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I checked with USAA a few years ago for my RV and a vehicle. They were extremely high priced at that time so I have never gotten quotes from them since. When we change coaches in the near future I may give them another shot, but usually when someone is 40% to 50% higher on something I don't revisit.

George, I have been following your post on the damage. Unbelievable! I hope you guys are not full timers. Keep us posted on how you make out with repairs and insurance.

Even though I had my Safe T Plus installed on my 39' gasser, and not a DP, I agree with everything Wolfe10 said. To improve my handling I had to have the front end aligned, properly adjust my psi in all tires, and have Sumo springs installed all around. The Safe T Plus helped me re-center the steering while driving and made me more confident I could keep from rolling over in the case of a steer axle tire blowout. I would estimate that every modification I did leading up to the Safe T Plus install improved the handling of my gas coach 60%, then adding the Safe T Plus maybe improved it another 10%. I was going from Florida to Illinois last spring to start our summer travels so I made an appointment at their factory outside of Atlanta. There was no waiting and they completed the install and road testing in about 90 minutes.

I think Hank164 makes some good points. After being full time in a fiver and now considering being full time in a DP my perspective on coach selection is slightly different. The floorplan is extremely important and your perception of how reliable the coach will be is ultra important, or at least it is to me. While traveling full time in our fiver I was more concerned with making sure my F350 never broke down. If something had to be repaired on the fiver and it had to be in a shop for a couple days or longer we always had the truck to load some stuff into and go find lodging. Now when considering being full time in just a DP puling an enclosed trailer what if it has to be in the shop for a few days. I would have to find a secure place for the enclosed trailer plus we would be very limited on what possessions we could take with us in just our Mini Cooper. A much more uncomfortable situation to be in with a DP compared to a fiver. Now it becomes extremely important for me to search out the most reliable higher end brand of used DP I can afford. That doesn't mean there is any guarantee I won't have issues with a used Newmar or Tiffin, but maybe my chances will be a little less than compared to a used cheaper brand.

I checked into both the bigger rear trac bar plus putting on a 5 star tuner. The suspension mods I did made the coach handle about 75% better so I decided against the trac bar but was still considering the tuner. Of course when we made the decision to return to full timing and change coaches the tuner came off my RV wish list.

The original OP may have gotten tied up dealing and/or taking delivery on a coach. He may have had some type of medical emergency, or a family problem. Heck, unless someone knows him personally, for all we know he may not speak English very well and has a adult kid or grandkid post questions for him. There could be many things that keep him from lurking on this site every day. I don't care if he comes back or not and no one else should either. I certainly am not going to bad mouth him for not making a follow up comment.

I don't have any real "skin" in this game. I simply paid my money for this first year because I wanted to get some information from a forum that was exclusively motorhome based plus there were some discounts in the benefits section that I may be able to take advantage of as we transition to full time RVing. So I guess my first question to the powers to be is "if folks with TT's and fivers are allowed in, what will FMCA be changed to?" Obviously this organization can't be called FAMILY MOTOR COACH ASSOCIATION any longer. Will it be FRVA (Family RV Assoc), FMCFWTTA (Family Motor Coach Fifth Wheel Travel Trailer Assoc), or just FART (Family All Recreational Together).

From your signature it looks like you are full time. I am assuming that means you travel a lot but I can't tell how tall your rig is. Do you ever concern yourself with height issues? How about weight, length, or width restrictions on certain roads? Have you ever approached an area where you were restricted because of a 100 gallon propane tank on board? Or how about a major street in a city where any type of large vehicle are not allowed (Chicago). These are all reasons I use a Truckers/RV GPS to aid in my navigation plus consult a truckers atlas if visiting a new area of the country.

Benny, pretty good information already provided. I will just add some additional advise on dumping the black tank. First of all, while using your black tank make sure you flush with tons of water each time. Hold the pedal partially open and fill the bowl at least twice after each use. Leave the bowl with 2" or 3" of standing water which will keep the seal working properly. I don't use the black flush feature that comes on RV's. Most of them have a back check valve built into them and they have a habit of failing. They are usually just designed to spray water into the black tank in order to rinse it. This is what I have always attached to the end of my sewer boom: http://www.valterra.com/flush-king-reverse-rv-flush-valve/ With the Flush King I can attach a hose and back flush my black tank (after closing the gray). It flushes it from the bottom up and I have found it works much better than most OEM installed black tank flushes. In addition, I can close my black tank after cleaning and open my gray and back flush it the same way. You would be surprised how much junk (food particles, hair, etc.) gets into your gray tank and never runs out.

When I bought my 2012 F350 I was a little freaked out about the whole new DEF issue. After towing with it for over 40,000 miles the whole DEF issue is nothing more than an extra fluid to keep track of IMHO. Maybe Cummins or one of the other diesel makers had additional issues I am not aware of when it came to diesel exhaust fluid, but Fords new 6.7 was okay.

We won't make it to Perry. Got a lot going on right now with the house just hitting the market. Just got lucky today and got a super site in a local campground for the winter months, they had an early cancellation already.

Good info Bill, and thanks. My estimated 4,000 pounds of towed weight would be the Mini and Harley total, not inclusive of the trailer weight. I'm not sure how I will be limited by having a Mini Cooper and a Harley as our two modes of general transportation? We have just officially listed the house with the signs going up Friday. Depending on how quickly that goes will determine how quickly my search for a coach increases. I will probably reach out to you with more questions.

Bill, are you sure about that? With my Verizon account when we use our I-phones for navigation it seems to chew through our data. I would suspect if we were driving all day in our car and kept our I-phone navigating we would use at least 1/2 gig.

Thanks Bill, I resent an email to you, still trying to get used to a new computer with windows 10.

Actually my Harley is a FLHTCUTG, which to non-Harley buffs is a Triglide, you know, a tricycle. You "drive it" instead of riding it like a motorcycle. It is more like my convertible except with 3 wheels. It has full navigation and blue tooth so I can display or play about anything. But getting back to the original question of GPS units. I guess my feeling is that I would never feel comfortable going down the road in a vehicle that is anywhere from 40' to 65' long and close to the height limits following google mapping or Waze. Any GPS guidance I have is going to have my length, height, and other factors programed in so I will have a better chance of not getting into a bind. We will use Waze and other applications on our phone and tablet but not for navigation. For example when traffic comes to a stop we may pull up one of those other apps just to see what is happening and try to determine if there could be an alternate way around it. I could care less about knowing where the general public is reporting a police officer sitting in the median. Come on, are you serious, I'm either pulling or pushing a vehicle that is 30,000 to 50,000 pounds down the road, its not like I'm driving 20mph over the speed limit or drinking a six pack! I'm more worried about that 10'8" overpass.

Go to Lazy Days site and look at their current DP for sale. There are new ones, even 2018's, reduced 35% and more. Here is how I look at their pricing in general. The manufacturer produces a coach for example (labor/material) at a cost of $150,000. They want to make a little money so they sell it to dealers at $225,000. The dealers get to place a MSRP of $450,000 on these coaches that actually cost $150,000 to produce. Now they discount it $299,999 and the customer thinks he just got a huge deal. In reality the dealer made a cool $75,000 off the sale. But remember there will be tons of buyers who will pay in the neighborhood of $230,000 to $240,000 for that same coach. If I was in the market for a new coach, and that will never happen, I would get the nationwide average MSRP of the model I was looking at and start offering 40% less. When I found a dealer that would deal at that price point I would throw in an extended 5 year warranty just before closing.

Looks like Manholt already provided the definitions for you. As far as considering yourself true "full timers" or "long timers" is doesn't really matter. Some folks don't have a house (sticksnbricks) and travel full time in their RV. Generally speaking they are true full timers. Then there are folks that don't have a house but live in an RV up north for 6 months and move it to a warmer climate for 6 months, with no travel in between, they also will claim they are full timers. I don't really care what I am considered or called. We are selling the house and will travel anywhere from 8,000 to 18,000 miles a year depending on where we want to go and how long we want to stay there. We will probably sit in one location during the winter in Florida for maybe 4 months. No matter if you return once and awhile to your home, if you are traveling and pulling a lot of weight IMHO a DP would be the only way for you to go.

There were two things I had a hard time getting used to with my Challenger. Number One was finding places to get in and out of easily for gas. I only pull a small aluminum trailer with my Harley on it but it is still sometimes a challenge to fuel a 38' coach pulling anything. The Number Two problem was that F-53 chassis. If I wasn't paying attention when a big truck passed me I could easily end up on the shoulder. I weighed it, properly aired the tires, had front end aligned, did the CHF, and had Sumo springs put all around. After that $2,000 plus of improvements it is much better but as soon as that V-10 sees a little hill up ahead it starts screaming at me! I certainly miss my 6.7 Ford diesel and would not go full time without a diesel coach.

We are at about the same point as you folks in our search for a DP. We did about 3 years full time in a larger fiver and F350 diesel but then went back to having a home and part time travel in a gas coach (38' Thor Challenger). IMHO if you are full time traveling you want a diesel. We researched and looked at several brands but have pretty much narrowed our search down to a used Newmar or Tiffin also. I changed fuel filters in my F350 and I currently do oil changes on my V-10. I'm not a mechanic but I can do a little general maintenance and am not worried about excessive maintenance costs. We are extremely excited to be returning to full time RV traveling. Keep us posted on how your search progresses!

I was simply pointing out that most of us suffer a lot more than $360 to $600 a year in depreciation on our coaches. In addition we are running all over the country in buses that get anywhere from 5mpg to 8mpg. After considering all of that trying to find the absolute cheapest diesel prices within 50 miles of your location is a priority? I guess what is most important to me is looking for a fuel stop I can easily get in and out of and a station that pumps a ton of fuel. If I happen to find one that is cheaper then I can buy premium beer that month I guess.

I wasn't going to post on this statement and another one reference length restrictions. I know many RVers read what some site posts online on which State allows what length and take it as gospel. It does get rather confusing traveling from State to State trying to decide what applies and what doesn't. Generally speaking, any of a State's laws that are regulatory in nature, like speed limits, safety belt use, all that is enforceable of course no matter where your vehicle is registered. Then there are some of the equipment laws such as tinted windows and a few others that a State you are visiting can not enforce on you if you are registered in another State. Also, there are Federal laws/guidelines that regulate commercial trucks which in no way apply to the RV world, like pulling into that weigh station. This brings me to the point of what is the legal length limit for a motorhome pulling a trailer. If you do a search online you will not find a correct answer IMHO. Most of the RV "experts" that have put those state-by-state lists on line never mention anything about what class highway they are talking about. If they would divide it out into Class I designated routes and compare that to Class III routes you would see a huge difference in requirements. So in other words, if you have a 45' motorhome and you are towing a 28' trailer (76'-77' total length), and you are willing to stick to all designated Class I routes (Interstates and most National Highways), and never venture more than 5 miles off, then you will never get pulled over and seldom be in actual violation anyway. I am basing this on my experience/training in my career as an Illinois State Trooper. You may or may not agree with my opinion on this RV length subject. Everyone should decide for themselves what length they think is legal and are comfortable with.

That would probably normally be sound advise to someone who travels part time in their RV. We are in a transition period going from marketing our home into full time traveling in our coach. Since we will always spend the winter months in this general area of SW Florida we will need a long pull thru site, 90% of which are already booked for the 2017/18 winter in our area. With many friends in this area plus all of our Doctors already set up here we plan to spend November to March here. There are a couple CG's that if we rent a super pull thru site now when they are almost empty they will give us their first winter snowbird cancellation. Spending six figures on a used DP will have to wait until the house sells, but if I come across a good buy on the right trailer there would be no reason not to purchase it now.

I taped off two different areas in my garage yesterday, one was 8' wide and 20' long, the other 8' wide and 22' long. I wanted to simulate the inside of a 20' enclosed and a 22' enclosed. I positioned the Mini and Trike every which way and there was no way a 20' would work. A 22' will barely work. I will keep checking for a used Stacker. We need to put our 38' gasser on a super pull through site within the next month down here so that we will be in line for their first seasonal cancellation. I can always pull an empty one if I have to with my gas MH just to get it to the site for now until we find our DP.

Actually, some states have a limit of 60' for an RV combination. Still have to try to position my Harley Trike and Mini end to end and see exactly how long of an enclosed I would have to have. Maybe with the Trike turned at an angle I could get by with a 18' or 20' trailer, but it would certainly be close. Even then with a 43' coach I would be over 65'. As much as it would pain me I may be looking at a stacker type trailer.

No matter is any of us want to believe his statement or not, it is true. Depending on how much you spent or if you bought your DP new or used, you could be bleeding anywhere from $500 a month to $5,000 or more a month in depreciation. So in the whole scheme of things if you go through a bunch of diesel in a month and spend an extra $30 to $50 does it really matter?