Introductions

[Dmusr]

Hello, I’ve been a member for awhile, have looked around but never posted. Here’s my story.

I’ve been a fan of Airstreams for many many years. I have never owned an RV of any kind. I live in upstate NY and about 7 years away from retirement. At the very least my wife and I plan to chase the warm weather down south for the months of January, February and March.

I would like to get my toes in the water so to speak between now and when I retire. My current thoughts would be to purchase a used AS in say Florida and keep there in a park/campground and use it for a few weeks every winter. This would give us a chance to see if this is something we really want to do without a huge monetary commitment. It would also allow me to do any upgrades/repairs over time and not require a tow vehicle immediately.

I would appreciate any thoughts, comments or advice from the community here. Thanks for taking the time to read my rambling. Dave

[Dabarany]

Dave... I also live in upstate NY. There are a number of great RV campgrounds in NYS that rent out trailers for a short stay. If you want to get your feet wet in RV-ing without owning one, rent out for a couple weekends. If you have a good tow vehicle you could buy a good used RV fairly inexpensively and try it for a couple seasons before jumping into an AS. RV-ing can be a fun lifestyle. Don’t wait!

[Rich W]

Welcome, both of you, to the AS forum and greetings from central Kentucky.

I hope you find an AS that suits your needs. In Florida several RV parks have fairly large, inexpensive trailers to purchase. I don't know about renting. They are more or less permanent trailers. The fly in the ointment is the monthly payment for keeping it in the trailer park; $550 and up for the ones we looked at. Some also have the option to store a trailer, but while it's cheaper than the monthly lot payment, it's still not free.

We started looking about a year before I retired, found a decent 23' Safari about 7 months after I retired. We enjoyed going to Florida in the winter but staying in the state parks is difficult, you have to pay the fee up front, about 10-11 months in advance. You have to make reservations as soon as the booking window opens or you lose out, no trailer rentals. There are RV parks but you're parked within a few feet of your neighbors and most want you there for at least 2 months, preferably 4-5.

With RVs and travel trailers there's an upside and a downside to just about everything. You pays your money and you takes your chances.

[Dmusr]

I’ve started looking at some of LoLoHo’s videos and posts on their website. It’s chock full of information and quite entertaining. Lots to think about. Thanks for the replies!

[Rich W]

I posted a reply this morning but I don't see it here now. That's good, because one of the links I put in the reply caused me a lot of trouble. It popped up a fake survey from Mozilla / Firefox and infected my machine. I've done a system restore and all is well again.

If it shows up, don't follow the links. I'll keep a watch for it and delete the links if it shows up later. DO NOT TAKE any surveys and immediately reboot without clicking on anything if you get a popup offer.

Here's the gist of it, without the links.

If you're looking in Florida, check out some of the gated communities around Sebring. It's a very nice area and below Frostproof, FL so it doesn't get below freezing. :-)

We stayed a month in Davenport, FL, the Kissimmee South RV Resort, part of the Sun City group (used to be a Carefree community). It was OK and they have some units for sale as well as doing on site storage for Snowbirds. They have a lot of activities; shuffleboard and horseshoe teams, fishing ponds, group dinners, etc. They have regulars from north US and Canada. Visit the site but remember the photos are maybe 15 years old, except for the swimming pool, which was very nice when we were there in 2016.

[Rich W]

Tanglewood is a gated community in Sebring, northeast side. It's a very nice place, the wife loved it, but it's manufactured housing not travel trailers. People do have RVs there, but it's still housing.


If you visit their site, if you get a popup for a survey, don't click on anything. I'm not sure which site I was at today that did that, but I was searching the Sebring area. As long as you don't click on anything, you'll be OK. Just close the browser.