Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2010 18:35:43 -0500
Reply-To: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: David Beierl <dbeierl@ATTGLOBAL.NET>
Subject: Private Re: [VANAGON] Reality Check on New & Better VW Campers
In-Reply-To: <20101127080612.A87Q7.186511.imail@eastrmwml46>
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At 08:06 AM 11/27/2010, mcneely4@cox.net wrote:
>A bizarre thing to me is that if one buys one on credit, one gets
>the same tax break that anyone paying for a house on a mortgage
>gets. For that matter, the same goes for any "motor home," whatever
>class it is.
If it has the living facilities of a home, you're allowed to treat it
as a second home under Federal tax law, which considers that two
homes is not an unreasonable thing for Americans to own. Same thing
for boats. The Vanagon misses out because it hasn't got an enclosed
toilet, but there's at least one German conversion that would
qualify. If you spend two weeks a year in one that's as much time as
many people spend in their little hideaway on the lake (or
whatever). And people do in fact live in them, sometimes full time
-- big RVs, little RVs, big boats, little boats, even Vanagons.
Out of sincere curiosity, not to argue -- what in the area of both
moving and stationary secondary living facilities/means of travel
defines your perceived continuum of responsibility vs
irresponsibility? Does it involve $expended/person, $capital/person,
ft^3/person, hydrocarbons used/person/year, incremental stress on
transportation infrastructure/person, wretched-excess quotient? Is
it the machines themselves or the way they get used that bothers you
particularly?
To give an idea where I stand -- I think my brother's motor home is a
remarkable piece of engineering, and in many/most ways it's very well
done, though not always the way I would have done it and certainly
not always to my particular taste. I think it would be extremely
well suited to something that my father used to seriously talk about
-- sell up, buy a motor home and rotate around the country spending a
few months at a time with each of the widely-scattered children. Use
it, in fact, as a primary home, one that can relocate itself and does
so from time to time.
This particular one has accommodations for three couples, or at any
rate three double berths. For six people to tour the country it
seems to me a reasonable arrangement and possibly even an economical
one if you ignore the initial cost(s). Renting one to me would make
more sense, I think, but undoubtedly has its own complications. I'd
also favor one with no slides -- but then the accommodations would
look a lot more like those of a 35' sailboat, which is not something
that six people would be comfortable in for very long. Four people,
yes. My 8' x 52' house trailer back in '76 (oops, mobile home, sorry
<g>) had living accommodations for two, so house-like accommodations
for six in a 35' motor home is really something of an accomplishment,
even with the slides.
The one your sister has probably was priced in the
stratosphere. This one's toward the low end of what I call "serious"
motor homes -- rear diesel, purpose-built chassis. He paid roughly
3/4 list price for it -- about 6/5 of what my 1400 ft^2 American
Four-Square house in Providence would sell for today, or about 3/4
what my insurance company thinks it would cost to rebuild. And six
people living in my house would be two in a berth, or at least two in
a room. Granted, not the living room.
Not my taste -- but I have trouble calling it irresponsible as a
given, even with the 5 mpg. A trio of Vanagons might not do much
better, at half the weight. My own design would *be* half the
weight, and I'd hope for ten mpg which is about what my 15,000# milk
truck got. Of course it never went over 45 mph, 'cause that's where
the governor on the engine was set. [10 mpg and 10 cents a quart
gross profit -- fairly iffy proposition in 1978, which is why the
dairy was selling off the routes instead of keeping them in house. I
guessed and paid myself $125 a week, and when we cashed it all out
four months later turns out I guessed just right! I'm very glad I
did it and was very glad to stop.]
I'm an old-Vanagon and old-30+' sailboat guy, and for the same
reasons -- you don't stand out, you can stop pretty much where you
want to, two or three people can be quite comfortable if they take it
in the right spirit and don't mind living partly outdoors, nobody
looks and thinks geez, I wonder what they must have paid for
*that*. A Vanagon's actually more comparable to maybe a 22'
sailboat, or a 25-footer if it's a Westy; but you don't sink into the
ground when you step outside which alters things a little.
But my 90-y/o mother, and my eighty-some father with fairly advanced
Lewy-Body dementia managed ok on a round-the-country trip in Chris's
behemoth, which they sure wouldn't have in my Vanagon. We were
actually seven -- I slept in the front passenger throne. The
emotional climate was horrendous and I bailed out halfway through,
but physically things worked very well.
Best,
David
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