Frustrations in Buying a New Rig

Just think, my current rig (Ford Econoline van pulling a 21 nominal foot travel trailer) has given me shelter (and massive amounts of storage) 365 days per year for 15 years and for 200,000 miles. The combined cost was $26,000. I would say that I got my money's worth. Call it beginner's luck: I bought these units despite never having slept in an RV before, and despite doing very little homework.

But their respective careers are winding down. Now that I'm only a year-and-a-half away from robbing the piggy bank (IRA withdrawals), it's time to knock the ball out of the park when buying new rigs. And this gives me a chance to play RV Wannabee, instead of RV know-it-all. This time around, homework will be done; I demand significant improvement from myself.

Once again I will be looking for a low cost rig intended for dispersed camping near the desert-grassland/forest interface. This is usually where you can still get an internet signal, have the most variety in the scenery, stay acceptably cool in the summer, minimize transportation expenses to town, maximize dog happiness, and where the best mountain biking starts. The various components of my lifestyle really do fit together perfectly, and I want vehicles that keep it like that. Four wheel drive will remain an unnecessary expense. (A more serious hiker might disagree with that.)

So I'll stick with a two vehicle combination, such as a pickup truck with a CapriCamper on top, pulling a small utility trailer full of bicycles, water jugs, generator and gas can, and perhaps containing the "house" batteries, and even the bathroom.

Option #2 is to stick with an Econoline van, but this time pulling a (self-contained) Carson Kalispell travel trailer, whose box is 6 feet shorter than my current travel trailer, and whose tires are 15 inchers instead of my current ghastly 13 inchers. Also, it will weigh 500 pound less. Ground clearance and easier turn-arounds in the back country will be the main benefits.

Much to my surprise, the "housie" half of the total unit was the easy part. Perhaps this should have been expected; after all, a box is a box. Most of the complexity and maintenance of a total rig pertain to the "motor vehicle" half.

I expected it to be easy to find a pickup truck, since they are so common. I started with Toyota Tacomas. What a shock! It seems that most used Tacomas lack a "towing package." (Transmission lubricant cooler, hitch, connector and wiring, and a couple other things.) Perhaps most original buyers of Tacomas are actually thinking like an SUV buyer, so they omit the towing package. They also want the inside of the truck to have all the amenities of a high end living room. It's terrible to see the pickup truck become suburbanized, but that is the status of pickup trucks these days.

My eyeballs have been strained reading about cupholders, vanity mirrors, alloy rims, 6 disk CD players, four or six speakers, electrochromic mirrors, electric power windows and seats. On and on it goes. There is no cargo bed left to the average pickup these days -- it's all seating. Sigh. If I get a Toyota, I'll probably have to go with a Tundra to get a towing package.

The Ford F series truck is virtually the best selling model of car or truck in North America for decades now. So buying one should be easy. Wrong again.

Considering all the computing power on the internet these days, you'd think that you would go to a standard search engine (autoTrader.com, cars.com, ebay, yahoo, or Craigslist) and type in your selection, and ka-pow!, all these choices would instantly appear. But it doesn't work like that. Craigslist is the worst. Perhaps this is because entering complete and accurate information into these databases costs money. Or maybe they are more interested in shuffling you off to an insurance or finance company.

This has been very discouraging, and yet look at recent success stories on the blogosphere about people buying older motorhomes with low mileage, all at a great price. This is an example of irrationality and emotionalism on the part of one segment of consumers (the buyers of new motorhomes) creating a marvelous opportunity for shrewder consumers.

Perhaps the moral of the story is that the internet really isn't the place to find a real bargain, and that you should do it the old-fashioned way, looking for distressed sellers advertising a rig with a crude sign in the parking lot.

Ideally I need to find a guy who has screwed the resell value of a two-wheel-drive pickup or van with a towing package, perhaps by chain-smoking; or maybe his 100 pound dog has had an accident or two on the passenger seat; or he spilled a can of paint inside it; or chose an unpopular color. Maybe he parks it every night underneath a mulberry tree that hosts a small flock of birds. I couldn't care less about any of that. But it would drive the price down.