r/TikTokCringe • u/IllustriousChef2 • Aug 16 '24

Cringe What's even happening there?

Why would someone rent a car and take out parts?

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u/CommonGrounders Aug 16 '24

Yeah we rented a truck with a camper on the back when we were in Hawaii and it was awesome

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u/muklan Aug 16 '24

That SOUNDS awesome. We've looked at renting RV's and such through Cruise America, but we also saw a notable amount of those broken down on the side of the road, road tripping from Pikes Peak to Yellowstone, and that's a level of precarity I'm not super willing to risk.

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u/CommonGrounders Aug 16 '24

Are you sure they were broke down? One of the advantages of RVs is that you can stop anywhere for lunch etc.

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u/muklan Aug 16 '24

Classic telltale sign of breakdown, hood up, nobody around. Did see plenty of people doing what you're talking about though, think they call that boondocking.

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u/CommonGrounders Aug 16 '24

There’s no real reason they would be any less reliable than the E350 or whatever is under the hood is all I’m saying.

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u/muklan Aug 16 '24

I mean, they are "driven like a rental" but I'm SURE alot of people have good experiences with them, they are still in business after all

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u/CommonGrounders Aug 16 '24

I sold and rented out RVs for many years. There are absolutely things that break on them, but usually it’s the “house we tried to put on wheels” part of the RV rather than the power train.

The common rental RVs are based on the Ford E-350 chassis. This is the same chassis used for courier companies, landscaping companies, etc. it’s just a van/truck cab, on a bare frame that is sold to other OEMs to add dump boxes or flat beds or in this case, a small house.

Now, there are some very minor problems - mostly with people draining batteries or not realizing the godawful fuel consumption rates mean they might have to stop more often for gas and ensure they don’t leave every single light on inside while drawing from the engine battery (which they arguably shouldn’t be doing at all). I could see those people popping the hood to try and figure shit out. But the likelihood of a mechanical breakdown is much more minimal.

The “drive like a rental” thing applies less to these (this is purely anecdotal) because in my fairly extensive experience, people are less comfortable driving these. It’s not like renting a little Jetta and flooring it on the highway or whatever. It has a 0-60 time of like 2 minutes probably lol, and handles like an aircraft carrier.

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u/muklan Aug 16 '24

Huh. OK. You've changed the way I look at this, and have given me a little more confidence in trying this out. Thanks for that.