Thoughts on purchasing a rental?
New to this forum!! We've owned motorhomes in the past, never bought new but from a friend. Our in laws have a Monaco that we've been using but this time we are looking at a 2005 Fleetwood Jambor...
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I would not hesitate to buy a rental from a competent rental company; it's probably had more consistent upkeep than many privately used motorhomes, and I think at least sometimes rentals are built to rather more robust standards (for framing, cabinetry, and so forth) than typical motorhomes. I don't know anything specific about El Monte.
100K miles on a Ford E-series chassis with proper upkeep is nothing to worry about; you will probably wear out the house part long before the chassis has major problems if you keep up on routine maintenance, even if you drove long distances.
Just last weekend I was volunteering at a camp/conference center place and ran a couple of errands in an older 15 passenger van they have. After about 200K miles of use the engine and transmission still work pretty much like new. They did have to replace the exhaust manifold not too long ago, a common problem for vans of that vintage and I gather somewhat labor intensive. Beyond that, I don't believe they've had any significant issues with the van (well, excepting body rust, which is practically a given for any older vehicles driven in New England winters). The Ford E-series chassis and the E-series vans are practically identical mechanically speaking. The motorhome will naturally have beefier axles and springs than a passenger van because it's larger and heavier.
100K miles on a Ford E-series chassis with proper upkeep is nothing to worry about; you will probably wear out the house part long before the chassis has major problems if you keep up on routine maintenance, even if you drove long distances.
Just last weekend I was volunteering at a camp/conference center place and ran a couple of errands in an older 15 passenger van they have. After about 200K miles of use the engine and transmission still work pretty much like new. They did have to replace the exhaust manifold not too long ago, a common problem for vans of that vintage and I gather somewhat labor intensive. Beyond that, I don't believe they've had any significant issues with the van (well, excepting body rust, which is practically a given for any older vehicles driven in New England winters). The Ford E-series chassis and the E-series vans are practically identical mechanically speaking. The motorhome will naturally have beefier axles and springs than a passenger van because it's larger and heavier.
