What to look for during road test

X 2 Ignore your wife's screaming also. Mine is Italian so I get the hands too. Yes! On a nasty day becaus you can get a little better deal with no one going to the dealers but a new one I'd have to say buy at a big show, the last day, last minute and keep them til midnight. Eat a nice leisurely meal while they chew their nails to the knuckles. Don't get fever, walk away from anything that smells fishy.Have fun, you are the boss, not them.

I would do a hard braking attempt to see if the rig travels straight with brakes applied.

Listen for rattles, creaks, clunks and weird noises.

Drive uphill for a decent distance to see if the sustained power is adequate for Mountain driving in your judgement.

While driving try to avoid over correcting the steering wheel to decide on the rig's stability.

Have fun....it may be the cheapest ride you will get for the foreseeable future. :)

About the only thing you can tell on a test drive is how the coach fits you. Can you reach all of the controls and are the mirrors positioned properly for you? An unloaded coach will usually ride rougher, be noisier, and may tend to wander on the highway. Passing trucks will blow an empty coach around more than one loaded for travel. If you plan to tow a vehicle, that will also affect the handling and can't be checked with a test drive.
If the salesman wants to ride with you, just tell him to keep quiet so that you can concentrate on driving the coach and listening for strange noises. Try to ignore his screaming. :B

Have never driven a MH until my test drive, I rode with some folks in a MH, I read all I could on how to drive one. Check out You Tube vides. The test drive was not long but did include Interstate as well as two lane. I looked at how hard it was to stay in my lane. Listen for anything strange. The wife was a good one to have a long to assist. Does it sway a lot? A couch with few miles on it should be pretty solid. Can you see front, back and down the side? Good luck and trust me after a few hundred miles you will be fine

Does it track well, especially on the highway? How much do passing trucks affect it? Is the steering accurate and the wheel aligned while driving straight? Is the ride smooth, or overly bouncy? Does is shift smoothly? Any strange engine noises? Dash heat and AC work ok?

Check the gauges, to be sure all show as operating normally

Please provide more detail on what to look for when driving. I with OP, I am likely to be more nervous about driving the huge thing, so don't really know how it should handle. I understand it will handle different from my current F150 (which handled different from my Ram 1500). At this point, my only MH driving experience is driving my parents Class C on Chevy 3500 chassis.

I'm like Wolfe10 on this. I go to the nastiest road I know of and give it the acid test. A windy day is good to test how it handles crosswinds. If it's a handful to drive, it won't be much fun for traveling.

They handle different loaded and unloaded..
Flat road and crowned roads
Towing,

I drove a MH and the passenger whistled terrible. DW opened and shut window and no change. Ended up buying same exact model from anoother dealer and no problem. That kind of made our deal. Get it fixed on warranty? I doubt it. Better off passing on the MH.

The roadworthiness of a used coach is determined by a check of the components first before a drive. The tires; you don't want worn or old ones. Age can be determined by the codes shown on the tires, as it decodes to age, with the manufactures name. Any tires 7 years or older need replacement. New tires are around $325 each. Brakes then need to be looked at for smooth no blue spots on rotors and good pad depth on disc brakes, shoes and drums need checking if present too. Then shocks, sway bar bushings, wheel bearings, and control arm play. Then A/C, heater, belts and wires need a visual. Oil should be full and look clean, and transmission fluid should be it's proper color not burnt brown and smelling burnt. This is why you need a mechanic that knows trucks, and an RV repair person for the house systems. If all that's good it should handle fine. The drive will tell you about 10% of the real story that the specialist will tell you. They then will give you the cost to cure any problems found. Better a few hundred for the professional checkup than a thousands for finding out later on the side of the road, waiting for a tow and $100 per hour labor bill plus parts. The tow alone is somewhere around $500 on average. That's why many buy new, and keep it in shape or trade in before trouble starts.