Water damaged travel trailer

B.O. Plenty wrote:
Cash or finance..Doesn't make any difference to a dealer. They get paid in full either way. You pay them or the bank/finance company pays them. This "pay cash" for the best deal is just a myth...They couldn't care less.

B.O.

I would have to disagree with this statement.

Cash is immediate and NO extra paperwork, hassle, delays or costs associated with the transfer (the dealer has to pay SOMEONE for the time involved in filing out and sending the paperwork to the bank/finance co).

Cash sale means the dealer gets PAID immediately and actually has MORE room to negotiate or even pocket additional money saved by not paying a clerk, accountant or finance person for the time and paperwork for this deal.

Having cash means the buyer is serious and is not just pulling the dealers leg for fun.

Basically at this time the dealer has not been able to sell the trailer for what they are asking. It won't hurt to invest some drive time to look at it and then toss a number out with cash to back it up. Good chance the dealer will be willing to counter offer in this case.

B.O. Plenty wrote:
Cash or finance..Doesn't make any difference to a dealer. They get paid in full either way. You pay them or the bank/finance company pays them. This "pay cash" for the best deal is just a myth...They couldn't care less.

B.O.

I guess it depends if the particular business is reporting cash income.

I'm still looking at a few different models, I believe one or two have some water damage as well but are already proceed significantly cheaper then the previous one.

I'll try to pick one of the trailers here soon, either way it'll be cheaper then renting one even if we don't use it every month. I believe the place in my city charges somewhere around a grand to rent a motorhome not even including gas.

Cash or finance..Doesn't make any difference to a dealer. They get paid in full either way. You pay them or the bank/finance company pays them. This "pay cash" for the best deal is just a myth...They couldn't care less.

B.O.

If you say there is some water damage around the wheel well then you may want to check out my thread on what I found in my Fleetwood.

Wheel well damage

If you are serious about buying then you may want to pull the trim off and the sheel metal within the wheel well and check to see if it is sealed and free of damage.

I'm having to replace the roof decking on my aging Jayco fiver. This also includes replacing the interior ceiling panels. It will take me a few weeks to do. But the alternative is another RV loan payment, and the fiver is fully paid for and has been modified to my tastes. If you are fairly good at carpentry you should be okay. Like everyone here has reiterated, there is no such thing as "minor" water damage. I have already rebuilt the front and rear caps on the rig, now I'm replacing the roof from the inside, adding new roof trusses and additional wiring for future goodies. Did I mention my rig is paid for?

roblox84 wrote:

Francesca Knowles wrote:

roblox84 wrote:


I'm just hoping that he'll take the offer just as seriously over thep hone. I really don't want to drive 4 hours just to hear no, honestly i'd even offer him the $1800 sight unseen just to not have to drive so far, lol. I'll tell him that and we'll see maybe he'll call me back in a few weeks when he realizes no one will buy it after all.

Time for some Tough Talk, O.P.
Are you seriously interested in this trailer, or are you wasting the salesman's time? (And perhaps ours, I might add...)

The only serious money is money that's in the room.

If you are really interested in this trailer: invest four hours, go down there with cash in your hand, and look at it. Discover all the defects that make it worth whatever you want to pay, point them out to the salesman, and make him an "I'm ready to walk" offer.

I'm interested in getting any good cheap trailer not necessarily just this one. Ive dealt with dealerships many times and many of them don't know how to do business so I am very reluctant to waste four hours and gas money for them not to even drop the price by a bit.

And if everyone here is saying that there is no such thing as little water damage then I believe them and gives me that much more reason to just give him an offer on the phone. Then when the snow comes and that trailer is still on the lot they will remember my offer and phone number.

At first I didn't think a little water damage was major but after reading all these posts about any water damage being so serious it put me off a little about this trailer. With that said if I do get a day of work in the next week or two and if the salesman can convince me to come i'll try to take a look at it and hope it's the same day my dad isn't using the truck or I'll be Sol anyway.

No business/salesman is going to take a PHONE "offer" seriously, it is too easy for someone to call up a business and drop any number on them.

The ONLY way to get their attention is to SHOW UP IN PERSON WITH CASH IN HAND. This shows that you are serious and most likely you will have a better chance of getting YOUR price.

Sometimes you just have to "invest" some time and money by going on a 4hr drive if you are determined to find a "bargain".

Example, I drove 2 hrs one way to look at a antique car only to arrive and the owner tell me they sold it the night before. I lost the chance to buy it because I was not willing to drive 2hrs the DAY the listing was posted. I waited until it was "convenient" for me.

Instead I found another one 10 hrs (600 miles)one way, made arrangements to go as soon as I could (owner said he would "hold it" for me) and bought it.

Sometimes you just have to say why not and take a risk...

boosTT wrote:
I don't think you will be able to get much money off their asking price for two reasons. 1) They are a dealer. 2) They have several people interested.

$3k is probably close to a fair number. Water damage can involve a lot of work, but costs shouldn't be too high. I would consider just laying wood down on top of the flooring and use as is.

Water damage tends to be vastly worse than you would expect.

Repairing it CORRECTLY is no "walk in the park", you won't simply just lay a sheet of plywood over top. That would be foolish not to mention would be very noticeable and impossible to hide the single sheet. You would end up having to lay plywood down over the entire floor to be able to blend the repair.

Adding plywood over top also will add considerable weight, 1/2" sheet of plywood is going to weigh 30lbs, multiply by 4, 5, or more sheets and you will easily be dragging several hundred pounds of extra dead weight.

Covering the rotted wood also does not address continual rot of the damaged wood, it WILL continue to spread even if you fix the intrusion points. Not to mention the mold and mildew which you just covered over.

The trailer is 5 yrs old while to some $3K sounds cheap it is not, the dealer took it on a trade and made a bunch of money on the new trailer while taking the known bad one for scrap price. Now the dealer is trying to flip the bad one and it is GRAVY bonus money for them to get by doing so.

If the damage is so bad that the DEALER IS WILLING to disclose IT IS BAD and is going to require considerable time, money and effort to fix. Keep in mind the dealer is disclosing the FLOOR, you have walls and roof not to mention floor structure all which may have considerable rot that the dealer knows or is not disclosing.

I will stand by my assessment of $1500-$1800 any more and you won't recoup you money by parting out if you find too much damage... As it stands now the trailer should be considered worth nothing more than PARTS.

Stuff like this priced low sells 10x quicker then something nicer and priced higher. Main reason- people don't have $10k in cash ready to blow on a project. A lot of people do have $3k.

I would be impressed if you can get $500 off the asking price.

It will sell fast when hunting season comes.

Or the salesperson could be lying and they don't have several people interested. I know all dealers aren't crooks, but it seems like the majority of RV and auto dealer's I've worked with are...

boosTT wrote:
I don't think you will be able to get much money off their asking price for two reasons. 1) They are a dealer. 2) They have several people interested. They have several people interested.

$3k is probably close to a fair number. Water damage can involve a lot of work, but costs shouldn't be too high. I would consider just laying wood down on top of the flooring and use as is.

I don't think you will be able to get much money off their asking price for two reasons. 1) They are a dealer. 2) They have several people interested.

$3k is probably close to a fair number. Water damage can involve a lot of work, but costs shouldn't be too high. I would consider just laying wood down on top of the flooring and use as is.