Looking for our 1st
Hello all,
We are in the process of shopping for a 5th wheel. We plan to live in and travel with two dogs. We are interested in opinions on a strong, durable, used rig that is big enough for all of us but not too big for 1st timers! I love the esthetics of the new, light, bright interiors but Brian is convinced that newer means made more cheaply which could lead to more issues and money spent on repairs.
Open to all suggestions!
there are good ones in all brands, I have a 40 foot cougar 330 rbk, no issue and structuraly it has been good, interior quality was way better than the jaco's we were looking at. both cougar and montana by keystone are good in my opinion, with montana being a little better, but cougar being a little more price concious.
eveyone is going to throw brands at you, its like which is better ford or chev, or your favoraite color. every large brand is going to have entry level lines, mid teir lines and high end lines. a lot of stuff also depends on how long are you planign on owning it. if its a short time I would say definatly look used, but if your like me and the shortest you have ever owned a rv is for 10 years, well 6 years for my old truck camper, but i still own it and it was only an experamanet to see if we liked truck camping. but if you lean towards longer ownership, then new makes sence.
as far as used over new. yes I think a lot of rv's got a little more cheeply built during the pandemic. not realy cheeply built, the method haven't changed in a long time. but by trying to put out more units to keep up with demand the fit and finnish suffered. now that that demand is over I have been seeing that get better in the dealerships up here.
go to dealers, look at different floorplans as was mentioned. if you think you like a floor plan spend an hour in the rv, moving around sitting at the table and such to make sure it works for you. look at all the different storage options in different unit, and features. then you can decide to look for somthing with a simular plan and features to what you like.
for my 5th wheel we looked for about a year. we had a checklist of features we had to have, and would be nice to have. when we found somthing with all the features we liked we bought it. for us it was a full size outdoor kitchen, large pasthrough storage, a seperate bunk room for the kids/grandkids and a lay out that worked for us.
as for new vs used, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. even an inspector isn't going to see hidden damage in a used unit. private sales seam to be way over priced (as well as dealer sales for used rv's) people bought them at the high price during the pandemic, decided they don't like it or don't use it enough, and want to get their money back, but the market has dropped over the last 3 years.
as for new ya you are going to pay more, but if your ok with financing, the monthly payments on a new or slighly used unit are way cheeper than you would pay privatly. you will be paying longer though. make sure your at a repituable dealer, even if you have to drive a few hours for that. read reviews on the dealers. another benifit of new is the ability to purchase warenty. its fine if you can fix lose trim and such, or even change out apliances, but it is the cost of thoes apliances that can add up very fast. some people get warenties, some put some money in an acount to cover breakdowns, and some just risk it. on a used unit your one of the later two. I am not saying warenties are for everyone, I get them because they are relitivly cheep and any issue I have, I just call my dealer and take it in and it is fixed, if I don't feel like doing it myself.
