Lantley wrote:
I always find it amusing when a poster seeks opinions and then decides to go in the total opposite direction of ALL the opinions.
Granted in this case the peanut gallery has not actually seen the unit in question nevertheless many understand the condition of the unit described and gave feedback based on their experience. Good Luck with you unit
...and I love replies that lead with passive aggressive statements. ;)
Yup -- I have asked for input. And I have received input from *many* places (not just this forum). I am reading and considering *all* the feedback, weighing individual responses with their professed level of personal involvement with similar situations. In my experience, opinions from just five individuals who indicate direct experience in a similar situation
SHOULD outweigh the opinions of fifty individuals who
don't claim personal experience but have an opinion. And that's about the level of feedback I've received. Around five folks who have had this very issue happen to them. And around fifty combined who just say "ahh! water! run!" with little to no additional personal experience conveyed in the reply.
There is also the known and unknown of the posters. A trusted friend who has been doing his own RV repairs for years came out and looked at the unit with me and agreed that it looks like exterior side-wall runoff wicking up around the bottom, and believed that if we could get the dealer to repair first, then it would be a good unit for a fair price. And the dealer has agreed to do just that. I don't think anyone here would disagree that wisdom from a trusted source also weighs more.
A lot of people on this particular forum are highly conservative, and I appreciate that. But I have to also take these replies with grains of salt that they may generally have lower pain thresholds, higher budgets, and prefer newer units. We are setting our expectations on older units, higher pain thresholds, and lower budgets. (even only a 2yr-newer unit of similar make and model is $10k-$15k higher priced!). We have budget for an older unit with a repair budget set-aside. And we're trying to make that work.
I'm far from being an RV expert, but given our goals and constraints and _all_ the feedback we're receiving (internet and in-person feedback), the
weighted average seems to be "fix those floors, get slide awnings and add drip-around guards, and this unit should provide a great deal of satisfaction for many more years."
cheers,
..dane
