Looking at a 96 Coachmen Santara....
Good morning all! I am new to the RV community, and whatever RV I purchase, will be my first! I am wanting to purchase a RV that I will use a couple times a year, but also to have on my property fo...
Forum Discussion
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.
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.
