Looking at a 96 Coachmen Santara....

RoysRV wrote:
I am considering paying a local RV expert $150 for an inspection and if it comes out ok, maybe offering $15,000?

I am worried about the weight load on the chassis with all of the custom work though. I'm not quite sure how a RV inspection would tell you if its over or close to the weight restriction.

If you're hiring the independent expert, you can ask them as part of it to make some comments about what they might value the unit at.

You can't precisely tell weight from looking, though of course extreme cases might be more or less obvious. The reliable way to tell is to take the motorhome to a set of scales (such as at a truck stop) and pay to have it weighed. I think it's typically something like $10. In this case, I would consider that money very well spent. Maybe the seller has that information already...and are trustworthy...but I personally would probably still want independent verification.

When weighing, it's important to make note of how full the various tanks are and preferably approximately where they're located. Full versus empty tanks will make the weight differ by hundreds of pounds.

Thanks everyone. Since I posted this information on the forum, the owner just lowered his craigslist AD price from $24,900 to $19,800....... So was it just overpriced? Or is he really just want out of this thing? Or did he find something else that costs a TON of money?

I am considering paying a local RV expert $150 for an inspection and if it comes out ok, maybe offering $15,000?

I am worried about the weight load on the chassis with all of the custom work though. I'm not quite sure how a RV inspection would tell you if its over or close to the weight restriction.

With this latest rebuilt unit, I'd ask plenty of questions and look plenty hard at what was and was not done, and how well it was done. You're essentially trying to vet an unknown motorhome maker, since a good portion of stuff seems to be rebuilt. I believe the Gulfstream Ultra's used an aluminum structure, so the basic framing wouldn't be rotted by water, but most everything else could have been (and apparently was). I don't see any indication of what, if anything, was done to the (outside) sidewalls; they may be in very poor shape if they have not been touched. Repairs would require ripping out most of the interior walls, from what I gather.

Don't buy or make an offer without getting weight information. Many Class C's don't have much excess weight capacity for the chassis, and with a lot of reconstruction work like this (which appears to use somewhat heavier materials than the factory) it's entirely possible that it could be overloaded before you put in any water, household goods, food supplies, etc. With two slides, this isn't a particularly lightweight unit to start with.

I'd also try to figure out why the owner is selling now, after putting so much time and effort and money into rebuilding things. It seems very doubtful that they will come anywhere near breaking even (assuming good materials and workmanship on the rebuild). People do of course have many reasons for selling a motorhome, a lot of them quite logical and reasonable, but it still seems suspicious to me that they might have found some additional major problems or realized their repairs were inadequate in some ways and realized that the money pit was much bigger than they thought.

As with any class C, check the cabover area very carefully for signs of leakage or water damage.

Just came home from viewing the RV. My wife and I really did like it, since it was all custom, but we are not sure of the quality of everything. I have posted my dropbox link which shows more pictures I took while we were there, and the craigslist link as well.

The guy spent A LOT of money. The story: He bought the RV off of EBAY, and never had an inspection done. Once he got it home, he discovered leaks in the roof, and decided to basically redo most of the RV.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/cehnxa0gs1wzmkd/AAAab7I26cUS0mHBmbnSMVGba?dl=0

http://fortmyers.craigslist.org/lee/rvs/4690107148.html

What does everyone think? If its positive, I am thinking about finding a person or company to do a complete inspection. Thanks again for everyones help and opinions!

Thanks again everyone. That one sold. I am now looking at this one, and will hopefully get to go see it in person today. If so, I will take more pictures and show them to everyone when I get home.

http://fortmyers.craigslist.org/chl/rvs/4690119933.html

On the Chateau, check the "floor" of the cab-over bunk. My brother-in-law has an early 2000's model he had specially built without the front window to get away from leaks at the front. Didn't work..had to rebuild that "floor" at about 3 years old, rotted out at sidewalls.

That looks like a better candidate.

It does have a hitch, so you probably could tow something. I assume it's the V10 motor, and it's an E-450 chassis, so it probably would do so reasonably well when properly set up.

The "repairs" to the two corners should get attention. I'm not convinced they're properly sealed. It looks like the damage was mostly to the basement or skirting portions, so there's a decent chance that any damage or leakage doesn't affect the house part proper. The cabover section doesn't appear to have any blatant signs of water damage. (This part of a class C is notorious for getting leaks.)

I personally like that it does not have a slide out. You don't have to worry about the seals and mechanism of the slide when it doesn't exist. The layout looks pretty nice, too; in fact, it's quite similar to my '98 Coachmen Santara, the biggest difference being that the dinette and sofa are swapped side to side.

As always, there's only so much that can be discerned from pictures. Do a thorough inspection, and if you don't trust yourself to look for the right things, get someone to help with it who does. I don't think you'll find an absolutely perfect RV in this price range, but you should be able to find something in good usable shape overall and free of major problems. You will also find many that are money pits—granted all RVs are money pits to some extent, but some much more so than others.

(Also good to see that it has Florida plates in some of the pictures, and that identical ads are not posted in many different cities around the country. When the same exact unit is simultaneously for sale in New Hampshire, Montana, Texas, and Georgia, it just possibly might be a scam....)

Here are better, larger pictures of the Chateau RV:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ex4b6dcg7h2tm82/AABTBJALAO7bTvqXPhSGx1fka?dl=0

Thanks guys. I have decided to pass on this one. Thanks so much for helping me "see" the issues, which I never noticed before. How does this one look?

http://jacksonville.craigslist.org/rvs/4697520071.html

There appear to be "bubbles" in the sidewalls in the photos, if so, keep looking. Bubbles mean delamination of the skin from the substrate, which usually means water leaks...not good at all and very expensive. Resale could be very costly down the road.