Where to start
It's one thing to have a dream and another to impliment it but with modern technology and communications it is much easier than those that have gone before us so with that in mind I started trawling the NET and found some interesting web sites including Good Sams Club http://www.goodsamclub.com/ Passport America http://www.passportamerica.com/ and the most invaluable of them all turned out to be one by another Aussie couple Trish and Murray Warwarek http://warwarekrvusa.blogspot.com/ who have published a lot of useful information in thier blog.
Not being shy I contacted Trish and asked if she would mind giving advice which as luck would have it she was willing to do and I have since baraged her with questions. Trish and Murray now live in Ballina on the New South Wales Coast a couple of hours drive from us and Trish was kind enough to invite us to visit so that we could question her further about their adventures and I am pleased to say that we have become friends as a result.
A very useful planning program that I downloaded for a 3 month free trial that has proven to be invaluable is Microsoft Streets & Trips www.microsoft.com/streets/en-us/products.aspx it is easy to use and has allowed me to fully plan our forthcoming vacation.
A very useful planning program that I downloaded for a 3 month free trial that has proven to be invaluable is Microsoft Streets & Trips www.microsoft.com/streets/en-us/products.aspx it is easy to use and has allowed me to fully plan our forthcoming vacation.
Buying an RV in the USA
Given that we are on a limited budget a used RV was the order of the day and so I began searching the web for used RV dealers andin no particular order found the best to be:-
www.rvtraderonline.com/
By spending many hours studying these sites I got an understanding of value for money and finally decided that buying what the Americans call a 5th wheeler and a tow truck was the ideal solution for us and by process of elimination found a unit located in Tucson, Arizona which is an easy flight from Los Angeles. This particular unit was appealing because being located in Arizona meant that it would not have suffered corrossion that you could possibly expect from those located in Florida for example.
Here are photos of the 5th wheeler and tow truck that we finally decided to purchase for US$27,000.00
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| 5th Wheeler |
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| 5th Wheeler view looking to the rear |
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| GMC Tow Truck |
Registering, Insuring Paying for the vehicles
Unlike Australia this proved not to be such a simple excercise as virtually all US States require that you are a resident of the state for a minimum of six months and produce a US drivers licence in order to register the vehicles in that state. Florida I beleive is one exception that have ways around this and if the RV is bought through a dealer they will make it easy for the buyer.
Through a friend we found another alternative that has several benefits. The state of Montana allows foreigners to establish what is known as a LLC (Limited Liability Company) and the LLC can own the vehicles. Here is the link to the company I used to set up the LLC www.49dollarmontanaregisteredagent.com/ they proved to be extremly easy to deal with and everything went as it should.
Now we were set up with a means to legally own and register the vehicles we then had to think about paying for them. Not wanting to pay 100% before we inspected them we could not simply do a bank electronic transfer and we did not want to carry to much cash with us so we elected to buy AMEX travellers cheques. Problems we experienced: A bank transfer can take over a week before it gets to the sellers bank account and this was an unacceptable delay. The Australian Customs have a requirement that you must declare cash amounts over A$10,000.00 per person - it is not illegal you simply have to declare it, travellers cheques are not included. US Customs on the other hand require that all money in cash or other instruments (travellers cheques) must be delclared so we had to spend additional time in Customs declaring exactly what we had, this was not a problem but just took time.
I spent several days researching insurance options and emailing various companies for quotes however in the end the seller of our RV referred us to his agent in California a company called Poliseek Insurance and the agents name is Jamie Lopez Email jlopez@polyseek.com Jamie solved all our insurance problems overnight by providing an acceptable quote although it should be mentioned that it included a charge of $325.00 because we did not have a US drivers licence but at $1100.00 it was acceptable to us.
On arrival in Tucson, Arizona we spent several hours inspecting and accepted the vehicles and then went to the sellers bank to make payment and have the bank officer notorize the title deeds and bill of sale. This all went very smoothly and from there we went to the nearby UPS office to overnight the title transfer to the Montana DMV. We also paid for overnight return of the licence plates to the sellers home address and hoped that we would have them back within a few days. Good news, I have just checked online and they are on the way back as planned.
Moving the 5th wheeler
I have never driven a large truck not towed a 5th wheeler so caution was the name of the game and I have to move the rig about 11 miles to our first place to stay, an Indian Casino with plenty of free parking space and room for me to manouver the rig, the owner emphasized "wide turns" always wide turns and this is something to constantly remember. It took about an hour for me to get the rig set up and feel comfortable.
Setting up the RV
Our RV has not been used in some months and did not include the necessities of life so a major shopping trip was planned over two days.
There is a store called Costco http://www.costco.com/ which is widely accepted as being the best place to buy major consumable items in bulk such as toilet rolls, tissues etc however it is also the best place for buying bedding, TV's etc. Costco work on a different system to all other stores, you have to pay a fee and join as a member, the regular membership fee is $65.00 PA and they have a premium membership at $100.00, the big advantage of the premium membership is that you get a rebate of 2% of your purchases and if you do not exceed the $100.00 joining fee in rebates this is made up by a refund cheque from Costo. With our big shop there was no question of the benefit to us. Costco sell virtually everything including TV's, household, food etc. but consumables are sold in bulk packages so we plan to split up some of the purchases with our friends.
Our next big shopping expedition was to Walmart we we purchased most of groceries and consumables. Walmart is a great place to shop and you can spend hours wandering the ilses.
For some reason I just found that the gas bottles are nearly empty and as gas is used for cooking, running the fridge/freezer when on the road and for running the heating furnace I had to take cylinders to a garage and fill them up at a cost of US$45.00. On further investigation I was assured by the seller that the gas bottles were both full when I took delivery and that I had run the furnace and generator for some hours and this is what had run them empty.
Overall I guess our setup costs have been an additional US$1400.00 and this includes a new 32" LCD TV and Blueray/DVD player.
Well that's it we are set up and ready for our big adventure to begin. I know this post has been rather long winded however I hope that it will be useful to others considering taking up the RV lifestyle and adventure.
A second couple Basil and Nola also from Australia are flying into LAX and buying a truck and 5th wheeler from a private seller in northern California and all going well hopefully will meet up with us at our next stop in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hopefuly they find things as easy as we have.
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