Who Rented an RV???

we rented an RV in central illinois - cost as much per night as a 4 star hotel plus $200 in gas - worth every penny - shower, fridge for freezing water, comfy bed - it was cool at night so didn't run the generator much - not hard to drive - there are no hookups but most RVs have self contained generators - I recommend and will definitely use one next roo - camp was short 10 min walk

cost us $199 per night - had it for 6 nights. There was an additional charge for mileage over 900 miles but we only drove 920 miles so not much there - got about 10 mpg so gas cost about $200 - the RV we had could sleep 4 people comfortably plus another 2 or 3 on futon type couch and benches. We rented from a local dealer not cruise america or another chain - there was also a small charge for propane for fridge

rented an RV out of Charlotte (tried to find one closer when looking in March, but they were all booked -tip #1 - reserve your RV as soon as the dates for roo are announced)

was about a 7 hour drive through the smoky mountains... going uphill was fine, downhill we had to take it slow around those turns..

at the roo, the RV was great. ran the AC when the sun came up in the morning, allowing us to sleep until 10 or 11 everyday.. we put limits on shower use, since water fillup was $50, but with 4 of us, we used the bathroom all weekend without needing to empty the waste tank until we returned the vehicle.

this was my 3rd roo, and first one i was able to hit late night every night- i definitely think the minor comforts of the RV played a big part.

rented an RV from cruise america and drove it about 800 miles each way, wasn't cheap, but it was worth it

next year we'll rent one from TN

sleeping in with the generator/ AC was KEY. tip: we also brought a big fan that we plugged in while the generator was running, that plus the AC was downright chilly

My girlfriend and I were already talking about how we'd like to do RV camping at the 'Roo next year. Luckily, one of my friends who couldn't make it this year has one that hopefully we'll be able to use ;D
It'll be a grand ol' time! Everyone, come join!

This was my first 'Roo and I can't imagine doing it without an RV! We had three girls in one...and it was perfect! We were only about 1.5 hours away and I managed to find one at a local rental place the week after regular tix went on sale....gas and all cost us around $1100 split 3 ways for the weekend...not too bad considering we had ac and showers and our own bathroom, plus a stove and microwave and tv and real beds! ;D The only thing we ended up having to ration was the showers towards the end of the weekend...with three of us we filled up the grey tank quicker than we thought...but that was the only drawback...we ran the ac all we wanted, but at night we didn't need to - it got downright cold! I'll def do it again next year....

I could have never done Bonnaroo without the RV, but I am much older than most of you. The dust was the main issue for me and I just did not think about it being so bad and felt un-prepared for it. We camped in Handicap RV area and was a few RV's over from two roads that were water soaked often. Our RV is an older Bounder but is perfect for this type of use. She was a happy camper and made it possible for me to enjoy the weekend.

The group next to us was too close for me to get into my back side bays where my outside shower was so we used the Coleman solar shower which is a good $15 investment. We came back with over half of our water - the gray and black water tanks filled up more than I thought they would with no more water than what we used, but had the tents next to us not been up against our RV, I could have fixed the shower issue and dealt with the gray water problem. Always remember that Gray Water is clean enough to do a pre-foot wash and clean enough to hose down some of the dust at the campsite, but as I said, it was a pain to get to our bays.

AC/SF needs to address the issues of parking of the RV's. We had a lot of problems with the yellow shirted girls not understanding generator fumes. Group before us demanded that the girls let me turn my RV around so that we faced each other due to fumes - the men were nice, turned me around and backed my RV in which solved our problems, but the girls forgot the fume issue 5 min later when they parked the Cruise America RV next to my bedroom too close to my RV. After 2 hours of my alarms going off, I got head of medical to okay the young men moving their RV - all they had to say was that they had told the parking people that they were putting everyone too close. I took the guys aside and told them that I understood it was not their fault but if I had not made a fuss about it, it would never get addressed for 2008.

I tell you about this fume issue so that when all of you rent RV's next year you will take care to avoid the fumes. They would not let us do a U and had fits that I was willing to park facing people that I did not know. I was very blessed that for the most part everyone around us was the type that if you had hand picked people you could not have done any better.

I asked the Penn State group next to me about the "Cruise America Rent Me RV" and they said that it was around $1500 - it was small and they had tents set up all around it and a screen tent, but they had a place to cool down during the day. From my RV tech, I had heard that there are people that rent their personal RV's for $2800 for Bonnaroo, but I don't know how you would locate them and I would think that is a big risk for both the ones renting and the one offering it for rent.

If you have enough people to share the costs, RV is worth it. Gas is expensive, but I ran my RV gen the entire time except for one night which used 3/4 of a tank of gas- I hold a little over 80 gals of gas. I figured that my gen ran about 96 hours. Next year I will bring 2 of the 5 gal gas cans as a back up and remember to over fill my tank - I could have gotten about 10 more gals when the pump stopped at $74.80, I thought that it was full and not the $75 limit per fill up that had caught me. When I left Bonnaroo, the fill up took me $170 and I got back to Knoxville area with 3/4 tank so that is why I said I should have really filled it up before I went it - just remember that many of the gas stations limit you as to how much you can put on a credit card at a time.

Several things that I will pass on to you on the RV - check all the batteries for water, they have a habit of getting low. Know how to re-set all of your alarms, know how the awning opens, locate your gas cap before you get started, know where the fuse box is, know where the breakers that can trip are located, remember everything shifts and take it slow on driving until you are comfortable with how much bigger it is than your car. Many of the rental RV's do not have awnings so you need a shade tarp.

Another thought is that there are a lot of older RV's out there that are selling for what two or three rentals would be - I bought our RV off E-Bay sight unseen and then we brought it up to our standards. We bought it before gas prices went up and it was in rough condition - didn't know enough about RV's to know that it had been stripped. Point is that they have really come down on price since we got ours and there are a lot of good used RV's that some of you might go together and buy as a group. If you camp together and will use it, it can be worth the effort. Also if you get one with about 50,000 miles on it, it is cheaper than the 12,000 miles that was on ours. Most areas have good RV techs that can make the repairs - just call the camp grounds to ask. Also that is another place to check on rentals - many RV parks have rentals.

Another tidbit is that the Manchester KOA does special packages for Bonnaroo. It would have been about $550 -$575 for two people with full hook up then $175 per extra person. I am guessing that would have been Wednesday to Monday noon. They would have given you full hook up, nice shaded area and they ran transportation 24 hr each day back and forth from Centeroo to KOA. It was really busy on Wednesday night but was good to dump the tanks and a good location for getting back on I-24 for the short trip to the temp exit. Once I got in line and it was 1.3 miles to my campsite inside - took us less than 45 min to get in, RV stickers for Handicap, park - now this was searching and waiting on the sticker gals to cycle back to us. We just got on I-24 good when we were directed to the shoulder. From KOA you could see the traffic flow and it backs up to the Bonnaroo property. Now personally, I liked being on the farm and in the crowd and it was much cheaper than KOA.

If you rent a RV on the way, you have to bring all your camping items in the tag along car or buy after you pick it up. I will admit that I carry as much stuff in the RV as I am long winded.

We rented a pop-up camper that was generator ready (we had a generator already)...it only cost about $550 for 6 days (Wed-Mon) and the 7th day was free. Granted, we had to pull the camper with our GMC truck but it wasn't much of a problem, plus it was lots cheaper than renting an RV (rental costs, gas for the generator/gas for the RV). The only downside is that the camper doesn't hold the cold air as well but it sure was better than nothin'!

I have rented an RV from Cruise America the last four years. I fly from NYC to Nashville or Hunstville and pick up the RV and all necessary supplies. It works out great. I would NEVER go to Bonnaroo without an RV. It is too hot for too long to be down on the farm without AC and some comfort.

My main tip is to book early.

In 2003 I tried to book one in April and the closest I could find to Manchester, from ANY company, was Pittsburgh or Orlando.

In 2004 I called Cruise America in the middle of January and the closest I was able to book was in Memphis, six hours from Nashville.

In 2005 I called an hour after they announced the dates and scored the last Cruise America RV in Nashville.

In 2006 I called the same time as 2005 but they were sold out so I had to call Huntsville and that worked out fine. Huntsville has an airport with enough flights and the drive is only about 75 miles from Manchester.

In 2007 I booked the RV in Nashville on June 30, 2006.

For 2008 I booked it when I returned the RV for this year's festival on June 18, 2007.

thanks

haha yeah i was hesitant to ask since i haven't made my res. yet, but thought private messaging you would be cheating others out of info! i'm too nice sometimes