photogal06...Sommer

Awesome! I love that floorplan. It has the split bath right? Those are nice cause someone can be in the shower while someone else can be.....well, using the sink. Yeah. That's it. :clint:

Exactly, Dave, lol!

I like Josh's blog and loved his photos of the Fort. So much of that merchandise will be mine come November, lol!

Rudy,

Paws down, best.trip.report.ever! You are a crazy dog, and we would love to meet eat you. Don't take it personally...we have issues with other dogs, especially Poms, because our family used to dogsit for one and he hogged all the attention. Still, if you're in the neighborhood, drop by the 900 loop between November 26 and December 5, and we will try not to act like total nutcases. We will probably not be successful.

Trixie and Murphy

Very cute theming....I'll bet it was a ton of fun planning that! Thanks for sharing your photos!

Ok, after a week of searching, I think we've looked at almost every type of Class C or A out there (except diesels....out of our price range.) We looked at the regular C, the super C, the C with the drop-down bunk and second dinette, the A with the drop-down cab bed, the regular A, the A with two sofas, the so-incredibly-long A we'd never be able to make the 90-degree turn to get it into our parking area! There were things we like about each of them, and in the end, we decided on....................a C just about like what we have now, only with a slide. Anticlimactic, I know, lol! If all goes well, we will be under contract on Friday for an '09 Forest River Sunseeker 3100SS. It's a solid 20 years newer than what we have now, and it has a lot of nice features. It's a totally manageable size for us, and with the slide we won't end up wanting to kill each other after a rainy day spent inside, lol!

We've been all over the place with financing. We were going with our local credit union, then Essex gave us a 0.5% better rate with a slightly longer term, then the dealer ended up giving us yet another 0.5% better rate, so we're at 4.5% for 15 years. I'm very happy with that. We also got a smokin' deal on the price of the Sunseeker, so I'm very happy about that, too.

Fingers crossed that everything goes well with the test drive Friday. DH wasn't able to come see it with us today, so dd and I checked it over thoroughly, asked our million questions, and took about as many photos. DH will come with us and do the final checks on Friday, look at the roof, crawl underneath it, all that good stuff.

I'm really happy to be done looking, and I'm so excited about our November trip now. No more having to stop for gas every 200 miles because the gas gauge doesn't work and no more roof leaks! If you know of anyone looking for an RV with a Ford 460 big block engine (who has a talent for roof repair or just wants a hunter's special), send 'em my way, lol!

Gorgeous! I love the colors of fall camping so much. I'm so happy that Mickey was able to enjoy it, too---fall camping with dogs is the best, since they take you on all the good hiking trails :)

Who knew? I've been looking for bears for years, every time we head north to camp in the UP. Apparently, I should be looking in the opposite direction lol!

Yep, we are good if we want to tow the Fiesta 4-down. It's an '11 with a manual transmission, and we were thinking about towability when we bought it. I will definitely look for old/new ones, too....it seems this would be the time of year when dealers would be glad to move them out before winter, so they'll have room for the nice new models in the spring :)

On the 2005 Damon we looked at tonight, the tires were from 2001....apparently when these people bought it from the dealer a few years ago, the dealer told them they put new tires on it. Instead they put on tires that were 4 years older than the motorhome itself! They weren't aware that they need replacing when we pointed out the age...they were all about the tread, but we know better ('cause we got burned on that with the last camper we bought!) So that's a negative. The carpet inside is a bit worn, one of the leveling jacks sticks on the way up, and both AC units can't run at the same time....seems like a bad design there? The owner said with the 30amp wiring, he can't run both ACs at the same time, but it would only be a few hundred dollars to upgrade it to 50 amp. I'm a cheapskate, so a few hundred dollars is a big deal to me....along with the $3k or whatever it's going to take to replace the tires...and whatever is wrong with the leveling jack....and whatever else we might find that's wrong with it once we've owned it a while. The asking price is low on it, so we're keeping it on the list as a possibility.

Unfortunately, and I knew this would happen, they had a strong air freshener in there, and it gave me a massive headache that I'm still feeling 3 hours later...ugh! I hate air fresheners. I think they were probably trying to cover up dog smell (they have 2 St Bernards.) I don't mind dog smell...I'll take it any day over an air freshener, lol!

We have a few on our list to look at on Saturday, so we'll see how that goes.

Sorry, while larger tanks are nice pay attention to the weight of people/stuff you can carry (people, clothes, dishes, etc). As for towing capacity it will depend on the size of the motor and weight of the RV. The RV should list it's towing capacity (along with GVW, GVWR). Disclaimer this is not an area I know much about but here are some descriptions. Not to scare you but understanding these can help make you safer (not overloaded).

Oh, we know overloaded, lol! When we bought our first trailer, completely new to the idea, the dealer assured us we could pull it with our minivan with no problem....he even installed the hitch on the van. We found out quickly that he was a liar....quite a learning experience, that was! Ever since, we've been smart about keeping our weights safe by the numbers, but we've still had some combinations that didn't work for us.....like a trailer that should have been fine weight-wise but seemed to control our Expedition rather than the other way around. I was wondering whether As and Cs are equally adept at towing....I'm thinking they're both big and heavy compared to our teeny tiny Fiesta, but if one is better than the other at making the toad feel like it isn't even there, I want to go with that one!

We used to have a class A bunkhouse and LOVED it. We had the Itasca Sunova, which is the twin to the Winnebago Sightseer. The bunk model is the 35J. Ours was very similar to this one: http://www.rvtrader....r-35j-105046736

The bunks on this model are 73" long. (I didn't realize the ones on our current trailer were so long....79"). Each bunk had a TV/DVD too, which was nice.

If you have any questions on the model please feel free to PM me or ask here. As I said, we really loved it.

There are also nice Class A bunk models by Tiffin, Fleetwood, Coachman, Hurricane...the list goes on and on these days. My favorites would be the Winnies and the Tiffins.

I definitely want to look at a bunkhouse if there's one available here. Your current bunks are really long---that's what I want! Do you have a 5th wheel now? DH really wants a 5th wheel, but one of us would have to use the truck as our daily driver, and neither of us wants to give up our small car (him, because he has a 100-mile daily commute, and me because I lurv my Fusion!) DD is 5'7" at age 13, so she could grow some more, or she could be about done. She has a 73" bed in our current camper, and even though she swears it's long enough, she can't really stretch out in it. I've been perusing Motorhome Magazine for the past few months, and Tiffins and Winnies look beautiful.....which may be why I'm not seeing many of them for sale here in the used market!

We have a class a with three slides and we have plenty of room for adults, grand kids and dogs. We had to search for a unit that had a booth dinette that would turn into a bed, but they are around. Because we have two slides in the living area, we can also put a queen size air mattress on the floor to sleep more people. We looked at the bunk models, but my granddaughter is tall and the bunks looked a little short for her. I know this isn't the bed situation you are looking for, but it works out real well for our family. We had a class c before we bought this unit, but we like the extra room we have in the class a. For financing, you might contact Essex Credit. They specialize in financing rv's and boats. Good luck on your search.

I mentioned the dual LR slide/air mattress idea to my daughter, and her eyes lit up and she couldn't stop talking about the possibilities! I think her ideal RV now is any one where she can plop down a queen mattress and have the dogs sleep with her, lol! That may actually be the best scenario for us, especially if I can't find one with longer than 73" bunks or sofa for sleeping--thanks for sharing you setup! And thanks for the heads-up on Essex. Their rate is a little bit higher than our CU, but they offer a few years longer term, so I will have to see which would work best for us.

Check around for financing. We got a much better rate than our credit union.

I am really surprised at how different the rates are at various places, and that a lot of banks and some CUs don't even do RV loans. And then I was kind of bummed that the one CU in town offers a nice low rate but a shorter loan term than I wanted. I won't be able to pick a lender until we decide on a camper, I guess, because if we can find a lower-priced one than I'm estimating, we can go with the local CU, but if it's on the higher end, I'm probably going to want the slightly longer term....I'm a planner....I like to have everything laid out in advance....this is making me crazy, lol!

If u have a choice in power plant.....go diesel.

Dh has always wanted a diesel, and now that we're looking, we're not seeing any in the used market here. But we've only looked online so far, so we shall see what Saturday's outing finds :)

And now another question: Does anyone know anything about Damon Class As? I'm seeing quite a few of them out there from 2005-2009 model years. The fact that I'm seeing relatively more of them compared to others makes me wonder. Also, the fact that they seem reasonably priced makes me wonder. Is this a good brand? Why are so many of them on the market at a price that doesn't make me cringe?

We are going to see a Damon Class A tonight that's for sale by owner in our city....it's a 2005 which is older than I want, but I'm keeping an open mind! In fact, it's a 2005 with only 7000 miles, so is this a good thing or a bad thing? It obviously hasn't been driven much in 8 years, and if it has its original tires (which I think it does), those are going to need replacing soon due to age, yes? It has a new roof and awning, because they were damaged in a gas station accident, so if the roof was replaced by an RV dealer, should I have any concerns about the installation....especially LEAKS!!! I am super freaky about leaks, as 2 years of constant battle with them is what's caused us to give up our current camper, lol! Anything special I should look for in an older unit with very low miles? We've been down this road before with our 1989, and we overlooked some things we shouldn't have, so we do have a nice 2-page list of things we're planning to check out. It helps to have others' input though, because we always seem to miss something important!

Was that a Trick or a Treat??

The jury's out on that one, lol!

I just hope she's not Becky Priebe or Big Block 396.

Clearly, I'm missing some kind of inside joke here. Or I just stayed up too late last night and got up too early this morning.

Tom, thanks....I didn't know that some of the As have that overhead bed. A 73-in bunk would work....that's what we have now. The ones in our trailer must have been extra small or something.

Does anyone know which would be better for towing a small vehicle (Ford Fiesta), probably on a small trailer? The As and Cs I'm seeing both have the same tongue weight. Does one handle better than the other when towing like that? We probably wouldn't do it, but it would be nice to have the option. I know a Super C would tow really well, but I haven't found any of those for sale in our area (yet!)

Yep, it's never too late to find the Fiends! I saw lots of Fiend signs when we were there last Halloween, and dd got a card in her t-or-t bag.......I wish we'd been part of the group then! But we're here now, and I hope to meet lots of Fiends if we can take our November trip as planned. Welcome to the group!

Kelly, I like the sound of the super C....I've heard of those before but didn't really know what they were. They do sound like a nice compromise. Dd is 13, so I hope we have lots of years of family camping ahead of us!

Thanks, Jeff. I am gobsmacked at the carrying capacities of the used units I'm seeing online....our current one has very small holding tanks and gas tank, and it would be so nice to have larger ones! I regret missing the Novi RV show a couple of weekends ago....who knew?!

I wonder how long the bunks are nowadays? We had a trailer with bunks once, and they were short....too short for me, and dd is taller than I am. That would be a good layout though, if we can get ones that are long enough. There's a credit union right next door to dd's school, so I'll head there tomorrow when I drop her off.

We had a rather unfortunate weekend with our camper, and we are calling it quits on this one. It's a tough decision, because we put a lot of time and money and effort into it over the summer, but we're going to cut our losses and move on. On the one hand, it's a relief to have made a decision; on the other hand, we're sad about having worked so hard on it and put so much of ourselves into it, only to have it fail on us. And unfortunately, I'm not sure we can pull it off before our trip next month, so we may not be coming down after all. So, on that happy note......LOL!

I've really enjoyed our Class C, but dh is wanting to look at a Class A. Does anyone here travel with kids and dogs in a Class A? I've always thought of them as more for couples rather than families with kids, because I've never seen them with more than one bed made up and ready to go....I like that our C has two beds ready to go at all times, because we tend to drive very late into the night before stopping. So, advantages/disadvantages of C vs. A when traveling with a child (who's adult size) and two 85-lb dogs? We'd like this to be our last RV purchase for a very long time, so I'd like it to accommodate future friends that DD might bring along. Slides or no slides? I always said we didn't need them, but after spending a cold, rainy day in very close quarters, I'm rethinking that one!

Also, I swore I'd never do this again, but we are looking at financing the purchase. I'd love to find a nice used unit that's a few years old. Is a credit union the best place to go for financing a used RV? I asked at our bank, and they don't do financing on recreational vehicles of any sort. I haven't had to finance anything in forever, so I'm at a loss here.

I'm pretty much at a loss with the whole thing. We had planned to keep our current unit for at least another 5 years, so it's not like I've been thinking about what I want in our next camper! I don't want to cancel our trip, but I don't want to make a bad decision while trying to hurry and get something in place, either. So, can you help me out, Fiends? What do you like or dislike about your Class C or A? Are there brands I should look for or steer clear of?

Yes, the baby is cute, but I so love your dog! I just want to give him a big hug!

Looks great! I sure wish I had paid attention in sewing class! That's one of things I thought I would never need later in life. LOL

Yeah, that year I spent sewing in 4H when I was in middle school has paid off huge over the past few years! I didn't sew a thing between ages 12 and 40, but when I started up again, it all came right back. It's actually not hard (at least the stuff I do), you just have to get in there and try and be ready to rip it apart if it's wrong :)

Great job!

Thanks, Marty!

Beautiful job. We need to do something to our old cushions and sofa too but we hate to put money into it if and when we ever get a newer one. The idea of the futon for the sofa is something I might want to try. Wish I was talented like you are. Good work. :partythree:

Thanks, Judy! I was the same way, not wanting to put a bunch of $$ into ours when it's so old already. I love that we can take the futon out and put the old couch back in if we decide to sell/scrap. We're planning to keep this one 'til it dies, but you never know, so we stored the old sofa and dinette cushions in the garage just in case.

Excellent job !!!!

Thanks, Jim! We took 'er out a couple of weekends ago, and the new sofa and dinette were soooooooooooo nice......a huge improvement over the old ones!!

For us, it was 2001. DD had just turned 2, and she was having serious health problems. I decided very spur-of-the-moment that if she wasn't going to be with us much longer, the one thing I wanted to do was take her to Disney World. DH had fond memories of camping at the Fort as a child, so we rented a Class C, loaded up DD and the dogs, and headed down. We only stayed a few days, and it was the first time I had ever camped. The Fort totally hooked us, and we fell in love with the Fort and with camping. I was profoundly disappointed at first when I realized that all other camping is nothing like the Fort, but I have grown to appreciate that other type over the years, lol! The Fort is still the best though. And DD is still with us and has been 100% healthy for 4 years now (knocking loudly on wood!)

Love them both, but Minnie is extra cute!

Awesome job! Extreme Makeover Motorhome Edition!

Thanks, Dave! We did quite a few projects on it over the summer, so it really was starting to feel like that!

Looks good

Thank you!

Very satisfying. Doing a job yourself and it came out looking great

Thanks! We do a lot of DIY here, and it really is satisfying.

Looks great!

Thanks, Annie!

You did a great job! Looks wonderful!

Thanks, Nancy!

Great job!

Thanks, Gwen!

Nice

Thanks!

Great job!!! Love that dinette fabric!

Thanks, Kelly! I searched long and hard for fabric online, and my daughter and I had many arguments discussions about what we should get.(dh didn't care.) In the end, we were walking through Walmart, decided to take a quick trip to the fabric section, and as soon as we saw that fabric, we knew it was the one! And it was actually nothing like what we were thinking we wanted!

Wow - really nicely done, Sommer!

Thanks, Monique!

You did a fantastic job! I love the dinette fabric too!

Thanks, Cherie!

Great Job, love the futon, it looks like it was made for the MH. Love the cushions. I hope that when I need mine to be covered, I can find someone as talented as you, because I can't sew. When I was in school and took my first sewing class I had to make a apron, of course I am dating myself, because we had to do everything by hand. Well I was doing really well, and I was near the end of it, the bell rang and I went to get up and had sewed it to my skirt, missed most of my next class because I had to rip everything out. I was so happy that we moved that year, because the next project was our graudation dress and I had nighmares of walking down the isle and it falling off as I walked down.

Oh well enough Lornaisms as Doodle calls them.

Job well done.

Thanks, Lorna! I love your Lornaisms! The futon was actually another Walmart find, and it fit the space exactly....definitely meant to be and hundreds of dollars cheaper than a redo of the old one. I have to admit to still accidentally sewing things to myself....I am really bad at sewing things by hand.....it's all crooked stitches with awkward gaps between them. If I ever had to sew a piece of clothing by hand, it would not be pretty (or functional!)

Very cute!

Thanks, Cherie!

Nice job!

Thanks, Dave!

Pleats, zipper, facings, hem... Very nice! Congratulations!

Thanks, Judy! I'm still in awe of the fact that I managed the zipper, lol!

WOW......great job. Beautiful outfit for a beautiful girl. :waycool:

Thanks, Judy!

Congrats! It looks great!

Thank you!

Cute!

Thanks, Kelly!

Beautiful!

Thanks, Gwen!

I am no expert on MInnie Mouse dresses, but this one looks pretty good, and your DD seems to like it.

So, I give you a great big thumbs up on this project.

Way to go!

TCD

Thanks, TCD! When I handed it to her all finished, she kept repeating, "I can't believe you actually made a dress!"

Awesome job! Pleats are a pain, you have my utmost respect there!

Pattern sizes are dramatically different. But the good thing is, if you're not a cookie cutter size you can custom fit your clothes.

Thanks! The pleats *were* a pain....they turned out to be the most time-consuming step.

Love it!!

Thanks, Yvonne!

we left home around 1:00 and got there around 2:00

Sure, rub it in. It takes us something like 24 hours spread over 3 days. Love your photos and your TR---it looks like you all had a lot of fun!