the Carriage products. The Cameo is a good fulltime RV...they make their own frames and design them to the layout of the trailer. They have the double frame...which means that the slide arms are not cut into the main frame work making for a stronger foundation. They have top of the line insulation packages and the dual pane windows and Bus Windows on top of that. I could go on and on...Then there is the Carri lite and then the Carriage or the Royals International. We have the Carri lite and love it...The choice will be yours..all I can tell you is look past the fluff.
Check my blog. We went to the Carriage and the Heartland factories. We learned so much. We can't pull the Excel safely so we're going with the carri lite max1. Good luck!
We can't help you with info about Excel's but wish you the best as you decide what fits for you! We were fortunate in having one floor plan that seemed to fit our anticipated needs much better than others - made it easy to decide! We enjoy following your blog and hope you can pursue your RV dream soon! Craig and Linda
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