joe b. wrote:
Buying any older truck camper or RV, make an honest assessment of your ability to do work on it yourself. As I remember, on one of his posts, Sleepy, was showing how he braced up the underneath of his slide. He used some angle iron or something, but the point is he was able to do the work himself. If you had to take a job like that to a dealer or RV shop, you are going to be spending big bucks to have it done.
To my thinking, the dealer retail prices shown on most guides is what most dealers are asking, not what they are selling for eventually. Look at all the guides you can find, talk to your credit union, bank, insurance agent as they all seem to get different editions of the "price" books.
The main problem with buying RVs in Alaska is too many of them sold for too much to start with. In the 25+ years I lived in rural Alaska, I bought and sold at least a half dozen RVs. Most I bought from off one of the military bases. Elmendorf AFS used to have a used vehicle lot which I would shop when I was in Anchorage. The standard scenario was that a GI would be stationed in Anchorage or Fairbanks, and decide they had to have an RV. So they would go to the base credit union and take out a 15 year loan on one, then hot foot it to a dealer would was glad to sell them one at sticker price. At the end of their 3 year tour, with 12 years remaining on their loan, they would find out they had been transferred to a base somewhere in the world where they couldn't take their RV. Unless they were officers, they didn't have the leave time, in most cases to even drive it to the lower 48. So they would try to sell them in Anchorage at what they owed on the loan and most were upside down a long ways. So many would end up with no choice but to turn them back to the credit union and take the hit on their credit rating. I bought two or three RVs directly from the military credit union as they liked cash. Got real good deals using this method.
The only extra cost of Alaska RVs should be the barge freight up from Washington or Oregon and that is a cheap way to ship stuff compared to other transportations methods. One of the forum member in Anchorage wanted a new rig so he bought it in Washington and had it shipped up to him. He had some shipping damage but that is a side issue.
I wouldn't pay anymore than $500 above the average "book" price for any RV in Alaska. The $500 would cover most of the freight cost to get one there. Also consider resale on any rig you buy, especially if you are just temporarily assigned to a government job in Alaska. If you are there permanently, then you may want to keep what you buy till it falls apart. LOL
One Class C I bought that was being brought up from Arizona on a one way trip by a Alaska snowbird. I contacted him and let him know my interest in his newly purchased used rig. When he arrived in Alaska, I met him, checked out the rig and made him an offer, which he stated was an "insult". I gave him my business card and about 2 weeks later he called me, "feeling much less insulted". He accepted my offer. We went to my bank, where the bank officer handed him a bank check and the seller signed the RV over to me.
The lot on Elmendorf is still in service. It's called 'The Lemon Lot'. I check it every weekend, actually bought my first travel trailer there from a gentlemen who was about to be stationed abroad.
As far as the reasons for higher RV costs here, I can't say. Surely there is some extra expense with regards to transportation, but it seems as if they simply charge a premium because they know how huge the RV market is here in Alaska. Heck, in my neighborhood, I would wager 50% of the people have some sort of RV (whether it be a travel trailer, 5th wheel, pop-up, etc..)
Another thing is people incorrectly use the NADA site to calculate values. When you are looking up the book value, you are only supposed to check off options that are IN ADDITION to the standard included options. Just about every pre-owned RV on craigslist here the seller just checks off EVERYTHING the camper has, e.g. furnace, ac, fridge, spare tire etc.. when in actuality, most of that is standard and is incorrectly being added to what the value is supposed to be, resulting in an inflated asking price. For example, I looked at a 1999 lance 1130 yesterday, NADA varies between 4800 and 5800, seller is asking 9,000............. That kind of price difference is common here.
New RV's are priced significantly higher as well. The worst from my past experience is A&M RV downtown. It's like they order a trailer, take out the calculator and add on +15% and put it on the lot. I just don't get it.
