One of Steve's recent stories shed what some felt was a disparaging opinion about a developing trend amongst some RVers – resurrecting "vintage" RVs and putting them back to rights and back on the road.
Writing from the perspective of an RV technician whose been asked to estimate costs of restoring old RVs, Steve wrote: "If you are considering the purchase of one of these "vintage" RVs often advertised in need of "TLC," approach this buy with extreme caution. In my opinion, you are likely to dramatically underestimate what it takes to bring an old trailer up to usable standards, and there are dozens of stripped-out shells now taking up space on Craigslist and eBay. These all started out as the dream for someone else who quickly discovered that stripping out a trailer is a simple task — putting it back together is quite another project. I routinely tell folks if you want me to do the work, it will take several thousand dollars and a great deal of time. And when I am done, you will have put more money into your project than you will ever realize on the resale."
Readers were quick to respond:
Writes Ginger, the proud owner of revamped rig named Birdie: "You are so wrong about 'vintage' trailers… I had to hold my tongue as I read your take on this subject. Apparently you have not gone camping or to a rally in a true restored vintage trailer. I have. I have a vintage Airstream. I have traveled over 6,000 miles last summer and hope to travel even more this summer.
"With pride I roll this shining bullet down the road and receive many honks and waves. At the campground strangers walk slowly by and some asked to peek-in to check 'Birdie' out. With pride I oblige. YOU see… I bought the junked trailer and spent a year fixing her up. I know where every water line, wire and rivet is. What is she worth? To me, a lot. Her style and flare is all mine. She is decked-out with teal paint, tiled backsplash, chandeliers, lace curtains and plush rugs.
"There is something to be said about restoring something from the past. They just don’t make them like that anymore. We have become a society of throwaway. It hurts to see something that must have been someone’s pride and joy be crushed and thrown away. I say pull these trailers out of the weed and barns. Fix them up and let’sshow our children what real camping was like."
Pat, another reader, brought up another aspect of 'the oldie but goody' side of the equation. Pat writes: "I think Mr. Savage missed at least one reason to buy a vintage RV: Quality. We bought an RV a little over a year ago and wish passionately we had not. We bought in the same market tier, not the same manufacturer as the old one [and] we were horribly disappointed. The original maker of our first RV had been sold and the new owner had obviously raped the name. So, our new RV is a big disappointment, but we have so much time, effort, creativity and money in the thing that we are—unfortunately—committed to it.
"With a song in our hearts and a prayer on our lips, and after great effort to repair problems yet again (as well as to check that the current set of repair work has held up) this couple of optimists is planning another long, country-wide trip."
It was with a little trepidation that we published Steve's most recent observations – this time on how campground and RV park owners represent – or perhaps – misrepresent the state of their camp sites. Indeed, the post was a bit of a rant, describing some rather negative experiences that Steve and his wife have encountered on RV road trips.
Summarizing the post was this: "To cut to the chase, when I go to a website, I want to see a readable map with spaces labeled. When I reserve a spot, I want to know what spot I just reserved. A generic description is not adequate. If I am paying as much as everyone else, I don’t want us or anyone else to be camped next to a row of dumpsters or the storage building. It is about time we RVers put an end to the 'bait and switch' which seems to be endemic among some campground owners. There are some really great campgrounds out there that deserve our business. Some are little more than glorified parking lots and some are simply shanty towns that do little other than serve as an embarrassment to the campground industry."
Before we published this 'shot across the bow' I had to promise the office staff that I would take the e-mail backlash from unhappy readers, including my e-mail address at the end of the piece. Well, the "backlash" has arrived, and here is a sampling of the voice of the readers.
Thomas and his wife spend a lot of time on the road. Because of health issues, the couple truly needs a level spot to camp. He writes, "We ask for a site that's level and they will give us a site where the gravel pad is level, but the surrounding grass is sloped! When we say a "level site" we mean the ENTIRE site, not just the RV pad. This has resulted in some very uncomfortable situations for us.
"The worst is if you call an 800-number for reservations. Those people make all kinds of promises, but the campsite is anything but what you ask for. In the meantime a vacant-all-week site that would be perfect remains empty. One chain of 'resorts' [Encore] has their campground offices closed on weekends, so arriving on a Saturday means two days of hell before the office opens at 9 AM. By then we've learned to adapt. To waste what, at this point, is a full day of packing everything away, hooking up, moving, and setting up again just isn't worth it for time remaining. We're there to go sightseeing; we're not there to waste a day moving around to a different site.
"The managers say, 'Well, the site is open and you could have parked there instead' and I reply, 'How do I know that someone else isn't coming in for that site isn't arriving later?' We've found that it's best to simply avoid places where we can't talk to someone at the RV Park and that their offices are open weekends, too, in case we have a problem with the site. On-line photos of each site would certainly make the selection process much easier."
Finally, Carol writes us, "I have just spent the last two days pulling out my hair trying to navigate the ReserveAmerica national site for making camping reservations. Not only is the site very slow, it is almost impossible to print a map of the campground so get a clear overview of what you are booking. The time is takes to research out each site for your equipment specifications, location, and amenities is discouraging. Maybe that is what this site is hoping for. You'd think when you type in your time and equipment requirements, the map would show which sites meet those requirements. It's no wonder we rarely bother visiting this site much less trying to use it. What a joke!"
As editor, I want to thank all who've taken time to write us about their perceptions of our stories. Keep those e-mails coming. Send 'em on down to me, Russ at rvtravel dot com.
And check out the De Maris' weekly podcasts at YourRVPodcast.com
