motor home mpg

Floridastorm wrote:

Matt, is your 40 year old MH a class A or C? Do you feel that it is more advantageous to purchase an older motorhome, that has been inspected by my mechanic prior to purchase, instead of buying a new or newer motor home. Even if I needed the assistance of RV mechanics, over the years, would it not be less expensive to spend let's say $12,000, and take the chance, rather than to spend $90,000?

Florida,

In you case, you are going to have to play a serious cost/value game on a very ragged curve. You have to start out thinking that a shop man-hour is going to be 100~125$ depending on the location. As such, you can not risk needing much before that cost overruns everything else. The other problem is that 90K$ really doesn't get you much in the new market. Used is always a hard shot, unless you can hit a known winner and find good service for it. You can have a prior owner eat the initial depreciation and if they used it enough (sitting is not good) and were good about the maintenance, you can find a good deal. You had best make friends with a good technician very early on.

As a great example, my neighbor brought home a 20yo coach last fall. He acquired it at a very advantageous price, or so he thought. It has not needed anything that most people would think of as major, and is a a maintenance guy at the local airport. He probably put 500$ in parts and material and 80+ hours making it ready to travel. And there were only a few things that actually needed repair, but the water heated had been poorly winterized once and the roof had aged out (he caught it in time).

Have you ever heard the saying, "A boat is a hole in the water, lined with fiberglass, into which you pour money"? Well, the biggest difference between an RV and a Boat is that water can leak out of an RV.....

As much as I love our antique, It is probably not a good idea for you. Unless you live very near the one of three shops in Florida that will work on these old girls. They can still be affordable, but they are not cheap - No Motorhome is. We have a great saying in our crowd,"A reliable ready to travel coach will cost a minimum of 25K$ - All at once or as a kit." Yes, you can acquire the coach for less, but you will be into it by that much before you get very far. Fortunately for me, the value of sweat equity is a very good on the return. I still have the continuing maintenance that one should expect of a 40yo vehicle with a 40yo house on the back that had been subjected to about a 20 year long earthquake.

Matt