New Owner

[DWM]

New owner of Class C Thor Motorhome. Any suggestions? - Where to stay: RV places, free overnight short stays, etc. Should I join KOA or others? Best map books. Any other suggestions.

[EA37TS]

Welcome to the forum. Which Class C do you have?

A number of the items you are interested in have already been discussed numerous times on the forum. Conduct a forum search on the topics keywords and you will get a ton of info.

[paulwadley]

Welcome to the forum. There is a lot of knowledge here on the forum. If you run into any questions/issues just ask and someone will have an answer. As far as clubs to join, some will allow you a "trial period" before joining to see if it is what you want to do. I have a KOA membership and it saves a little money each time I pick a KOA plus I build up points for future use. I also have a Thousand Trails membership for the west coast which I use many times each year for local 3 day trips from home. It is all about how much you plan on using it as well as the cost of the membership. Some are cheap and some are expensive. As far as a membership for buying things, Good Sam is advisable. Shop around and try out all of the "free" things before buying.

Paul

[JamieGeek]

Congrats and welcome.

So many questions LOL. You'll get tons of answers. You may want to post each one individually (also use the search box first you may find what you're looking for without even posting).

[Bob Denman]

I'll stay out of the way of all the answers that are about to land in here, and just welcome you to the Forum!
By the way: which model did you get?

[coachray]

Welcome to the forum. We are Good Sam members, and it's working good for us so far. We've been able to find a nice good sam campground everywhere we've gone and have saved some money at each one.

[DWM]

Thank you...looking for any suggestions or tips for a new Class C owner

[Bob Denman]

We need a little bit more informatuion: which Class C model did you buy?

[DWM]

Chateau 24BL Class C

[Bob Denman]

That's a really nice-sized rig. You should be able to get into any park that has length limitations. (Like the National Parks...)
Free overnight camping?
A lot of Walmarts allow this. Check with store managers when you want to give it a try.
Get the pilot/flying J app on your phone. It'll help to you find the best truck stops out along the interstates.
Do you have leveling jacks or stabilizers?

[DWM]

thanks for responding...will know when I pick it up next Tuesday

[Bob Denman]

We';ll expect a full report on it's delivery!
NOTE: Make sure that they show you how each and every system in your RV works; and that it is operating properly!
(Our PDI took over four hours!)

[Lt Keefer]

Welcome aboard. Memberships are always nice for travelling, we have Thousand Trails and Good Sam. Thousand Trails is sort of like a time share with destination camping in mind and a Good Sam membership gives a discount at every participating campground. For us, we found that KOA had no value. They simply charged to much and most of their associated campgrounds were dumps. We also use freecampsite.net and rvparky app for finding overnight spots. Have fun.

[Travelin' Texans]

If you want something like Thousand Trails go online & buy from someone wanting out of theirs, it'll save lots of $$. We looked at a few of the TT campgrounds before retirement & found them to be a bit run down with way too many permanent residents, usually not allowed, to be storing their junk at them. For what they charge for a membership they should ALL be pristine. Just my .02.
Good Sams is probably the most popular. It gets you 10% off at any particpating campgrounds & discounts on RV goodies at Camp World.
KOA is typically more expensive than others, but if you're traveling with kids several have entertainment for them. Their membership will get you 10% til you've stayed a few times then you'll have built up points for free stays & upgraded to VIP status getting 15% off & building points faster.
Passport America gets you 50% off on participating campgrounds, but check out their blackout dates closely, some have only a few days mid week available, typically no holidays or weekends. We cancelled after the 1st year due to the only days available were the ones that didn't end in Y, it seemed to us.
There are several apps available for RV camping, free or not. Also read the reviews closely, some folks can't be pleased no matter what & those are usually the ones that post reviews most often. Have read reviews for VERY nice parks that gave them 1 star because they didn't have "free dog poop bags" or "the free WiFi was weak" in both cases if you need either bring them with you.

[Mr Sunshine]

Welcome to the forum! Answers to your many questions depend heavily on who and what you are taking with you on your adventures. Kids, young or teens, or none. Long trips or weekend jaunts?

But first things first. You are picking up your new coach on Tuesday. You need a good PDI or pre-delivery checklist. There's a good one in Ed Felker's excellent crowd-sourced manual for Vegas/Axis. Find it on a sticky under "Motorhome Tech Topics". Much of what he compiled will help you.

Checklists will be your friend!

[71_340]

Originally Posted by DWM

thanks for responding...will know when I pick it up next Tuesday

Welcome to this great forum and congratulations on your new RV. Two weeks ago we bought a new 2019 Four Winds 24 BL with full body paint and diesel generator. I think your new RV is pretty much the same as ours.

We have a standard Good Sam membership which gives you some nice discounts. We have roadside assistance through Geico and also MPP (ext. warranty).

Anyway, before worrying about memberships make sure you RV is good to go as I am sure there are a lot of little things you have to tidy up and its not worth going to the dealer. The handier you are with tools the better will be your RV experience (regardless of brand). If you want more details what I had to do just ask.

Overall we love our 24 BL (except the 13.5K AC, but that will be checked next week at the dealership).

[Mag]

Originally Posted by DWM

New owner of Class C Thor Motorhome. Any suggestions? - Where to stay: RV places, free overnight short stays, etc. Should I join KOA or others? Best map books. Any other suggestions.

Check out boondockerswelcome.com. Best way to stay for free.

[Mag]

Originally Posted by DWM

New owner of Class C Thor Motorhome. Any suggestions? - Where to stay: RV places, free overnight short stays, etc. Should I join KOA or others? Best map books. Any other suggestions.

I believe Mercedes also offers 3yr/36000 mile roads side assistance on new models.

[Capemaywolfman]

We own a 5 star park in Cape May NJ. Best bet is check out the ratings and reviews. KOA doesn't guarantee a quality park. Ours is privately owned and operated. Thanks...Dave R

[Capemaywolfman]

I have a slide that doesn't operate. How easy is it to manually extend the slide. Parts are coming from China!