GypsyNurseChristine wrote:
Bill:
So a low price you think reflects bad tire or battery? Good to know because I want to know what to look for/what questions to ask. I did post a couple RVs I'm interested in a few posts up, if you want to look and tell me what you think. These are the questions I have so far to ask:
How many feet long?
How many miles on the odometer?
How many hours of electricity does the generator support, and how many hours are currently on it?
BTUs on the A/C?
Water tank sizes?
Occupancy and Cargo Carrying capacity?
Do you have copies of maintenance records?
How old are the tires?
The battery?
How has it been stored?
How many mpg do you get on average?
Is the title clear and in your name?
How long have you owned it and why are you selling?
Thoughts?
Take your camera with you. When you're looking at it, if it really interests you, take a lot of pictures because the next day you're going to think about a lot of things that you forgot about and the pictures may show it to you.
For the price, I'm not saying the batteries and tires are bad, just check them so you know what you're getting. They could have put new tires on it last year and one of them broke a hip so they can't climb into the MH any more, or they've let it sit for years and the tires are ten years old. You don't want surprises.
There should be at least two batteries - one for starting the engine and one for running the house items - lights, refrigerator, water pump, TV etc. On the house battery(ies), the MH could have from 1 to 4 batteries. The more batteries, the longer MH can run things without starting the generator to recharge the batteries.
Make sure the generator starts and run it for a while. Make sure the MH is no longer plugged into shore power and then test everything on the generators. Especially the air conditioners.
Take a close look the headlights besides making sure they work. On a lot of older MHs the plastic on the lenses becomes very milky so that the lights are almost unusable at night. New headlights are very hard to find, though there are kits available at car places like NAPA that you can use to polish the lenses. And just like you would when buying a used car, check all of the lights and turn signals.
"How many hours of electricity does the generator support, and how many hours are currently on it?" This an interesting statement. I think what you mean is how many hours should this generator last or be good for? This usually comes down to how often it's used and how many hours it's been used for. A lot of people subscribe to the rule that generators should be run once a month for at least an hour with a load on them to bring them up to operating temperature and get the moisture out of the oil. That's good and it's nice if the gen set is someplace you can do it. Up here, the winters usually prevent them from being started for six months out of the year.
Find out it if the generator runs on propane or the same gas as the MH engine does. Most people who have propane generators like them or it doesn't matter to them because they never use them. The concern when you have a propane generator, if you use it, is you have to move or drive the MH someplace to get the propane tank refilled since the tank is permanently mounted under the MH. If you run out of propane using the generator, without shore power available, then the refrigerator, heat and the water heater won't work.
On the water tank size, there will be gray water, black, and drinking or fresh water tanks.
You should fire up the water heater to make sure it both works and doesn't leak, BUT, don't do this without water in it. If the MH wasn't winterized properly, then the water heater tank will have cracked and leak - that's probably about $800 to fix.
Look around the shower for leaks. Both the shower enclosure itself and floor portion. Take a flashlight so you can see in the cracks and corners. Look as far behind or around the shower as you can for water leaks. Look under the shower in the storage compartment under the shower for any leaks. Water leaks from the shower, sinks, or roof are very time consuming and expensive to fix.
Run the furnace(s) also. Preferably there are two of them, but there will probably be only one. Ask the BTU size also on the furnace. It is what it is, but you should know it.
Climb up on the roof and look at it. Take pictures of the roof, particularly all of the sealing joints around the vents, air conditioners, shower sky light, etc. I don't know what type of roofing it will have, but look for anything that looks odd such as bubbles, rips, cracks, etc.
Take pictures of all the data plates on the water heater, furnace, A/Cs, refer,
Find out what engine and transmission are in it.
Check little things like do they have the screens for the windows and are they in good shape? Getting new screens for a MH is a pain and you don't want bugs flying around all night while you're trying to sleep.
Does the bat wing TV antenna on the roof still crank up and down correctly. A lot of people who have never had a MH are surprised to learn that with the old bat wing you can pick up digital TV signal out of the air. You should be able to buy an amplifier add on to the bat wing and then change out the old analog TVs for new digital flat screens and you'll have TV to watch.
If it has a microwave, check it on both generator and shore power also.
"Occupancy and Cargo Carrying capacity?" I'm not sure what you mean by "occupancy"? Are you referring to how may people it will sleep?
Look at RV Trader for the models you're looking at. You'll get additional info to digest before you look at them and see what other people are asking for them.
Bill
