Joining the TM family, the snowball effect

We have just purchased our TM and are picking it up from the dealer in two days! And we have been experiencing the snowball effect. I know nothing about trailers or towing. Our family has done a lot of tent camping. We knew we needed to do something different because my bad back hurts more and we were fatiguing of the hours it took to set up, take down and recover from tent camping.

As you say Texas_Camper, everything is expensive and then we die. A TM is pretty expensive to begin with. Now with a TM purchase we have registration fees, insurance, the cost of getting our van set to tow and lots of little things from CampWorld. (All this is easily over $1000 and some will be recurring expenses.) We also had expenses for our home: we are going to park the TM in our garage -- and this took three expensive trips to the dump and $150 in shelves. (First time in our married life we have had a really clean garage.) My hope is that all these snowballing costs ease off a little and that the expense of trailer camping is a worthwhile investment for our family. Perhaps after all this we die with a little less money but we trust we will live until then with richer family times and many special memories!

One thing to watch out for is wait till you get your actual TM before ya spend too much on goodies. As just about everyone in here can tell ya, (myself included), bought stuff that is either not needed, or inconvienient, or what not particular to their TM before they took possesion of it, only to find out later they had spent money on something they didn't need nor could use!

[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails......[/glow] ^^--raises his hand, anyone else?

Good thought, Bill. I have only one example that comes to mind immediately. We purchased our Trailmanor in Trenton, Michigan, and after we did our extensive walk through, (we hadn't yet purchased our tow vehicle, and it was being stored at the dealer's) we went to Camping World in Belleville, Michigan, about 30 minutes away. One thing I felt we just had to have was one of those expandable hampers. Now it was only $9.00, but we have yet to use the thing because it takes up so much floor space. Instead, we use a large canvas laundry bag that is stored on the rear bed when not in use, basically out of sight and out of mind. In the case of someone who is moving from tent camping, I'm not sure they'll need much to get started, and can certainly purchase as they go along. For example, our best friends who are also RVers moved from tent camping, and still don't have a propane grill, preferring to use a simple campfire to cook. Since they're so good at it, they've never seen the need to make the grill purchase, and Eutychus may not either.

[Civil_War_Buff]

FJ & E,

Do you guys live in the Downriver area? I was born in Detroit, grew up in Lincoln Park and Wyandotte...been away a looooong time though, and I STILL don't miss the snow or mosquitoes, or humidity, or thunder storms, or..... but I love Michigan, it will always be "home" to me.

When you mentioned Belleville, my dad worked for Detroit Edison for all of his life and when we were kids the "company recreation area" was at Belleville Point, and I remember spending many "Lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.." there.

Larry

We don't have a gas fired grill and I've been camping a little over 50 years. I do have backpacker style cook stoves for one pot, just incase. If it is safe for fire, build a real one, if not don't take the chance of burning everything up.

Larry,

We live in Defiance, Ohio, in the northwest corner of the state. The closest TM dealer was in Trenton, though Ellen and I are originally from the Philadelphia area.

FJ and E, do people in your hometown pay their parking tickets? (sorry, something I've *always* wanted to ask of someone from there). LOL


[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails........[/glow]