RV Financing- where/what are the best rates?

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Cornflakes

Cornflakes

Active member
Much like many in these times, thinking of picking up an RV before kids grow up and fly out of the nest. What are the best rates you have come across for RV?

I am not able to beat the Alliant CU that I found on my own:

APR Term
4.24% 120 months
4.49% 144 months
4.74% 180 months
5.24% 240 months
 
The best price is to rent one. Have to factor storage expense into your cost of ownership. These depreciate quickly as well.

RV vacations are great. Best way to take kids on trips. During my childhood our family (8 kids, 2 adults) went every Summer to the Redwoods, to Yellowstone, etc. Great memories were made 

Would I every buy an RV? Sorry, but not in a million years.

My .02c
 
The daily cost is not that much, but where they get you is on the miles.  Unless you stay close to home (actually, close to the RV rental place), it could average out to several hundred dollars/day, maybe even close to $1000/day.  Anyone who thinks they'll save money on vacations in an RV is delusional.  The benefit of the RV is to get you a comfortable home in the middle of nowhere.  There's something to be said for waking up at the foot of a mountain or on a beachfront.

Instead of an RV, I went the trailer route, which allowed me to get a cheap "starter" trailer while putting more of the cost into the vehicle.  Trucks don't depreciate quite as fast as the trailers/RVs do, plus they are useful when not camping.  I am fortunate enough to have a RV space next to the garage, though getting a 34' trailer hitched to a 22' truck backed into the driveway from a residential street is still quite the ordeal.

Any serious RV'er/roadtripper will probably also want a toad (a vehicle towed behind the RV for use around town).  Jeeps are pretty popular for this.
 
Depends on size and condition of the unit. Assume $300 per day, 100 "free miles" per day, then .30ish cents per mile there after. Daily park rents are $100-300 per day.

10 day rental -$3,000
10 day park rent - $3,000
1,000 extra miles  - $300 (1,000 free already)
Insurance add - $500
Gas - $300
Food ?
Etc?

So about $1,000 per day "all in"

Round trip airfare anywhere, 2 hotel rooms, daily meals, Uber rides, etc it's comparable. Pretty hard to say a family of 4 can get away anywhere today under $700 or so per day at best.  Yosemite, San Fran, Redwoods, Monterey, Big Sur, Santa Barbara, then back to Irvine is a nice tour. Renting a spot at El Morro during the Summer isn't that hard to book so local trips are very low cost relative to an AirBnB.

My .02c
 
There is another way, many places we were looking to go are in the service area of RV rentals that will prestage the RV at your destination campsite.  They set up, take down, you basically show up in your car much like a cabin.
 
This thread moved away from best financing...but anyways...let's go down that path a step further.


If one bought a used class C RV for $40-45k, here is what I estimate the cost of ownership to be:

Interest   $200
Depreciation $400
Storage $180
repairs $333
Insurance $100
TOAL/Month $1,213

Annual $14,560

Did not include the gas as you would have that expense anyways if you chose to rent one instead.

Even at $300 per day rental cost, breakeven is at 50 days. I can not even camp 15 days in a year, so buying and storing for 355 days each year does not make sense for me. However, only if I was able to succefully rent it out to others for 60-90 days in a year, I'd recoup the costs. But I have no idea how easy or hard is it to rent out RV to strangers and what level of headache it is.
 
The title should be RV for potential investment or rental.
Idk but I think there are plenty of better ways to spend your money.
 
Renting an RV out is probably more risky... road accidents, inclement weather, mileage wear, etc.

I think if you're retired or can work RVmote, than an RV makes more sense.
 
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