My wife and I travel the US frequently in a travel trailer. We love it and usually leave for about 1 to 2 months at a time. My two cents is a travel trailer allows for you to unhook and travel in your vehicle. There is no substitute for tow truck. We tow with a F250 diesel. I will buy a F350 next time. You will experience all kinds of weather and the truck and power will be necessary to be safe, especially in winds. Travel trailers can be expensive. They are constantly bouncing and so repairs are frequent. My wife and I love it.

Keep your home. Rent a cheap apartment near the daughter.
RV's only make sense for someone in love with that lifestyle. IMHO, you need to be a professional mechanic and handy man or extremely well off to do the RV thing.
I live in the SW. Nice RV parks will set you back as much or more than a hotel and slots can be hard to get. I have zero interest in the lifestyle.

Before you buy an RV, make sure to watch some of the videos on this YouTube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@LizAmazing/videos

One horror story after another! Yikes

I'll second the RV life isn't for everyone. We enjoy it though.

We have traveled all over the country. In the past 2 years we've been up to the Arctic Circle, and down to Key West, doing the RV thing.

If expenses are your primary concern, RV isn't the way to go. They're expensive, RV Campgrounds are expensive, maintenance is expensive, and it seems like something is always broken. And you have to have someplace to store it.

But, for us, it's about the adventure. Packed RV parks aren't for us, so we do a lot of local, state and federal parks. Lots more space.

We've traveled coast to coast in a 5th wheel, and now have a Super C. It's the only way to go for us.

My daughter is 9, we've been doing this her whole life. She enjoys it too. At 9, she's been to 49 states. So I'd approach the grandkid life doing the RV thing. Flying sucks.

I’d recommend renting an RV first before jumping in. If you like it, then go in knowing the costs...

quote:

Originally posted by xanth:
If expenses are your primary concern, RV isn't the way to go. They're expensive, RV Campgrounds are expensive, maintenance is expensive, and it seems like something is always broken. And you have to have someplace to store it.

I’ll be 61 in a few months, my SO is ten years younger, and our kids live within an hour drive (no grandkids yet). We had been contemplating getting a class B (a Travato or similar) since my SO isn’t comfortable driving my pickup much less pulling a trailer behind it. Without winning the lottery I just can’t justify the cost. In addition to insurance, depreciation, storage, maintenance and repairs just the yearly license tab fees in MN would be over $2K. In my mind, those costs could easily be 5K to 8K per year. As much as that life appeals to me, I can rent an RV, stay in an ABNB or hotel and still come out ahead.

quote:

Originally posted by mikeyspizza:

Where can you get a "safe" 8%. CDs are 3.9-4%.

If one CD gets 4%, then two CDs would get 8%. It's just maff.

One other consideration, if your daughter lives in an HOA community, check the rule, most won't allow you to park it in the street, nor in the driveway for any amount of time.

That means an RV park, and that means you either flat tow something to drive around, or, rent a car while you are there.

So you end up with the cost of the RV, Fuel, Parking, car rental, hook up costs, and all the work that comes with keeping an RV running which is your maintaining things like draining the waste water, refilling the good water, propane, oil and filter, tires.

If you were going to live in it, tow a small SUV, and travel the USA along with stopping at the grandkids, have at it.

But for a "second home" rent one, VBRO, easy to find weekly rentals in a nice place. If they live near the ocean or gulf rent a condo by the beach and you will have them in it all week!

I voted other.

How much time will/can you spend in the RV? Is camping a lifestyle you have enjoyed in the past? Do you have 100k in cash for the investment?

Grandkids are great, but relatives are like fish, after a few days, they start to stink. How much time do the kids actually want you to spend there.

I vote drive there, rent a VRBO and stay for a long weekends once per month for the next 6 months and see how that feels and works. If your kids want you there longer than 4 days, then think about how to do more economical stays after the newness of that much time wears out.

We rented a class C for a family reunion drive several states away. Had a blast, ended up buying a used class A diesel pusher, traded up for a new same, sold and waited a year, then did what we should have done originally.. bought a lightly used Airstream 25" trailer.

Here's what we learned. 1) you will not use it as much as you think, it will sit a majority of the time, and 2) where do you intend to store it? We built a storage building, another cost. 3) buy used, there is a huge, huge mark up on RV's. Conversely, they are also heavily discounted during negotiation. Again, buy used. 4) you will need to equip the RV, there is a ton of shit you'll need to buy. 5) gas/diesel... you'll shed tears when you fill up at your first truck stop. $400-500 a tank is the norm for a class A 100gal. 6) Black/Gray water handling system. Yuck, but it's part of owning an RV. I could go on, but you get the picture. There's a lot more cost than just scratching a check to the dealer/owner and driving off.

Buy the RV, give it to your kids. They can maintain it and take turns coming to visit you.

4MUL8R we were in your exact situation in 2021 when our oldest son and beautiful DIL gave birth to our first granddaughter. First, congratulations! This is one of those life changing moments that is hard to plan for as there are a lot of emotions on all sides.

In our situation the “dilemma” was exacerbated when my son drew an extended deployment and our lovely DIL told my wife “I can’t do this alone Mimi” After that I was just along for the ride and to make a long story short we bought a house about 100 yards away and found out that we liked the area so much that we sold our custom lake house on SML and moved here permanently.

Like others have said RV life isn’t for everyone but for many like us we really enjoy it. Our longest trip to date has been just shy of three months. Did we have some issues, yes but they were fixable. The concern I have that hasn’t been addressed so far is if you were to get an RV of some sort, where should you keep it. Can you park it on your property and can you do the same for extended times at your kids home? I live in an HOA community and we are only allowed to park it for 48 hours …

In the end this is not a cut and dry financial decision. My only true advise is to spend as much time with your grandchild as possible and enjoy the journey…

EDIT: I see others have already mentioned where to keep it…

Thanks to everyone. We have rented RV twice, and find the small space of an RV doable. The small home we are renting here has convinced me that I don't need much stuff to live. We liked living in the woods.

The spreadsheet comparison or RV vs. Resort, drive vs. fly, etc. I made some years ago pointed out the incredible costs of the RV. Taxes in Virginia, storage at 269 $/month, taxes on the tow vehicle, high cost of diesel, limited routes with the height and weight of the RV...Class A with a bug behind, or fifth wheel...so many hours we have spent over the past five years thinking and rethinking. "Keep Your Daydream" YT channel offers much in the way of aspirational RV experiences, and other channels such as "Happily Hanks" show the complexities and travails.

One aspect of this not yet mentioned is that the son-in-law's mother lives across the single major highway in a similar subdivision. That relationship is not warm and fuzzy, as best I can tell. But, she is literally five minutes away. My wife is eight hours away. You can do the math.

I've spent the last five weeks evaluating this town as a new home. I can see us here, aside from the crazy home prices. Being here for week after week, the traffic patterns, the weather, the shopping, the eateries, and most importantly, the churches are all much more familiar. In typical quick-deciding man way, I "chose" a nice home in an established subdivision. Only $900K. Really? Love the subdivision. I can run ten miles in here and never retrace my steps. It has access to three major corridors, yet has no through traffic. It has golf, clubhouse, pleasant people, lots of dogs, and has withstood hurricanes. So, it would be easy to choose this place, but it would also be a step up in capital reduction.

So, my wife thinks...what about our RV idea again? We could buy something, travel here, stay for a week or two, and also go everywhere else we want to go. We both hate airline travel. We both hate not having our stuff in our spots. We both hate fumbling over the typical small hotel bathroom counters (yes, RV would have this). We both hate traffic noise, common to hotels.

The RV park near our daughter is literally five minutes away. KOA. Expensive. But, we could do one week a month as a visit, or two weeks. Knowing this area, we would not be too close to their everyday, but would be able to join in at their invitation for dinners, or lunches, or projects. We could walk the Cooper River Bridge, visit Charleston restaurants, sit at the elevated bars over Shem Creek, eat shrimp and grits, etc. In other words, we know, from this visit, that we could easily enjoy time here, apart from the kids.

So, as a crazy example, I found on a trading forum a Luxe fifth wheel and a tow vehicle. Perfect! Expensive, but not terrible. Call it half the extra cost it would be to purchase a home here, and storage costs comparable with HOA fees. So, you save money, so to speak, and gain flexibility. You have space in the fifth wheel, and you can store it when not needed. There is a county in VA which does not have personal property tax, also.

But, there is the reality of wow, this would be a commitment to a life we have never lived. And, we are at the point, I think, where we are soon to age out of active RV life. Maybe five years? By that time, the kids will have determined their elementary school age home, I would think.

And, by that time, our existing home in central VA would appreciate just a little more. If the kids returned to VA, we could stay there. We could move one county over for more peace.

It could be one last adventure.

AS an RV'er off and on since 1971, I can tell you it's no longer what it use to be. Getting a spot, the work involved in owning and operating gets more difficult with age. Class "Cs" are mostly pieces of shit rotting from the day you buy it. Yes, two of my class C RV's were rot rockets. I say ney to getting an RV as a solution. Drive or fly, and have them come to visit you as well.

I should have added to my earlier comment.... go look at an Airstream trailer. They are time tested, built like tanks and have excellent resale value. The clever, innovative storage, options both standard and upgrade are endless. If we had the bug to do so again, I would not hesitate to buy again. Occasionally, you'll see one pop up on the auto auction site, Bring A Trailer, or there are tons on RV Trader. Good luck with your decision, it is rewarding, particularly the people you meet while traveling.

Consider how your DMV handles ad valorem tax as a factor.

Rent out a few different sizes and features before committing to what you'd want.

Let us know what you decide.

You are ahead of the game having rented and tried it out. I did a 3 week 5,000+ mile road trip last summer through the western US in my pickup truck and learned I want to go back and do it again in an RV and take all summer.

Just don't do what I know what one set of grandparents did. Buy a $200k RV, take one trip in it and decide they didn't like the life. Sold at a big loss.