RV rental for cross country trip (bed, trucks, campground, best)

[Dave5150]

So I will just give you guys a bit more info. The wife is actually the one who suggested it and its been something I have always wanted to do, so we are on the same page there. We are also planning to get a 27-30 ft camper with at least one slideout, perhaps 2. We are also planning on going with another family. A cousin, her husband and their son. He is a little younger than my son but with the 2 of them enjoy playing together. We take many long driving trips, while I know thats not the same thing as 2 weeks, we are hoping the level of comfort in an RV will help make up for the long trip. We will have 4 adults who can drive, and that will reduce the fatigue from driving so much, plus the off hour driving opportunities. Instead of driving 8 hrs, we can drive 12. And we have the opportunity to have more adults to entertain little people with crafts and fun things. He greatly enjoys car traveling, and has since his birth, routinely spent 10-12 hrs in a stretch in a car seat in the back seat of our car. At least an rv has more comfortable accommodations. There is a possibility of 3 weeks, but that hasnt been truly decided yet. That depends on how much vacation I can save up. In my experience of driving cross country with my parents as a kid, with a very rushed paced, it took us 5 days driving almost constantly. My plan is to drive a day or 2 then stop for a day or 2 depending on where we are. Im not trying to squeeze everything in, just what we can. Me and my wife plan on doing this at least 2 more times in our life, but I really would like to do this with our son before he becomes a snotty teen who doesnt want to spend time with us. And is young enough to still enjoy things that may be considered mundane later on. The other possibility is 2 weeks to travel and one week at disneyland.

ETA we may also buy an RV before then, which would save us a lot of money plus we would have it for future adventures.

[rtandc]

Six people in a RV? Man you story keeps getting better and better....lol
Not sure what type of RV you plan to rent but a 27-30 foot RV is going to get very very small real fast with six people inside. I guess you are thinking about a class C, I'm not sure you will find a class C that small that has six seat belts so that may be your first problem....sure you can sleep that many people in a class C but note I didn't say you can sleep that many comfortable....plus six people sharing one small bathroom..... All I can say is wow.....

It seems you have already made your mind up to do this trip so here are a few things to think about......

Plan for at least a day or two of solid rain, (maybe much more) the rain will normally arrive when you get to the most exciting spot you wanted to see during your trip... So be prepared to have everyone very disappointed because you can't re-schedule due to having to get to the next stop.

Plan for at least one person to become sick during your trip, if it's the flu then hey you all get to experience the same
thing.... Wow it's so much fun to be sick when traveling on the road.

Plan on at least someone not wanting to do what everyone else wants to do, problem is unless you have a tow vehicle ... Which you can't have on a rental RV everyone has to go everywhere the RV goes.

Plan for at least one breakdown or flat tire during your trip... Rental RV's are like rental cars, no one really takes care of them because they don't own them. So that means everyone gets to sit on the side of the road or in a repair shop
all day waiting on the RV to be fixed

Not trying to make this trip sound bad, but many of us have did trips just like you are planning and looking back we all can say now..... Man that was the dumbest idea for a trip I ever planned.....I think you are trying to travel too far in too short of a time frame.... If you had 6-8 weeks then a coast to coast trip is doable, but only having two weeks is going to turn into a trip from
Hell

[Capt. Dan]

My wife and I will be doing a round trip drive this summer. Memphis, Tennessee to Santa Cruz,Cal to Estes Park, Col to Branson.Missouri and back to Memphis. We considered the RV thing. But when you consider the AWFUL gas mileage and the fact that alot of RV parks charge darn near what a Econolodge type motel does, I dont see any advantages to using an RV.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by Capt. Dan

My wife and I will be doing a round trip drive this summer. Memphis, Tennessee to Santa Cruz,Cal to Estes Park, Col to Branson.Missouri and back to Memphis. We considered the RV thing. But when you consider the AWFUL gas mileage and the fact that alot of RV parks charge darn near what a Econolodge type motel does, I dont see any advantages to using an RV.

Say hi to Estes (My hometown / area as a kid) Actually grew up in Big Thompson Canyon...

While I have a 20 mpg class C RV, my travel spreadsheet still favors my fleet of 52 mpg VW Diesels for road trips. It gives me ~ $100+/day extra to spend on food and lodging (if I buy dino diesel instead of use FREE grease). BUT... I travel on $3- $10/ day food and $10 / night lodging (There are several private guest homes listed in Estes Park). I prefer them to hotels / motels. safer, cleaner, quieter, less hassle, + fun of meeting . dining with locals. Oh, and they are cheaper...


50 mpg since 1976, no dinosaurs required.

[kadylady]

My husband and I just returned from a two week trip with our 27' travel trailer (with one large slide - table and couch). We live in Southern Oregon and our trip involved a loop around our state, only going as far east as Bend. North to the Columbia and over to the coast. We found that two weeks was perfect. We only drove 100 - 200 miles a day, depending on the leg. And we stayed for two nites at each location. This made for a very comfortable trip and not too pricey gas-wise.
It takes much longer to drive the distance, than you would expect (at least in our experience). Especially, if you're staying in campgrounds. Setting up and breaking down camp.
Two weeks gave us a chance to have a full day at each spot to explore. That was not nearly enough time, but it was easy and pleasant. Our 27' TT is fine for the two of us. We can sleep without breaking down the sofa or table (which is a consideration with that many people).
Also....we both got colds right off the bat. And, my husband had a kidney stone attack. We were grateful that we had an easy trip planned.
Wish you the best of luck on your trip!!

[malamute]

Originally Posted by Dave5150

I really want to fulfill my bucket list item of traveling across country. I am married and have a small child so I want to do a cliche family cross country road trip. I want to leave from New jersey and end up at the pacific. Stopping at lots of cool stuff in the middle. We want to take 2 weeks to do it, to drive there and then fly back. So I thought we would could rent an RV, so we have everything we need on board and save money on food and accommodations. We are shooting for Summer '14 or '15. My son will be 6 or 7. What do you guys think?

I'm with those who say if you can afford it do it.

I travel 1800 and back every summer with more kids than one and have done so since they were newborns. They love it.

An RV or trailer can make it tons of fun. You can pull over in a rest area and snooze or enjoy a relaxing lunch or dinner -- cooked on the stove.

It's not just the money -- it's the whole experience. I've traveled with kids and stayed in motels, graduated to tent camping along the way which is great when the weather is great but not so great when you have to pack up a soggy tent and sleeping bags, graduated to a pop-up which is great and now have a smaller travel trailer.

You get one life to live -- so live it. Do whatever seems interesting.

[jambo101]

Renting? Rv's can be expensive,they also come with many hidden costs,do plenty of homework on that aspect of the trip.
Kids? Kids dont do scenery and they tend to get bored real fast,an epic mountain vista of the Rockies will hold their attention for less than a minute before they are back to their electronic devices.
2 weeks? 3000 miles (Trenton-San Diego) may not sound like much but dragging along in a big Rv making frequent stops for this or that (usually an hour apiece 3 times a day).,finding a campsite by 5ish and getting set up every night will really take much of the trip time and will require driving almost everyday and only leave a few hours a day for sightseeing,scenic stops and side trips,memories of the trip will be a blur of freeways and different towns,a few tourist spots might stand out after its all said and done.
To do it right you really need a month,even then i'd fly out to Denver and start the RV trip from there as anything in the east can be saved for other vacations.

PS bring Dramamine and Aspirin.

[cab591]

If you rent an RV, pay the extra money for the rental insurance. You do NOT want to see the bill if it gets wrecked.

We rented an RV (28' Class C, no slide outs) back in 2004, to go to a family reunion in South Dakota. The trip there was fun -- took a few days, drove slowly, and enjoyed the sights.



RVs are definitely a fun way to travel. There's plenty of people on this forum who'll agree with that. Plus, having your own kitchen and bathroom is nice. My issue is with safety. Class C's are made of plywood, styrofoam insulation, and fiberglass siding. There's not much structurally holding the thing up.

The trip back wasn't too pleasant. Around 10 pm, on the first night, we were hit by a drunk driver. He attempted to pass us, and went off into the median. Overcorrected coming back onto the highway, and hit our rear corner. We lost traction, and went into a slide. The nose of the RV dipped into the median, and we rolled. The RV slid about 150 feet before coming to a stop, upside down.



The drunk driver fled the scene, but was eventually caught, 30 miles down the road. It's nothing short of a miracle that we all (family of 5) survived.

Granted, it's unlikely you'll get struck by a drunk driver. But, in the event anything happens, you don't want to foot the bill for a $100,000 RV, on top of medical bills. Insurance is a must-have. Avoid driving at night, that's when the crazies come out. Take your time, go a couple hundred miles at a time, and stop in the early evenings. Grab a bite to eat, explore, and rest for the night.



...Next time, I'm using a travel trailer.

[jukes]

Hi,
We rented a 32' motorhome from Road Bear who have various collection points, in April 2009. We drove from San Francisco to Monterey, Yosemite etc, about 1000 miles over 3 weeks, perfect as time to enjoy each place, not driving all the time.
We then hired one from Moturis in 2011 driving Baltimore to Orlando via a few places. We preferred the Road Bear RV and service, the Moturis one had broken shower. We enjoyed both trips, our boys were 5 and 7 on the last trip and like playing at campgrounds best, not sitting whilst we drove!

[ijitterbug]

2 weeks to drive an RV coast to coast? Shortest distance from Newark, NJ to Los Angeles, Ca is just under 2,900 highway miles. Assume you can average 55 mph for the entire trip, that would consume 53 hours out of the allocated 336 hours (14 days x 24 hrs. per day). After drive time, you would have 283 hours left to sleep (lets say only 7 hrs per night) = annother 98 hours gone. Now you will have 185 hours left to "see and do all the cool things" along the way.

Doable, but in no way can I personally envision such an undertaking, particularly with a 6 or 7 year old.

We have been ardent RV'ers for more than 30 years as of now. During that time we have had a total of 4 diffferent motor homes, including our current one.

A very workable "schedule" to enjoyably RV on any trip of any distance, is to use what we call the "Triple Deuce" timetable.......

200 miles per travel day
2 days minimum at any one location
and at a campsite by
2:00 PM of any day of travel.

2 on and 2 off would take a minimum of 30 days to make thke trip from New Jersey to California, but, we would have seen more than just state line signs and would not be totally exhausted by the time we arrived.

Others have suggested flying to the West Coast andd renting an RV then flying back home....

If you want to see some great areas, (up and down the West Coast),, take your son to the theme parks which abound, relax and really have a good time..........

That's a suggestion I would highly recommend also.

In 34 years of RVing, we have traveled a total of some 135,000 miles at a relaxed pace and are still enjoying the RV lifestyle.

Whatever decision you make, be safe and enjoy your trip.