CHEESE_WAGON
Traveling
I am currently living in such busphemy.... So in my experience, I will lay out some major reasons to hold the line and build a bus rather than buy an RV.
As some have said already, build quality of an RV is mediocre at best.
Pre-built RVs are anything but efficient in their use of space, especially older ones.
Poor crashworthiness.
Expensive repairs and maintenance.
And the biggest and most overlooked issue:
Roof. Yes, roof.
Something I noticed in a Pace Arrow I purchased for a song years ago. I hadn't had a chance to even do much with the thing yet. When I turned the rooftop A/C unit on, the ceiling would become dark with ants. Since the thing had a FL title when I bought it, I assumed they were fire ants and veritably abandoned the damned thing where it sat, I wanted no part of a fire ant colony in my ceiling.
Since then I have taken up residency in a nearly identical unit. I have noticed a moderate to severe roof leak in recent months. Also, I've noticed ants crawling randomly, with whom I have dealt with on various terms. The Terro poison bait seems to work well, but not completely eliminated the problem.
A little investigation has revealed a colony of carpenter ants chewed through the wood trim on a rear vent hatch and come inside the roof to take up residency in the ceiling in similar fashion to the previous unit. Research shows that carpenter ants like to nest in wet, decaying wood. Interesting, as this RV had no damp, decaying wood until they burrowed into the wood trim.
I have known for some time that the leak source seemed to be one particular roof hatch, but did not connect the ants with the leak until recently. Now I have a good idea what those ants in the previous unit were, and how they came to be there. Perhaps these little bastards somehow know that their burrowing will set things in motion for what they want?
This is a strong argument for the solid-roof crowd... :biggrin: Just my $0.02
As some have said already, build quality of an RV is mediocre at best.
Pre-built RVs are anything but efficient in their use of space, especially older ones.
Poor crashworthiness.
Expensive repairs and maintenance.
And the biggest and most overlooked issue:
Roof. Yes, roof.
Something I noticed in a Pace Arrow I purchased for a song years ago. I hadn't had a chance to even do much with the thing yet. When I turned the rooftop A/C unit on, the ceiling would become dark with ants. Since the thing had a FL title when I bought it, I assumed they were fire ants and veritably abandoned the damned thing where it sat, I wanted no part of a fire ant colony in my ceiling.
Since then I have taken up residency in a nearly identical unit. I have noticed a moderate to severe roof leak in recent months. Also, I've noticed ants crawling randomly, with whom I have dealt with on various terms. The Terro poison bait seems to work well, but not completely eliminated the problem.
A little investigation has revealed a colony of carpenter ants chewed through the wood trim on a rear vent hatch and come inside the roof to take up residency in the ceiling in similar fashion to the previous unit. Research shows that carpenter ants like to nest in wet, decaying wood. Interesting, as this RV had no damp, decaying wood until they burrowed into the wood trim.
I have known for some time that the leak source seemed to be one particular roof hatch, but did not connect the ants with the leak until recently. Now I have a good idea what those ants in the previous unit were, and how they came to be there. Perhaps these little bastards somehow know that their burrowing will set things in motion for what they want?
This is a strong argument for the solid-roof crowd... :biggrin: Just my $0.02
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