RPF0521-Our_Full-Timing_Rig
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00:00:30.960 | Welcome to Radical Personal Finance, the show dedicated to providing you with the knowledge, skills, insight and encouragement you need to live a rich and meaningful life now, while building a plan for financial freedom in 10 years or less.
00:00:42.440 | My name is Joshua and I am your host.
00:00:44.760 | Yesterday on the show, I shared with you a little bit about our 2018 travel plans, which, in short, involve my loading up my family of me, my wife, our three young children and two dogs,
00:00:58.040 | and traveling around the United States for an undetermined amount of time, probably something like six months, maybe shorter, maybe longer,
00:01:06.520 | and taking an undetermined course so far that will involve beginning in Florida, winding up in the upper inland Northwest in the Mountain West to visit family,
00:01:17.120 | and then at some point probably meandering back to Florida.
00:01:19.880 | Now, whether that looks like a circle or a zigzag, who knows?
00:01:22.720 | But in many ways, I thought you would enjoy hearing a little bit of background of my path to this, speaking practically of how to actually make this happen with regard to the rig.
00:01:35.840 | The rig, if you're not familiar, is what RVers love to call their vehicles, be it a motor home with a car on the back or a tow vehicle and a trailer.
00:01:48.400 | That's commonly affectionately referred to as the rig.
00:01:51.240 | And RVers love to talk about the rig.
00:01:52.920 | They love to think about the rig.
00:01:54.080 | They love to plan about the rig.
00:01:55.240 | They love to shop for new rigs.
00:01:56.960 | I'm no exception.
00:01:58.600 | But today, I'll share with you a little bit about what I've done and the successes I've had and the mistakes that I have made.
00:02:04.640 | I will do this now prior to the start of the show, sorry, start of the trip, so that you can have this as an anchor point.
00:02:11.000 | And then you'll be able to see in real time as I also learn how good my decisions were, what turned out to be wise, what turned out to be foolish, etc.
00:02:19.720 | So a little teaser as we begin.
00:02:22.040 | I think I've made some good decisions along the way, but I've also made some bad decisions.
00:02:26.360 | And in fact, I've lost a substantial amount of money, as is common with RVs.
00:02:32.480 | That's a good place to start.
00:02:34.320 | If you're going to get involved in the world of RVing, you should be prepared to lose money.
00:02:41.200 | Because similar to boats, RVs are an excellent vacuum for all of your disposable money.
00:02:48.760 | There is basically no limit as to how much money you could spend on RVs.
00:02:55.360 | Doubt me, just go and look at a million-dollar motorhome.
00:02:58.960 | Go to a show or something like that.
00:03:00.560 | You'll find them.
00:03:01.040 | They're built on these giant bus chassis.
00:03:03.760 | They got generators on them that can practically run a city block.
00:03:06.800 | They are beautiful.
00:03:08.880 | They're also a million bucks.
00:03:11.280 | Most people who own an RV quickly find that it can consume as much as you want it to consume.
00:03:16.800 | And so this is a very dangerous area of consumption because how do you get into it and make a decent decision and not lose your shirt?
00:03:26.560 | You should be prepared mentally for that reality.
00:03:30.920 | Here's what I think is the common life cycle of an RV and most people's approach to RVing.
00:03:38.000 | Many people will get excited about the idea of spending time in the great outdoors with their – usually children.
00:03:44.480 | Or today, it's increasingly common that singles and couples without children are choosing whether – as young adults, which is growing massively, or as retirees, will choose to travel the country in full time, as they say, in their RV.
00:04:00.880 | But what frequently happens is you'll find a young couple with young children that will get excited about the idea of spending time in the great outdoors with their children.
00:04:08.240 | All RV literature involves beautiful mountain scenes, beautiful beach scenes, and it's just the picture of tranquility.
00:04:16.720 | And so many people get excited, go out and buy an RV.
00:04:20.800 | Frequently, due to lack of knowledge, frequently people will start with a new one.
00:04:25.200 | And then they'll use it a lot for a family vacation the first year.
00:04:28.120 | They'll take it out in the summertime for a big three-week trip.
00:04:30.800 | They'll take it out perhaps on the Christmas vacation for a one- or two-week trip.
00:04:34.800 | The next year, they'll repeat the same thing.
00:04:36.480 | But then the third year, instead of having time to do the Christmas trip, they want to go and fly to see family at Christmas.
00:04:42.880 | They leave the RV at home.
00:04:44.400 | The fourth year, something else comes up during the summer.
00:04:46.640 | One of the kids wants to go to summer camp instead of going on an RV trip.
00:04:49.960 | And so instead of using it in the summer, then the RV sits at home.
00:04:53.280 | And that year, it sits there all year.
00:04:55.320 | And often by about the fourth or fifth or sixth year, the RV is used on average a week every couple or three years.
00:05:02.160 | Well, frequently at this point in time, the RV has lost so much value and depreciation that the owners can't stand the idea of selling it and recognizing that loss.
00:05:11.760 | After all, they may have just finished making the payments on it.
00:05:14.360 | And so it sits in the backyard during year six, year seven, year eight, year nine.
00:05:19.800 | And they use it on occasion every now and then to take the kids out.
00:05:22.600 | But the kids are growing into high school and then they're graduating, moving off to college, and they don't want to spend time in the RV.
00:05:27.600 | And it's not so fun for mom and dad without young children to really embrace it and enjoy it.
00:05:31.880 | So they lend it out to a family member here and there.
00:05:33.800 | But basically, it just sits.
00:05:36.400 | Finally, dad stops renewing the registration because it annoys him to pay the license plate every year.
00:05:41.000 | It sits in the backyard for another two or three years.
00:05:43.120 | And then finally, mom says, can we get that thing out of here?
00:05:46.040 | And finally, dad goes ahead and lists it on Craigslist or mom lists it on Facebook.
00:05:51.000 | And then you start selling it.
00:05:53.800 | And that's the case.
00:05:55.040 | And so people lose a ton of money on RVs and don't use them.
00:06:00.520 | That's what I think generally happens.
00:06:03.720 | So you better watch out for that eventuality because you can lose a ton of money.
00:06:08.840 | Now, I don't think it's necessary that you always lose a ton of money.
00:06:11.960 | But I think you would be well advised to move slowly.
00:06:15.640 | And I'll tell you a little bit of my successes because I've had some successes and some failures.
00:06:20.680 | And hopefully, you can develop and build more successes in your life than failures.
00:06:26.280 | First thing is move slowly and recognize that you are going to get into expensive territory quickly.
00:06:34.120 | If you think that buying an RV will save you money, think again.
00:06:40.280 | It will be cheaper for you to do your family vacations and pay for hotel bills than it will be for you to own an RV.
00:06:48.520 | Unless you're actually going to be in the RV for an extended period of time such as six months, a year.
00:06:58.840 | Other than that, the hotels are going to be cheaper.
00:07:03.320 | Campgrounds are wonderful and you don't need an RV to appreciate them.
00:07:07.800 | So if you're going to get an RV, you should get it not because it sounds like fun,
00:07:13.800 | but because it fills a need that you've decided is important to you or I guess a want that wouldn't be a need.
00:07:20.600 | It fulfills a want that you've decided is important to you.
00:07:25.000 | For example, you enjoy fly fishing on the weekends and you love to go way back in the mountains and do fly fishing and photography.
00:07:33.480 | And you don't enjoy sleeping in a tent on the ground.
00:07:36.680 | Well, before you buy an RV, consider buying a cot.
00:07:40.600 | But if you've decided you'd like to have some more comfort and you're going to buy a truck camper,
00:07:45.400 | then make sure that it's getting you something that you can't get otherwise.
00:07:48.600 | There aren't many hotels in the backcountry and so that's a good use case scenario.
00:07:52.600 | But if you're just thinking, "I'll load up my RV and we'll use that to travel across the country a thousand miles to go and visit grandma and grandpa,"
00:08:01.160 | friend, you're making a bad financial move. I promise you.
00:08:05.240 | RVs are expensive to buy. They're expensive to own. They're expensive to drive. They're expensive to tow.
00:08:11.640 | They're expensive all the way around.
00:08:15.400 | Now, a couple of thoughts in regards to your RV decisions.
00:08:19.160 | And I'm going to tell you where I've made mistakes in the past so that I can –
00:08:23.640 | and I'm going to tell you some financial scenarios here today of how we have gotten ourselves set up to go full-time on the road.
00:08:30.520 | But one of the first decisions that you have to make is, "Do I want something that I can drive
00:08:34.440 | or do I want something that I'm going to tow?"
00:08:37.240 | And of course, this is the great challenge. How do you decide?
00:08:40.600 | Driving your RV where you have access from the driver's seat to the actual coach is a wonderful luxury experience.
00:08:50.600 | I can't think of many better ways to travel than in a big, comfortable RV
00:08:58.040 | where you and all your passengers have access to comfortable seats, big panoramic windows,
00:09:05.640 | access to the kitchen, the refrigerator, the bathroom, all of those things without ever needing to stop.
00:09:12.280 | That's a wonderful way to travel.
00:09:15.880 | But it does come with some downsides, notably, of course, safety.
00:09:20.680 | It's always a challenge to decide, "Should I go and sleep in the back while we're cruising down the road?"
00:09:25.400 | That leads to a very wonderful nap, but it also could lead to bodily injury or death in the case of accident.
00:09:33.400 | And one of the major things with problems with RVs is they are generally not crash-rated.
00:09:38.680 | Unlike automobiles where there are federally mandated crash safety ratings and tests, RVs are exempt.
00:09:46.680 | Or like – I got mixed up on my words there.
00:09:51.480 | RVs are exempt from those ratings.
00:09:53.320 | And so basically an RV is a chassis, a metal chassis with a giant wooden box plastered over with a little bit of plastic or fiberglass.
00:10:02.840 | And it has no structural safety rating.
00:10:04.920 | You can practically run a motorcycle right through most RVs as far as through the walls.
00:10:09.400 | So they're very unsafe if they actually get in an accident.
00:10:12.760 | For me, however, especially with young children, I really wanted to have the experience of having a motorhome.
00:10:21.000 | Motorhome is the word usually applied to a drivable RV where you have access to the amenities in the back from the driver and passenger seat.
00:10:30.280 | And so the first RV that we bought was a 1993 Roadtrek camper van.
00:10:35.320 | Now a Roadtrek camper van is what's called a Type B RV.
00:10:38.920 | It's a very small RV, 19 feet long.
00:10:41.480 | It's the standard length of a 15-passenger van.
00:10:44.200 | And the reason that we chose this is because I believe there's a huge benefit of being small.
00:10:49.400 | The smaller you can be when you own an RV, the better.
00:10:53.320 | It is more efficient to drive, to tow.
00:10:57.160 | It opens up more places to you.
00:10:59.960 | When you're trying to drive a 45-foot bus, there just aren't that many places to park it.
00:11:04.200 | But when you're driving a 19-foot van, you can park it anywhere.
00:11:07.960 | And we chose that RV carefully because it had the amenities that we were looking for.
00:11:13.000 | It had the beds that we were looking for.
00:11:14.680 | It had the seats that we were looking for.
00:11:16.200 | It was well-liked in the marketplace.
00:11:19.240 | And I was really, really pleased with that purchase.
00:11:22.280 | That particular purchase worked out really well.
00:11:24.840 | I bought it in 2000 and I guess it would have been '16, '15?
00:11:29.800 | No.
00:11:30.520 | Anyway, I bought it a few years ago.
00:11:34.200 | I found it on Craigslist in Georgia.
00:11:36.760 | It was owned by a single owner, elderly retired couple, which can be good but can be dangerous,
00:11:41.320 | which I'll get to in a moment, the problems with RVs.
00:11:44.200 | But I paid $7,000 for it.
00:11:46.040 | Drove it back from Georgia to South Florida.
00:11:49.720 | And total, during my time of ownership, I spent a total of $10,500 in it, including
00:11:55.480 | all the fees, a new set of tires all around, $1,000 on brand new Michelin tires all around,
00:12:01.000 | fixing a couple things that were wrong with it, all the registration, et cetera.
00:12:04.920 | I was in it for $10,500.
00:12:07.480 | And all was said and done.
00:12:08.920 | The problem with that vehicle was two things.
00:12:12.280 | One, I did not calculate on where to put car seats at night.
00:12:17.240 | And this was a major error on my behalf.
00:12:20.520 | I had thought obsessively about the decision.
00:12:23.240 | I thought I was making the very best decision possible.
00:12:26.120 | But although I had considered where to strap car seats during the daytime, I had not considered
00:12:31.320 | where to put car seats at night.
00:12:33.720 | And when you have, at that time, two children and now three, when you have these giant,
00:12:41.800 | no other adjectives are necessary, these giant car seats, they are very frustrating to deal
00:12:47.400 | with.
00:12:47.960 | And of course, they're important for your children, or at least so we are told by those
00:12:52.520 | who claim to know.
00:12:53.560 | But they are very frustrating as far as where to put them.
00:12:58.040 | And they take up so much room that we just decided, you know what?
00:13:00.600 | This isn't going to work.
00:13:01.800 | I was able to sell out of that thing.
00:13:03.720 | And I didn't lose my shirt.
00:13:05.000 | I sold it for a net of $10,000 when all was said and done.
00:13:09.080 | So in my time of ownership, I was out of pocket $500 on the deal, which I was pretty happy
00:13:14.760 | with.
00:13:15.000 | I had worked hard to put that deal together.
00:13:17.560 | And I was pretty pleased with that.
00:13:19.480 | To own an RV for-- I think I owned it for eight months, something like that, maybe 10
00:13:23.240 | months.
00:13:23.720 | To own an RV, to use it-- we took some nice trips in it.
00:13:26.120 | I enjoyed it.
00:13:27.240 | And only lose $500 is not bad, in my opinion.
00:13:31.000 | That gave us the benefit of having the access.
00:13:36.040 | And that does lead, especially with small children, that does lead to a much better
00:13:40.360 | and easier traveling experience.
00:13:42.600 | To be able to get the kids down, to use the bathroom, to be able to give them a snack,
00:13:45.960 | to be able to have access from the front to the back makes a big, big difference in terms
00:13:49.960 | of the joy of traveling.
00:13:52.120 | However, in using it, what my wife and I realized was we could probably solve it a different
00:13:57.960 | way.
00:13:58.200 | And when we decided that it was too small, given that we were adding a third child and
00:14:01.400 | we had no idea where to put the third car seat at night, we could have strapped the
00:14:04.840 | car seat in during the day, but we had no idea where to put it at night, we decided
00:14:08.280 | that we needed to go bigger.
00:14:09.640 | And what I decided the best move was is to buy a full-size van and a travel trailer.
00:14:15.240 | Now, the benefits of a full-size van are a fewfold.
00:14:17.880 | One, there's plenty of places to strap car seats, of course.
00:14:21.080 | You can strap car seats in and have plenty of room.
00:14:23.960 | I also decided that if we just simply removed one of the seats in the full-size van, that
00:14:28.920 | leads to a fairly large cargo area.
00:14:31.080 | And that we could – which is actually in the traveling space.
00:14:35.560 | And with that approach, we could actually bring in many of the benefits of an RV.
00:14:40.360 | For example, it's easy to have a cooler with food in it that's readily accessible.
00:14:45.080 | With a full-size van, there's enough room if I'm driving for my wife to get up and
00:14:48.840 | to help the children.
00:14:49.880 | You can bring a small toddler potty that is available to the children so you don't
00:14:53.480 | have to stop so frequently to use the bathroom facilities.
00:14:56.760 | You get most of the benefits of an RV.
00:15:00.600 | So that's a big benefit in my mind.
00:15:03.400 | And we did that.
00:15:04.600 | We ended up buying a 15-passenger van.
00:15:08.200 | And from the perspective of traveling, it worked just like I had imagined.
00:15:11.720 | I bought a 2001 Chevy 15-passenger van.
00:15:15.320 | We took out the front bench seat which led to a nice cargo area up front.
00:15:19.480 | We had nice seats to strap the car seats into.
00:15:21.880 | We could travel with a cooler, with a small potty.
00:15:24.440 | It was really, really comfortable, really nice.
00:15:27.240 | The other benefit of traveling with a van and/or other tow vehicle is you can have your
00:15:33.640 | driving space and your living space.
00:15:36.280 | So you don't have to convert either one of them.
00:15:38.600 | If you have a tow vehicle and a trailer, all the car seats stay strapped in the tow vehicle
00:15:43.320 | all the time.
00:15:43.880 | And then the trailer is just living space.
00:15:46.440 | You don't have to have it cluttered up with all of the detritus of child traveling.
00:15:51.320 | So that's a big, big benefit.
00:15:54.280 | Now, the other reason that we've got a van is because I believe there's a real value
00:15:58.520 | in the world of vans.
00:15:59.640 | When you are deciding that you want to tow an RV, you have a few choices.
00:16:05.640 | They come down to basically a fifth-wheel trailer, a travel trailer, or something else,
00:16:13.400 | which there's tons of options of something else.
00:16:17.080 | A fifth-wheel trailer is that type of trailer where the actual hitch goes into the bed of
00:16:21.800 | a pickup truck.
00:16:23.240 | They're big.
00:16:24.120 | They have that large, bulbous front nose, and they go into the bed of a pickup truck.
00:16:28.280 | Fifth-wheels are probably your best buy in the marketplace if you want to get maximum
00:16:35.480 | living space for minimum money.
00:16:37.960 | Look at fifth-wheels.
00:16:40.200 | Maximum living space, minimum money.
00:16:42.280 | You're probably going to go with a fifth-wheel.
00:16:44.280 | And if you are willing to drive a pickup truck, then this fifth-wheel option is probably one
00:16:50.120 | of your best, most comfortable options to tow and to drive.
00:16:54.040 | Fifth-wheel trailers tow really well.
00:16:55.880 | They are more maneuverable.
00:16:58.440 | They're just all around a really good option, a really good way to tow a trailer.
00:17:03.880 | One of the downsides is many fifth-wheels are so incredibly large, they're just hard
00:17:09.240 | to deal with.
00:17:09.880 | If you buy a 40-foot fifth-wheel trailer, that thing will not fit in the majority.
00:17:14.280 | You won't get it into national parks.
00:17:15.640 | You won't get it into most state parks.
00:17:17.480 | Basically, you're going to be confined to an RV resort with pull-through campsites.
00:17:22.200 | For some people, that's appropriate.
00:17:24.280 | In my mind, that's not appropriate.
00:17:27.800 | I want to be nimble.
00:17:29.800 | And so we set as our maximum desired length something about 30 feet.
00:17:33.960 | If you're 30 feet or under, then you can pretty much get into most campgrounds.
00:17:39.320 | Not all, but most campgrounds.
00:17:40.920 | And you can get into many sites.
00:17:42.600 | There will always be sites that you can't get into at most campgrounds.
00:17:46.280 | But you can get into most.
00:17:48.520 | You can find small fifth-wheel trailers.
00:17:51.560 | So don't let a desire to have a small trailer dissuade you from shopping for fifth-wheels.
00:17:59.400 | But they're harder to find than big, big ones.
00:18:02.200 | We didn't want a fifth-wheel.
00:18:04.200 | And the reason I didn't want a fifth-wheel is I didn't want to get a pickup truck.
00:18:06.440 | Pickup trucks, in my mind, are useful for some people.
00:18:10.760 | But I didn't want to have one.
00:18:11.880 | I say this as someone who now has one, which I'll explain.
00:18:15.160 | Problems with pickup trucks is, number one, they're very limited seating.
00:18:18.840 | About the biggest you can get from a factory is a crew cab with six seats.
00:18:22.280 | We have three children, two dogs.
00:18:25.320 | We don't fit all that well in a crew cab pickup truck.
00:18:27.720 | And by getting a crew cab pickup truck, that automatically limits us to only being able to
00:18:31.960 | travel with our family.
00:18:33.560 | That, in my mind, is not ideal.
00:18:36.600 | And so I really wanted to have a big, full-size van with more seat capacity so we could travel
00:18:43.400 | with friends.
00:18:43.880 | What's the point of having a camper if you can't load up three or four or five of your
00:18:47.320 | friends as well and go and use them?
00:18:49.400 | That's pretty much how I look at it.
00:18:51.000 | So I didn't want to have a pickup truck for that reason.
00:18:52.920 | Another reason I want to have a pickup truck is pickup trucks are really not so useful
00:18:56.600 | from the capacity of load carrying.
00:18:59.080 | I never understand this obsession among tradespeople with pickup trucks, to have these trucks that
00:19:04.040 | you've got to put all kinds of special boxes in to protect your tools.
00:19:08.760 | They're inefficient.
00:19:10.280 | They're poorly organized.
00:19:11.640 | They don't do a good job of protecting your tools.
00:19:13.960 | Most people are better off with a minivan, a full-size van, or an SUV.
00:19:17.880 | So I didn't really want to own a pickup truck.
00:19:21.160 | They just aren't very good.
00:19:23.320 | And then the final thing is pickup trucks are expensive.
00:19:25.560 | Because pickup trucks are in such high demand by men who want to drive them and look cool
00:19:31.480 | because they want to present the macho pickup image, they're very expensive.
00:19:34.840 | It's hard to find a good deal, especially when you start looking at big pickup trucks.
00:19:40.040 | Now, in my analysis, many of these problems were well-solved with a full-size van.
00:19:45.080 | And I think the full-size van option is a really good way to get more for your money.
00:19:52.200 | The full-size van gives the benefits of that comfortable traveling that I described.
00:19:55.960 | Full-size vans have great cargo capacity, especially if you get the big 15-passenger
00:20:01.720 | one, great cargo capacity.
00:20:03.480 | And they're cheap.
00:20:05.480 | There's not much of a demand for full-size vans.
00:20:08.760 | If you were to go – let's say you have a large family.
00:20:10.520 | If you were to go, you can buy a full-size – sorry, you can go and buy a minivan,
00:20:15.720 | a loaded-out minivan.
00:20:17.240 | And you could load one out to be $40,000 to $45,000.
00:20:20.520 | You can go and you can buy a full-size van and you can load it out as best you can.
00:20:26.040 | And it'll come in below $35,000.
00:20:27.880 | You can get them under $30,000.
00:20:29.560 | Now, that's because they're more commercial in focus and so they're not going to have
00:20:32.920 | all of the amenities.
00:20:34.200 | I still love minivans.
00:20:35.320 | Minivans are wonderful.
00:20:36.360 | And my wife refuses to drive a full-size van unless we actually needed one.
00:20:39.640 | So we're in the world of minivans.
00:20:41.400 | I think they are truly wonderful.
00:20:43.560 | But especially if you want to tow, I think there's a real deal in the world of full-size
00:20:47.640 | vans.
00:20:48.520 | Because traditionally full-size vans are built on a truck chassis, this makes them have
00:20:53.800 | poorer road manners than something like a minivan, which is built with unibody construction.
00:20:58.760 | But they have towing capacity, rated as high as about 10,000 pounds.
00:21:03.960 | The highest one is the Chevy full-size vans.
00:21:06.600 | Those are rated for 10,000 pounds.
00:21:08.440 | The various iterations of the Ford vans, whether it's 12-passenger or 15-passenger, makes a
00:21:12.520 | big difference.
00:21:13.560 | But those will get you in the range of 7,000 to 8,000 pounds, which is a sizable trailer.
00:21:18.040 | The Nissan NV full-size vans are rated for up to almost 10,000 pounds.
00:21:23.160 | Those are a good deal in the tow world.
00:21:24.600 | And then the various other more modern Euro-style vans have less towing capacity, but it's still
00:21:30.600 | decent.
00:21:32.120 | You can get a great tow vehicle in a full-size van, and that was what I decided to do.
00:21:36.840 | I wanted a Chevy for the heaviest towing capacity.
00:21:39.320 | And so I bought one.
00:21:40.680 | I bought a 2001 Chevy.
00:21:42.760 | Now, in the Chevy vans, there were three engine options that are available.
00:21:47.400 | There are two gas engines, and -- or there were four engine options, but there were three
00:21:53.000 | that are rated for the highest with towing.
00:21:55.240 | There is an 8.1-liter V8, which is a giant 500-cubic-inch gas engine, which gets about
00:22:01.240 | 13 miles per gallon whether you're driving empty or whether you're towing a trailer.
00:22:05.480 | But it has a ton of power.
00:22:06.680 | It's also very hard to find.
00:22:08.760 | But I was looking for one.
00:22:10.680 | I also was looking at a diesel.
00:22:13.080 | And at those iterations of the Chevy vans, some of the older ones, they came with a 6.2-liter
00:22:17.400 | diesel, which was the old GM diesel.
00:22:19.720 | Not super powerful, but adequate.
00:22:22.120 | I was looking for one of those.
00:22:23.720 | They also came with a 6-liter gas engine, which is the venerable Chevy 350 small block
00:22:28.120 | engine, which is one of the world's most popular engines and a good engine.
00:22:32.280 | They used to put it in the Corvette.
00:22:33.400 | It's powerful.
00:22:34.040 | The one that I wound up finding had the 6-liter gas engine.
00:22:38.760 | And I felt like it would be sufficient -- sorry, the 5.7-liter gas engine, the 350.
00:22:44.280 | So I felt like the 5.7 would be sufficient, and I was happy with the deal.
00:22:48.520 | I found the van on Craigslist up in Gainesville.
00:22:53.480 | The van was, all things considered, in really good shape.
00:22:57.640 | There were some obvious cosmetic flaws, but it was in good shape, in nicer interior shape
00:23:02.520 | than many other vans of the similar vintage.
00:23:04.360 | And vans of the age that I was looking at, which is a 2001, were probably worth in the
00:23:11.160 | marketplace around $3,000 to $3,500.
00:23:14.200 | I was able to buy this particular one for $2,300.
00:23:17.480 | So I was pretty happy with my deal.
00:23:20.200 | And I was pretty happy that I had enough room that if it didn't work -- because my concern
00:23:24.040 | was if that engine, the 5.7-liter engine, couldn't pull the trailer that I was planning
00:23:29.000 | to get, then I needed to sell it out and not lose my shirt.
00:23:31.640 | So at $2,300, I felt safe.
00:23:33.800 | I felt I could at least turn around and sell this thing for $3,000, and I would be in good
00:23:38.920 | shape.
00:23:39.560 | I did an extensive test drive on the vehicle.
00:23:42.760 | I wound up having a long 45-minute test drive.
00:23:45.480 | It had been owned by a transportation company.
00:23:47.960 | And so all of the markers of it being a good deal were there.
00:23:52.440 | It was in good mechanical shape, had 190,000 miles, but it had been cared for.
00:23:57.000 | Most of those miles had come within the last year because it had been run -- owned by this
00:24:00.760 | transportation company that had run it constantly.
00:24:03.400 | But it was in good shape, I thought.
00:24:06.680 | And here's where we get into the problems of the mistake where I wound up losing my
00:24:11.720 | shirt.
00:24:12.220 | I bought the van, and I drove it home, and it was fine.
00:24:16.120 | It drove fine.
00:24:16.840 | But it didn't have a ton of power.
00:24:21.160 | So I took it to the mechanic, and the first thing we did was I said, "This van's going
00:24:23.720 | to be great."
00:24:24.120 | I had him fix a couple of cosmetic things that wanted to be done, some window latches.
00:24:28.520 | And we had a good overall inspection.
00:24:30.600 | I went ahead and started fixing things, fixed the brakes, fixed up a couple things that
00:24:34.040 | weren't strictly necessary.
00:24:35.480 | Remember, I'm getting this thing ready to go across the country for six months.
00:24:40.200 | And so I needed it to be in good shape when I head out.
00:24:42.840 | And I had the room.
00:24:43.720 | I figured, "Okay, this will be a good vehicle."
00:24:47.640 | We took it on a couple of trips, just the van.
00:24:50.840 | And then eventually, I bought the trailer.
00:24:53.320 | And I found that this van basically couldn't pull this trailer.
00:24:58.200 | I'll get to the trailer that we chose in a moment.
00:24:59.880 | This marked a problem.
00:25:03.480 | So I took the van to the mechanic, and we found out that the engine had significant
00:25:13.400 | power issues.
00:25:14.440 | Here's a little tip for you that I learned.
00:25:18.680 | Number one, as I'm sure you know, it's good for you to have a mechanical inspection if
00:25:24.280 | you're buying a used vehicle, especially if you're not a mechanic.
00:25:26.680 | And I'm not.
00:25:27.240 | I had promised myself that I'd always get a mechanical inspection when I bought a used
00:25:31.720 | vehicle a number of years ago when I made a bad deal on a car.
00:25:35.080 | And yet on this one, I felt like I was okay.
00:25:40.760 | I'd done an extensive test drive.
00:25:42.680 | There were no obvious signs of problems.
00:25:45.000 | The price was low enough.
00:25:46.280 | I was pretty safe.
00:25:47.480 | Worst thing that could happen is buy it for $2,300 and sell it for $1,000 scrap if it
00:25:52.440 | were truly scrap, which it wasn't.
00:25:54.520 | So I felt pretty safe.
00:25:56.360 | But what I learned is a little trick.
00:25:58.600 | When you go to test drive a vehicle, one of the things that you need to do is turn the
00:26:04.120 | key on and look to see, before you start the vehicle, look to see if the check engine light
00:26:09.080 | comes on.
00:26:09.560 | You want to see the check engine light come on when you turn the key on.
00:26:15.320 | Then after you start the vehicle, you want to see the check engine light go off.
00:26:19.080 | Now, I had neglected to bring my scanner with me to scan the engine for codes.
00:26:24.920 | Rookie mistake.
00:26:26.200 | And I didn't know this little trick.
00:26:27.640 | Rookie mistake.
00:26:29.560 | What I found out was many times when a vehicle is having consistent problems, an unethical
00:26:37.560 | person, an unethical seller, will remove the check engine light from the dashboard.
00:26:43.000 | This means that it doesn't show up as being on, which means you don't know that the engine
00:26:48.120 | is throwing error codes.
00:26:49.240 | And so I learned that the way that you avoid this is you need to see that thing come on
00:26:53.080 | when you turn the key on.
00:26:54.280 | If it doesn't come on when you turn the key on, you know that there's a problem with the
00:26:58.520 | bulb or the light.
00:26:59.560 | Now let's move to the trailer.
00:27:03.640 | With regard to trailer, I mentioned there's fifth wheels and there are travel trailers.
00:27:06.680 | Travel trailer is the type of trailer that hooks up to your bumper or to the hitch at
00:27:10.760 | the back.
00:27:11.800 | And it's big and it's square, but it just hooks up down below.
00:27:14.840 | And this works great with a van.
00:27:16.040 | I think travel trailers, if you don't need maximum space, are your absolute best deal
00:27:21.960 | in terms of dollars.
00:27:23.240 | They are so cheap.
00:27:25.160 | Now they're cheap because they're mostly junk.
00:27:28.520 | Most RVs, with a few exceptions of very high-end, well-made RV brands, most RVs are junk.
00:27:36.360 | And you should just know that going in.
00:27:38.360 | It's balsa wood stapled together with a little bit of fabric.
00:27:41.880 | They don't last.
00:27:43.880 | They're not well-built.
00:27:45.480 | They look shiny for a little bit so they can sell them quickly, but they're basically junk.
00:27:49.320 | But if you can buy one with working equipment that'll at least hold together, it should
00:27:56.200 | do what you need it to.
00:27:57.960 | And in the used marketplace, the travel trailers are a great deal.
00:28:01.960 | In my mind, the best deals come at about 10 years old.
00:28:06.600 | Because if you think back to that common life cycle of an RV when people are buying them,
00:28:11.000 | and you have a new owner that goes and gets one when their children are eight years old
00:28:14.440 | and six years old, well, they start looking to sell it when their children are 18 and
00:28:18.200 | 16 after it sat in the backyard for a couple of years.
00:28:20.760 | That's common.
00:28:21.720 | That's basically the life cycle.
00:28:23.400 | And by then, they've depreciated from about $30,000 new down to a lot less.
00:28:28.760 | Now, for our family, we were looking for a bunkhouse model.
00:28:32.600 | A bunkhouse model is – well, it's a model that has bunks in it.
00:28:37.960 | And so there is a particular bunkhouse model that when you start looking at layouts, you'll
00:28:42.280 | find that RV layouts tend to be fairly standard.
00:28:44.600 | There are only so many ways that you could fit in a few beds, a kitchen, a bathroom,
00:28:48.200 | a table, and a couch.
00:28:49.480 | There are only so many variations of this.
00:28:53.240 | So they're pretty standardized at some point.
00:28:55.320 | We were looking for a bunkhouse model that has four bunks in the rear of the coach.
00:28:59.480 | And that was what we – what was appropriate for us, so four bunks in the rear, bedroom
00:29:05.160 | up front, living area in the middle.
00:29:07.080 | And we wanted something big enough that we'd be comfortable to live in for an extended
00:29:10.520 | period of time.
00:29:11.640 | When you're buying an RV, you need to buy it for your intended application because it's
00:29:15.880 | all a study of tradeoffs.
00:29:17.640 | If you have a giant RV, it can be so comfortable for you to fit in but you can't – sorry,
00:29:22.840 | for you to live in but you can't fit it anywhere.
00:29:25.480 | You can buy a tiny little pull-behind teardrop trailer or a tiny little trailer with a rooftop
00:29:30.680 | tent on it.
00:29:31.240 | You can hook it up to your Jeep and go out in the mountains.
00:29:33.720 | That you can get anywhere but it's not so comfortable to live in.
00:29:39.160 | And so everything is a matter of sacrifices.
00:29:41.160 | You're just simply choosing what style of travel is important to you, which is why you
00:29:45.640 | should probably go slow and be very careful and not commit to a brand-new RV before you've
00:29:50.200 | actually tried something.
00:29:51.560 | Some people think they need all the space and they recognize actually we're comfortable
00:29:55.000 | with smaller space.
00:29:56.360 | Some people think they're comfortable with smaller space and they wind up upgrading.
00:30:00.200 | So it's frequent that RV buyers will have to go through a couple of rigs before they
00:30:05.320 | figure out what they actually want and what they're actually going to use.
00:30:09.080 | In our case, we settled on about a 30-foot travel trailer.
00:30:13.960 | It's the best number of compromises for what we were planning, which was an extended
00:30:20.680 | six-month trip around the country.
00:30:22.840 | That gives you enough living space inside so that on multiple rainy days, you have a
00:30:27.480 | place for the children to play.
00:30:29.160 | It gives you sleeping space where you can close off the children, you can close off
00:30:33.560 | the bedrooms and have a place for children to take naps inside in the air conditioning,
00:30:37.960 | go to bed, enough of a space for mom and dad to actually be in the vehicle.
00:30:42.600 | And when you're traveling for an extended period of time, it's a benefit to actually
00:30:46.280 | be able to be in the vehicle.
00:30:47.880 | I'm going camping for a few weeks.
00:30:49.320 | Anybody can go camping for a few weeks and can live outside in the elements, even dealing
00:30:53.880 | with bad weather.
00:30:54.760 | If you're on a short vacation trip and you get bad weather, you just change your plans
00:30:58.760 | and go book a hotel room or suck it up and embrace it as a character-building exercise.
00:31:03.640 | But when you're living on the road for six months, that's tough.
00:31:07.400 | And especially given that my intention is to work on the road, I felt like it'd be a
00:31:13.000 | mild form of spousal abuse to load up my wife with three small children and two dogs and
00:31:19.240 | say, "Here, you hang out in this tent while I go and sit in an internet cafe and record
00:31:25.240 | radical personal finance."
00:31:26.760 | That seems like a mild form of spousal abuse and I don't think that would quite work.
00:31:32.360 | So I wanted to make sure that we had a big enough vehicle.
00:31:35.000 | And so I was shopping in this range of 30-foot bunkhouse travel trailers in about the 30-foot
00:31:39.720 | range.
00:31:40.040 | In the choice of an RV, if you don't need all those things, consider going smaller.
00:31:48.120 | Now, I mentioned there are basically three kinds of towable travel trailers.
00:31:51.320 | There's fifth wheels, there's travel trailers, and then there's other.
00:31:53.800 | There are a bazillion options of others, pop-up campers, A-frames, teardrops, all kinds of
00:32:01.240 | interesting iterations.
00:32:02.440 | They're really neat.
00:32:04.360 | And if you can get by with smaller, go with smaller.
00:32:07.240 | But we decided to choose a larger travel trailer.
00:32:10.200 | The first time I hooked up the travel trailer to the van, because I bought the van first,
00:32:14.360 | I knew I had a problem.
00:32:17.080 | Because the van was struggling.
00:32:19.160 | First time I got it out on the open road after having some things fixed up on it, fixing
00:32:25.320 | up the brakes and the trailer controllers and all that, I knew we had a serious problem
00:32:30.120 | because I couldn't get the thing over 50 miles an hour on flat ground.
00:32:33.800 | That's a major problem when you're planning to drive over the mountains.
00:32:37.800 | If you can't get it 50 miles an hour on the flat ground, I mean, that's 10-mile-an-hour
00:32:41.720 | stuff going up the mountains, which is just simply not safe and not fun.
00:32:46.280 | So we continued working on it, and we tried everything.
00:32:50.280 | I tried-- we fixed all the stuff that needed to be fixed.
00:32:52.840 | And still, end of the story, the van couldn't pull it.
00:32:57.560 | And I sank a ton of money into that van.
00:33:00.600 | Some of those things related to the inability to pull this big trailer.
00:33:04.760 | It should have been pullable.
00:33:07.240 | I don't fully know why it couldn't pull it, because we got the engine running through
00:33:13.080 | extensive-- replaced all the stuff, and the mechanic went through it and fixed it all.
00:33:17.320 | Good mechanic, very knowledgeable, works with me on a lot of stuff.
00:33:20.280 | We got it running as well as it could, but it still couldn't do it.
00:33:25.000 | Now, I think it was probably partly a gearing issue.
00:33:27.400 | The gears were too high to effectively pull the trailer.
00:33:32.040 | Part of it was also that it was not-- when towing a trailer, it's not just weight.
00:33:36.120 | It's also drag with how big the front of the trailer is, and this particular trailer is big.
00:33:41.080 | It presents a lot of drag.
00:33:43.480 | But the van, even after all the fixing, just wouldn't work.
00:33:47.320 | And so I decided I had to change, and I decided to cut my losses, get rid of the van.
00:33:53.400 | It's possible that if I'd swapped out the gears, or if I'd tuned up the-- if I'd added
00:33:58.040 | some aftermarket accessories to the engine, then we could have gotten it to work.
00:34:04.120 | But I had already put so much money into it that I was really hurting and just wanted
00:34:08.840 | to cut my losses and run, decided that I didn't have any more stomach for it.
00:34:13.880 | So I made some serious mistakes with getting that van and fixing it up.
00:34:21.880 | And the mistakes that I made was I didn't-- I started with some of the-- I assumed it
00:34:26.680 | would work based upon my research.
00:34:28.840 | All of the numbers said it should have worked.
00:34:31.720 | I knew my weight ratings.
00:34:34.280 | I knew my tow ratings.
00:34:35.880 | And on paper, it should have been fine.
00:34:38.840 | But on paper is different than in real life.
00:34:42.280 | So I made some mistakes.
00:34:45.000 | I didn't catch the engine problems, which were the serious problems first.
00:34:48.840 | And so I spent money fixing up the little things early that probably didn't have to
00:34:54.440 | be fixed so quickly.
00:34:55.880 | Example is the window latches were messed up.
00:34:58.120 | I bought it knowing that the window latches were broken.
00:35:00.120 | I thought it would be an easy fix.
00:35:01.320 | Well, it wound up actually costing a couple hundred dollars to have the window latches
00:35:04.600 | fixed up because I had another piece of metal.
00:35:06.840 | And I just-- I thought it would be simpler than it was.
00:35:10.680 | And so I had all those little things fixed first.
00:35:12.520 | I was $2,300 in, $1,000 up front to have all the little things fixed because I thought
00:35:16.680 | this will work great.
00:35:17.880 | Then we got into the trailer stuff.
00:35:19.320 | And one of the things that I learned was that I wound up blowing out the trailer brake
00:35:23.640 | controller because there was a short on the trailer.
00:35:25.480 | And we wound up putting another hundreds of dollars into the thing.
00:35:28.360 | And then we got into the engine problems.
00:35:29.800 | And it was another few thousand bucks.
00:35:31.160 | But by the end of it, I was into the thing for over $6,000, somewhere-- I forget the
00:35:36.920 | exact number, but something like $6,500, which was a real problem.
00:35:41.080 | When I went from, I was tickled pink with my deal originally.
00:35:46.200 | I thought I was so brilliant.
00:35:48.440 | I thought I had bought this great deal.
00:35:50.200 | I had found my inefficient market.
00:35:53.160 | I was so pleased with myself.
00:35:55.000 | And now here I am woefully upside down, losing money and losing my job.
00:35:59.560 | Upside down, losing money on a vehicle that would never get out of it again.
00:36:04.760 | There was no-- and all those improvements were not the kind of improvements that were
00:36:09.240 | actually going to work.
00:36:10.240 | It gets you resale value.
00:36:11.720 | Yes, they're valuable improvements.
00:36:13.400 | But they're not the kind of improvements that get you resale value.
00:36:17.240 | I thought through afresh, very seriously, whether or not it's the best course of action
00:36:23.160 | to buy at older vehicles when I dealt with this van.
00:36:26.360 | I'll tell you how I came out of it in just a-- well, I'll tell you how I came of it
00:36:29.400 | now.
00:36:30.440 | I decided to sell the van.
00:36:31.640 | I was able to sell the van.
00:36:32.680 | I sold it for $4,000, which means that I lost a couple thousand bucks on the van, which
00:36:38.040 | was very frustrating.
00:36:39.400 | I hate to lose money.
00:36:40.840 | But I was able to-- my market research was correct.
00:36:45.880 | I made a bad decision with this particular vehicle.
00:36:48.760 | But my market research was correct.
00:36:50.440 | Because if I hadn't put all that money into it-- I bought it $2,300, sold it for $4,000--
00:36:55.320 | I was safe in the deal.
00:36:57.480 | But I still wound up losing a couple thousand bucks.
00:36:59.560 | I like to buy older vehicles because you don't lose so much money in depreciation.
00:37:07.480 | Depreciation is, in many ways, unavoidable, especially when a vehicle is at its middle
00:37:15.240 | range of life, newer and middle range of life.
00:37:17.320 | But when you get to older, cheaper vehicles, you wind up with depreciation being less of
00:37:23.960 | a factor.
00:37:26.040 | The flip side is with older vehicles, you have mechanical problems that can suck up
00:37:31.000 | more money.
00:37:31.560 | My observation and experience is that this is less of a problem than it once was.
00:37:37.720 | If you were to go back 30 years and look and say, I've got this older vehicle.
00:37:44.440 | Should I keep it?
00:37:45.160 | You probably shouldn't.
00:37:48.440 | You probably would have been better served 30, 40 years ago to go buy a new car every
00:37:52.680 | 10 years.
00:37:54.600 | But today, there have been such dramatic improvements in manufacturing quality and in
00:37:59.320 | longevity of so many parts.
00:38:01.240 | Cars are just better made.
00:38:02.680 | And it's wonderful because I've had great experience with most of my older vehicles.
00:38:07.640 | Very rarely do I have to budget for repairs that are not just normal maintenance items.
00:38:14.680 | A new vehicle goes through tires just like an old vehicle goes through tires.
00:38:17.800 | A new vehicle goes through brakes just like an old vehicle goes through brakes.
00:38:20.840 | Those aren't the kind of repairs that were once so common.
00:38:24.280 | Now, there are, of course, older things that do need to be fixed.
00:38:27.320 | But I'd rather deal with a new starter here and there or a new alternator than know that
00:38:32.120 | I'm going to lose $3,000 this year on my $20,000 vehicle.
00:38:36.360 | Depreciation is such a problem from a financial perspective that I think it's best to avoid
00:38:43.560 | it as much as possible.
00:38:44.600 | Now, on this particular deal, I really question that because some of my problems would have
00:38:50.840 | been avoided on this van by just buying a newer vehicle.
00:38:54.360 | Well, I still am not going to go and buy a brand new vehicle at this point.
00:38:58.440 | But I do have to factor those in.
00:39:01.640 | Simple things like the wiring on the van was all messed up.
00:39:05.880 | And this wound up being an expensive fix that I didn't know.
00:39:08.840 | The tail lights were working when I bought the van.
00:39:12.120 | But the trailer brake controller wasn't working.
00:39:15.640 | It was shorted out from the trailer.
00:39:18.040 | And so we had to put in a new trailer brake controller.
00:39:19.880 | But in doing that, we found out that the wiring in the back of the lights had all
00:39:23.640 | messed up.
00:39:24.680 | And to undo that and bring it back to factory settings was a significant hassle and significant
00:39:31.880 | expense.
00:39:32.380 | By the time you work through all that, that's a problem that an older vehicle had that a
00:39:36.600 | newer vehicle wouldn't.
00:39:37.640 | So the lessons I learned, I still think I was right about the value of an older full-size
00:39:45.080 | van.
00:39:45.320 | And I commend it to you if you're looking for a tow vehicle.
00:39:47.800 | An old full-size van is good.
00:39:50.280 | I was right.
00:39:50.840 | If we'd had a smaller trailer, and I actually thought about getting rid of the trailer,
00:39:54.520 | buying a pop-up, went through all the variations, thought about buying just a smaller
00:39:57.800 | trailer, and wound up deciding no because we really liked the van.
00:40:01.000 | The travel experience was great.
00:40:02.280 | We decided no, we'll go ahead and swap out the tow vehicle.
00:40:07.000 | I was right about those things on a full-size van.
00:40:09.560 | I just wasn't careful enough in my buy.
00:40:11.640 | Lesson learned.
00:40:13.000 | Now about replacement.
00:40:15.480 | What did I replace it with?
00:40:16.600 | I sold the vehicle and I decided to replace it with a pickup truck.
00:40:21.720 | I don't like pickup trucks.
00:40:24.280 | And it's not that I don't like them.
00:40:25.320 | I think they're fun to drive.
00:40:26.520 | I like to feel all big and tough when I drive a big pickup truck.
00:40:29.800 | But practically speaking, it annoys me how inefficient they are and how unnecessary they
00:40:34.360 | are for most applications.
00:40:35.800 | I'd rather use something that's a little bit more efficient.
00:40:39.560 | But in this case, probably I was feeling a little bit burnt by my issues with the full-size
00:40:43.880 | van and I decided to go ahead and drop the plan of a van and go to a pickup truck.
00:40:48.360 | I don't think that's necessary.
00:40:50.040 | If I had been willing to upgrade my budget from under $5,000 to something in the range
00:40:55.640 | of $15,000, a great tow vehicle that's available is something like the full-size Chevy van
00:41:01.400 | with a Duramax diesel.
00:41:02.600 | Chevy has very limited numbers of these, but you can find them in the used market.
00:41:07.400 | You can get this full-size 15-passenger-size van with a Chevy Duramax diesel.
00:41:12.360 | 10,000 pounds of tow rating, powerful diesel engine.
00:41:15.400 | It's detuned a tiny bit from the pickup trucks because of the less effective cooling that
00:41:21.240 | you get with a van versus a pickup truck.
00:41:23.240 | But it's very effective and a great tow vehicle.
00:41:25.880 | I just wasn't willing to spend $15,000.
00:41:27.400 | In general, it's my operating philosophy that I don't want to have more than about
00:41:33.080 | 10% of my annual income tied up in stuff that loses value, which is all the toys of life,
00:41:38.680 | cars, boats, RVs, et cetera.
00:41:41.560 | I really want to keep close to that 10% number.
00:41:44.360 | Now, that's an arbitrary, hardcore, tightwad number.
00:41:48.840 | 50% number is perfectly fine.
00:41:52.280 | If you can keep under 50% of your annual income in this stuff, I think it could be perfectly
00:41:56.360 | fine.
00:41:56.520 | But I think the results, especially early in life, your financial results over your
00:42:00.840 | lifetime will be maximized if you keep that spending number very, very low.
00:42:06.440 | If your annual income is $100,000 and you own only $10,000 of stuff that's losing in
00:42:13.000 | depreciation, that means that you're losing only about, let's say, 15% a year.
00:42:19.000 | You're losing only $1,500 a year in depreciation.
00:42:21.480 | So follow my math.
00:42:23.720 | You're earning $100,000 a year, but you only own about $10,000 of cars, boats, that kind
00:42:30.280 | of trailers, toys.
00:42:32.520 | You're only losing $1,500 a year in depreciation.
00:42:36.120 | If you earn $100,000 a year and you do what many people do, which is buy in excess of
00:42:42.840 | $100,000 worth of stuff, it would not be at all unusual for somebody with $100,000 annual
00:42:48.520 | income to have a $40,000 pickup truck, a $30,000 SUV, and a $30,000 travel trailer.
00:42:54.760 | Well, in that case, if you're losing 15% per year, you're losing $15,000 per year in the
00:43:00.440 | value of your stuff.
00:43:04.440 | It's hard to get ahead when you're losing $15,000 a year and an annual income of only
00:43:09.080 | $100,000.
00:43:09.720 | So I like to keep things close to that 10% number to minimize the depreciation expense
00:43:16.360 | in my life.
00:43:16.920 | And I've had pretty good success.
00:43:18.840 | Frequently, in buying vehicles that are older, I've been able to get into a vehicle and get
00:43:25.640 | out of it with very little depreciation loss.
00:43:30.360 | My first car, paid two grand for it, put 130,000 miles on it, sold it for $1,100 with not very
00:43:37.720 | many non-maintenance item mechanical repairs.
00:43:42.040 | I just told you about the first RV that I owned.
00:43:44.280 | $7,000 purchase price, $3,500 into it with all repairs, all improvements, got out of
00:43:49.720 | it at $10,000.
00:43:50.280 | That really helps when you're in the early phases of your wealth-building career as a
00:43:54.840 | young person.
00:43:55.480 | Down the road, once your wealth is more substantial, you can start to make different choices
00:44:00.200 | without harming things.
00:44:01.160 | But early on, you've got to be very, very careful with this stuff.
00:44:03.560 | So what about the world of pickup trucks?
00:44:07.240 | Recognizing that I'm trying to shop in the lower end of the market, but I'm trying to
00:44:11.880 | find something that'll do the job, we face a challenge.
00:44:15.240 | The great thing is there are lots of large pickup trucks available, especially in the
00:44:20.840 | United States.
00:44:21.240 | There are so many big pickup trucks available, you can find a deal.
00:44:23.880 | Let me walk through some of the constraints.
00:44:26.280 | First, I need a crew cab.
00:44:28.760 | This automatically limits the number of vehicles that are available.
00:44:32.680 | Still an abundant population, but because I need a crew cab, I can't get quite as good
00:44:36.840 | of a deal.
00:44:37.400 | If you just needed something that was capable of towing a travel trailer and you can get
00:44:41.160 | by with an extended cab, you can get deals left and right.
00:44:44.200 | So I needed a crew cab.
00:44:45.240 | Number two is the question that comes down to what kind of engine, gas or diesel.
00:44:50.440 | In the past, I think this was a no-brainer in terms of diesel.
00:44:55.480 | If you were to go back 15 years, diesel cost less than gasoline.
00:44:59.320 | Diesel engines lasted longer than gasoline.
00:45:02.440 | Diesel engines were not that much more expensive to buy than gasoline.
00:45:07.000 | And so in short, this was basically a no-brainer.
00:45:10.360 | Today, I think all of that is different.
00:45:12.440 | Today, based upon the improved fuel standards that happened about 10 years ago, where now
00:45:17.480 | in the United States, it can only sell ultra low sulfur diesel fuel, because of these changes
00:45:24.280 | in fuel standards, diesel generally costs more than regular gasoline.
00:45:28.600 | Diesels get slightly better fuel mileage than gas engines, but it's not as big of a change
00:45:36.760 | as it used to be, especially when you start to factor in the higher fuel costs of diesel.
00:45:41.240 | Diesels do get better gas mileage, but not substantially so.
00:45:45.240 | With regard to power generation, the power generation of diesels has gone through the
00:45:50.840 | roof. From every one of the three major manufacturers in the United States, you can buy a
00:45:54.920 | diesel engine that would basically put out 1,000 pounds of torque.
00:45:57.240 | That's double, more than double what you would get 15 years ago.
00:46:01.720 | And that's tremendous.
00:46:03.560 | The tow ratings have gone from maximum of 10, 12, 15,000 pounds to 35, 37,000 pounds,
00:46:08.840 | I think, with the Ram, something like that.
00:46:10.760 | It's huge numbers.
00:46:11.640 | But so is gasoline engines.
00:46:15.400 | And gasoline engines are much cheaper to buy than a diesel engine.
00:46:19.320 | They weigh less, so you get greater cargo capacity, which could be helpful if you're
00:46:22.680 | planning on something like a truck camper.
00:46:24.120 | And most people just simply aren't going to put the numbers on a diesel engine
00:46:28.280 | of miles where you actually need the longevity of a diesel engine.
00:46:35.160 | Most gasoline engines, I'm convinced, really can go a million miles just like older diesel
00:46:40.280 | engines can.
00:46:40.920 | Toyota did a campaign with one of their 5.7 liter gas engines of a guy who worked in
00:46:47.560 | Louisiana delivering parts to the oil industry.
00:46:50.920 | And he put a million miles on the thing over the course of seven or eight years.
00:46:53.800 | And it was perfectly adequate.
00:46:55.480 | In my family, we've put, let's see, 330,000 miles on one gasoline engine on the car before
00:47:01.480 | it was sold, but 330,000 miles on another gasoline engine.
00:47:05.560 | So I don't think there's anything inherently wrong with a gasoline engine that's maintained
00:47:09.320 | why it can't have the longevity that a diesel engine is known for.
00:47:15.240 | As far as operating costs, diesel engines have had a huge jump in operating costs, especially
00:47:23.000 | in the modern era for a couple of reasons.
00:47:25.960 | One, diesels simply cost more because they're bigger and more powerful.
00:47:30.680 | Diesel engines are always going to have two batteries instead of one.
00:47:32.920 | When you replace one battery, you've got to replace two generally.
00:47:35.400 | Diesel engines are going to hold more oil than gasoline engines do.
00:47:41.160 | Now, with the modern emission standards, now you have an entirely separate set of fluids
00:47:45.960 | for the diesel exhaust fluid, which is urea that goes in the scrubber in the exhaust system
00:47:52.280 | to clean the thing out.
00:47:53.560 | And because of all these increased emission standards, in order to meet the emission standards,
00:47:57.480 | diesel engines now cost thousands and thousands of dollars more.
00:48:00.600 | If you get under a modern 2017, 2018 Super Duty or 2018 Chevy, the exhaust system on
00:48:09.240 | the thing, if you have to replace it, it's going to be three to four grand.
00:48:11.320 | It's really tough to consider wanting to own one of those things when it's out of warranty.
00:48:15.560 | So the point of this is to give those of you who've considered this analysis the idea that
00:48:21.960 | I think that you can get by in most situations and are better off in most situations buying
00:48:27.720 | a gas engine in a pickup truck.
00:48:29.560 | Unless you need to tow a heavy trailer over the mountains all the time.
00:48:39.000 | If you're a weekend warrior, you can tow a heavy trailer over the mountains with a gas
00:48:43.560 | engine.
00:48:43.880 | But if you're going to tow a heavy trailer over the mountains all the time, you're going
00:48:47.880 | to want a diesel.
00:48:48.840 | That's where the diesel really does shine.
00:48:51.720 | Or if you're going to put a bazillion miles on the thing, you want a diesel for pooling.
00:48:55.960 | And so finally, in this case, I said, you know what?
00:48:58.200 | That's what I'm going to be doing with the diesel engine is I'm going to be pulling a
00:49:03.080 | heavy trailer over the mountains all the time.
00:49:05.000 | I'll go ahead and buy a diesel.
00:49:07.240 | I'll look for a diesel.
00:49:08.760 | One of the benefits of diesel is because it's well liked in the marketplace among normal
00:49:15.640 | people.
00:49:16.280 | I don't think it should be as well liked as it is, but that doesn't matter.
00:49:19.160 | It doesn't matter what I think.
00:49:20.040 | What matters is what the market says.
00:49:21.320 | They are expensive to buy, but they do hold their value, which means that although you
00:49:27.640 | may pay more, you're probably not going to lose as much.
00:49:30.600 | Gasoline engines are great because you can buy them cheap, but they're not going to keep
00:49:35.880 | their value like a diesel does, at least in today's market.
00:49:39.160 | So let's talk about the diesel marketplace.
00:49:41.400 | And I'm getting very granular here, but I hope it just shows you my method of analysis.
00:49:46.680 | I needed a crew cab.
00:49:47.720 | That was requirement.
00:49:49.320 | In looking at the crew cabs among the – and I needed towing capacity, which rules out
00:49:53.720 | all light and medium duty trucks.
00:49:55.560 | I need a heavy duty three-quarter ton or one ton vehicle.
00:50:00.680 | In looking at the crew cabs, I wrote off all of the older Dodge crew cabs because they
00:50:05.800 | had this weird tiny little crew cab where it was a four-door crew cab, but the back
00:50:10.600 | seat was very, very small.
00:50:12.200 | And I need space for my dogs.
00:50:14.040 | So I – although the Cummins, I enjoy driving the Cummins.
00:50:18.040 | It's a great vehicle.
00:50:18.920 | It's well loved, very long-lived.
00:50:21.320 | For my purposes, I needed the bigger cab.
00:50:23.240 | Now Dodge came out with bigger cabs.
00:50:26.040 | Today, they have the normal size crew cab and they have this massive quad cab, which
00:50:31.160 | is super comfortable and I'd love to own one.
00:50:33.400 | But I didn't – it wasn't in the price range that I wanted to spend.
00:50:37.800 | I didn't want to spend 15 to 20 grand on a pickup truck.
00:50:40.360 | I wanted to spend something like five to eight.
00:50:42.680 | So given that range, I couldn't find a Dodge.
00:50:47.880 | I wrote off Dodge, which leaves Chevy and Ford.
00:50:50.920 | Now Chevy, since they came out with the Duramax diesel, has done a pretty good job.
00:50:56.440 | It's a good engine and a good vehicle to buy.
00:50:58.760 | It's relatively simple.
00:51:00.680 | They dumped their old 6.2-liter GM diesel.
00:51:03.400 | They brought in the Duramax diesel, the Allison transmission.
00:51:06.200 | This is a good option for towing, well-liked, pretty reliable, pretty good.
00:51:11.080 | There aren't as many on the road as there are Fords, but they're pretty good.
00:51:15.160 | When you look at Fords, you run into an interesting situation.
00:51:19.320 | I'll get a little bit into the weeds because this should tell you how you need to shop,
00:51:22.600 | I think.
00:51:22.920 | You have the older Fords, mid-'90s and later, the old-style, more boxy Fords.
00:51:29.480 | These older diesel Fords had a 7.3-liter diesel engine in them, which was a very solid engine.
00:51:36.440 | But there are a couple of problems with these older ones.
00:51:38.520 | Number one, the old diesel engine had a mechanical fuel pump, which really didn't produce that much
00:51:43.240 | power.
00:51:43.560 | So although it was a good engine and long-lived, it didn't produce that much power.
00:51:49.800 | Which, in my situation, I decided I needed some bigger power.
00:51:52.840 | The other problem with these older Fords is that parts are becoming scarce.
00:51:57.240 | Frequently, if you need to buy a wiring harness, you got electrical problems.
00:52:01.400 | It's hard to find.
00:52:02.200 | So they are, in my mind, not a good buy.
00:52:06.440 | They're expensive to buy because they have this well-loved 7.3-liter diesel,
00:52:11.080 | but it's not much value.
00:52:13.960 | So I wrote off the pre-'99 Fords.
00:52:16.440 | In '99, Ford redesigned their truck, and they came out with the Super Duty series.
00:52:21.800 | And they came out with a series of diesel engines.
00:52:24.600 | Ford has, since 1999, they started with a 7.3-liter diesel.
00:52:28.760 | Then they moved to a 6-liter, a 6.4, and now there's a 6.7.
00:52:32.440 | 6.7 seems to be a fairly well-designed engine, but it's too new for me to buy at the price
00:52:39.480 | that I wanted to spend.
00:52:40.760 | The 6.4 was a terrible engine, basically, which basically people bought a diesel that
00:52:47.000 | wound up being only 100,000-mile diesel.
00:52:48.920 | And if you drive a 6.4, get rid of it, because all of the mechanical indications seem to
00:52:54.200 | be the thing is just a ticking time bomb.
00:52:56.200 | Very expensive to fix.
00:52:57.720 | They're not a good engine.
00:52:59.400 | So I didn't want a 6.4, which left two other engines, the 6.0 and the 7.3.
00:53:04.120 | Now here's where I'll get a little bit nitty-gritty.
00:53:06.760 | The post-99.73, I think it was from '99 to '03, was more powerful than the pre-'99
00:53:12.760 | because they worked out some – they swapped out the fuel pump system.
00:53:16.280 | And that other engine can be built up and it can be – have the power increased.
00:53:20.600 | The stock form should be fine for most people, but the power can be increased pretty easily
00:53:24.760 | with some aftermarket work.
00:53:25.880 | I mean, you put propane and nitrous into it, you can get it to 1,000 pounds of torque and
00:53:30.840 | still have pretty decent longevity with it if you want to run it with propane and nitrous.
00:53:34.920 | And you can get there simpler.
00:53:36.600 | You can get to 500 a lot simpler.
00:53:38.200 | The problem with the 7.3s is they are big, they're loud, and they're well-loved.
00:53:45.160 | So they cost a lot of money in the secondary market.
00:53:48.680 | They were advertised from the factory basically as a million-mile motor and everyone knows
00:53:52.920 | that.
00:53:53.240 | And so they're very much desired.
00:53:55.320 | In – what was it, '04, I think?
00:53:58.440 | Ford swapped out the 7.3 with a new 6.0-liter diesel.
00:54:03.240 | They did this so that they could start to meet the new emission standards for diesels.
00:54:06.920 | One of the biggest problems with the 7.3 is it pollutes like you wouldn't believe.
00:54:10.840 | It is so dirty of an engine.
00:54:13.080 | It's just – it's very dirty.
00:54:15.480 | And so they had to improve on that.
00:54:18.120 | And so Ford released a 6-liter diesel engine.
00:54:21.560 | It's a good engine, but they rushed it to market.
00:54:25.240 | And especially in the early years, they missed a number of important design flaws without
00:54:31.080 | getting into the specifics of it and the studs and the bolts and all that.
00:54:35.240 | They made some problems.
00:54:36.680 | And the 6.0s started to have serious problems.
00:54:39.160 | You could find them and you could fix them.
00:54:43.080 | Today, all of those problems with the 6-liter are basically known and are fixable.
00:54:49.960 | But it's hard to know what you're getting into.
00:54:52.840 | And so because of this, when you start shopping 6-liters, you'll find that frequently they're
00:54:58.840 | cheaper.
00:55:00.040 | And they're cheaper because people don't want them.
00:55:01.720 | I think there is a potential buy opportunity here.
00:55:05.880 | If you're willing to spend something in the range of 15 grand on a diesel pickup truck,
00:55:12.520 | I think there's a good buy option to buy an older 6-liter, something like an '04 or an '05,
00:55:19.240 | and to make sure to have it properly bulletproofed.
00:55:22.440 | And I think you get a good truck.
00:55:24.760 | You get more modern suspension components than the older early 2000s Ford.
00:55:30.040 | You get more modern suspension components.
00:55:32.760 | But you do away with a lot of the problems of the later ones where you don't have to
00:55:36.200 | deal with the emission systems.
00:55:37.240 | You don't have to deal with the 6.4 and the 6.7 on all the emission systems that cost
00:55:40.680 | so much money.
00:55:41.560 | You don't have to deal with that.
00:55:43.160 | You just have a good, more modern diesel engine that does a good job, has great power ratings.
00:55:48.200 | And if you can fix those things, I think that there is an opportunity there.
00:55:52.280 | I didn't want to spend that much money on a diesel truck.
00:55:55.800 | So I was back shopping in the 7.3.
00:55:57.880 | So to wrap this saga up, I decided to buy a 7.3 crew cab.
00:56:04.440 | Beyond that, I was relatively ambivalent about whatever other options.
00:56:08.440 | My preference would be crew cab long bed.
00:56:10.680 | My theory is if you're going to drive an 18-foot vehicle, why not drive a 20-foot vehicle?
00:56:14.680 | It really doesn't make that much of a difference, but I'd rather have the extra cargo capacity.
00:56:17.880 | And two-wheel drive, four-wheel drive, didn't really care.
00:56:21.480 | I just definitely don't want something that's been lifted or has been done that,
00:56:26.520 | because that ruins your longevity when people lift the trucks.
00:56:29.800 | So I really wanted something that would be – as long as it had a 7.3-liter diesel,
00:56:34.600 | was in good mechanical shape and a crew cab, I was happy.
00:56:37.320 | I wound up finding one.
00:56:38.280 | I found a – it was a 2000 F-250 crew cab, two-wheel drive.
00:56:44.440 | It was family-owned throughout its entire history.
00:56:47.320 | Had it inspected, and I'm happy with it.
00:56:50.120 | It wound up being a two-wheel drive, which I'm happy with.
00:56:53.080 | It lowers the cost from a four-wheel drive.
00:56:55.080 | I don't need four-wheel drive.
00:56:56.280 | It'll hurt the resale a little bit because many people do want the four-wheel drive,
00:57:01.000 | but I bought it cheaper anyway, and it saves – it's cheaper to operate a two-wheel drive.
00:57:05.000 | One less axle to fill with oil, one less transfer case to deal with,
00:57:10.440 | better fuel economy because it's two-wheel drive.
00:57:12.600 | You don't have the drag of the four-wheel drive system, et cetera.
00:57:15.720 | And actually, higher towing and cargo ratings because of the less weight of a two-wheel drive
00:57:20.520 | truck.
00:57:21.020 | So I got the truck.
00:57:22.680 | The truck does fine.
00:57:24.200 | I towed it up to the trailer.
00:57:25.960 | I've got the trailer, a 30-foot travel trailer with a bunkhouse.
00:57:29.240 | One note I forgot to say is when you're shopping for trailers,
00:57:32.120 | one of the things I think you want to stay away from is you want to avoid
00:57:35.640 | buying a trailer that has not been recently used.
00:57:38.200 | One of the biggest problems that novice RV buyers face is they buy an older trailer,
00:57:44.120 | and they say, "Oh, it hasn't been used, and so it'll be great."
00:57:47.960 | The problem is RVs, like boats and like cars, if they're not used, they rot.
00:57:55.240 | All the little rubber bits rot.
00:57:58.120 | All the little plastic bits rot.
00:57:59.960 | They rot.
00:58:00.520 | And those are the things that are expensive to fix.
00:58:03.480 | Better to buy one that's been used than one that hasn't been used recently.
00:58:08.680 | Now, you don't want to buy one that's been abused, but you do want one that's used.
00:58:12.760 | And so when I was shopping the RV marketplace, I found tons of these things.
00:58:16.040 | But you look at the tag.
00:58:17.160 | The tag hasn't been registered in three years.
00:58:19.720 | The tires clearly haven't moved.
00:58:21.480 | And you've got so many maintenance items to get the thing just roadworthy,
00:58:25.880 | repacking the bearings, fixing all the stuff, new tires all around, et cetera.
00:58:29.640 | And that doesn't involve even getting into the appliances, which in an RV are
00:58:34.360 | really what you're buying.
00:58:35.720 | The body is relatively insignificant if you're buying older RVs.
00:58:39.720 | Yes, you want to watch out for body problems and rotting roofs and rotting floors.
00:58:43.880 | But in many ways, those things are not going to be as big of a deal.
00:58:46.840 | But if your refrigerator doesn't work because it sat there and hasn't been used for the
00:58:49.960 | last four years, you've got a problem.
00:58:52.680 | So I'm sharing these numbers to tell you just simply that you don't have to spend $50,000
00:58:59.560 | on a rig.
00:59:00.040 | I think total, if I add up the new diesel truck and the trailer, I'm into this thing
00:59:07.080 | for, what, $15,000 between the two of them, something like that, $15,000, $16,000 between
00:59:12.040 | the two of them.
00:59:12.600 | It's likely that I will lose some money when I sell, which of course, you can't-- I don't
00:59:20.760 | think.
00:59:21.000 | You can always hope to make money on every deal.
00:59:23.240 | I know some people who can make money on every deal.
00:59:25.640 | But I haven't chosen to dedicate the time to that at this point.
00:59:30.600 | But I'm into the whole thing for about $15,000.
00:59:32.680 | I think we've got a solid, serviceable, reliable rig that should get us around the country
00:59:37.560 | for six months.
00:59:38.840 | Both of the vehicles are near terminal value, where it's hard to imagine them going a lot
00:59:44.120 | lower.
00:59:44.360 | The RV could lose a couple thousand bucks in value if my kids beat it up and it just
00:59:48.120 | becomes ugly.
00:59:48.920 | The truck could lose another thousand, couple thousand bucks in value if I put a lot of
00:59:53.000 | miles on it.
00:59:54.120 | But we should be good.
00:59:55.960 | I think we'll be good.
00:59:57.080 | Now, the big unknowns, of course, are going to be if we wind up finding some unexpected
01:00:02.200 | expensive repairs-- new transmission on the road, break an axle on the trailer.
01:00:06.760 | I broke an axle on one of my trailers one time.
01:00:08.680 | That was a pain.
01:00:09.960 | It's things like that that are really unknown.
01:00:13.480 | But we'll see.
01:00:14.840 | That's the saga of the RV trip.
01:00:19.320 | That's the saga of it.
01:00:20.760 | I will share with you along the way.
01:00:22.520 | If I make more mistakes, I'll let you know.
01:00:25.640 | I'll let you know what those mistakes were.
01:00:27.320 | If I did a good job with analysis, you can listen to this here, and you'll see what you
01:00:31.400 | find down the road.
01:00:32.280 | But that is the story of putting together a truck and a trailer with the goal of going
01:00:39.480 | around the United States for an extended trip for about six months, maybe more, maybe less.
01:00:44.600 | Since I haven't done a trip like this before, that's the best I can hope for.
01:00:49.320 | You do, as with most things in life, you do your very best to prepare.
01:00:53.240 | You do as much research as you know how to do.
01:00:55.240 | And then you pull the trigger.
01:00:57.400 | Sometimes you win.
01:00:58.280 | Sometimes you learn.
01:01:00.200 | But sitting still doesn't help.
01:01:02.760 | Hope to see you out on the road.
01:01:03.960 | Listen to yesterday's show, if you haven't, about all the things I'd love to hear from
01:01:07.240 | you.
01:01:07.640 | If you have a great idea of somebody you'd like me to visit, some place you'd like me
01:01:11.480 | to see, somebody doing cool work, if you'd like to host us, if you'd like to come to
01:01:14.840 | a seminar on the road, if you'd just like to meet up with us while we're out traveling,
01:01:18.280 | we'd love to hear from you.
01:01:19.320 | Listen to yesterday's show for all those details.
01:01:21.480 | And I'll continue to share with you as we go.
01:01:26.360 | Are you ready to make your next pro basketball, football, hockey, concert, or live event unforgettable?
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