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Old 09-20-2015, 05:13 AM   #61
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Name: Norm and Ginny
Trailer: Scamp 16
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Courtship and Marriage

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Originally Posted by DeanCHS1980 View Post
Norm and Ginny,

Norm, once again your comments regarding time and the empty nest resonate with me. At this point in my career (roughly 30 years down and 10 years to go), assuming and accumulating more responsibilities no longer motivates me as much as it once did. Instead I find myself looking more to "owning" my time as the greater motivator.

Also, I appreciate your comments about the empty nest. As the empty nest looms, I find myself thinking about one of my favorite classes that I taught in the early 1990s. I taught a university course on "courtship and marriage". It was a ton of fun to teach. Romantic 20 yearolds would sometimes be a little disappointed in the research related to happiness during the married years: couples are "happier" before children and then once children leave the nest. This does not mean that couples are unhappy with kids in the nest, only that "marriage" happiness has to be balanced with this focus, energy, and time to raise children and the happiness associated with these activities. The empty nest is an opportunity to "regress to premarriage". I like your comment. I can see where RVing and travel could enhance this "regression" for some.

Take care,

Dean
Dean, I would have signed up in a minute for a course on Courtship and Marriage. It would have been wonderful to become marriage conscious at a young age. I'd probably take the course today as well, I'm sure it would be fun.

I like the phrase 'owning time'. I started a thread on creating an 'after the fact time budget' or personal time usage history. It's the one relatively fixed commodity in our life yet we almost unconsciously use it.

I would not claim that RVing is the only way to 'claim time', but it has worked for us. Part of the 'regression' is significant in its degree. When we're walking along a deserted beach, really aimlessly, but in a searching way, we feel like children, disregarding time like on a youthful summer day. When away in our RV no one has a claim on us, on our time.

During pre-marriage, Ginny and I had 7 years of pre-marriage, high school and college, we had extended time to talk and write about this and that, exploring each others minds. like those late night dorm discussions with friends. Now it's just the two of us when we're on the road, I'm charmed with how our oneness has increased, the sharing of best buddies. There's a consciousness of it's 'us in our little ship', working together, an integrated dependent team, exploring a new life.

Thanks for 'owning time'.
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Old 09-20-2015, 07:04 PM   #62
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Norm and Ginny,

LOL! I bet you would be an "A" student in Courtship and Marriage. From reading your posts, I think you would excel at teaching it. I like your perspectives on time "after the fact time budget" and "claiming time." I concur that there are many ways to claim time. I really enjoy cooking, particularly outdoor cooking, grilling, seafood boils, etc. If I am cooking, I am relaxing (claiming my time). I have always loved a road trip and the outdoors, thus my thinking that RVing would be another cool way to claim one's time. I can also see "regression toward premarriage" playing out via traveling and RVing. Laura and I started dating in high school (I was a senior and she was a junior). We dated for 3 1/2 years before marrying. Since we were so young (20) at marriage, we waited 11 years before having our girls. Laura supported me through a master's degree and a doctoral program as well as number of jobs before settling in having kids and working for 20 years at one place. Life is good, but looking forward to the empty nest, travel, and RV, and regressing toward premarriage!

Take care,

Dean
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Old 09-20-2015, 08:08 PM   #63
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Originally Posted by DeanCHS1980 View Post
....Let's say in two years I am ready to commit $25,000 to a new to me FG travel trailer and tow vehicle. What would your recommendation be?
$25,000 for both? The best used fiberglass unit you can find at whatever money you have left over after buying a tug. Normally I say buy the trailer first. But you may find you'll end up not having enough money to purchase a tug that's in good enough shape and a high enough tow rating for whatever trailer you want... For instance if you spend $15,000 on the trailer that leaves $10,000 for the tug. Hummmm.
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Old 09-20-2015, 09:17 PM   #64
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Name: Norm and Ginny
Trailer: Scamp 16
Florida
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Entry Level Trailer/Tow Vehicle Purchase

I very often encourage people to purchase used trailers. Our first fiberglass trailer is our 1991 Scamp 16. We paid about $6000 for it. The year we bought it we went to the Scamp Camp and wandered about before we had picked up the Scamp 16 and saw a beautiful Scamp 5th wheel for $5000. If I had owned a truck I would have bought it on the spot.

My experience tells me there are affordable trailers out there. It's true that we have modified our trailer, but most things we did to our Scamp 16 are not available from Scamp even if we bought a new one with every option.

One advantage of buying a used trailer is that you can take the some of the money saved and actually make it yours.

As to tow vehicles, our rule of thumb for tow vehicles is that we buy a tow vehicle for 10 years, true of every car we have bought. We focus on reliable cars. Many people own vehicles capable of towing a Scamp 16. They may not be capable of charging over mountains at 60 mph, but is that important. Many people on this site have found acceptable used tow vehicles easily affordable on a $25,000 trailer/tow vehicle budget.

I know there are many that feel they have to have new trailers and new tow vehicles for their comfort. A new trailer and tow vehicle is certainly OK but not necessary to enjoy one's travels.

I would not work for another two years so I could buy new, I'd rather be traveling.

It's funny 25 years ago we sold a 3600 square foot beautiful house and moved into a 500 square beach cottage, our bedroom was the size of our bathroom in the former house. A few days ago I asked Ginny what she thought about selling the cottage. She said it was her favorite home of all the places we lived in, better than our first cape, better than the geodesic domes we built, better than our large home... it's the cottage where the fun was. It's not the size, it's not the age, it's what you do with it.

Again if you have the money and want to spend it, please do, heaven knows the economy needs it. My thought is don't delay taking the step if you want to travel, time whistles by. You'll be too old before you know it.
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Old 09-21-2015, 10:26 AM   #65
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Name: Ray
Trailer: 2017 Scamp 16 Deluxe
Missouri
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Dean,

I don't remember if the sites to search for used FGRVs have been mentioned?

Along with the fiberglass RVs for sale on this site (www.fiberglassrv.com), you might
check out the following websites:

http://www.fiberglass-rv-4sale.com

http://www.searchtempest.com

The searchtempest.com site will search all Craigslist and eBay listings within a specified radius of a location. It could also possibly be useful in searching for a used tow vehicle.

Good luck! 😀

Ray


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Old 09-22-2015, 08:51 PM   #66
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Hi Donna, Norm and Ginny, and Ray,

Donna, $25,000 was a bit of an arbitrary number. It could be a bit more or less when the time comes to plunk down the funds; however, I think this could be pulled off. My thinking is that we want a first rig that will take us to retirement in 9 years. I think a $10,000 to $15,000 rig would fit the bill. That would leave $10,000 plus for tug. For the first few years, when time is limited, we would spend most of our time camping at state and national parks in KY, TN, GA, VA, NC, etc. Once we retire, we would definitely upgrade the tug for cross country touring. At that point we should be able to assess what we want in a 2nd rig as needed.

Norm and Ginny, as soon to be empty nesters, we are beginning to plan in terms of downsizing and simplifying (hopefully). I think we are going to sell our 2,700 ft home and move to a house that we use as a rental. It is about 2,000 sq ft. We will use the equity from our larger home to remodel the smaller home and build a garage to hold the travel trailer and tug. Once we get to this point, then we will buy the used rig and tug. By that time, I will be a year or so away from going back to a 9 month teaching contract which will greatly increase my time both in terms of long weekends and summers off. We will then do even more traveling until we retirement, then upgrade/retool as needed. That is The Plan!!! As always, I appreciate your comments, "don't delay taking the step if you want to travel"!!! AGREED!

Ray, thanks for the links. I have never really spent much time on Craig's List or eBay. Thanks for the information. My brother-in-law is always on Craig's list looking for trucks. Looks like a nice resource.

Take care,

Dean
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Old 09-23-2015, 07:42 AM   #67
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Name: Norm and Ginny
Trailer: Scamp 16
Florida
Posts: 7,517
Dean,

All three trailers we've used were purchased on Craig's List. I use a 200 mile radius to find the trailers.

Once you become a trailer person you'll find a 2000 square foot house to be huge. Our present home is 1000 square feet on a 1/6th of an acre lot and both of us think it's too big. Interesting our whole view of needed living space has changed, as well so has the organization of available space.

In Florida we have a 480 square foot home, actually perfect for us, with an attached 300 square foot porch (sunroom in FL) which is primarily used for entertaining, all on about an 1/8th of an acre.

As we've cleaned out the NH cottage we've really come to recognize the silliness of all the stuff. we owned.
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Old 09-23-2015, 10:36 AM   #68
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Name: RogerDat
Trailer: 2010 Scamp 16
Michigan
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Have you checked out Casita? The ones I have seen have been very nice. They do have floor plans that meet your short list of requirements. These two of their 16 and 17 foot have two person dining and bed separate.

http://casitatraveltrailers.com/spirit-16-17/
http://casitatraveltrailers.com/freedom-16-17/
http://casitatraveltrailers.com/

You might also want to check out trailer weights in the real world thread. I saw something about 6k lbs. towing capacity in earlier thread and many of these FGRV's stay under the 3,500 lb. capacity vehicles.
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