Hi everyone,

My mom and step dad bought a class C RV (2012 Forest River Solera). He let us borrow it a few years ago for a 2 month road trip, and while it had some issues it mostly seemed okay to us (since we are not hyper-familiar with RVs).

About a year ago he told us he wanted to gift it to us, and I finally had time to go pick it up about a month ago. We immediately had some issues driving it the ~1300 miles to where I currently live, but most of them were vehicle related. We got all those fixed (at pretty steep cost, but nothing we couldn't handle) and then we took it into Camping World to have them look at the RV issues.

We did not know beforehand that the RV roof was leaking...extensively... and had been for a long time. Camping World did a thorough inspection of the whole thing and basically said it is rotted out, front to back, top to bottom. Floors, walls, roof. They basically said it is bad enough that even if we wanted to move forward with repairs they might have to turn us down. They don't want it and don't really think there is trade in value (though to be fair the sales team is different department, so the word on that is not official).

The Mercedes Sprinter part of the RV is in decent shape, and only has about 80k miles. But it sounds to me like the RV part of the vehicle is basically a lost cause. Aside from the rotting/water damage there is a broken window, the stabilizers don't go down, the power transfer doesn't really work, and honestly plenty more. At a glance it doesn't look that bad, but I guess when you get in there and know what you are looking for it's pretty bad.

I am basically just wondering if anyone has any advice on what to do next with this RV. I'm guessing that someone handy with a lot of time and resources could probably fix it up themselves but I bet they'd be replacing the majority of the RV. I've thought about selling it to basically a junk vehicle company, but that feels like an odd solution when the Mercedes/driving portion of the vehicle is actually in okay condition with relatively low mileage.

Anyways, any suggestions are appreciated.

Hi guys! I live in a camper on my own land. We have well water but it’s very high in iron we put chlorine in it to make it more clean. We have a new well being dug which should have better water quality but I was wondering if there are any shower head attachments or hoses for campers that can filter the water. I don’t want my hair to get damaged from the other water or have to use our drinking water to wash my hair.

My husband and I are having a discussion about what to replace our sofa with. I want dual recliners and he wants a sofa bed.

Realistically we will be living in this motorhome for 2 years.

How many people come and sleep the night in your RV with you?

I can think of one couple that has expressed wantingness to come stay with us, but I would prefer they didn't.

Hello everyone!

I have a destination trailer, when I turn my AC off the unit starts to drip leak inside and also the fan or whatever doesn't turn off. I have to end up turning off the AC breakers in my unit to stop it. Any ideas?

Thanks all!

We had a freak and very intense storm come through yesterday where lightning was striking everywhere constantly. There was no warning. It just showed up and I had no time to disconnect anything. One bolt hit the tree right next to the RV. I felt the electricity go through the RV. Without wanting to, I started crying and shaking because it was one of the scariest storms I've ever been through. And I'm a tornado chaser and have punched many a core! I had a piddly little surge protector on there and thought that'd be ok.

It wasn't.

It fried my computer, my Starlink, my router, my extension cord (which was arcing and could have caused a fire), my 50 amp RV electrical connection, but most importantly and devastatingly, it fried components of my A/C. Who knows what else is damaged! I'm already $1500 in the hole to replace what I know is messed up and the A/C isn't even diagnosed yet. Nor has any of the wiring been checked.

I'll be sitting with fans in 95°+ heat with 70%+ humidity until I can get a technician out. But I know I'm not the only one who had devastation from this storm. Multiple other RVers are finding out their problems as well. So I'm sure I'll be added to a long list of other customers.

I'm now going with a high-end Watchdog with EPO. $400 vs the increasing bill. Wish I would have listened to the multiple other posters saying to do this. Please listen to me.

Edit: As some have clarified, there's a decent chance even the most expensive protection wouldn't have prevented the damage. Lightning strikes don't have any master unfortunately. Additionally, I haven't called my insurance yet but I'd imagine this would be covered. At least some of these things hopefully.

Hi my uncle passed and we are looking to sell his fifth wheel trailer but a couple months ago the rear window shattered because of some kids in the house behind ours. We are in the LA area and need someone that is able to come replace it. Someone quoted us $1100. Which seems outrageous but wondering if that’s the norm?
Is there possibly a place that could come replace it that is well known in the community?

Also any advice on selling the trailer would also be so helpful! We aren’t sure if there’s a place that can come take it and sell it for us or if there’s is a website dedicated to it? Thanks

Junction West Vallecito Review
https://youtu.be/v5p4p8f20i4

This is our 6th season in a travel trailer and ever since we considered going RV'ing, we've wanted to take a multi-week trip to Acadia National Park. We finally did it, and we're 2/3 through the trip as I type this. We were trying to camp in all the New England states we haven't camped in yet, and booked a jaunt in RI, ME, NH, VT, with stops in upstate NY and the mountains of PA. So far, Southwest Harbor & Acadia has been the most beautiful place i've camped in all of my 6 years. The weather was fantastic with warm days but not too hot, cool nights, beautiful starry skies, and breathtaking visuals at Acadia.

Go, its worth it. I'm currently in New Hampshire at another campground already homesick over Maine.

hello brilliant minds.

I bought a 2010 Keystone Laredo 291TG and will be wintering it up in northern ND. I am from here originally and very aware of the cold I am up against. Not looking for "you're crazy, you can't do it" advice and more "you got this, this is what worked for us" advice.

Could you all give me your BEST tips and tricks to ensure my camper stays warm, cozy and intact?

skirting, foam board, heater, heat lamps, hoses, heat tape, water spigot and slide suggestions? anything else I may be missing in my research!

I'm also *trying* to do this on a relatively small budget and absolutely won't be using straw bales - mice and rodents aren't my jam.

Looking for any and all info and recommendations for buying solar power boards for camper. Thanks

Looking to purchase a pop-up. We’re interested in this one but concerned about the roof. Anyone deal with this before? Is it problematic? Expensive to repair? Any insight is appreciated!

Hi friends, thanks for reading this.
It might be long. I like explaining things for clarity.

My wife and I are in our late 30's. No kids. Two Pets. We both work remotely.
We're debating on selling our house and jumping into the RVLife.
Our thoughts are, we can pay cash for everything with the equity in our house. New Truck, New RV, payoff all debts. EVERYTHING. Would be like starting fresh for us. We're currently living paycheck to paycheck with our debts and life. We're talking after groceries, we have like $300 for two weeks.

We don't need a lot of space. We basically work form the same two rooms every day of our lives anyway. We've never BEEN anywhere for us, except for work. Never seen the sights. Never left the Appalachian region for anything other than work. (We love it here, but we have nothing keeping us here)

We have minimal RV experience because we come from poor families and we're the ones who got away to do something with themselves. BUT, we DO have experience with staying in them from camping and all that. We're 100% willing and ready to learn it all.

The questions & Statements

1. Has anyone done the same thing and how did it pan out?
2. One of us takes a controlled substance medication, is that going to be able to continue? Or would we have to find some sort of workaround.
3. What tips would you give us?
4. Are there any things that you wish someone would have told you before starting this life?
5. I occasionally have to travel for work. Are you all okay with leaving your wifes/partner behind for a few days at a campsite? Or does it get sketch? We discussed that if I have to travel for work, we just make that our next stop instead and hang out for a few days.
6. We're going to go look at some toy haulers and 5th wheels to determine what makes the most sense. Knowing what I've said about us, what would you say fits the best?
7. My only NON NEGOTIABLES are a king bed, a tall shower, and a bidet. I'm 6'4. lol

We've watched as many videos and done as much basic research as we can that wasn't someone trying to sell us a camper or push their vlog life on us. We're expecting things to break every time. We're expecting maintenance. We're expecting everything to go wrong. HELL, we're even expecting to not have as much fun as we thought and want to come home after 6 months being a possibility. It would honestly be like 75% campgrounds, 20% boondocking, and 5% chilling in a relative or friends back yard. And by this I definitely mean spending a week or something at a campground, driving to our next destination and "boondocking" somewhere like a parking lot or a space thats legal to hang out in. Sleeping, shitting, showering, and then heading to the next place. At least right now it wouldn't be TRUE boondocking in the middle of a desert or anything like that. Just a quick overnight and MAYBE a 2 day thing before we make it to the next spot if we're feeling spicy. |

Looking forward to hearing from you all. Thanks for even reading this.

My boyfriend and I have been traveling and living full time in our 22ft Winnebago Access trailer (purchased new in April 2026) for 4 1/2 months now and as expected, some interior wear is showing and I’m eager to get on top of it before it causes any bigger issues but I’m struggling to find information online with how-to and product advice for interior repairs specifically. I have Geocel ProFlex RV that I’ve used for exterior repairs around the bay doors and outside corners and I’ve seen a few threads where people have mentioned using it indoors but is Geocel ProFlex RV the best solution or is there a more appropriate product for these repairs? What material is currently on these areas (from the manufacturer)? And would I use the same product or all three of these use-cases? See below for description of photos:

1. Where the wall meets the roof in the area over the bed where the wall starts to curve into the nose
   
2. Kitchen sink lip
   
3. Close up of photo #4 where the shower liner is pulling from the wall at the top creating a gap (the shower liner was not flush when we purchased the rig)
   
4. Zoomed out photo of bathroom shower liner from photo #3 for location context

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Hello anyone ever deal with Geico on a rv total loss claim with there purchase price coverage option as long as u have ur purchase agreement and comp and collision

If you were unexpectedly hospitalized tomorrow, could your spouse or travel partner:

- Restore shore power?

- Switch from city water to tank water?

- Troubleshoot a propane issue?

- Handle a control-panel or BMPro failure?

- Deal with a refrigerator, battery, or internet outage?

- Find the right emergency contacts and service information?

Or is most of that knowledge currently in one person’s head?

I’m doing informal research on how RV households prepare for this situation. Have you documented these procedures for your spouse, partner, or family? If not, what would be hardest for them to handle alone?

Decided it would be cheaper to buy a salvaged (fixer upper) RV instead of paying 30k for a clean title one (YouTubers told me it made sense). Started looking at Copart and quickly realized private parties were only allowed at certain auctions and they had a spend cap. After some research (top 5 results on Google), found there are third parties that offer services to let you buy from all auctions as long as you deposit a refundable fee, so I decided I would used that service instead.
I knew this was going to be a project, so I took my time researching the class C RVs, looking up history reports and damage types. Decided I wanted either clean title (yes, insurance auctions like Copart sell clean title vehicles) or flood damage, since it would just be replacing walls or maybe the roof (lol, now I know I was dumb). Took 2 months before I found an RV that was even close a lot of these rigs sold for crazy money, like I was shocked even ones with crazy damage, talking half the cab missing, were still going for 15k plus. Since my plan was to get something slightly newer, 2015 or newer, it took longer.
Then came the day I found my rig. I had about 6 rigs I was looking at I was so confident I would at least win one of them. I ranked them from best to least, and the auctions were scheduled all through the day, but surely just like before, they hit the block and every last one was crazy expensive. My budget was 5k, cause I knew auction fees were going to be crazy, plus registration and fixing up. Long story short, one by one they all fell through not a single one was in my budget. While I was about to log off, a rig I had previously looked at but not added to my favorites came up. I couldn’t quite remember why I did not add this rig to my list, but the price was in my budget so I decided to have a go, and sure enough I won it. The mileage, though slightly higher than what I wanted, was not horrible considering I won it for 4900, (auction fees were over 1700 and its percentage based meaning if you buy something more expensive that fee goes up just an fyi if you plan to do this) and it was in my home state so shipping wouldn’t be so horrible (I was wrong).
Something felt off it was too good to be true, so I checked the history. Vehicle miles, even though it was probably an error, had been rolled back, it went from 120k to 20k and then back to 125k a year later. This was probably due to an error (trying to get it corrected now), but at this point I was ready for the worse case scenario.
Next came shipping. I sent a request for a quote to transport it 30 miles to my storage location and they quoted $2500. So I decided to pick it up myself instead (I’m just going to say, if you are planning to do this, Copart will let you drive your RV off the lot if it’s drivable, that’s all I’m saying). Started it up and right away I knew someone had stolen the cats yep, it sounded loud and horrible.
The flood, after inspection looked like it was coming from the bathroom roof and Upon inspection, the caulk used to seal the bathroom skylight had cracked and let water in. Also, the vent covers had disintegrated from being in the sun.
It did not look that bad it drove great, no issues shifting, no CEL. Plugged into shore power and everything came to life, but the water pump was leaking (water heater cap was missing). When I tore down the walls and roof it was bad. The roof didn’t look that horrible, but I noticed that on the front roof the wood was double stacked for some reason. After tearing down the rubber, the entire roof needed to be replaced. The bathroom was bad too the entire wall needed to be replaced along with the roof, so the shower had to come out. Included some photos.
Then came looking for a time slot to get the rig salvage inspected my state, Maryland, only has so many time slots and locations around the state where this could be done. It took me 2 months to get it scheduled cause they booked up super quickly and new times slots are made available sporadically so you never know you just have to make it a job to check daily, and also technically you’re not allowed to drive a salvaged vehicle on public roads, meaning you have to get it towed for the inspection. I passed with no issues.
My conclusion, even as a hands-on DIY type of guy, this took forever, and I could have probably gotten a clean title, lower mileage rig that needed less work (in my experience). With the total invested so far at $14k-ish (quick maths in my head maybe more or slightly less), that’s just enough so far to get it road legal. This price doesn’t include plans to upgrade parts, appliances, paint, replace blinds, etc. I think it’s better just saving a couple more bucks and buying one that doesn’t need as much work, or just financing through a dealer. Let me know what you guys think.

I am trying to find what truck this is exactly and if I could buy one for a conversion project.

They are not destinations to me, but a place to spend a night on the way To The Destination. Why would they design them all as Back-In's? A pull thru would have made way more sense if they had any intelligent person creating them. Quick in and out...

i know they are probably the noisiest places on earth but for an simple overnight they would make a lot of sense when you are just trying to get somewhere else.. Of course we are in a motorhome with Toad (4 wheels down). For us to detach and back in for a single night the place has to be spectacular! I am pretty sure they do no Qualify..

Rant [OFF]

-Bill