US RV Trip

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Discussion

greendiff

Original Poster:

244 posts

178 months

Thursday 23rd October 2014
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Thinking of doing an RV trip in a year or two on the west coast, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, California, that sort of area.

UK driving licence is limited to 3500kg, what can i/can i not drive in the US?
What company should i go for? Cruise America, El monte, Road Bear all large is companies, that also have their fair share of poor reviews.
Just what MPG should i expect from the V10s? 5-10 US i guess?
A class or C class? is one preferable to the other?
budget for 2 weeks - £4-5k i guess.
best time of year to go?

LouD86

3,279 posts

153 months

Friday 24th October 2014
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A Class motorhome is always going to be a preferable base, if you are going to live out of it for your time over there, you just get every luxury, although you want to make sure your confident in driving something that large.

Regarding licences, I have no idea how the americans work it within their ruling? It doesnt seem to make a huge difference, but its worth asking a hire company if they require anything

oblio

5,408 posts

227 months

Friday 24th October 2014
quotequote all
You'll have a great time smile

We did one around 5 years or so ago and plan to do a 3 monther when we retire

We did Florida - Georgia - S Carolina - Alabama - Florida.

The size (31 foot) was no issue; petrol cheap so no issue; roads great so no issue.

Just one thing: every site (bar 1) we stayed at had no restauarant so tool yourself up to eat at lunchtime (v cheap and loads of choice) or cook at night. The first thing we did was go to Walmart and bought a cheap charcoal BBQ. We gave this away on our last night to some campers on a site.

Envious smile

Nickyboy

6,700 posts

234 months

Sunday 9th November 2014
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You can drive whatever you want in the US on a UK license, there is no limit. You can rock up with no experience and drive a 45ft Prevost

I've done 2 RV trips, East & West Coast.

First time we rented from Cruise America but the last one we rented from Moturis (Camping World)

Book through either Motorhomebookers or FetchRVrental Going direct to the rental companies will cost you twice as much.

You'll find nearly all rental companies will rent Class C motorhomes as they're generally cheaper and sleep more people. The huge RV's you seen roaming the Interstates only sleep 2 people or in some cases 4. The class C motorhomes can sleep as many as 8 so are perfect for groups, families etc.

Don't expect to do much more than 10mpg even when cruising on the flat. V10 petrol engines are never going to be good on fuel especially hauling 7 or 8 tons. But with fuel at £2 a gallon who cares.

For 2 weeks rental don't expect to pay any more than £1k including insurance etc. Both times i went we had 3 weeks rental for barely more than £1100 including mileage packs and insurance. Depending on the time of year and type of RV you have it could be as low as £500.

Budget an average of $40 per night on campgrounds, if you do what i did and join up to reserveamerica and you can stay in a lot of local RV parks for as little as $20 a night. Another good place is to look on the National Parks website, their sites a little more basic bit we paid $12 per night for 2 beaches on the Pacific Coast Highway.

As for time of year, i'd go for late summer. We went in end of September which was ideal as the temp wasn't too hot, useful as if you stay in the desert between LA & Vegas there will be little or no shade.

Pretty much all campground have fire rings, BBQ pits, benches etc. Most will have shops, laundrettes, pools etc bar the basic ones.

In America a huge RV will be made to look small








Edited by Nickyboy on Sunday 9th November 00:12