Renting a Motorhome in Canada or USA | RV Hire Tips | Mistakes to Avoid

Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to the channel, SSA. If you're new to the channel, I'm Julia. And I'm Gary. And we normally travel in our own motorhome, but over the last few weeks, we've been traveling in Canada and America in a rental motorhome. And whilst we've just rented in North America, the general points in this video should help anybody renting a motorhome worldwide. This is our nine don'ts. Okay, the first of our nine don'ts is don't rush your rental booking. You can save a packet by shopping around. We certainly did, didn't we, Gary? We did. The first quote we got was for 4,000 pounds. Well, we both were shopping at the same time online, to be honest, and we were looking around. And Gary found something for, like you say, 4,000 pounds. That was for a five-week motorhome rental. And I found a place called Motivana. And then we found a deal for five weeks with our mileage for 2,500 pounds. So a massive saving, a saving of about 1,500 pounds for this five-week booking. We were obviously a little bit concerned. And you do need to, we sort of thought, why is it so much cheaper? That seems a bit weird. But we did our research, you know, and honestly, you have to do your research, read all the reviews. And if there's only three reviews and they're obviously from their mum, you know, ignore them. But if they've got quite a lot of reviews and they're all saying the same sort of thing, then you kind of know that it's genuine. We were really pleased with our deal, weren't we? Yeah, very pleased. But you've got to really think about where you're flying into as well, because they've all got certain locations, haven't they? And that's going to affect where you're flying into and your pickup location. Because we did actually have a little bit of a problem with our pickup location. So what shouldn't you forget to do, Gary? Yeah, so definitely confirm where your pickup location is. In the original email, what we got told is one location, turned out to be a different location. It was just an error by the company, just an acceptable error. But we ended up paying for hotels in places we shouldn't really have been. Yeah, I mean, Motivano were quite good. They gave us the price back for one night of the hotels, but we booked for two nights. So knowing where you're picking up from is pretty important, isn't it? It wasn't really our fault, but we could have mitigated it by double checking before we booked our hotel. So yeah, first don't, don't get the first offer. Shop around for your best deal for your motorhome rental. So number two on our don'ts list is don't forget to read the small print. Sounds simple, but there are very often some nuances to it, aren't there, Gary? There are. So first one I can think of is driving licenses. So some countries or some companies will require your own home driving license, as well as an international driving permit. Obviously you've got to get that in advance. And also you've got to know what the rental company expect from you. For instance, our rental company would not have allowed us after a long distance flight to pick up the motorhome that day. You've got to have slept overnight and rested before they allow you to pick up the motorhome. Makes sense, to be honest, doesn't it? It does, yeah. You know, so it's pretty obvious. And also insurance, what's the score with insurance? Yeah, so lots of the companies will offer you several levels of insurance. So make sure you're comfortable with that level and understand by not choosing one level what that actually means in real terms if you get into trouble. Yeah, and you also probably need to think about insurance in terms of medical. So don't forget to get some kind of medical insurance sorted out. We were lucky because we used our own medical insurance, but we have always done medical insurance wherever we go on a trip, don't we? Right, number three, coming in at number three on our don'ts list is don't underestimate your mileage. We had a nice bit of cushioning, didn't we? We did, yes. Thankfully, but we weren't far off the mark when we actually handed it back in. And we had, I think, did we have 5,500 kilometres? 5,500, and I think we left it with about 150 left. Yeah, we didn't have a lot of room. So there's a few things to consider. First of all, there's diversions in place sometimes. There was a couple of diversions for us, wasn't there? Yeah, one was about 100 kilometres. Yeah, and they're not expected at all, are they? So you've got to think about those. And campsites. Now, campsites are on the main road, mainly and not on the main road. And they're off the main road, so you've got that. And that's quite, that builds up over the time. Even if you're going to about two or three kilometres off your route, they all add up. Yeah, exactly. And also, you might want to go and see attractions. So that will take you slightly off the beaten path. You know, even if it's only 10 kilometres here, 10 kilometres back onto your route, those kind of things add up all the time. And you've got to think about shopping needs. Sometimes you're not going to find a supermarket where your campsite is. So you may need to think, right, we've run out of everything. We're going to find a Walmart. You're going to need fuel. You're going to need propane. All of those things may send you off track. So don't just mark your route out and think that's all you're going to need. Mark your route out and have a buffer. I think we had a buffer of about 20, 30 k's a day, didn't we? I think we did, yes. Yeah. Yeah. And that worked out about right. We definitely need them. So coming in at number four of our do not do list is don't forget to learn your vehicle when you pick it up. So there's such a lot to take in, even if you're seasoned motor homers, like you could probably consider we are. We're pretty seasoned. Salt and pepper here. But you've got to make sure that you take it away knowing what to do. Now they have an e-booklet, don't they? They do. Oh, God, who wants to read that? Oh, Gary, it's about five million pages. And they're all like, well, read the instructions. Like, no, just show me, show me quickly. I don't want to read 7,000 pages on how to work a microwave, thanks. They actually gave me a booklet on the microwave, didn't they? They did, yeah. So you could show me it. And to this day, I don't know how that convection microwave works. We somehow managed to sort of crisp up a bit of salmon, didn't we, one day? We did. And that was it. It took about seven hours to do a bit of chicken. I could have breathed on it quicker. Anyway, that aside, what did we have to learn and make sure you were comfortable with? Oh, God, so many things. But let's start with the gas or the propane. It's not that simple sometimes with adapters and switches here and emergency switches there. Also, the waste. Now, obviously, I was going to be dealing with waste. So looking after that, which levers to pull, where the pipe goes, how to operate the pipe, what to look for on the ground when you're in a campsite, which bit fits where and everything, and which order to do it in, all that. Although, yeah, you could read it, but it wasn't in that booklet we got. But there's nothing better than somebody saying, do this, do that, and you actually looking at it. There was something that was really different with the American and US fans is that they can fill up water from city water. So they hook in. So we're not used to that in the UK. And also, we're used to just pulling out a cassette in the UK. For anyone watching from Canada with America, we actually pull it, a little tiny cassette in. You've only got three days worth of toilet, really. It's on, haven't you? And that's if Gary hasn't had anything, you know, so. But you don't get an awful lot of toilet. But there, they have a massive septic tank, don't they? Big tanks, grey and black, and then they've got a pipe. They just stick it in and then stick into the ground and pull a few levers, and it's all taken care of. It's excellent, actually, isn't it? There were some things we really thought were miles better. Oh, gotcha. But then there were some things, we've got to be honest, we prefer the European style still, don't we? Ooh la la. So, number 050 on our do not do list is don't buy anything until you've seen the van. I don't mean like don't buy any clothes or bring any clothes with you. I mean, don't buy anything for the van until you've actually been in there and seen what those guys have actually provided you with. It is quite a comprehensive pack that you get, especially if you order the pack. I think you can order a bedding pack and all this, that, and the other. But go in there and check what you've got. Now, if like me, you've got maybe an allergy to like nylon or something like that, and I always bring a bit of cotton bedding, don't I? So, I bring my own pillowcases and a sheet just because I can't use those materials. That's different. You're bringing something that you would definitely want to use and they probably won't have what you need. But they have quite a lot of stuff. They had like salt and pepper. They had hand sanitizer, hand wash. They also had a bit of washing up liquid. So, there was a few little bits and pieces. They had some stuff for the waste, wasn't there? There was like toilet and- Toilet and those blue sort of- What are they called, those little toilets? Pooh eaters, aren't they? Oh, I wish you were gonna call it that, Gary. That's a bit much. Well, that's what they do. People might be eating their dinner, bubba. Not now. So, yeah, they did have a couple of those septic tank, whatever you call them, like little tablets. They had some of those. There is a few things and they have like everything. The only thing we found that we really had to buy was, first of all, I needed some cushions because my back was broke. And secondly, some of those like organizer things, you know, the plastic organizers to slot things in so the seams didn't rattle around. Yeah, and there was lots of pots and pans, knives and forks and plates, everything like that. It was great, wasn't it? Yeah, it was super well equipped. I've got to say, they think of everything really, don't they? Yeah, they do. And also understanding how much space you've actually got for the stuff if you want to buy it because obviously you've got your own clothes and stuff like that as well. One thing I did have a bit of concern on before we did the rental was where was I going to put our suitcases? Honestly, we were like bloody Imelda Marcus or something, had loads of suitcases. He had more shoes than her. And I had like one pair of socks. Yeah, right. But, joking aside, there's a really good cabinet section, isn't there? There was in that one. Yeah, it was great. And I think most of them come with that. So there's a, what do you call it? A garage bit, isn't it? Yeah, a little bit of a garage thing, yeah. And that was ideal to slot the suitcases in. We unpacked it because we were there for five weeks. We made ourselves proper at home, didn't we? Yeah, I had all my fishing gear in there to catch that salmon. Which you never caught. But anyway, he had it. We carried around this bloody fishing pole for the whole trip that we bought. And anyway, he ended up giving it away. Hi to the guy he gave it to. I hope you've caught a salmon. Ah, but you did enjoy having it, didn't you? It was good fun. So, number six. This is pretty important on our list of do not forget to do's. Don't forget to learn the rules of the roads and the traffic regulations of whatever country you're going to. Now, we did a road, how to drive in America video, I should say. I'll put the link in the description or something. So if you are going to America or Canada, that will prove very useful for you. But what were your main takeaways? Because Gary was the main driver, to be honest. Yes. I sat back and was leisurely. Yes, you were. So, that's really important. So, did a bit of research online before we went, watched a couple of videos and actually took a little test that I found online. Very simple, sort of 10, 15 minute job. Not very difficult at all. But the main differences I found, certainly for North America, were the ability to turn right on a red light, which I think is a great rule. The four-way stop or an all-way stop, who goes and who doesn't go. And then the school bus, and I felt foul about it a couple of times, but school buses is a big one. But it was really, really important to understand just the main differences in the country you're going to. Yeah, when it comes to the school bus, you must stop no matter what happens. You see a school bus, you stop. That is the regulation over there. But don't forget, one of the biggest ones is you're going to be driving on the other side of the road, and the vehicle will be on your left-hand side? Left-hand side, yeah, that's right. And you might be used to it if you were driving in the UK the other way round. So to be honest, it's not much different driving on the other side of the road, is it? No. You get quite quickly used to it, to be honest. I know a lot of people feel nervous when they go to Europe, because they're going to be driving on the other side of the road. But honestly, you just get used to it, don't you? You do. The only really important thing is understand the main differences, so you don't get into trouble. So coming in at number seven, and assuming you're all good to go, and you're at the depot ready to leave, don't leave that depot until you've got all of the emergency numbers that you're going to need. Yeah, really important. So if you break down, who do you call? If there's a medical emergency, who do you call? So things like fire, police, ambulance, all that sort of stuff, because it's two minutes to put together on a sheet of paper or something like that. But actually, if you haven't got it and you need it right away, it's an added level of worry you don't need at that particular time. Yeah, because once you're in that situation, the last thing you need to do is to be scratching around, wondering where those numbers were. So we had them to hand straight away, didn't we? Yeah, we did. Put them on a piece of paper and had them on the visor. Yeah. So dead easy to find if we needed them. Okie dokie, we're up to number eight of our do not do if you're renting a motorhome or RV. Well, don't go too far on your first night. And it sounds really strange, but by the time you've picked up your shopping, by the time you've got your van, you're going to be quite tired, but there's a big reason for not going too far. And I would suggest that you book a campsite for the very first night, because Gary, you've got to test everything, haven't you? That's right, yeah. You want to test everything that's on the van to know that it works, because if it doesn't work and you're not too far away, it's a quick trip back to the depot the next day. Yeah. So what I did was I tested the water, tested that the gas worked, tested that the electricity worked, and then actually tested that the waste emptying bit also worked. So they're the main bits on the van. Yeah. Absolutely vital that you are understanding that they work before you head off on your main road trip. I did the inside. So I tested to make sure that the cooker was working, both the hobs were working, I made sure the microwave was working, although I don't even want to go into that nightmare. I've got terrible memories of that microwave but generator. We'd never used a generator before, so we needed to make sure we understood what was going on with it. And the rental agency actually, they suggested that we put it on twice a day, didn't they? Twice a day, yeah. So we did that anyway, but we didn't really use it that much, did we? No. It was handy, but we didn't use it too much. We relied a little bit just on the solar really, didn't we? Anyway, so that aside, that's what is really important. Find somewhere the very first night, don't go too far, so that you can swap it up if necessary. Because we did actually have to swap our motor home and it was about midway, wasn't it? About midway. Yeah, so we smelt propane. Wow, it was really quite worrying, wasn't it? And it was whenever we turned the heating on, wasn't it? It was the water heater. The water heater, that was it. And every time the water heater went on, I was like, can you smell gas? Because we call it gas, not propane, but the same thing. Can you smell gas? And Gary would be like, no, because he can't smell nothing. But anyway, when it got really bad, even you could smell it. Anyway, we were concerned there was a gas leak, weren't we? So they did change us up. So we had to know where there was other Fraser Waite RV depots. We changed it up in Calgary, didn't we? So once we got into the Canada, we changed it up again. But we didn't feel comfortable taking it any further. If there's something like that, don't muck about with it. Hand it back, get another one. You can't muck about with propane. They were great, weren't they? They were, they were really good. I think they thought, I don't think there is a smell of gas, but you know what? I wouldn't go traveling around for another two weeks once we smelled that gas. It was like, no, thank you very much. If you want to watch that video, I'll put the link down below. So that was number eight. Don't go too far on your very first night. Okay, so we're up to our final don't, if you are renting a motorhome or RV worldwide. Drum roll please, Gary. Oh, Ringo Starr, check him out. So for our final one, don't wing it too much. Now we are king and queen of wing it, aren't we? We do it all the time, but even we wouldn't wing it too much when we take a rental motorhome. And there's a couple of reasons for this. If you are going on a really popular destination, sort of Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, you've got to book a campsite to get in early. And you can't just like stop anywhere and camp up for the night in some of these locations. No, because the city doesn't allow it. And if you do park somewhere that is not a campsite, you'll get moved on. Yeah, and it's not just that. I mean, there's a lot of wildlife in those areas and you're talking big bears in those areas. So you don't want to just be just anywhere. And you're going to want to be near and see all those wonderful sights. You don't want to miss out. So get on board and book them early. We found that Lake Louise, they released it in like little pitches in there, like little bits. Locks at a time sort of thing. So you really had to be on the ball when you were chasing that campsite. Yeah, we were like, we were looking at it every day, weren't we? Waiting for them to release some more pitches. We did get lucky, didn't we? And we got a pitch when they did a release, but you've got to keep your eye open for it. You've got to consider safety and security. If you are new to motorhoming, my biggest advice is always trust your gut, trust your instinct. We had a couple of issues on our trip when we boondocked. And boondocking is dry parking, parking for free, just what we really enjoy, actually. That's our favourite part of motorhoming, isn't it? It is, yes. But like you said, we had an issue because what happened was one night, we parked in a museum car park, didn't we? Woke up the next morning to find out somebody had tried to siphon all the fuel out of the vehicle. Yeah, well, it was interesting because that night I heard a bit of rustling around and I was like saying to Gary, it sounds like someone's outside the van. And we were like, we just didn't do anything. We didn't get out. We didn't think they were like on our van. It was only that the cap was missing the next morning. It was like off, wasn't it? It was off, and the van actually told me that it was off when I turned the engine on. And luckily there was a membrane, you said, there. Yeah, halfway down the fuel pipe, there's a metal mesh. And that's what stopped them actually being able to do it. Otherwise we'd have woken up without any fuel. And there was the other time when we were in America. Oh gosh. These blokes turned up, right rough looking blokes. They were fly tipping everywhere, weren't they? All over the place where we'd stop. But you've seen the stuff they were tipping out as well. Sofas, mobility scooters. I mean, it was everything. It was like a full household. They didn't care it was a beautiful spot, wasn't it? Wasn't it just? That I don't know. But there's one other really important thing to think about as well. When you've got to hand your motor home back, you need some time to clean it, to pack, to prepare. So you want to be in a campsite, don't you? Because you can get your washing done. You can hook up, you're not worried about that. So definitely the night before, but we picked two nights, didn't we? We did. And it was really evident actually when we took the van back to the Fraser Way RV location to hand it over. The people that hadn't done that, it took them hours to actually do it because they wanted it fairly clean, but obviously you'd have to go to town on it. But they had to pack and do all the rest of it. And obviously whilst they're doing that, people are looking over your van. So it just makes the whole process so much simpler. Yeah, they didn't get away very quickly, did they? There was people that were called back to their vans because there were issues. So you want to be able to turn up at the depot with all your stuff in your suitcases, a clean van and ready to go. That's what we've done. The night before, we were completely ready. We knew what we were wearing the next day and we just like shoved our nighties and that in the suitcases and we were good to go, weren't we? It was easy, wasn't it? And we only had to worry about putting fuel in it, didn't we? Nothing else. So that is one of the most important things that you can do for yourself is make your life a bit easier. Get somewhere that last night, you can relax, have a glass of wine, just chill, pack. I mean, they don't have to have a glass of wine. But it helps. And I hope this has helped you in your decision to rent a motorhome. We had a very good experience of renting a motorhome. We did, it was great, wasn't it? Yeah. I mean, it's very different to our own motorhome and perhaps there's things that we would change if it wasn't ours. But when you're renting it, it's exciting. It's nice to stay in something different. And I would say we would definitely rent again, wouldn't we? We would from that same company as well. Yeah, we would go to Motovanu, they were brilliant. What I would say is if you have a motorhome rental agency or company, please put your details down below because that's very useful for other people. Or if you have had a brilliant experience of renting a motorhome, we didn't use Cruise America, but they are very popular there as well. We use Fraser Way RV. Please put your experiences down below, good and bad, because if you've had a bad experience, it's very good for people to see as well. Or if you've got anything that you would recommend for other people, please pop it in the comments below. We love to hear from you. And if you've enjoyed this vlog, why not give us a like maybe even a follow, subscribe, the Holy Grail, maybe even share it if you think it'd be useful for somebody else. We'll be in our own motorhome for our next adventure, won't we? We will, yes. Yeah, probably be in Spain. So stay tuned for that. Great to see you everyone. Thanks for tuning in. Hope this was useful. Take care. Ta-ra.