So we get so many comments from people thinking that we own a very new very
expensive RV and that couldn't be further from the truth this RV is nearly 20 years
old and we have had a ton of surprises finding out some things about owning an
older RV we're going to share it in this video you're going to want to stay tuned [Music]
first RV and we set off to live a life of travel and really prioritize experiences over things
we've learned a ton along the way we've had some fails as well so we share all about that on this
channel so we can help you in the RV Community or the aspiring rver to kind of know what to do what
not to do great places to visit great food you want to hit the Subscribe button if that sounds
like something that you're interested in one of the reasons that we chose to buy used and
actually here's a little interesting story our very first RV that we bought it was 20 years old
when we purchased it it wasn't this one it was a different one really the reason that we did that
is because we wanted to jump into this lifestyle sooner versus later we were not in a situation
where we could just sell it all and go full time and so we needed something that was going to be
affordable and that we could start small but start immediately and so by purchasing used in something
that was a little bit older basically RV life came into reach where it would have been Way Out Of
Reach for years and years because we started small we started with something older that we could pay
cash for to get started and jump in right away so we did that for about a year and then we realized
that that RV for our family and for our family size just wasn't working and we needed something
different we took another year to save some money to be able to purchase the RV see behind me here
and this is the RV that we have had ever since so we've had this thing for close to five years now
one of the biggest kind of I guess objections that people always ask about or tell us about
when we talk about purchasing an older used RV is something that is known as the 10-year rule
I think that sometimes I see a 15-year rule or whatever but really what that is is that
there are some RV parks that will state in their rules that if you have an RV that is older than
10 years or older than 15 years that they don't allow that RV in to their Campground now we have
never ever been turned away because of the age of our RV campground owners want to keep older
RVs out just because sometimes they can be in poor repair they can be in poor shape the way
we've always been able to get around this rule whenever we have encountered it which is fairly
seldom is to basically just be able to take a current photo of our RV and also explain that
it is impeccably maintained at has no leaks no problems of any kind at all send that to
the campground owner and we've been able to stay in any park that we've ever really wanted to we
also did encounter one particular Park where they had kind of this age limitation it wasn't really
clearly delineated as far as the year but what they asked is that you would stop and check in
just so that the campground manager had a chance to see that yes your RV was in good shape it
wasn't falling apart or anything like that that could potentially cause damage to the campground
one thing that we have noticed being out traveling is the fact it is getting harder to book a spot
and some of the most popular campgrounds in the U.S including state parks national parks and other
RV campgrounds in popular areas so a hack we've been using and loving for RV life is using RV
that books campgrounds for us we've been able to score some near impossible campsite reservations
because RV's actually booking them for us and with the annual plan RV scans for cancellations
every two minutes finds those cancellations and then makes the reservation for for us we've been
seeing more and more alert Services pop up that are charging more than RV but only monitor sold
out campgrounds and I can't tell you how many times the I've used these services in the past
only to get the alert when we're out and about exploring by the time I get back to my computer
well somebody already snagged that reservation that's why we switched to using RV instead and
we get more bang for our buck and it includes RV's full travel agency booking Services where they'll
actually make the cancellation for me if for some reason I need to cancel a reservation that I made
through the RV service we have partnered with RV for a 10 discount for our viewers now this is an
exclusive discount for grateful glamper viewers so you can head to Grateful glamper.com forward
slash RV to get your discount and a huge thanks to RV for sponsoring this video and their support of
our channel one of the things is that has been a pleasant surprise is actually from a cost of
ownership perspective so one of the things that has happened for us with owning a nearly 20 year
old RV is that our cost of ownership is actually lower than if we had purchased something that was
new and part of that is in part to the fact that the emission system on our RV being a little bit
older is pre-death so basically what that means is the system's just not as complicated and it
doesn't require as much as far as we don't have to add DEF fluid so that's less of a cost for us
it's also less of a headache from a maintenance perspective too where we don't have those extra
systems on the RV so there's really just less to go wrong something else about having a 20 year
old motor home that has been somewhat surprising but it's also a pros and cons type of situation
in our storage compartments we are unable to have the path through storage type of compartments now
why that is not exactly ideal from a storage perspective and from a space perspective the
one thing that that actually does provide because of how things are set up is it actually gives us
a little bit more of a weight capacity so we literally have never ever had to worry about
weight we could travel with full water tanks full waste tanks we can load this thing to the gills
we've stopped by several cat scales when we have been completely fully loaded and we still have
room to spare from a weight perspective as far as weight goes one of the advantages of having this
nearly 20 year old motorhome is we literally never have to worry about are we overweight
so something else that we found that's happened is that when we do need to work on things and we
have chosen to educate ourselves and learn how to work on things ourselves on our RV
actually not that bad because with having a nearly 20 year old motorhome the systems are much simpler
than on some of the newer RVs but that doesn't mean we're sacrificing anything when it comes
to smart technology or having a smart RV and I'm going to take you inside and show you why
no we're coming in you need to move so we have made a ton of upgrades and Renovations inside
of this RV and since it's nearly 20 years old I don't have any qualms in doing so because it's not
hurting anything as far as values or anything like that is concerned so you'll have to let me know so
far what do you think new or used I'd love to hear in the comments below what you think is the best
way to buy an RV one of the smart upgrades that we have made to our RV is our micro air thermostat
which is right up here basically this is great because we can see what the temperature is in the
RV from other places I can change it right here on my phone I will get alert from the thermostat to
my phone if the temperature goes beyond a certain threshold which is great for the pets that are in
here that's one of the smart things that we added in to the RV to make our RV very very
smart another thing is this particular internet setup which really is kind of like the ultimate
RV internet setup I'll put a link right up here for a video we did on the setup if you want more
information on that itself also have the link in the description for that another surprising
thing is when it comes to making these types of mods and upgrades with an older motorhome one
of the things that we found out is it's pretty simple but the construction of an older RV like
this is just really amazing when you start to see how well it's constructed the materials that it's
constructed with a lot of newer RVs have been so problematic because RV manufacturers have kind of
had to cheap out on a lot of the materials that they're using and some of that is just because
of availability of sudden materials one of the things that you do find with an older motorhome
and one of the reasons we chose an older motor home in addition to the affordability is just
for the better build quality where everything is just that much more solid in how it's put together
so another thing we've done to make the RV super smart now these are features that you would find
in a brand new RV but hey ours is 20 years old but we can add those things too so things like
USB outlet converting the fridge over to run off of 12 volt electricity even solar we have it all
in a 20 year old RV a question that we always get or when we talk to people that are considering
jumping into this lifestyle purchasing news versus used the big things always about the warranty well
I want a warranty with my RV I don't want to have to worry about making repairs if something goes
wrong now let me just tell you a little side note about that we've got a lot of friends that we are
connected with in the RV Community great friends that have recently even purchased new RVs and
within weeks they're I think some major problems even my parents who are full-time bought a brand
new RV and I cannot even begin to tell you the nightmares and the laundry list of things
things that happened within those first few weeks and months so warranty work right it's
under warranty we're just gonna have a fix under warranty that is also another huge headache in
and of itself because RV dealerships are backed up so many people actually end up driving their
rig back to the manufacturer mostly in Elkhart or in Alabama even to get the warranty work done
in a timely manner so now you've incurred the cost for fuel and time and all of those other
things to get your free warranty work done with a nearly 20 year old RV if something goes wrong when
something goes wrong it's really more a question of when versus if we're able to either a fix it
ourselves we're not worried about voiding any warranty with anything that we do but also if for
some reason it is something where we've realized we are beyond our capabilities we're in over our
heads well we can call in our V-Tech and they can come usually next day or the day after so
we are not at the mercy of the warranty and waiting for warranty work to be done something
to consider if you're thinking about jumping into this lifestyle pros and cons new versus
used I'm going to put a video right up here with kind of our full renovation you can take a look
at everything that we have done where this 20 year old motorhome certainly does not feel 20 years old
if we don't see you out on the road or around the campground we'll see you in the next video