Acceptable Delivery Miles

dougrainer wrote:

frankdamp wrote:
Back in the early 1970's, I worked with a guy in Virginia who had been an engineer at Open Road, down in Florida. OR often had their engineers drive a new rig to a dealership, to give them some experience driving what they were designing.

Dave recalled taking a Chevy-based Class C to a dealership in San Diego. The bare chassis had been driven from Detroit to Florida, then driven to different suppliers locally for things to be installed (they had Midas put the exhaust system on) By the time he left Florida, the rig already had 2200 miles on the odometer. By the time it got to the dealership, it was pushing towards 6000!

Dave's group looked into shipment by rail to minimize the accumulation of road miles. They put two new rigs (a Class A and a Class C) on a low-loader railcar and sent them from Florida to Chicago. Dave and his boss went to bring the rigs back for evaluation. When they opened the rig doors in Chicago, the entire interiors of both had collapsed into matchwood in a big heap on the floor.

I think they got the truck chassis shipped by rail a few times, but the suspensions were so beat up on arrival, they quit doing that also.

I believed what you wrote until you mentioned the railroad item. What BS. I WORKED in Elkhart, IN back in the 70s and remember the experiment that Coachmen and a few others tried by Railroad. The Rail has NO BEARING on the body or frame of a motorhome chassis. They determined that vandalism and the cost to off load and then transport from the railhead was more expensive and time consuming that having them driven over the road. My Wife works for BNSF railroad and I can guarantee that all railcars have springs and suspensions that will not damage cargo. Besides, from what you state, would not Automobiles be destroyed when transported by rail??????? There is NO way a bare chassis could be transported over the road by driving. ANY Police officer would stop and impound such a thing immediately, even in the 70's. Doug

I have SEEN cutaway van chassis being driven. Perfectly legal.

Picked up my DP at the Monaco factory in Coburg, OR. Like Mr. Mark I didn't want someone else driving it to Sn Diego. It had 107 miles on it when I picked it up.

I live in southeastern Indiana and we see bare chassis stacked of semi trailers at an angle with the steering and front controls wrapped in plastic and the engines at the rear (dp's). This is a common site on the interstate that they use, headed up north to Elkhart. We also see many new Class As and Cs as well as trailers being towed headed the other way. I have never seen a new A or C on a trailer. You will see a trailer with several TTs on it and one being towed. Standard sights in our area as they head soouth from Elkhart and then East from Indianapolis to Cincinnati and south on I-75 to the southeast.

JALLEN4 wrote:

VinCee wrote:
The question I would have is what is the legal definition of new and or used? Their must be some threshold of how many miles can be on a vehicle before it is considered used. I believe with cars it is 2500 miles, though I realize cars are transported by trailer. When I bought my Georgetown from RV Net they told me they have trailers to move class A's from their four different stores.

In most states it is simply whether or not it has been titled. Without a mileage stipulation. You can have a 1 mile used vehicle and also have a legally new vehicle with 3,000 miles.

I agree. When we purchased our new Adventurer I noticed a paragraph in the contract that stated Winnebago would charge a premium on the standard delivery fee if the distance exceeded 2,000 miles

950 on mine, and i was concerned about that! Guess I'm used to a new car with 6 or 7 miles on them.

Indiana to California and back to Las vegas plus one or two demo. miles - 2500 doesn't sound that much too much!

I agree about rv's on a trailer vs. driven. Just going by what the dealer told me because I asked if I went down to Florida from WNY to pick up a rig we were interested in would I get a better deal, no was the answer plus the trailer part.
Aware of the new if not titled threshold, which many lending institutions use, but there has to be some limit to miles before a dealer has to sell something used. Otherwise they could keep dealer plates on a nice MH, put 50k miles on it and still pawn it off as "new", I don't think so.

Sounds like they were showing your coach in L.A.? My Winnebago had how many miles it was from Ind. to Washington State!

VinCee wrote:
The question I would have is what is the legal definition of new and or used? Their must be some threshold of how many miles can be on a vehicle before it is considered used. I believe with cars it is 2500 miles, though I realize cars are transported by trailer. When I bought my Georgetown from RV Net they told me they have trailers to move class A's from their four different stores.

I have never seen an RV on a trailer except one being towed because of a wreck. Not saying it doesn't happen, but the reason RV's are driven versus put on a trailer for transport is you're only going to be able to fit one RV on a trailer. It's pretty obvious that just having somebody drive the RV to its destination is cheaper than putting it on a truck to have it driven to its destination.

VinCee wrote:
The question I would have is what is the legal definition of new and or used? Their must be some threshold of how many miles can be on a vehicle before it is considered used. I believe with cars it is 2500 miles, though I realize cars are transported by trailer. When I bought my Georgetown from RV Net they told me they have trailers to move class A's from their four different stores.

In most states it is simply whether or not it has been titled. Without a mileage stipulation. You can have a 1 mile used vehicle and also have a legally new vehicle with 3,000 miles.