Anyone ever rented an RV before? I am not looking for a trailer, but a small motor home. I know what people do to rental cars, so I am curious about the condition of RV's who actually have people living in them.
We checked with Cruise America but then I looked up some of their consumer reviews and decided to stay away from them,horrible customer service was just one of many complaints. There is a place near Apex D&H RV Rental I think,their 31' Sunseeker rents for $999 per week,however the one we looked at looked rough! Also checked with Hawleys in Clayton,they are quite a bit more expensive,we checked out their model,we were thinking about going to Maine with it for 2 weeks but it would have added up to over $3000,w/o insurance,campground fees etc.,no thanks! What really turned us off was the condition,luckily I sat on the bed to test it out as well as on the fold out couch,all you could feel when sitting on the bed was springs and one needs a forklift to make it back off the couch since you were just about sitting on the floor.
Withe the incredible number of RV units that have been repo'd, it seems logical that the places that want to rent them out can go to the auction, buy cheap, and rent for a lot. We averaged 8 mpg in a 31 ft winnebago. 950 to Key West...just the gas cost alone makes it a less than optimally affordable way to travel. Gas cost at 3.50 to key west and back.. 950 x 2/8= # gals. # gals x 3.50 per gal = $ 831 and change. I'm in favor of RV'ing. IF you are taking a family of 4 with you, then the transportation cost is about 167 bucks per person, quite affordable. And your food dollar can be less, if you fix a lot in the camper... but the camping fees, will probably run 45 bucks per night, so ten nights = 450, again, adding 90 bucks to the cost. Without food, just the cost of travel and overnighting at campgrounds is 220 about per person.
I wish I could find the guys name ... a couple of years ago we rented an RV. We rented it from an individual who had their camper parked in front of a mini storage off 70 leaving Clayton heading towards Garner just across from the country store with the big boot out front. He had a rental sign on the RV. I don't remember the price of the rental, but it wasn't nearly as expensive as the prices on the couple of postings in this thread. The RV was very clean & we really enjoyed the trip.
Two issues that immediately come to mind is breakdown/maintenance and legal/insurance issues in case of citation or accident. Be kinda tough to explain to your insurance a claim that you are party to as a result of 'renting' a private RV that is also probably not insured for rentals.
The guy we rented from actually had a few RV's he rented. There were rental contracts/insurance options/gas options ... He had contracts much like renting from one of the big companies ...
Hawley's rents RV's, too. http://www.hawleyscamping.com/ I haven't been in there in years, I know they used to be good folks running the place.
My apologies for suggesting that your rental was not well covered. My concern was for those who may not realize that the cost of renting an RV should include good coverage, almost never found on your own auto policy. I do know of one instance where person "A" rented his RV to friend "B", where "B" had little to no experience driving that big of a rig. Negotiating a car sedan through the pump island at a filling station is a lot different than doing it with a 34 footer. In the frustration to get to the pump, driver forgot the overhang and difference in height, and impacted the overhang with sufficient force to damage the integrity of the fiberglass roof, took off a Roof mounted A/C unit....and the RV was totaled. Owner's RV insurer disallowed the claim when they found out the it had been rented out. Drivers insurance co also disallowed the coverage. Result: court battle between two insurance companies, and two former friends...
