Planning on buying a Roadtrek -- Advice?
Hello to all! I am new to this forum. I have been doing quite a bit of research on Roadtreks, and am almost certain I'm going to be buying a used one in the near future. (I'm interested in the 190...
Forum Discussion
How many people will be traveling in the Roadtrek? There are two of us and we haul our outside stuff (tables, chairs, etc) in the bathroom and had a friend make us a front receiver ($60) for a hitch hauler ($60) and haul tubs on it - separate tubs for leveling blocks, electrical, fresh water, sewer, etc. packed in the order in which I need to get to them. While I am setting up outside, my wife is making the beds (two twins - we have a rear entry, center aisle B). A cabinet is cleared of blankets and becomes a food cabinet. The front seats are where we keep another tub of food and our clothes and computers.
I got an awesome deal (almost paid me to take it away) on a 1999 American Cruiser we knew needed lots of work - had not been driven in 4 years, had a leak, and who knew what else. We set the limit of putting 50% of what NADA said it was worth ($11,900 in November of 2014) into it to make it usable to us. A friend with a flatbed hauled it to a shop and we spent about $2,200 on getting the chassis safe and reliable. I installed two new house batteries ($210). Then, I took it to an RV shop to find the leak, fix the damage, and service all of the RV appliances. $1,400 later everything worked but the generator. Then, I cleaned it thoroughly inside and out - twice. We have also put new tires on it ($1,100) and had a new water pump installed in the chassis ($900 total bill) but these don't count towards our 50% limit!
We have camped in it 10 nights in the year we have owned it and both love it. We have decided that we really prefer camping in it when we can play board games and eat outside as it is crowded and not quite functional to sit and live inside with the dinette broken down into a bed! We picked up a small folding table we hope will help with this but we haven't tried it yet. So, we can do wet weather and/or cool weather but cold and windy is not much fun.
We have owned two pop-ups, three travel or park trailers, one class C, and now this one (while still owning two trailers). Only one of these campers was bought new. We have gotten great deals on some and only one crappy deal. The crappy deal came from me suspending my logic and reasoning to believe someone who was not being truthful. I fell for the "we really need the money and everything works well, I just don't know how it all works" line when we bought the used class C. I didn't know anything about a "drivable" at that point and I paid way too much for a camper that was in bad shape. I won't let this happen again!
I suggest you rent a van camper for a week and give it a dry run. Try to separate what you like and don't like about it all and be honest with yourself about what a small tub or table purchase might be able to solve vs what is a design vs preference gap.
Good luck to you and camp on!
I got an awesome deal (almost paid me to take it away) on a 1999 American Cruiser we knew needed lots of work - had not been driven in 4 years, had a leak, and who knew what else. We set the limit of putting 50% of what NADA said it was worth ($11,900 in November of 2014) into it to make it usable to us. A friend with a flatbed hauled it to a shop and we spent about $2,200 on getting the chassis safe and reliable. I installed two new house batteries ($210). Then, I took it to an RV shop to find the leak, fix the damage, and service all of the RV appliances. $1,400 later everything worked but the generator. Then, I cleaned it thoroughly inside and out - twice. We have also put new tires on it ($1,100) and had a new water pump installed in the chassis ($900 total bill) but these don't count towards our 50% limit!
We have camped in it 10 nights in the year we have owned it and both love it. We have decided that we really prefer camping in it when we can play board games and eat outside as it is crowded and not quite functional to sit and live inside with the dinette broken down into a bed! We picked up a small folding table we hope will help with this but we haven't tried it yet. So, we can do wet weather and/or cool weather but cold and windy is not much fun.
We have owned two pop-ups, three travel or park trailers, one class C, and now this one (while still owning two trailers). Only one of these campers was bought new. We have gotten great deals on some and only one crappy deal. The crappy deal came from me suspending my logic and reasoning to believe someone who was not being truthful. I fell for the "we really need the money and everything works well, I just don't know how it all works" line when we bought the used class C. I didn't know anything about a "drivable" at that point and I paid way too much for a camper that was in bad shape. I won't let this happen again!
I suggest you rent a van camper for a week and give it a dry run. Try to separate what you like and don't like about it all and be honest with yourself about what a small tub or table purchase might be able to solve vs what is a design vs preference gap.
Good luck to you and camp on!
