Someone PM'd me about my thoughts on buying a former Cruise America rental RV. See my signature below. Here is a copy of it.
I bought my 2005 Cruise America 28R in March 2011. I live in it fulltime. I bought it with 109,000 miles on it for $22,900. I've put about 1,800 miles on it to date. I drive between 5 parks between WA and OR. It has zero problems pulling the smart car and the RV drives very easily on the highway.
Cruise America's pricing varies by model year and odometer - the older the rig is and the higher the odometer is, the lower the price.
My Cruise America RV was built by Four Winds - to Cruise America specs. This means that there are a few non-standard design features not found in retail RVs, like the hard wired shore power cable.
The 12-month/12,000 mile warranty is a joke. It covers about 20 parts and explicitly lists each part that is covered. Good luck with trying to get the maintenance history of the RV from Cruise America. I have no records. My MH only has 1 coach battery - it lasts about a day when boondocking.
The RV will be freshly painted and will have new tires on it. Cruise America does not install awnings, roof ladders, slides, rear cameras, external steps for the coach door (the steps are inside), over-the-air TV antennas, or leveling jacks. These are the things that renters break. They will offer to install an awning upon delivery for about $1,400 or so.
The grey water/black water waste connection may be lower than you would have liked. There's no easy way to support a sewer hose without the hose running uphill. I use 5 foot sections of vinyl rain gutter that I lay on the ground and strap the hose with bunjees. I believe the service is low to the ground because Cruise America may be using larger capacity holding tanks (35 gal/grey, 40 gal/black) than what Thor puts in its Four Winds coachs.
GoodSam Extended Service Plan is only available to motorhomes with less than 80,000 on the odometer. If you by a Cruise America motorhome with more than 80,000 miles on it then consider the extended warranty that the Cruise America sales person will offer you at the time of purchase. I did not buy it because I thought I could get it from GoodSam.
I replaced the OE front sway bar and added a rear trac bar. I replaced the leaking OE steering stabilizer with a Safe-T-Plus. I'm having a Jack TV antenna installed. My MH only has a cable TV outlet in the TV cabinet in the rear bedroom. It does not have a 2nd TV outlet near the front loft. In about a month I'll replace the OE shocks with Bilsteins.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Hire an independent RV repairman to perform a "home inspection" on the coach. Cruise America does take short cuts here and there - like using roof tape to dress up the 4 sides of the roof (as seen from the ground), to make it look new. The actual roof, which doesn't have a ladder for easy access, could be junk and you would not know it. Construction-wise, they are pretty good on the interior - as they are overbuilt to take the abuse from renters. Have your RV guy call out everything that needs to be repaired before you buy it and have Cruise America fix it or lower their price. The motorhomes are basically sold "AS IS". Cruise America won't help you after you drive it off the lot.
If the Cruise America location you go to services the RVs, try and get to know the head mechanic. Some RVs may have a better microwave than others or the dashboard has a better stereo. If you know which RV you want to buy, he may be able to swap the simple stuff - before the sale, and behind the sales person's back. I had the Ford AM/FM/Cassette in the RV I wanted replaced with a Ford AM/FM/single CD player from another 28R.
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EDIT: I should add that the 28R has surprised several RV technicians for being a rental with a slide-out generator. I open the generator cover door and can pull the Onan Microquiet 4000 right out.
