Flying home...

[Bster13]

Have any of your full-timers (or mostly full-timers) had to leave your rig and fly from coast to coast to deal with a family issue? If so, where did you leave your TV and TT? Drain the tanks and leave it at a storage facility? Leave it at a friends house or fellow FGRV forum member's place? Leave it at an RV campsite?

Thanks!

[David Tilston]

Not sure if this will be any help, but yes, I did leave my rig in Ontario. Good story. It might make you feel better about your situation:
http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...ver-60777.html

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Bster13

Have any of your full-timers (or mostly full-timers) had to leave your rig and fly from coast to coast to deal with a family issue? If so, where did you leave your TV and TT? Drain the tanks and leave it at a storage facility? Leave it at a friends house or fellow FGRV forum member's place? Leave it at an RV campsite?

Thanks!

We went home early on in our travels when one of our daughter-in-laws entered Hospice. We were gone about 8 weeks. We were parked in an RV park and left it there powered the entire time. Our son would come over and check it occasionally. If we recognized we were going to be gone so long we would have put it in storage.

One other time we put it in storage for a few weeks. Both cases it was our motorhome.

No real negative issues, neither time was in winter conditions. In the first case we left it plugged in, the second case unplugged. In the first case we payed monthly campground rates, maybe $350 a month. In the latter case storage was about $40 a month.

[Bster13]

$40/ month for storage seems reasonable.

While I try to figure out this full time thing, the route I'd take on a yearly basis came to mind, and how I would get home for the holidays or in the case of an emergency. But at $40/month, it seems like I could travel wherever I'd like and just find a decent looking storage facility to store my rig while I'm gone for a month visiting my family in the NE.....thus my actual route around the continent wouldn't matter much. I'd just have to budget for a flight home and storage time.

I have to admit, storing my entire life in a storage facility I have no long term relationship with is worrisome.

Originally Posted by honda03842

We went home early on in our travels when one of our daughter-in-laws entered Hospice. We were gone about 8 weeks. We were parked in an RV park and left it there powered the entire time. Our son would come over and check it occasionally. If we recognized we were going to be gone so long we would have put it in storage.

One other time we put it in storage for a few weeks. Both cases it was our motorhome.

No real negative issues, neither time was in winter conditions. In the first case we left it plugged in, the second case unplugged. In the first case we payed monthly campground rates, maybe $350 a month. In the latter case storage was about $40 a month.

[Bob Miller]

I agree, using a storage facility, where the peeps in charge know how far away you will be and for how long, just doesn't sound like a super safe idea. If necessary I would only use a indoor facility, where other peeps can't be fooling with your rig.
But you will have to pay for both the car and the trailer storage, so double the cost. I'd guess $150-200 a month for inside storage.


I a prior life this had been one of our plans and we found the above numbers to be about right for the Washington, DC area where, many years before, I bought an Airstream Bambi that turned out to have been stolen, out of a storage yard managed by the sellers uncle.....


As mentioned many times before, I had a Mustang Convertible stolen out of a locked unit in a storage yard and, yes, it was an inside job.

[Bster13]

Ok... so I'd certainly trust a "stranger" from this board more than a storage yard. The question is would ~you~ store someone's rig for a week/month if they asked on the board? Though I don't have storage space, I would certainly house one of you for a week in my little apartment in an emergency.

Food for thought...

[Bob Miller]

That's not what you asked. You asked about a storage yard vs. a "Friend". If practical, I'd opt for the friend every time. We even looked up a few old friends in the D.C. area before that entire plan fell through.

When you pull into a storage yard across the country, with out of state plates and I.D. you are coming very close to setting yourself up for a problem if there are any shady issues whatsoever at that facility. If it was stolen, the yard owner would have almost no liability to do much more than report that it was stolen, if and when it was noticed. Beyond that you are on your own. Most storage yards don't even cover for theft of vehicles.

That said, some friends from Australia stored their motorhome in an indoor space for 6 months without any problems. But they had to go almost 200 miles from LAX to find a decent price. Fortunately there was a regular LAX airport shuttle available.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Bster13

$40/ month for storage seems reasonable.

While I try to figure out this full time thing, the route I'd take on a yearly basis came to mind, and how I would get home for the holidays or in the case of an emergency. But at $40/month, it seems like I could travel wherever I'd like and just find a decent looking storage facility to store my rig while I'm gone for a month visiting my family in the NE.....thus my actual route around the continent wouldn't matter much. I'd just have to budget for a flight home and storage time.

I have to admit, storing my entire life in a storage facility I have no long term relationship with is worrisome.

We bought our Scamp in FL while camping in our son's Casita. Our storage fee was about $100 for 6 months. It was in a fenced in area at an RV repair shop and RV dealer.

As we've traveled we've become different. Much of what was critical to most mainstream people diminished for us. Our whole view of holidays, family, ... have all changed. That said since we've retired we've actually had more time to spend with family and now have our own class of holidays. Next month Ginny's 3 sisters are coming, 24/7 for 5 days.

[honda03842]

Bryce,

I should say we generally stay away from cities. We would never consider city storage, cost and crime mostly live in cities.

There is a great deal of fear among many about stuff and trailers stolen. Personally we haven't seen it in our travels.

[mary and bob]

Some campgrounds have storage areas. Where we winter in GA does it and while researching some of the more expensive "resort" campgrounds in Florida I notice many mention storage. If you have to leave your camper and fly home or somewhere I would think you would drive your tow vehicle to an airport long term parking lot after storing the camper. If the situation comes up check with the campground you are in at the time. I once let someone leave a motorcycle in my barn that had broke down nearby. It was there for a whole year