Our most-asked Roadtreking Question

I love getting reader mail and I do my best to answer them. But lately, as the 2017 RV RV shows approach, lots of people are thinking about purchasing a motorhome. And more new people are discovering this blog, the questions are somewhat the same. So I thought I'd share here the answer to the one question we get asked the most these days.

Q: WHAT WOULD YOU AND YOUR WIFE DO DIFFERENTLY IN BUYING AN RV NOW THAT YOU'VE BEEN DOING THIS FOR A WHILE?

A: The short answer is…nothing. We now have about 130,000 miles of Roadtreking travel under our tires since March of 2012.

We did a lot of checking around about what vehicle we wanted and settling on a Roadtrek was very easy. It has been best-selling Type B in North America for many years. It has the largest dealer network of Type Bs. It's resale value is tremendous. It's quality reputation is stellar. It's warranty is hands down the best in the business. So we knew right away that Roadtrek would be our choice. The rest was easy, too. We wanted a tall interior so we could easily walk around inside and settled on the Sprinter chassis.

When a used 2016 RS Adventurous was about to become available at a local dealer, we put money down sight unseen to have first refusal. We didn't refuse.

In 2013,  with Roadtrek now as our major sponsor of the blog, we traded in our used unit and for a year were able to drive the very first eTrek that Roadtrek built. In December 0f 2014, we were asked to test out a prototype Roadtrek CS Adventurous XL with an undermount air conditioner, 650 watts of solar panels on the roof and a massive bank of lithium ion batteries that allows us to be pretty much energy independent on the road. I've written a previous post that describes what energy independence is like in an RV and such units, now even more advanced, are in standard production. The 2014 Roadtrek CS Adventurous XL just turned 60,000 miles. We love it.

That said, I do have one regret. I wish we had bought that first unit long before we did in 2012. I spent too much time wondering if I could afford it. The truth is, as my friend Yan Seiner says when he faced the same issue, I could not afford to do it. The clock is ticking. I want every moment of the time I have left to count.

Jim Hammill, the president and CEO of the Erwin Hymer Group of North America which owns Roadtrek motorhomes, has a very powerful illustration that brings this home. He says take out a tape measure. Ask yourself how long you think you will live. Say it's 90. Then ask, how many years will you be healthy enough to enjoy RV traveling. Say the answer to that is 85. Put your finger on the 85 inch mark. Now put another finger on your current age. The length of time between those numbers is how much time you have left. Look at those numbers from one to your current age. They went by pretty fast, didn't they? Now look at the numbers between 85 and your current age.

There really is no time to waste.

We all have a bucket list.

Jennifer and I are filling ours.

We just wish we had started earlier because now that we're Roadtreking, we keep adding to it as we see what an incredible world is out there just waiting to be explored..