Thor Forums

[mcpandt]

Originally Posted by IDguy

A couple thoughts to save money:

1. Demco towbar and baseplate as good and much cheaper than Blue Ox. Buy online. Have a local car mechanic install base plate for 1/4 the price of RV dealer.
2. Jeep Cherokee my favorite tow. You really do want to tow 4 down vs. dolly. Started with 2wd standard trans Jeep Patriot...with 6000 miles for $12,000. It was fine but not as cushy.
3. Solar useless in my area. Maybe yours too. Doesn’t work in fall or winter when I need to keep batteries up for heat. Sun angle too low and days too short.
3. Spend your $ on better lead acid batteries (don’t waste on AGM or Li). And, if you don’t have generator get a portable to meet your needs. 2 Kw if you don’t use AC, 3.5kw if you do.

And my first purchase is always new mattress. Maybe previous owner solved that.

Ditto on almost all of this. We purchased a Cherokee as well and bought the tow bar package through Etrailer.com. Had our mechanic install and saved at least $1000 over CW.



One thing about the Cherokee, though. If you want to tow 4 down, which we do, you have to have one of the models with 2 speed PTU or ActiveDrive which I believe is the Trailhawk and the Limited, but there may be others if it was an add on. With a dolly, logistics are tougher and you are somewhat limited to pull through spaces which can be at a premium in a lot of campgrounds.




On the batteries it depends on the configuration of your battery compartment. I pretty much had to go with the AGM batteries as it's almost impossible for me to get to the back battery to check the water levels. I am 6' 4" and I have a hard enough time getting my battery tester cables back there. There had to be a better design.


I have made a number of mods over the last 6 months to get the coach where we want it, most of them from reading this board. There are a lot of very knowledgeable folks on here, and always willing to share great advice.