Should You Buy Or Rent An RV?
There are so many adjectives to describe last year depending on your personal situation. Being stuck at home and feeling trapped is awful and the RV industry experienced a huge influx of new customers that were looking for a way to get outside. The RV rental industry also experienced a massive increase for many of us that choose to rent our beloved units out. In my case specifically, this ended up with an actual decrease in rental income. How could that happen? That is a long story for another article.
In 2020, the RV industry sold about 430,000 units. That is absolutely the beset year ever for them as well as a 4.3% increase over 2019. Everybody wants an RV. I do not believe this trend will continue for 2021, but we live in crazy times; so who knows? According to The Wandering RV, about 9 million people in US households have RV ownership. That is a lot of rolling houses.
I’ve owned a few rolling homes over the years and for the last 6 years I have been renting mine out on various platforms as well as private rentals. Running a single RV rental business taught me a lot about real time management. It also taught me, more than some other things in my life, about when to pick and choose battles. Some of the customers have been amazing. I email out a PDF of “RV Instructions” to let renters know how the RV works. This renter took the PDF to Staples and made a bound and laminated copy that I still keep in the RV to this day. Other renters are nightmares. They lie…a lot. Hiding damages, refusing to acknowledge responsibility for damage, etc. I have even had a customer call and complain during his trip, because he opened the dump valves at his campsite without a hose connected and “stuff” came out. Ah, the joys of renting my stuff out.
Before I did all this renting of RVs, our family either owned one outright or we rented. I used to rent directly from local RV dealerships. It was pricey, but wow it was nice to hand it back off at the end of the trip and never see it again. We rented for a very specific reason. We had 3 small kids. If you’ve ever been in a car or van when they start screaming because they are a little too cold and want a blanket, but can’t tell you any other way you understand what I am talking about. In a van or a truck there is only so much you can do to pacify them. An RV is a whole different situation. Whoever is passenger just gets up from their seat and deals with the situation. Need a bottle? Just go to the fridge and get one. Book fell on the floor? No need to contort yourself and flail your feet in the air searching for some tiny toy they dropped for the four thousandth time. When you get to the campground they have a place that is enclosed so when they wake up in the middle of the night screaming and crying again you don’t wake up every single person at the campground. The drive was also significantly less stressful piloting the rig. At least it was for me. They are giant, so you can sit comfortably in the right lane at 5mph below the speed limit and let everyone go around you. Relaxing.
Another good reason for renting is your return on investment and in this case I mean your experience on your trip. If something goes wrong, it is likely you will get some sort of refund from the person/place you rented from. Not guaranteed though of course. Something going wrong with the RV also starts to venture toward the ugly side of renting. If something does go wrong, it can get ugly and it can leave you stranded. Roadside assistance is great, but you may be in a very rural area and the time for someone to get out to you may be hours and even then they may not be able to fix the problem. Depending on what broke and why, you may actually be found responsible for the problem and have to pay. RV repairs are ALWAYS expensive. If you rent my RV it is understood that when the RV leaves my driveway the tires are in good condition. I check them every time the vehicle comes back and once again before a customer picks up. If you get a flat or a blowout, its on you to pay. Most RVs today do not come with spare tires. They are so heavy with options now that adding a 100+ pound wheel and tire has enough of a degradation to cargo capacity, many manufacturers have done away with them. A tire on the side of the road will run you about $450. The same thing could obviously happen if it were your rig and not a rental.
So, should you buy one instead? I know this might sound like I just want to make more rental income, but without reservation I would say never buy an RV except under these conditions:
- You have enough money to pay cash for one, or plan to rent it out as a business.
From talking to a lot of RV owners, very few people end up on the good end of an RV finance. Even when you get a good deal, it is a bad deal. Just as an example I bought my RV with tax for around $77,000 on a 10 year loan.
According to a study at University of Michigan about half of all RV owners have owned them for less than 5 years. If you look at the payback schedule on a 10 year loan it takes just about 5 years to have interest payments equaling the principal payments. Long story short, except for this particular market right now during the pandemic your RV is going to depreciate faster than you are paying it off.
2. You have a garage to store it in
This is probably one of the most overlooked and most important parts of RV ownership. The overwhelming majority of RVs are poorly built machines. Wood, glue and screws over a hacked up Ford chassis. Wiring under the RV is usually not done correctly as would be in an automotive environment. Taking a look under these motorhomes you can clearly see what was done by the chassis manufacturer and what was done by the coach builder. Exposed connectors and non weatherproof components lead to failures if the vehicle is just left outside to rot.
Add in that things tend to fall from the sky in various forms and you have a recipe for disaster on the roof. There are typically 2 types in class C and class A motorhomes. A full fiberglass roof like on mine or a TPO style roof. Tree sap, bird poop, leaves etc. all damage these things over time.
Lastly, the industry uses self-leveling caulk to seal these roof areas. They degrade over time and crack, leaving vulnerable areas for water to get in and completely destroy a motorhome.
3. You live close to the dealer (within 10 miles)
Buying a new RV is a complete crap shoot. Quality control at RV manufacturers is garbage and they mostly offer 1 year warranties. They are also exempt from most state lemon laws. What does this mean? The first year of ownership will be spent with multiple trips to the dealership and you paying for something that you can’t use.
Every RV and trailer I have owned has required this process. I am shocked on a regular basis how and why people continue to buy these things given how poorly they are put together and how bad the builders are at standing behind their product or even at the least improving their processes.
If you need to bring your RV in for service it is likely to be there for a while and if you have to drive an hour each way (or more) it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Another example is my class C by Jayco. I received a recall letter about the leveling jack pump that may fall off due to poor welding and design. The closest dealer is 47 miles away and they are booked for 4months. Put yourself in this position with a brand new RV with some issue that actually prevents you from enjoying it.
4. You have decent mechanical abilities
Once the honeymoon (sic) warranty period is over there are going to be things that break and fall apart. Pretty much all the time. You are driving a rolling house put together with wood, glue and screws. Do you know how to change a battery? Can you rewire an outlet? How about replace a motor for the electric steps? As in #3 above, if you have to take it to the dealer for every one of these the experience will end up being so painful, you’ll probably want to sell.
Example: Loading the RV one day and the electric steps stop working and they are stuck in the out position. You are leaving on your trip tomorrow. The dealer can’t get to it and there aren’t any local mobile RV mechanics that can come out. You need to be able to take the motor out and tie up the steps while you rig up some wood steps for the trip.
5. Are decent with wood and trim work
A renter had some family member jump on the bunk bed and basically ripped it off the mount on the wall. Dealer? Try a 3 month wait for an appointment and likely a $1,200 bill. Nope, you have to take it all apart and figure out what sort of shenanigans the coach builder used to put it together in the first place.
Wood trim falling from the ceiling? Yeah, gonna be a day in the RV figuring it all out. A lot of this isn’t that difficult, but is something you need to be prepared for with ownership.
Buying one sounds like terrible idea at this point right? Maybe buy a used one? Well, you can of course. Things that sit and rot, especially RVs tend to have a lot of problems. People that don’t know how to maintain or take care of them sometimes have more issues than they even know about. Generators are one of the bigger problem areas. Roof problems, water intrusion, etc. A lot of folks are lured in with the awesome idea of travelling the country in this awesome house box on wheels. It is fun and it is exciting. Right until you realize you now own something that requires a lot more time and money to maintain than you were planning on.
For the vast majority of people it makes so much more sense to rent. If RV coach builders would step up and start offering useful warranties, it might make sense in the future to have a different stance on the matter. A 1 year warranty on a $100,000 vehicle is nonsense.
While the sting of the rental cost isn’t pleasant there are tons of people that have great rigs out there ready to lend you for that amazing cross country vacation you’ve always wanted to take and at the end you can walk away happy.