Repairs and Maintence

WILDEBILL308 wrote:
s, upgrade the refrigerator to residential,
Bill

What one wants, another person doesn't. If I was looking, that statement would kill the deal for me.
but I think folks are confusing "upgrades" with maintenance.
bumpy

jplante4 wrote:
I would be more worried about a motor home for sale where the ad says "I haven't had to do anything to this motor home for 5 years!"

You are absolutely right. I had to laugh when I read that. I would be much much happier if the guy said they had just completed a list of repairs and upgrades. You are much better off having someone else replace the TV's, upgrade the refrigerator to residential, replace Heat pumps, re do carpet, new tires. That just means you are ahead of the game.
Bill

I would be more worried about a motor home for sale where the ad says "I haven't had to do anything to this motor home for 5 years!"

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.

If it scares you, don't do it! This is not a cheap hobby.

MrWizard wrote:
i would rather buy used, that has a reasonable list of maint and repairs
than keep taking a new one back for warranty issues, that should not exist

+1

And the sellers that don’t list repairs and maintenance? Economical with the facts. ;)

i would rather buy used, that has a reasonable list of maint and repairs
than keep taking a new one back for warranty issues, that should not exist

I have two friends that have bough their use coaches in the resent past.

Friend #1 is the kind of guy that if the thing works leave it alone, he has done some electronic upgrades but that's about all. in 30k miles he has done a couple oil changes and a set of tires.

Friend #2. If it is dirty, or not todays technology he changing it out. He had a cabinet hinge that didn't work well, now he has a whole new cabinet. His coach is always broke, and he is always bitching about it. How much has he spent? God only knows, but it will never be right for him.

Also, what one person considers maintenance and repair, another one sees as upgrade.

If you need to replace the battery, do you buy the same that it originally came with? Or do you buy a bigger and better battery?

If the fridge breaks, can you fix it? If not, do you put in a residential or an RV fridge?

If your window seam leaks, do you pull the window out and rebuild the frame or do you simply reseal it?

Even basic maintenance has different interpretations and the cost varies accordingly.

Executive wrote:
To the OP. I put about $500/month into a 'maintenance' account, for my good friend, Justin Case. Oil changes including oil and fuel filters, lube and radiator test will run you about $300/yr. If you respect your coach and take care of things as necessary, you'll find your yearly expenses are much much less. Letting things go will cost you more in the long run. I spend about $750/yr. for maintenance. The rest is saved for expenses like tires, $4500 every 7 years, major tuneups every 100,000 miles etc......and yes, entry level coaches will cost more in the long run due to quality of materials and build, including fit and finish, of the original coach.....Dennis

we do the same...$500 into the M&R account each month. I no longer do any of the maintenance on our 2016 gasser. on average we spend about the same as Dennis...$750-$1000 per year on M&R. it's difficult to arrive at a specific figure even though we track these costs because while we've had issues with our 2016 Suncruiser we've also pumped a lot into her in the way of customizing and all of those expenses came out of our M&R fund.

Well, you're not wrong. We bought a 10 year old 30 ft. Class C for a good deal which we don't regret. But every time we complete a trip with no repair needs (maybe twice in 6 years) we break out the champaign. "It's always something" as they say and usually it costs a lot. But, we still have a nice MH that suits our needs and for far less than a new one would have costs. I would say don't do it unless you can afford fairly frequent expenditures ranging from a few hundred to thousands. Some of this can be for improvements but much is just to keep going. The most recent thing I just found is a crack in the linoleum flooring several feet long. Is it superficial or indicative of underlying problems?