Beware of older motorhomes with low mileage!
I just purchased a 1994 Thor Chateau motorhome in great shape with 33,000 miles on it. I thought I was getting a deal until I got it home. The first night home, I started having trouble with starting ...
Forum Discussion
While I agree with the basic post title, I would use the term, be very careful, instead of beware. Our all time favorite RV was a low milage class C bunk house model that was 8 or 10 years old when we purchased it. We were living in Alaska at the time and the RV was brought up from Arizona by a snow bird. He said he brought one up every summer to resale and recoup part of his travel costs.
In the first two years of us owning it, we put over $7,000 into the rig. Apparently the reason it was low mileage was that someone had lived in it in Arizona and it seldom was moved. every seal in it had to be replaced, transmission rebuilt, AC unit replaced, fridge replaced, dash AC compressor replaced and the engine assessories all replaced, all cushions, curtains replaced from sun damage and the engine heads replaced twice.
I am so thankful that the family loved that rig and we eventually got it over the 100K mileage figure. Think we ended up making 6 round trips to/from Alaska with it. The Generac 4 KW in it only had 21 hours on it when we purchased, I soon figured out why as I was never able to keep it running either, LOL. It was in a generator shop at least once or more every summer.
I just mark it down to a learning experience, being young and making a good salary eased the pain greatly. No telling how many hundreds of hours I spent working on it. Working on it almost became a hobby and I met some really nice people in repair shops between Alaska and Florida, where my wife's parents lived. LOL
In the first two years of us owning it, we put over $7,000 into the rig. Apparently the reason it was low mileage was that someone had lived in it in Arizona and it seldom was moved. every seal in it had to be replaced, transmission rebuilt, AC unit replaced, fridge replaced, dash AC compressor replaced and the engine assessories all replaced, all cushions, curtains replaced from sun damage and the engine heads replaced twice.
I am so thankful that the family loved that rig and we eventually got it over the 100K mileage figure. Think we ended up making 6 round trips to/from Alaska with it. The Generac 4 KW in it only had 21 hours on it when we purchased, I soon figured out why as I was never able to keep it running either, LOL. It was in a generator shop at least once or more every summer.
I just mark it down to a learning experience, being young and making a good salary eased the pain greatly. No telling how many hundreds of hours I spent working on it. Working on it almost became a hobby and I met some really nice people in repair shops between Alaska and Florida, where my wife's parents lived. LOL
