Motorhome vs. Trawler

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Ksanders said to Marin
"Your post is exactly how we feel. We cannot imagine paying to park a rig 10 feet from another rig, and then then dealing with the hassles as some grumpy old fart lets his little dog roam because it's "cute" while giving us the evil eye because my German Shepherd is "scary"."



This is exactly how we feel about marinas minus the German Shepherd. We are stuck in a marina for the next six weeks and it drives me nuts. There are lots of little yappy dogs on the dock and every time one gets near it barks it's head off. And by comparison boats in a marina alot of times are only 2 to 4 feet away. I am sure most RV parks have alot more space between rigs.

We know that eventually we will sell the boat and do the RV thing. I never want to own a dirt house again. The RV will be set up much like the boat, off grid for extended stays away from the crowds. We may try to do both for awhile but know that eventually health issues will kill the boat.
 
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READY2GO said:
Ksanders said to Marin
"Your post is exactly how we feel. We cannot imagine paying to park a rig 10 feet from another rig, and then then dealing with the hassles as some grumpy old fart lets his little dog roam because it's "cute" while giving us the evil eye because my German Shepherd is "scary"."



This is exactly how we feel about marinas minus the German Shepherd. We are stuck in a marina for the next six weeks and it drives me nuts. There are lots of little yappy dogs on the dock and every time one gets near it barks it's head off. And by comparison boats in a marina alot of times are only 2 to 4 feet away. I am sure most RV parks have alot more space between rigs.

We know that eventually we will sell the boat and do the RV thing. I never want to own a dirt house again. The RV will be set up much like the boat, off grid for extended stays away from the crowds. We may try to do both for awhile but know that eventually health issues will kill the boat.
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What I have found in marinas is that while yes the boats are closer than in a RV park, 90% of the time they are unoccupied by their owners. In a RV park i can almost guarantee that the space next to us is going to have the owner present.

The dog problem is easy for us. Our dogs roam our boat but not leave it. since we like to park bow in, the dogs hang out on the foredeck and "talk" to the other dogs either on nearby boats, or the ones that their owners let roam.

This makes it easy for us since the dogs have a natural barrier and do not need to be tied up.

Potty is also easy. We try to target low tide and let the dogs go in the tidal zone, making for no cleanup.
 
Having done both boating and RVing a lot....


Both can be a lot alike or not at all...


based on the posts some are making....lack of experience in at least one is evident...


it can be a "where and why you boat" thing also...but that is pretty apparent too.
 
Kevin that is a good point about most boats being unoccupied verses an RV. I imagine when we start the rving thing we will do it much like we boat and rarely enter a park/marina.
 
"So the problem is that we know fun, uncrowded RV'ing must exist, it's just too iffy to make the huge investment required to find it."

BLM is your answer.

The real problem is property taxes require RV parks to dense pack .

A simple solution is the newer modern RV State parks., which have no tax problem.

Here in FL, Henderson Beach (DESTIN) is considered World Class in many spots you are in a curve off the road with 10-15 ft between your campsite and the road.

Usually about 75 ft long sites allow car parking , or plenty of room for 5th wheelers to drop the rig.

The ocean & beach is a short walk thru the natural woods.

I find the std. yacht club drunks harder to avoid than a mythical gramps with a colostomy bag.
 
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CPseudonym said:
:whistling::whistling::whistling:

But isn't that part of the charm of this place? Separating the wheat from the chaff is pretty easy.
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Yup! Gotta love those with long and strong opinions based upon zero experience. They're easy to spot.
 
Kevin

Believe the guys with the actual experience, not the guys who have formed their impressions from the extremes of B movies.

That said, Christmas Vacation, with cousin Eddie in his RV is still one of my favorites.
 
West,
I agree completely, summer boating and winter RVing. I just need to finish finding our boat.

As for a slightly more mainstream boondocking type of RV, one I have heard of for a long time is EarthRoamer Xpedition Vehicles. It's quite a bit different from our fifth wheel, but looks like a lot of fun.
 
Solution flat barge just big enough for RV. A small tow boat with good anchors. Just find a ramp drive her up and chain RV down and go cruising. You can even anchor the barge and go shopping fishing or exploring in the towboat. A 21 footer with twin OB and a proper tow bar rig similar to what the SEA Tow type boats use .
 
dimer2 said:
"We'd rather have an unpredictable brown bear on the other side of the stream than a typical RVer hell-bent on telling us his life story.:) "


Based on the length of most of your posts, the RVer would probably feel the same way! :)
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Writing is like everything else--- tennis, playing an instrument, etc. The more you practice the better you get. An important component of my job and what I do outside my job is write. At work it's scripts, outside of work it was at first magazine articles for national flying magazines and now for the last bunch of years, books on a variety of subjects. I'm always looking for new and different techniques of using writing to communicate.

This forum provides a great place to practice stuff because of the huge cross section of people on it with lots of different backgrounds, education, life experiences, world knowledge, etc. And it's based on a subject I know something about and am involved in. So it's a good place to try stuff, see what kind of reaction it generates, and and it takes almost no time to do.

Most of the time I don't even note who put up the post I'm responding to. The posts here are just words on a page and those words are what I base my opinions and responses on. I have never actually met any of the participants on this forum nor do I have any desire or intention of doing so. In person I am quite different in terms of communicating than I probably appear to be here.

So the RVer--- or the bear--- would have nothing to be concerned about from me. I won't be invading the space of either one of them.:)

The number one rule that applies to writing is "write what you know." Usually I do but in this thread I haven't: I've never done any RVing (my wife has with her parents years ago). However I have had some observational experience and I've met a lot of RVers over a whole lot of years of traveling and here at work. Based on that--- which is the only thing I can base my opinion on, right?--- it's an activity that has zero appeal to us, with the exception of the solo "off grid" thing I mentioned earlier. The turnoff for us is not the rig-- some of them are really very cool and quite clever in their use of space. My wife and I are very impressed by the Airstream products, for example. The turnoff for us is the people and the environment they create.
 
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TimButterfield said:
West,
I agree completely, summer boating and winter RVing. I just need to finish finding our boat.

As for a slightly more mainstream boondocking type of RV, one I have heard of for a long time is EarthRoamer Xpedition Vehicles. It's quite a bit different from our fifth wheel, but looks like a lot of fun.
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Wifey B: Winter? :eek: What's that? I'm opposed. :D
 
BandB said:
Wifey B: Winter? :eek: What's that? I'm opposed. :D
Click to expand...
:) Winter is the less crowded season. When I was younger, living near Chicago, we used to take winter vacations. It's not very crowded in ND in winter. TR NP is very pretty that time of year. :) Now, though, I prefer a bit more moderate climate. You might prefer winter along the Gulf Coast. We were in Rockport, TX in November. It was 85F, 100% humidity, but my wife couldn't breath. We decided to moderate our winter a bit and are currently in Anacortes, WA.
 
One of the things we didn't like when living in our motorhome is your outside patio area is in most cases facing your neighbors sewer dump. Nothing at all pleasant about that.
 
Moonstruck said:
Some people don't know about the millions of acres of BLM land that are available for camping. There are plenty of places to camp without going to a commercial RV park. As I said, "boondocking is like anchoring".
Click to expand...

These guys do. :) The "Q"

54ba3786864b7678bc0ad7a7ed3237db.jpg
 
folivier said:
One of the things we didn't like when living in our motorhome is your outside patio area is in most cases facing your neighbors sewer dump. Nothing at all pleasant about that.
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Well at least you werent swimming in your neighbors sewage... :)
 
We mostly relied on Best Westerns for lodging on last year's 3000-mile, over-ground trip. Usually, breakfasts were included. Neither specialized-vehicle depreciation nor high gas mileage experienced.
 
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Get a Class B type, so you can park "anywhere" and never see another motorhome if you don't want to.
* photo from the web
 

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TimButterfield said:
West,
I agree completely, summer boating and winter RVing. I just need to finish finding our boat.

As for a slightly more mainstream boondocking type of RV, one I have heard of for a long time is EarthRoamer Xpedition Vehicles. It's quite a bit different from our fifth wheel, but looks like a lot of fun.
Click to expand...

That EarthRoamer is pretty awesome. But, if one factored in the cost of the unit and the gas it gulps down, you could probably stay in 5 star Hotels for the rest of your life and still leave an inheritance :)
 
I agree about folks posting on something with no personall experience. But, first internet rule : Total lack of knowledge on a subject shall in no way inhibit ones ability to type. It may be like on some other forums that I visit, mostly gear heads or fishing types, where a guy asks a question and the resident poster says he doesnt know anything about it but someone will be along soon with the answer. Some people are like that in person, they just need to hear there head rattle.
 
Talking about experience, I'd like to go back to the OP a moment. I would be very careful making a move as big as selling the RV for a trawler and wouldn't do so before spending considerable time on a trawler. There are people who like both but many people who like only boats or RV's and not the other.

It's not unusual for things that others consider insignificant to bother a person. As boat people we may be lousy as a group in expressing any negatives. There's the financial aspect, but there is a limitation as to where you can go. There's also a convenience issue as if you're traveling from place to place in an RV, you just pull over for groceries or anything else you need.

Just don't make the move too quickly.
 
Having owned several RVs, a truck camper and two fifth wheels, one of which is parked outside, I was trying to remember any time that I had a problem with other campers. Only 1 incident came to mind, and that was partying Canadians celebrating July 1, Canada Day, late and loud in a State campground in eastern Washington, several years back, of course they were just as loud this past summer at Echo Bay in the Broughtons on July 1. I have had problems every year I have boated with boaters who don't know or abide by the rules of the road. I have found that after 100+ days on the boat this summer, I was tired after getting off and back home. With the fifth wheel it is always stopped when you are in it, and is just as comfortable as home. I would rather be driving the boat though than the RV. But doing both is good.
 
We are never loud at Echo Bay on Canada Day. Oh, yeah, we were at Shawl bay.

I agree that it might be worth renting/chartering a boat before selling or swapping your motor home. If you have already gone that step then fine but if not, consider renting.

We have met people who have chucked it all and then found they did not like the boat and the reverse and in the process messed themselves up because they could not then go back. Not at least to what they had.

We do both, 5th, and boat.

Good luck in your decision.
 
An old story comes to mind about a couple that sold everything and bought a boat. After awhile they found that they hated 3 things, the water, the boat, and each other. YMMV.
 
Perhaps ask the same question you asked here on an RV forum. I bet your answers will be much different.
 
markpierce said:
We mostly relied on Best Westerns for lodging on last year's 3000-mile, over-ground trip. Usually, breakfasts were included. Neither specialized-vehicle depreciation nor high gas mileage experienced.
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You'll take a Best Western with the free plastic breakfast over your own bed, bathroom, entertainment, favorite food and beverage in the fridge no check in check out time over bed bugs, 6 am BANG BANG HOUSEKEEPING!, Oh daddy daddy give it to me! screaming down the hall?

Right. To each his own.....;)

And yes, I've been in marinas and anchorages where poorly behaved boaters damaged the ambiance. It happens everywhere. On water, on land. Trick is to know the good spots.....

Assateague Island...... the ocean right on the other side of the dune..wild horses roaming around, neighbor 100 feet away, no sewer, $15/night... one of our previous rigs.
 

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Steve9506,

Unusual that your looking to go from motorhome to trawler. The "normal" progression is... 1) sailboat...> 2) trawler...>3) motorhome...> 4) nursing home. We've done step 1 and on step 2. We've done some limited camping, pup tents in Maine, pickup truck with cap in Canada, and most recently, a slide-in camper on a 4x4 F150. Got rid of the slide-in after my 14 year old, New England winter, salt damaged truck was destroyed to the point that it could not carry or tow anything.

It would profer that moving from motorhome to trawler is more involved than going the other way. I assume that your attraction with both options is to TRAVEL to points-of-interest, stopping along the way for short visits, and NOT to be hanging out in RV parks, or marinas. There's a big difference with the little risk involved in running a motorhome from Newport RI down to Norfolk VA, start of ICW, and doing the same thing in a trawler. The former is a 2-day trip on the I-95, and the latter is a 2-week run (longer if sight-seeing), taking inside and outside passages, dealing with benign to dangerous weather and water conditions, commercial traffic, and mechanical problems on open water. Picture a sudden squall, and your engine craps out with a clogged fuel filter, or a water pump impeller gets eaten up, and SeaTow or Boat US is a couple of hours away.

My point is that you'll need to pick up some experience before launching off on any long-range cruise. Long-time center console experience is a good start, but long-range trawler cruising requires some fairly extensive experience in navigation (old-school and electronics), minimal mechanicals (filters, impellers, engine maintenance fundamentals), anchoring-out skills, to name a few. The anchoring out while cruising is one of the more important and challenging issues to deal with. We've all had our experiences of pulling into a nice quiet harbor in perfect weather at the end of the day, dropping the anchor, having a nice quiet dinner, and going to bed, to be awakened at 2 AM in a sudden thunderstorm or squall, blowing gusts to 50 knots plus, and your anchor dragging. That's turned off many a couple quickly off the water and back to the motorhome. At our boatyard, we have a couple of people that had that experience, walked away from the boat. or still have the boat, but haven't taken it off the dock since (a floating dock-bound condo).

If you make the change, get more cruising experience before launching off on any long-range cruise.

Since the norm is to go from trawler to motorhome, you might be able to catch someone making that change with an even swap. Check out and post to the Nordic Tug forums like NENTOA or SENTOA. You're 2014 Dutchstar, with an average retail of $280,000 could get you into a 2003-2005 Nordic Tug 37.

John B (50 years on the water, sail and trawler)
 
Puffin_NT32 said:
Steve9506,

Unusual that your looking to go from motorhome to trawler. The "normal" progression is... 1) sailboat...> 2) trawler...>3) motorhome...> 4) nursing home. We've done step 1 and on step 2. We've done some limited camping, pup tents in Maine, pickup truck with cap in Canada, and most recently, a slide-in camper on a 4x4 F150. Got rid of the slide-in after my 14 year old, New England winter, salt damaged truck was destroyed to the point that it could not carry or tow anything.

It would profer that moving from motorhome to trawler is more involved than going the other way. I assume that your attraction with both options is to TRAVEL to points-of-interest, stopping along the way for short visits, and NOT to be hanging out in RV parks, or marinas. There's a big difference with the little risk involved in running a motorhome from Newport RI down to Norfolk VA, start of ICW, and doing the same thing in a trawler. The former is a 2-day trip on the I-95, and the latter is a 2-week run (longer if sight-seeing), taking inside and outside passages, dealing with benign to dangerous weather and water conditions, commercial traffic, and mechanical problems on open water. Picture a sudden squall, and your engine craps out with a clogged fuel filter, or a water pump impeller gets eaten up, and SeaTow or Boat US is a couple of hours away.

My point is that you'll need to pick up some experience before launching off on any long-range cruise. Long-time center console experience is a good start, but long-range trawler cruising requires some fairly extensive experience in navigation (old-school and electronics), minimal mechanicals (filters, impellers, engine maintenance fundamentals), anchoring-out skills, to name a few. The anchoring out while cruising is one of the more important and challenging issues to deal with. We've all had our experiences of pulling into a nice quiet harbor in perfect weather at the end of the day, dropping the anchor, having a nice quiet dinner, and going to bed, to be awakened at 2 AM in a sudden thunderstorm or squall, blowing gusts to 50 knots plus, and your anchor dragging. That's turned off many a couple quickly off the water and back to the motorhome. At our boatyard, we have a couple of people that had that experience, walked away from the boat. or still have the boat, but haven't taken it off the dock since (a floating dock-bound condo).

If you make the change, get more cruising experience before launching off on any long-range cruise.

Since the norm is to go from trawler to motorhome, you might be able to catch someone making that change with an even swap. Check out and post to the Nordic Tug forums like NENTOA or SENTOA. You're 2014 Dutchstar, with an average retail of $280,000 could get you into a 2003-2005 Nordic Tug 37.

John B (50 years on the water, sail and trawler)
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I gather one key point from your post. There is one and only one reason to go from motorhome to trawler. That is a love of the water, a desire to be on the water, rather than land. If moving from place to place on the water doesn't bring you pleasure then it's illogical to do. If just being anchored or docked on the water isn't your thing, then it's illogical.

We spend about 280 days a year on the water. If you try to analyze or evaluate it financially or logically none of it makes any sense except for that overpowering element that we love to be on the water. We were out crossing to Nassau today. 197 nm., 10 hours. We loved every moment of the trip. We were out of the view of land for a while, we crossed the gulf stream. Things were a bit choppy (some would consider more than choppy). We could have flown here in an hour, been in the hotel at Atlantis, toured the area, far far less expensively and to the majority of people making far more sense. But we were in Paradise to us, Nirvana. I'm sure people in RV's get the same feeling. It's just here is where I want to, I need to be. You can't be a boat owner or boater if you're going to try to reason through it. Once hooked you just try to do it less unreasonably.

But then picture this. Today you can see the world and never leave your home, just do it virtually. Save tons of money. But it doesn't have that feeling. When I'm too old to go to sea, then I will go places virtually.

It comes down to whether you're driven to the water or not. We are insanely driven to be on it. Always have been, probably always will be. It's nothing new. When I was a teenager, if I was out on the lake in my boat, the world was so much better and I was at peace.

I have no idea why we're so drawn to the water and it doesn't bother me that I have no answer. I just accept it. If you are, come join us. If no, continue to enjoy RV'ing.
 
BandB said:
I have no idea why we're so drawn to the water and it doesn't bother me that I have no answer. I just accept it.
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That's a pretty good assessment, I think. I've always been drawn to the water stemming from my first years on the planet when we lived in Sausalito. While I do know why I'm so drawn to the water, specifically salt water, it's certainly not necessary to know or even understand the attraction in order to get everything possible out of the experience.

Traveling on land, while it can be very interesting and enjoyable and certainly exposes one to unique places and experiences, to us comes nowhere close to the experience of traveling on water.

This is one reason my wife and I have been so drawn to narrowboating in the UK; it combines the best of both worlds. For all practical purposes one is traveling on land, going from town to town through fantastic countryside and able to experience all the attractions of land--- fairs, pubs, cathedrals, rural countryside, beautiful scenery, fascinating history, you name it--- but one is doing it via vessel with many of the unique challenges and pleasures derived from traveling by water.

What I have written earlier about our observations of the people and the environment encountered in RVing is a big factor in our disinterest in the RV lifestyle. But the primary reason for both of us is that we find traveling by water, be it on our home waters or the narrow, winding canals of the UK or the new-to-us northern European waters to be far more challenging and rewarding than driving around on roads.

When we take a road trip, be it to the gorgeous St. Joe river in Idaho or the lobster ports of Prince Edward Island or through the fascinating region that is south-central France, it's a great experience but we always feel there is something missing. On our most recent trip, a month-long stay in France, we realized what it is. We're not out on the water. While we were having a great time, we missed our harbor porpoises and rafts of diving ducks and swirling green water and floating logs and rocky shores and seals and arbutus trees.

Driving to very cool towns in France like Albi and Roquefort and Cordes sur Ciel was a lot of fun, made even more so by the friends we were with. But we were merely driving through the environment and looking at it. On the boat, we are part of the environment.

Don't know if that makes any sense to anyone, but that to us is the difference between boating and traveling by road on land. Even when we're stopped for the night, when we're on a boat we are never removed from being an integral part of the dynamic, ever-changing environment that is the water. We're not observers, we are participants.
 

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