Repairs and Maintence

billy1davis wrote:
I have found that while I am shopping for owner sales of Motorhomes that here is always a long list of repairs that they have done over the time they have owned it and adds up to quite a tidy sum of money and this is even more when it is a DP. It scares me off from buying such.

would you be scared off from buying a home where the owner lists the repairs and upgrades?

yes, you will have maintenance bills...routine and unexpected. if you can do some or all yourself it will be less expensive. even with the problems we've had (virtually all of which can be traced right back to shoddy workmanship or c***py parts from suppliers) I'm amazed that modern RVs hold up as well as they do give the generally poor state of American roads. the solution is to properly budget for maintenance.

if you're going deep into debt to buy the RV it will not be a pleasant experience...more so when you factor in maintenance. IMO the key is to either pay cash or put enough down so that you remain right-side up on the loan for the expected life of the RV you choose.

if you're thinking of getting one of those insurance policies I'd think again. those policies are designed to separate most of the buyers from their money. do a few people make out? sure, but the vast majority don't. take whatever that policy costs and put it in the bank as seed money for a maintenance and repair fund. then add $X each month to that fund and use it only for repairs and maintenance. we've been doing that for 31-years now and have a healthy balance in our M&R Fund.

good luck.

Thanks for the useful thoughts already posted. Of course I now I have to pay to play. This is not my first rodeo. We have had many RV's. I am very interested in the experience of those that have had Class A's for awhile and what they are seeing in ownership cost.

billy1davis wrote:
I have found that while I am shopping for owner sales of Motorhomes that here is always a long list of repairs that they have done over the time they have owned it and adds up to quite a tidy sum of money and this is even more when it is a DP. It scares me off from buying such.

The reason I bought my 20yo rig was the number of items that were less than a couple of years old. I figured it was one less thing that I had to worry about.

I saw it as a positive

Just a way of trying to justify the asking price.

You gotta pay to play!

If your wallet can afford as MoHo, your wallet can afford the upkeep. Pretty simple really.

When an RV is on the road, it is like your house being in a constant earthquake. Not counting the strain on the drive train, the strain on the house is also present. Things come loose and things break on a continuing basis. Problems creep up all of the time and you have to learn to deal with them yourself, or have deep pockets to pay others. Anyone that thinks that all issues are taken care of and that they will never have another problem, are only fooling themselves.

you will also find in this forum that most of the folks that say that oil changes, etc. are not much more than a gasser, fess up that they do much of the maintenance work themselves. :)
bumpy

And the correlation is??????? More spent on the new purchase means more was spent on Maint?

Try this. Make a list of things you have had to do to your Sticks and Bricks

new water heater, new roof, Re-painting, Plumbing repairs Sewer cleaning and so on..