“Long time listener, first time caller”

[James Gill]

I have been reading POG and monitoring coach prices since at least 2006, and haven’t been able to shake the fever. The only prescription was to finally formally join POG and take the next step to our dream of owning a coach.

My wife has owned a large parade of towables for 30+ years with her prior (late) husband, and after we married in 2002, we bought a very small travel trailer to pull behind our Tesla Model Y. We love being on the road and have pulled our trailer for multiple long trips - about 7000 miles in the last 12 months.

I work from home and with our Starlink have decided we can live and work anywhere, so the plan is to sell our home and buy a coach in the next 12-24 months. Retirement is maybe 2-5 years away.

No questions really here at first, only that we’re going to take the time over the next year to keep studying buses and systems, understand the differences between converters, purge the house and get ready for the lifestyle change.

Right now the goal is a sub-$200k coach, possibly 40’ (but she’ll want a 45), non-slide, so all this means an older coach. We are well aware there will be maintenance, and have been reading up on Jon’s advice and many others here. The target will be a well maintained coach with no deferred maintenance, so we can have a good starting point to stay ahead of the bus. The converter isn’t critical, but a Liberty or Marathon will be top of the list. We would plan to trailer our Model Y behind the bus (no wheels down) so 20k tow capacity will be more than enough.

We’ll be Prevost newbies of course, but are very much tiptoeing in with eyes and ears wide open, eager to learn.

Anyways, glad to be aboard, and hope to be in a bus and meeting many of you at a future event.

[PrevostNewbie]

Welcome, post your questions here when you have them.

[James Gill]

Thank you Mike.

My immediate question is more about the POG forums than my coach search process.

For example, reading up on the legal issues subforum, most content looks quite old, like this one on the first page.

http://forum.prevostownersgroup.com/showthread.php?642-Stand-Back!-We-don-t-know-how-big-it-s-gonna-get

I certainly see recent activity on various sub forums, but how much can I rely upon for things like LLC, purchasing and owning entity, etc., all the things that will matter as a current homeowner in Nebraska. Our Sales and Property taxes are high here, so the strategy after selling the house will be establishing physical residency in a favorable state for the purchase and registration of our eventual bus.

We just want to make sure the older topics we study here are still relevant in 2025.

Thank you
James and Becky

[PrevostNewbie]

This forum has been around for a long time, that's why i was saying ask your questions. Think of a Bus purchase is like buying a high end luxury vehicle.

[Fratto]

I agree with Mike. And for legal issues, there are so many variables on a personal level, state and local level, etc., there is no way to cover them all in a forum. You need to use local experienced professionals to tailor these things for your specific situation.

[georgiapeachinc]

Welcome James,
I would go with a liberty since they are still in business and they have a great service and parts team. That is my opinion of course. If you are mechanically inclined and have a place to work on your coach, the older coaches are easy to work on versus the newer electronic chip versions. Again, my opinion. The challenge is finding that perfectly maintained vehicle. I was fortunate. Find a reliable person who can inspect your coach first. There are or were a couple of people here on POG that can help. Gil, who was a regular here does that for a living. In my next post if I still have his contact information we can arrange a personal contact with each other to share his info.

[sandz]

You can create an LLC in Montana for the purpose of owning vehicles. No sales tax, no state inspections and if your coach is over 10 years old you can get a permenant registration/plate.

You do not have to be a resident of Montana to form a Montana LLC.

We use $49 dollar Montana registered agent. For a fee they will set up your LLC, submit your yearly paperwork to the SOS etc. They are in Kalispell MT.

Works for us. We previously had an address in South Dakota that worked for vehicle licensing without being a resident, but we like the Montana LLC better. We full time and do not own a sticks and bricks home, although we do own our site here on the coast in Oregon.

[Fratto]

I have several friends that are using a Montana LLC and it works nicely for them. However, not all states view this tax avoidance scheme favorably. You really need to get advice from a professional to help you understand the potential risks involved for your specific situation and then decide if the money you save on a sub $200k coach is worth that risk.

If you choose to get local advice and move forward with an LLC, please share your specific circumstances and the advice given. This will be invaluable for others on the forum.

And of course, please keep us posted on your search for a bus ...

[Fratto]

James: I re-read your initial post and noticed that you are planning on pulling a trailer for the model Y. This is personal preference, but depending on your bus life style, pulling a trailer can be limiting. Not all parks have pull through spots so you have to park it somewhere; if you are staying one night on the way somewhere and you have to unhook for the night and re-hook in the morning, that is a pain; some parks do not have trailer parking, etc. etc. Our life style on the bus does not work with these limitations. However we have friends that move infrequently between large upscale parks and pulling trailers works for them just fine... including those awesome stackers painted to match the coach~

[James Gill]

Thanks for the various responses so far on this thread.

We are likely still a year away from a bus purchase. We do not plan to maintain a physical residence, we’ll sell our house for proceeds for a bus. Getting a short term apartment in a favorable state that will work with a Montana LLC or a South Dakota registration is not out of the question. But again the plan is full time on the road, with me working remotely a few more years - and why not, when I am paid well enough and can do so.

Yes we will seek out competent legal advice relevant to our specific situation as we get further along in the planning.

We’re not specifically married to the model Y as the toad (trailered), but we just like what we saw on YouTube from a guy that was trailering his X on an Aluma 8218 tilt. Some smaller other vehicle for 4-down would likely be fine. We just don’t want to go without a toad.

I’ll address some of the other issues raised here in subsequent posts.

Thank you.

[Ck2hans]

I live in a neighborhood that has quite a few class A owners. I know of a half a dozen that had the car on the trailer setup and after a couple of years went to flat towing. They all said they had no idea why they ever went the trailer route when flat towing was so much easier.

Just my 2 cents worth
Chuck

[drivfour]

Trailer in my opinion is a nightmare. you go to a resort or campground with the 45 foot and are now stuck with a longer setup to manage and need a long pull thru site. you then need to "store" the trailer somewhere else if all they have is a backin site. how are you going to move the trailer.with a 45 foot motorhome.!some resorts will not allow the trailer on site. Flat towing- Car can be disconnected under 5 minutes. Never had a problem connecting or reconnecting after a back-in spot. The trailer is so limiting. I wish Tesla had a tow mode also.
Some people I know have stacker trailers and have cars,motorcycles, side by sides- thats a different use as your not going to flat tow a side by side.

[BGLogistics]

Agree with the no trailer responses. We tried an enclosed trailer once, then decided flat-towing was way better. I have equipped 3 vans to be tow-ready. Vans work well for us as they can act as a trailer if we need more storage space. We only have one complete storage bay.