Travel Trailer Buying/Financing Questions

I am going to post somewhat repetitive things to what others have said in response to your second question, but perhaps there's some value in my experiences. Our last two RV purchases were as follows:

1. We were shopping for a TT several years back, and I was looking at dealers over a wide geographic area, communicating with a couple that had the unit we wanted. I had a good feel for what the best price was going to be, and was going to pull the trigger on one about 6 hours away from me. Before doing that, I went to the local RV show, as I knew a local dealer had the exact unit we were interested in (but previously their price was higher than the distant dealer). A factory rep was at the show, and was offering incentives which, combined with what the dealer was offering, providing us a better price than any I'd found to date. So, it's possible you might find some of the better pricing at an RV show.

2. Our current RV (a motorhome) was similar to the process above, in that I found the unit/floorplan we wanted and shopped over a wide area. We were patient, and as it turns out, in December a dealer a few hours from us that I had communicated with previously reached out to me and said they had just dropped the price on the unit we liked significantly. We drove over that weekend and bought it. This was in Dec 2014, and the RV was a 2014 model that had been on the lot for many months. 2015's were out and on the lot, so they were not only incentivized to move the leftover model, but it's possible that being December they had year end motivation to move it as well (I can't prove that, just a possibility).

So I'd suggest you look both at RV shows, and also perhaps try to find leftover units (not so old that you need to worry about things like tires going bad sitting on the lot for 3 years) when the new model year is out. Shopping in December certainly wouldn't hurt either as long as you have timing flexibility, which it sounds like you do.

wanderingaimlessly answered it very well.

See as many as you can and have a list of must haves.
Consider where you plan to camp and size accordingly.
Remember, it is not only your trailer but your tow vehicle. Get what is comfortable for you.

For all of you saying "wait and pay cash"; congratulations on being so wealthy.
I guess you paid cash for everything; good for you.

For us poor mortals, the memories and good times are worth a few dollars spent to be able to enjoy sooner than later. No one knows what tomorrow will bring and I will not be one of the "shoulda, coulda, wouldas"

As long as I don't over extend and cause grief from the load it's my business where my money goes.

Just because a RV is purchased new, does not mean it`s free of problems -- Most, if not all RV`s have some defects -- A preowned unit purchased from an individual will most likely be in road ready condition -- We`ve owned 8 RV`s since 1980, & speak from experience -- Bill Willard

delwhjr wrote:
wanderingaimlessly answered it very well.

See as many as you can and have a list of must haves.
Consider where you plan to camp and size accordingly.
Remember, it is not only your trailer but your tow vehicle. Get what is comfortable for you.

^^^^
excellent advice.

we are on our 2nd TT. both were bought new. 1st was from camping world. we had a good sales experience with them. service dept is always backed up for weeks like any rv dealership.

2nd was from campers inn in nc. had way better "vibes" there

i would have preferred to buy used but knowing what we liked in floor plans etc after several months of searching used we didn't find what we wanted plus alot of 2 year old used TT's had asking prices close to new because people were upside down on their loan.

one word of advice----- learn how to inspection and maintain your rv. it will save you tons of money and headaches.

While paying cash for everything would be a unicorns and rainbows world. Fact is it would take most working Joe's many many years to save enough for a quality RV. Pay cash for a used one ? Well if everyone paid cash then there would hardly be used ones for sale because very few buyers could afford to pay cash and fewer new ones would be bought only to be sold as used.
Also there would be way way fewer RV MFG's in business.

Back to the OP, try looking for year end models that are deeply discounted. There's also a lot of 1-2 year old trailers for sale as well.

Financing can be had anywhere. We actually financed through the dealer when we bought our last trailer. I had already set up some financing with my credit union but the dealer beat the rate so we went with the dealer.

As far as the best time to buy. Winter is probably best, but depending on the dealer they may have good deals all year. A deal is a deal regardless of the time of the year.

Even if you could pay cash, get the loan and simply pay it off early. Nothing is better for your credit than actually using it and making payments on time.

I wish there was a like or thank you button on this forum. I appreciate everyone who has tried to answer my questions. I’ll clarify a few things here:

We are looking at a small unit. We know the limits of my truck and we’ve found several floor plans we like. I want to get something as short as possible, with bunks, to eliminate the risk of scraping the backend coming into my steep driveway. I also am limited by garage space for it, as I plan to keep it indoors when not in use.

I’ve only ever bought 1 thing I didn’t need. I don’t live some extravagant lifestyle spending endless amounts of money. There’s not much to just simply cut from my budget and start saving on the scale needed to buy what we want. That being said if we get one we like we will keep it for a long time.

Case and point: I will absolutely be buying a camper prior to March 2020 and will absolutely be financing it.


My in-laws have a camper and we have gone on some trips with them. I have a pretty good understanding of what goes into all of this.

Every time I go to make a large purchase I call my bank, credit union and insurance company and get their rate. Most of the time when I go to a dealer and let them know what rate I have found,their finance person will find a better rate knowing its their only shot.

Rjpoog1989 wrote:
I should have stated that I’m not interested in anything David Ramsey would say. Yes I could save money and go camping 5-10 years from now. My goal however, is to get out camping with my daughter while she’s young and get her interested in the outdoors.

I’ve looked at used, but I’ve got enough used junk laying around that I have to work on all the time. I don’t want to be fixing things when I’m trying to take a relaxing trip.

I’ve looked at rates from my credit union and will possibly use them. I have an 800+ credit score. My car will be paid off soon and I have plenty of money to make the payments.

I agree with the junk laying around comment. we financed and bought new because i want vacation to be vacation. eliminate the chance of the "everything i own is junk" anger moments lol. I want to relax. not stress over things that are broken.