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Has anyone used a 5th wheel (or a TT) and set it up on a lot, using it as a snowbird place in the winter to escape the cold north for a few months? If you have, what has your experience been? Was it worth it or did you regret it? Pros and cons?
We own property in a southern state and the plan was to relocate south and build a home for retirement. An option that I've been mulling lately is to maybe just keep our home in the northeast, and buy a clean, large (with multiple slideouts) used 5th wheeler and set it up on our lot and use it for a few months each year, mostly in the winter.
Just curious as to whether this is a viable idea and how others who've tried it liked it.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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FT RV friends got tired of towing the BIG 5r across the USA, and bought a couple smaller used travel trailers and bought FT RV lots (with storage buildings...) in SW and in PNW. Surprisingly they still drove the gas hog pickup between locations, I just fly and keep a cheap car ($100) at each location.
I prefer the shop with apartment and RV hookups on acreage. <$30k for building and improvements (+ lot). Store your stuff, or your RV. Add the RV hookups and sublease a spot to other RVrs.
Keeping a FT RV as a 'snowbird'?.. maint / roof / plumbing / bugs / rodents / sun or freeze damage... no thanks, I will stick with my shops...
I have friends that build large enough shops to keep their RV inside. I have a couple shops that large, but they have other stuff inside at the moment. If you can control the rodent and temperature damage, you can keep the RV under a cover.
I would NOT consider leaving any RV outside FT. So much plastic in new RV's and plastic degrades within 5 yrs. (if in sun or freezing / or SALT (ocean) areas)
Nope. I have a winter home in Arizona. This allows me to have a place to keep everything in a more secure environment and I can keep the two winter vehicles in the garage. Not to mention my winter home has appreciated over $100,000 in less than five years.
Additional homes are a forced retirement savings for most people. There is that. Between insurance, property taxes and maintenance - it is likely closer to a break even investment for most. Something else to worry about in the event of crime, vandalism, major storms etc.
The prevailing word is not to buy a second home unless one can pay cash and have ample emergency funds available for the unexpected. For example - I had a rental unit that made money hundreds at a time and lost money thousands at a time. Hurricane Irma hit it and I am now selling for half what it would have been if I had simply boarded it up. Which is a lesson in long distance renting and the unexpected really.
Myself - I don't see why winter is considered so hard unless one has to fight the cold and traffic every week day. A retired person can simply put on warm clothes when they feel like going outside. Thats just me of course.
Building a home? Always takes much longer than expected. Always costs much more than expected. Dealing with code enforcement is increasingly next to impossible in many areas as government budgets continue to grow. Growth in government always equates to losses in freedom and increased expenses in dealing with the labyrinthian expenses encountered in feeding the growing monstrosity of government. Always ask some local contractors about local code enforcement. Talked to a contractor yesterday who got a Stop Work order slammed on him for painting a house. Could be months to clear - in a worse case scenario.
I would not pay top dollar in todays environment. The debt will be unserviceable when interest rates hit 5%. We are now careening into the most expensive thing imaginable. Another major war halfway around the world. Right next to Russia - can the scorpion quit stinging? A lot of savvy investors are selling so they have free'd up cash available for the next recession - which is due within the next few years. We have had a recession every decade throughout my adult life.
Why a fifth wheel unless you own a stout truck? I'd rather have the flexibility of travel with a motorhome unless I already owned the truck. Thats just me of course. Just my thoughts of course.
Has anyone used a 5th wheel (or a TT) and set it up on a lot, using it as a snowbird place in the winter to escape the cold north for a few months? If you have, what has your experience been? Was it worth it or did you regret it? Pros and cons?
We own property in a southern state and the plan was to relocate south and build a home for retirement. An option that I've been mulling lately is to maybe just keep our home in the northeast, and buy a clean, large (with multiple slideouts) used 5th wheeler and set it up on our lot and use it for a few months each year, mostly in the winter.
Just curious as to whether this is a viable idea and how others who've tried it liked it.
Yes, it is viable.
First thing you need to do is check with the county where your lot is and find out what their regulations are regarding living in a travel trailer on your lot, whether permanently or seasonally.
IMO, if you can live comfortably in it for two weeks, you can live comfortably in it for longer. But travel trailers are seldom designed for four-season living, so if you decide to do this, you'd need to make sure to protect the plumbing and maybe get a 100-gallon or so propane tank. A really good way to do this is to put down a concrete pad, mount the trailer on piers, and enclose and insulate the space beneath the trailer. Top that off with an open-sided canopy over the trailer, and there's no reason both you and your travel trailer wouldn't come through the winter in fine shape.
I lived in an Airstream one snowy winter, and I liked it fine. But even with the snow, the outside temp never got below 25 or so.
Why not look into a park model trailer instead of an RV? They are designed to be parked and seldom or never moved. If you don't plan to use the RV for travel, you don't need the running gear or the other equipment designed (however poorly) to withstand travel. Also, some people, possibly including your neighbors, will never let go of the idea that living in a travel trailer is a "trashy" thing to do, while living in a park model would be much more acceptable.
I've just moved from an area with a lot of snow birds. They all seem to have a motor home, that they drive back and forth in and live in while they are in Arizona. In the fall, I would see the motor homes heading out. In late spring, they drive back. A fifth wheel would work about the same.
Where I am right now, there are several snow birds but nobody has a motor home. The snowbirds drive their cars out and for all I know, they are flying back and forth and own a home some place warmer. Maybe even in a different country.
The people on one side of me arrive with two huge German Shepherds and a cat, so they are probably driving back and forth, but using a car to do it.
I have been living in a fifth wheel with three slides since 2005 in the PNW right around Mount Rainier and 800 feet in elevation. When it get's below freezing in the winter I use about $150.00 a month for propane heat. I have several 9 gallon tanks that I can load into the car and refill them about every two weeks or so. I don't have a skirt around the base of the RV. I don't do anything with the plumbing. I let the kitchen water faucet drip when the temperature falls below freezing. The most important thing is to make sure the roof is up to par. Inspections, calking, and re-coating the roof as needed are a must to prevent water damage which many RV owners fail to do. To sum things up: You can live in a RV during the winter and below freezing temperatures but be prepared to spend more on heat. The floors are really cold so skirting may help. You could have a propane company deliver your propane with one big propane tank but I tried it once and it was expensive. I therefore refill my own tanks.
I live in a town in Western Wyoming that has a ton of snow birds. They get here in June and they open up their Summer houses again and they stay until the end of September and then they hop onto their RV's and head down south to Arizona to wait out the winter somewhere warm. Rinse and repeat year after year. Totally viable. Just need an RV and someplace warm to go and the money to pay to stay there.
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