RV first time home credit IRS FAQ

When I read this FAQ from the IRS, there is specifically a question about the RV being eligible for the first time homebuyer credit. I thought the answer is/was very interesting.

Here is the text :

Q. Can an individual who has lived in an RV qualify for the credit?

A.  For purposes of the first-time homebuyer credit, an RV with a built-in motor is personal property that is not affixed to land and does not qualify as a principal residence. Accordingly, someone who has owned and lived in an RV within the past three years may still qualify as a first-time homebuyer.

So, you have to really be careful - and a little bit bold I think. It isn't all perfectly lined up by the Gov either. For example, it sounds like a 5th wheel or travel trailer WOULD be eligible for the first time home buyer credit IF you live in it full time BUT a Class A motorhome would NOT be eligible if you read the FAQ because it DOES have a motor - which is baloney.

But if you want the sales tax deduction that was enacted in 2009, you can get it on Motorhomes but you can't get it on 5th wheels or travel trailer because they DON'T have a motor.

Video Drive By Review : Homeplace RV Sites Fairfield Texas

Drive by review of an RV (recreational vehicle) park called Homeplace RV Sites in Fairfield Texas.

Video Drive By Review : Cedar Grove RV Park Fairfield Texas

Drive by review (we didn't stay) of the Cedar Grove RV (recreational vehicle) Park at Fairfield Texas. Also very close to Mexia and Teague Texas.

RV : The ultimate dating machine

Ok. This isn't really news, but I know know why I'm talking more about Puma (our RV) and sold the BMW 540i! Use your RV for dating! Read here for more.

Video Drive By Review : Shady Oaks Cabins and RV Park Fairfield Texas

A drive by review of Shady Oaks Cabins and RV Park in Fairfield Texas. This park is by Fairfield, Teague, Mexia and IH45.

We're still learning about how fast to drive (video should be comprehensive, but short), how to stabilize the video, how to edit, and so forth.

But the idea is to help recreational vehicle folks to see what the park looks like in a way that pictures cannot convey. Its a fun project and idea so we're going to keep working at it.

Let me know what things are helpful, what things are trouble and what you might want changed. I feel like there are many review sites available with all the 'data' and really just want to add video.

Repeat Home Buyer Tax Credit may be available to FullTime RV'ers

For RV fulltimers who are repeat home buyers and the RV is the principal residence, you MAY be able to get up to a $6,500 tax credit for an RV purchase. Of course the RV must be your principal residence. If you read the IRS form 5405, you'll see this instruction :

This instruction seems a bit focused and hard to hit, but perhaps it covers your situation. Good luck. 

Can RV Fulltimers utilize the Home Buyer Tax Credit?

For all of you fulltime RV ( recreational vehicle ) owners you may want to consider something in the IRS tax code. Read on and I'll explain.

Previously, in an earlier article, I noted that if you actually READ the tax instructions, interest on an RV should be deductable.

I've also been reading that if you have an RV with a motor in it you can deduct the sales tax. I live in Texas so I'm pretty sure I could do that anyway, because Texas has a special sales tax provision already.

However, what I haven't seen much information about is the answer to this question : Is an RV subject to the First Time Home Buyer Tax credit? I think there is also another credit for people who are not first time home buyers, but I'm only going to explain what I've read in the IRS publication 5405 which are the instructions for the tax credit.

I've made a picture of the relevant section, and of course all of YOU have to read and decide for yourself, but if your RV is your main residence (or will be) then I don't see why you can't use this tax credit. If you were already thinking about an RV AND were planning on living in it, then this could be substantial. Really, $8000 is a nice chunk of money - assuming of course you would pay that much in taxes (it is a credit - not a deduction).

Here is the relevant text. It is the definition of "Main Home".

Leave comments and tell me what you think!

Destinations : The Fairfield Texas Flea Market

Ok. So maybe this isn't quite a 'destination', but if you are halfway between Dallas and Houston (ok closer to Dallas) on IH45, there are a number of RV ( recreational vehicle ) parks in that area and some little fun activities you can do to enjoy your time a little bit more.

Not far from Fairfield there is an incredibly HUGE tree farm on highway 84 (just Southwest of Fairview). We didn't tour it, but it would be super neat to visit. Trees as far as you can see. For all I know, you may have bought a tree from there (via Lowes or Home Depot) already.

If you have wayward family members, you might be in the area to visit them in prison. I actually DID that. I won't go into that in detail here - but that was a new first for me.

We did visit the Flea Market, and I just can't say much about it. I'll let you see our video and YOU decide.



Enjoy.

Video Drive By Review : Lake Travis RV Park Austin Texas

Video Drive by Review of the Lake Travis RV ( recreational vehicle ) Park in Austin Texas. Second attempt. This time we had shaky video, but I was able to correct using Apple's iMovie software.

Click HERE for the Drive by Video.

This is a charming looking little park. The spaces look very close, but the tree cover is amazing, the grass looks wonderful and the park looks like a real-live neighborhood. There is a small hotel in the front with a laundry and the back portion of the park is gated for security. Very much oriented towards full timers.

Video Drive By Review : La Hacienda RV Park Austin Texas

This is my FIRST attempt at a video drive through review of a RV park. The goal is to help people get a sense of a park from video. We really won't add any color commentary - we expect the footage to be self speaking.

Forgive us for our jerky camera and cheap text overlays. Give us enough time and we'll get better.

But hey, maybe with this video you might be able to get an idea of the park.

Quick notes : Sheri and I definitely want to try this park out. Its close to a fantastic lake, has really big spaces, and excellent facilities.

Click HERE for the link to the park.

RV Lemon Laws : Texas

If your RV ( recreational vehicle ) has questionable quality issues and you bought it in Texas from a Texas dealer you may be able to get some help from the Texas Lemon Laws. I believe the most applicable part of the Texas code is THIS LINK. There is a site that is an umbrella site to that link and you can reach it here.

I took a quick look and if you buy an RV for a market price from a dealer, but it has so many things wrong with it AND you made attempts to get it repaired but were able to get no satisfaction then you may be able to get relief from these statutes. When reading it, the test is that the value is seriously impaired. So if you got a REALLY good deal, then maybe not, but if you paid fair market value, then you have a good chance.

I'll work on a list of lemon laws for different states and I can post them in Lemon Law list which gives pointers to the applicable states statutes. Would you like that?

Outdoor House : Childrens Rooms

When Sheri and I think of our RV ( recreational vehicle ) based outdoor house, we have to consider where our two children might sleep or have their own space.

One idea we had is that we could little teardrop campers and the kids could simply have their own space. They could decorate it anyway they want. How cool and how fun would that be!? I mean really, if I was a kid and I had my own little camper to sleep in that would be so super cool.

Here is a link to a typical little ultra light trailer. To save you from having to click on the link to see what we're talking about, I've added a picture.

We wouldn't need one with anything but a little clothes, sleeping, and studying space. They could use the bathroom in the house for bathing and other necessities.

And then when they grow up, they can either have the ultra lite or we could sell it.

Outdoor House : The Storage Room

When Sheri and I think of an RV ( recreational vehicle ) and our outdoor house, we believe that in addition to a living room/great room, an outdoor bathroom, an outdoor kitchen concept, and the RV as the environmental protection area (sleeping, cooking, and living indoor for very inclimate weather), we believe that one room that is also needed is a utility room.


The utility room is the final piece that makes the outdoor home a true home base for our RV. Its less about the idea of an extra room than it is about having the things that you have in a full size home.


We believe the room should satisfy the following needs/uses :

• A Tornado safe room - probably cinder block and reinforced.
• Full size (or bigger) refrigerator and freezer.
• Full size washer and dryer.
• Dry goods storage (food, etc.)
• Storage for other things as well.
• Secure

I'm thinking the room would need to be about 400 square foot or larger. It would be wired for the appliances and be able to be secured. 

Who "out there" has an outdoor house / home base concept that has most of the elements I've been discussing?

Outdoor House : The Bathroom

When you think of an RV ( recreational vehicle ) based outdoor house you may not think of having a bathroom that is part of the outdoor living space. But for Sheri and I, that is a key part of the plan. We think about how nice it would be to take long baths and be able to look out onto nature, or over city lights, and so on. Doesn't that sound nice?

Our goal is to have the commode, the shower, and a bath to be outside. We think about not having doors, but have walls placed such that you'd have privacy without doors. There would be walls which would provide privacy, but definitely not all the way up to the ceiling - no - just high enough for privacy without hurting the open feeling.

Here is a picture of an outdoor oriented bathroom that has some of the elements that we really like.

Outdoor House : The Living Room or Great Room

When Sheri and I think of our outdoor house with its environmentally protected zone ( the RV ) our minds gravitate towards a large room concept that has these elements BUILT-IN to the design.

• Comfortable seating where you can lay down, sit up, and it should feel nice and stay clean.
• Covered living.
• Cool-able via evaporative cooling
• Heat-able via large fireplace that is a focal point for the room, but at odd angles.
• Heat-able via those gas space heaters you see at restaurants
• Large attractive ceiling fans.
• A big screen TV hanging from the rafters.

Have you ever watched a movie outside? It is a great experience. Now imagine you can do it without worry from the elements, still be completely open, and imagine a fire in the fireplace. Now you're getting our vision!

Here is a picture of a wonderful room that captures so much of what we'd like to do. We can imagine a big screen built into the fireplace as well as hanging from the ceilings.

Outdoor House : The Kitchen

When you think of an RV ( recreational vehicle ) and an outdoor house, realistically, it would be hard to cook inside if you have a great deal of people visiting - even more than for about 5 or 6 would be tough with three burners and a small oven.

So an integral part of our RV outdoor house would be to have a kitchen outside that serves for when we are entertaining, grilling, or just want to make sure that the smells, smokes, and bustle of cooking is not in the smaller RV but outside. That has other benefits like not raising the indoor temperature of the RV. Also, who wants to be inside cooking and be separated from the fun and conversation.

The RV manufacturers understand this. While they might be targeting tailgating, they are certainly designing RV's with outdoor kitchens. This fits so well with what Sheri and I think about outdoor house and the RV! Here is a link to just one RV design with the outdoor kitchen. (We are secretly partial to the big daddy toy haulers so we hope this trend takes off.). I'll put in a picture so you can see the kitchen without clicking.

There are many, many, many ideas we have (we cut out pictures from magazines and off the web) for living outdoors (under a roof of course) and having an outdoor house with an outdoor kitchen.

At the bottom of this short writeup, I'll attach a picture where the kitchen blends in so nicely, that you really have to look to find it. That's how we want to do it. Of course, we'll need some dry goods storage, but we'll touch on that later.

We want to here about YOUR outdoor house and outdoor kitchen ideas! So don't be shy about posting. Links are OK too!

RV Lifestyle Article : Silicon Valley Family changes everything

Another article that touches on the FREEDOM of the RV ( recreational vehicle ) lifestyle. A recurring theme is learning to live with less. I have to believe that the theme would be ok in a smaller house without wheels as much as one with wheels!

Link to the article HERE.

The GOV is selling Travel Trailers like Crazy!

This government auction has a few RV dealers and a congressman up in ARMS! If you look around the web you'll find a few news stories about it.

I just think this is a very interesting question. The government has the unique ability to do things so BIG that it could really have an impact. That is one angle. But the other angle is that when the government buys your stuff - great - but when they are done with it, if they exercise the right - that all other people have - to sell the item for a terminal value, people get upset.

What do you think?

Green RV - RV is more New Economy than you think

If you search on Google for "green RV", you'll find 100's of articles, such as this fine Peter Greenberg article.

You cannot doubt that innovation will continue around fuel efficiency, lower weight, better insulation, more efficient heating and cooling among other innovations.

Beyond energy efficiency, green RV's have the added advantage that you can dry-camp or boon dock longer, you can do more stops without hookups, you can get by with a smaller tow vehicle or engine, you can make less runs to buy LP. Green is actually a BETTER RV experience. So all the built in incentives have been in place from the beginning of time - regardless of your position on green today. In other words, RV users would prefer green due to the conveniences even if they didn't care about green!

But there are huge shifts in the American economy taking place that may forever change the relationships to RV's.

First, while I am not a full-timer, Sheri my wife, full-timed for two years in Puma. But it is my observation that the full-timers are WAY ahead of the rest of us for bunches of reasons you may have never considered.

1) Since when is living in a 1500 square foot house an entitlement? Prior to 1950 (approx) people lived in smaller houses. It seeems that around 1960 on to about now (2009/2010) the trend has been to get bigger houses. But do you really NEED that space. And now with mortgages being more difficult to get, and American employment less secure, the reality is that homes will be smaller. To a degree, the RV is the perfect small home and you can locate it anywhere you want! In general, living in less space and consuming less space should be the future trend.

2) Go where the jobs are! The idea of staying rooted just isn't what it used to be. For many reasons, people are more mobile than ever. Also, the American economy benefits when a free flow of labor can occur. Look at the problems in Michigan with the car company troubles. A more mobile attitude would allow those people to relocate much quicker. That relocation would get them jobs, and to the chagrin of some, lower wages in the areas with employent. But you know - we're going to have to get used to lower wages. They aren't the end of the world, just the end of too much greed. RV's are the most mobile of homes - sturdy, mobile and you can have fun vacationing, meeting new people, and visiting new areas.

3) Take your job with you. Related to #2, if you can use the network and the computer to make a living, why stay in one spot! RV's are a great place to live if you are a techie and don't have a lot of stuff.

4) American's wealth relative to other nations is coming more inline with reality. We had it great folks but really, we were an abnormality of sorts. Our wealth was unprecedented. I don't see a huge economic disaster with the Obama spending, because our economy - so far - has been good at fairly soft landings, but I think that when all the dust clears, we'll realize that we all will have to live with just a little bit less and have a more realistic attitude regarding our earning power, and consequently our ability to have 'things'. RV's are nice because if you have one and try to live in one, then you learn that 'stuff' isn't so important. RV's make sure that you carry with you, only the most necessary items.

5) If you think about an outdoor house concept, like Sheri and I are thinking, then that will use the RV as the environmentally tightly controlled living shell with a covered but open area that uses non-traditional methods of climate control for MOST of our living. Our goal is to spend most of our days outside! This should be the ultimate in living BIG while living GREEN (because the environmental control zone is small) and lowering the cost and environmental footprint of the home (because the materials are simple - avoiding insulation, avoiding synthetic flooring and more). RV's can and will be an INTEGRAL part of that concept, even if the the 'shell' won't be a true RV in the sense of the word.

These are some thoughts I have had about RV's and the new economy (green, less, and mobile). What do you think? Leave some comments that add to the discussion or give me pause to rethink things.

The Outdoor House

When Sheri and I discussed our future plans with the RV, we always have as part of our future the concept that we call an outdoor house.

Our idea is that we would live in the RV fulltime, but not even necessarily travel around that much. We assumed that our RV would form an environmentally protected shell for in-climate weather but that MOST of the time we would be living outside. We can accomplish this because while Texas is hot the heat is manageable by many many different methods. For cold weather, generally, most cold days are not too bad and we could use outdoor space heaters to utilize our outdoor area. But our thoughts were that for 7 out of 10 days, we could live outdoors. We would sleep in the RV. We would have a special room for washer and dryer and storage, but that would be the only 'sealed' area in the outdoor house other than the RV.

The picture I'm attaching shows the simplest form of an outdoor house. Notice that this RV is actually being used and lived in. Also, we would extend the roof at least 30-40 feet in one direction to create our living areas.

Post your comments on the outdoor house concept!

RV is defined as "Home" in IRS Home Interest Deduction

Regarding RV's (Recreational Vehicles) I don't even KNOW what I don't know! I stumbled across this little tidbit and wanted to pass it on. Currently, Sheri and I pay interest currently on Puma. So naturally, this IRS publication caught my eye.

Look for the definition of "Qualified Home". If you see what I see, it says : "For you to take a home mortgage interest deduction, your debt must be secured by a qualified home. This means your main home or your second home. A home includes a house, condominium, cooperative, mobile home, house trailer, boat, or similar property that has sleeping, cooking, and toilet facilities.".

You file your taxes the way you want, but we'll be calling Puma, a home!

Corpus Christi - USS Lexington

This weekend (January 2010) Sheri, myself and the family took a family trip to visit the USS Lexington down in Corpus Christi, Texas.

While this wasn't strictly related to our RV, it is related to ideas about travel and this is a neat destination. From Austin Texas, the Lexington is about 3.5 hours south on I-35/I-37 via San Antonio. There is an alternate route that is really just about as easy which is Texas 181/123 and goes between San Marco and Corpus.

RV Route Recommendation : I would recommend Texas 123/181 over I-35/I-37 in a heartbeat. Very little difference in time, but lots less traffic, wide open roads and would really be an easy drive.

There is a very large bridge right next to the Lex. You can park your car underneath that bridge. From there it is about a three block walk to the Lex. You'll walk up a very long walkway (about 250 yards) and that will get you to the entrance. The pay booth is literally right in the hangar bay of the great carrier.

On board there are five different tours (or routes) you can explore. My favorite is the engine room. You get an idea of BIG when you see the GEARSHIFT for an aircraft carrier and it is the size of two full size Chevy van's right next to each other.

There is a gift shop and cafeteria. Many exhibits are low tech and very simple, but if you are willing, you will learn a great deal. We DID get to view a really good movie which detailed the Red Flag 'competition' at Nellis Air force base in Las Vegas. Very touching and a recommended view for young people interested in working to be a pilot.

We did not have good luck with the kids as they wanted to ROAR through the exhibits. Assess your child or grandchild and decide if they'll go at your pace. There were a great deal of stairs that were very, very steep so call and see how accessible it is if you have moving around.

Here is my LINK to the video of the bridge of the USS Lexington.
Here is my LINK to the video of the flight deck of the USS Lexington.
Here is my LINK to a video of a big ship (ok I think it was kind of cool) leaving the Corpus Christi port.

Hope this helps! Send questions or post a comment! Thanks.

RV Living / Green Living

Down here in Austin, we have a saying "Keep Austin Wierd" and even though Austin has grown up large and very urban, it still beats to a different drum.

Here is a great article about two boys in Austin who are innovating in the RV space, even though they don't own a 'standard' Montana for example.

I really like the vegetable oil for the engine.

Video of the RV <-click here
Text of the Newspaper Article <- click here

Keeping the RV Clean and Neat

When visiting our RV (recreational vehicle) recently Sheri and I ran across a woman who had a fantastic outdoor mat (or rug) under her RV retractable awning.

The mat was this amazing rubbery material, I think polypropylene, and it was reversible. It was brown and white and was very, very light. She said it was very easy to clean - having hosed it off before with just a simple garden hose. She also said she loved how it easily rolled up and could be stored.

We had asked her where she had gotten it and she had said Walmart.

We found one mat at Walmart and purchased it immediately.

The MOST IMPORTANT benefit of having a mat is that it keeps gravel and dirt from being tracked into the RV from the campsite. We have found, more often that not, that the RV pad sites are gravel and not concrete, which means it is very easy to track in debris. The mat solves so much of that.

I tried to find the mat online at Walmart, but you cannot get it from walmart.com, which seems funny to me. You can however find it at amazon.com.

Good luck. We've put it over in our catalog section so you can find it over on that page.

Hot Water Heaters

It turns out that turning on and off hot water heaters ISN'T just about saving energy. This article, sent to me by a reader of my RV (recreational vehicle) blog pointed out some other thinking about hot water heaters.

Read this article about reasons to keep the hot water heater ON AND at 140 degrees F!

You be the judge? How susceptible to bacteria might you be?

Turning On and Off the Water Heater to Save Electricity

If my recreational vehicle ( RV ) is plugged into an all electric system (like a 50 Amp) and I heat my hot water with electric, is it better to turn off the hot water heater when I don't use it or leave it on all the time?

I spoke with Dr. Paul Ballentine, an MIT and SUNY Grad with expertise in Thermodynamics and he said turning off a hot water heater at anytime is a good idea. Paul is very active in the green energy community in Austin Texas so I consider him a pretty strong source.

The reason people think it is not a good idea, according to Paul, is that there is a misconception that hot water heaters consume more energy when they are starting up.

I personally searched the web and could not find anything that said that hot water heaters consume more energy on the startup phase. So you can feel assured that it is OK to turn off the hot water heater (assuming turn on is easy) and you will save energy.

Here is a reference to a nice simple model from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Notice that there is not a penalty variable in the formula for startup!

A Stream of Consciousness Regarding Communications

First, in our home base, we JUST get DSL (no landline phone. no TV). We get it
through ATT. We get movies (Amazon, Netflix, Apple), TV shows (abc.com, hulu),
and the program guide (TitanTV) for our HDTV tuner (eyetv - which USB connects
to our Mac Mini) which gives us great TV over the air.

* Why I list it here - Everything about this is MOBILE except the DSL portal.
(TV is mobile, favorite things to watch portable). Pseudo-pro - Using ATT DSL
gives me FREE DSL at Barnes and Noble, Starbucks and LOTS of other places which
is KIND OF an RV-ish solution. Also, since we have PVR, we can set the system to
record at home base and get home and watch what we want.

* Important Note : Entertainment over Internet takes LOTS and LOTS of bandwidth.
The NUMBER ONE (repeat : Number one) thing to look at when looking at mobile
solutions is how much bandwidth you use in a month. Most cellular plans have a
5GByte limit which is not so much if you do much media - including backup,
music, video, streaming radio and so forth - maybe even homeschooling courses
could work against that.

* Cellular - I have not had cellular, but I know several people that have a
Sprint 3G data card and have been thrilled with its performance. It is subject
to the 5GB limit UNLESS you were an early purchaser. I have one friend that is
an early purchaser that BELIEVES that Sprint is now 'metering' out his
connection - so that is something to think about. I have heard that T-Mobile's
network is slow. I imagine that means ATT's could be as well (comments anyone?).
So by power of deduction I'm thinking Verizon's would be a good choice to
compete against Sprint.

* WiFi - I've noticed that the WiFi at the RV parks I've stayed is highly
suspect. Either spotty connections ran by non-techie people, weak signals, or a
remote park with good WiFi but a bad connection to the main network. I do not
think you can rely on this at all.

* WiMax - Just started selling in Austin. Looks great, but coverage will be a
problem for a long while. Probably cannot rely on this either.

* Dial-up - Do people still use this or rely on this? Ick.

* Satellite - No experience. I have seen some bandwidth limits imposed as well.

What Sheri and I plan on doing will be something along the following...

* Cellular MiFi (or similar system) that allows for cellular to the trailer, but
then use WiFi to send to the different devices (we have two laptops, one
desktop, an iPod).
* Cellular voice communications - no landlines at the home base.
* Use WiFi from the parks for entertainment where possible.
* See if we can get a package deal (currently : $50/phone unlimited voice +
$60/month Cellular data) better than $150/month.

- To investigate - It may be that satellite could be workable. I'll check that
out when I have a chance.

- A killer product/service would be a box that was WiMax + Cellular to the
network and WiFi locally. But I have found a WiFi plus WiMax, which I don't find as interesting.

Anway, I hope this gives you some ideas on communications.

RV Lifestyle Article

Found the reference to this recreational vehicle lifestyle article on families on the road website and liked it so much I wanted to list it here.

Click Here for the Article

Is an RV a Good Investment?

This probably could be very controversial but I wondered if an RV is a good investment? I know it depreciates and homes appreciate, but what do the NUMBERS say?

I had to start with "Is an RV a good investment" and add "compared to what I'm doing now".

So, THIS LINK is a google docs spreadsheet.

I make some ASSUMPTIONS (please be gentle oh blogosphere). I started with the idea that I am doing something now - say rent @ $1,400 per month. I then decided my choice was to buy a house or buy an RV and I compared the three. I assumed a savings rate, a mortgage rate, pad expense (for the RV), real estate taxes.

What was suprising... is RENT is the absolute WORST path no matter what - not even close. But surprisingly, house and RV were not that far apart in 'end point final assets', but for ENTIRELY different reasons.

I left out some details like fuel costs or insurance as they needed to be purchased on both options. Anyway, just meant this to be FUN and thought provoking.

Marlan

Nice Little Maps for Showing Where you Have Been (Web)

Click HERE  to get a site where you can create a really nice little map for putting on your signature.

I'll post a permanent link to this on my links section.

M

Insurance Companies You Know that Carry RV Insurance[

[ This is a list we'll update from time to time, but hopefully it helps you save time and comparison shop. Please leave comments that help people find the best deals or best coverage. ]

The links should take you to their RV insurances pages. Good luck!

It is worth mentioning that Geico and Progressive both are PAYING for the top spot on Google when you search for "RV insurance".

Geico - Mr. Buffets company. I insure with them. I always have to CALL to get better rates - they never lower the rates without me asking. Grrr. Also, they were not too smart and if you are not careful you'll get the wrong trailer (like a storage trailer - or work trailer) insurance. We were looking at a 'travel trailer'. People who are not IN the RV world do not understand the difference. I repeat - most people do not know that the word travel trailer MEANS if they are not in the RV world!!!!

Allstate - Oddly, they call it Motorhome insurance, so I don't know if they won't insure travel trailers or fifth wheels. I wouldn't want anyone to waste their time - and I have to ASSUME that they don't or they would have said something different. I'm finding that if you go outside of the SCRIPT to the call centers their heads explode!

Nationwide - If you DIG, you'll find RV insurance on this site. When we moved my wife's Honda from Nationwide to Geico, we HALVED our insurance, so it would be interesting to see the difference.

Farmers Motorhome and Farmers Travel Trailer. I think the fact that they view these separately might be a really good omen that as a company they've at least thought out the real differences. I think we'll definitely get a quote from these guys.

Progressive - These guys will insure yo mamma! They have snowmobile insurance and Segway insurance. How cool is that?

USAA - I've noticed that many RV'ers seem to be retired military. So it is really great that USAA offers this insurance. They called it Motorhome only, so I don't know about the pull types, but click the link to look them up.

Safeco - To be fair, this company is owned by Liberty Mutual. But I don't know if you would get a discount for multiple vehicles if you insured with both.

American Family Insurance - I couldn't get an RV link but they have RV insurance. It looks easy to get a quote too.

Maybe some noteworthy mentions next because they are companies you've heard of as well, but not so much around insurance...

GMAC - Yep. They seem to insure RV's!

Good Sam - Many of you are Good Sam members, so I can't help but think this would be an important mention to the RV community. It looks like GMAC and Good Sam are affiliated for offering insurance so having both of these here might not make sense.

MetLife - How cool is it that the life insurance company has some really good RV insurance pages?!

AARP / The Hartford - No real comments here.

The following companies did not seem to even think about RV's...

• State Farm - Mentioned boats, but nothing else, even under the "other" category.
• Liberty Mutual - Did a search on their site, and found one little tiny comment, but nothing else.
• Travelers - Ironically, the name 'Traveler' indicates they ought to do this but they don't. If you search for RV on their site, you'll find that they HAVE an RV for driving to areas that need lots of adjusting!

Cheers, M