Shipping Trailer

[IdaD]

Anybody ever shipped a trailer a long distance? I'm buying a used fiver and am struggling to find much inventorying my local area. My wife has a pretty specific idea on the floor plan she wants, which doesn't make it any easier.

Any opinions or experiences would be welcome!

[Padlin]

Doesn't sound like it'll help but we had ours shipped along with 2 others from British Columbia to MA on one flatbed. The hassle was getting it off the truck. It was a private driver owned shipper which the manufacturer arraigned.

If I total up the 3 trailers, it came out to about $3 a mile. The trucker did have a return pickup in Elkhart IN, that may have kept the price down a bit.

[maxmorrow]

I bought a Class A unseen once, never again. If you can, go get it and make a vacation out of it. I tow trailers here locally and see people buy trailers that I would never even consider looking at. You can buy a new one locally for what a used one cost plus having it shipped.

[jelly_belly_bea]

from texas to reno,nv. 2000.00 No problems. Maybe you have a friend w/ a 5er that can show you the ropes.That was back in 2010 for a Laredo.

[shadows4]

We have bought two trailers long distance. First was a TT about 300 miles away one way. It turned out pretty good and was from a dealer. The second was off eBay and is our current 5er. It was 800 miles one way to pick up. Kansas City to Atlanta.

Long story but we paid about half of blue book value for it. Ended up spending as much in repairs as we paid for it. New roof and repairing delamination issues on both sides.

Would we do it again? For the right RV yes. I feel I am a little wiser and wouldn't get caught up in the new trailer excitement now, like I did before.

So do your homework. If you find the right deal for you, be prepared to hire someone to inspect it for you. Maybe fly in to look, if you buy put in storage until you can go pick it up or have it brought to you.

It's your money. Do what is right for you and your family. Good luck.

[omextreme]

We have bought 2 campers now, Our first a 29' TT purchased locally. Never having seen a travel trailer we took about 3 hours with this seller to go over this one and were extremely lucky to find a great camper and a great seller without having done any research or even knowing what to look for.

Decided to upgrade to a bigger unit after 9 months and we contracted on a NEW camper in southern Florida, Drove 600 miles to get it only to find it was missing an entire AC unit that was in the listing and on the spec sheet...

so you never can tell but I would be cautious to buy anything, even NEW without seeing it first.

[slomark]

I had my trailer shipped from Indiana by U-Ship, great price and good service.

[FishOnOne]

While we were purchasing our new camper this year we decided to look at some used campers to burn some time. The smell factor in some of these can't be quantified by pictures or a salesman.

Also inspect and perform a thorough look over before signing the dotted line.

[TheAmRheins]

I talked to a mobile tech who inspects RV'S. He has had people use the pictures they took of the RV when they bought it new when they were trying to sell it years later.

[Veebyes]

Bermuda to Georgetown, TX. for us to go look/buy.

That involved flying Bermuda to NY, NY to Dallas, Dallas to Austin, then rent a car. Yes we really really wanted that model trailer & it was a rare one.

Bought it & truck then imediately put both into storage for 6 months & flew home. Next spring flew back got it out of storage & the shakedown, 1st RV for us, trip was taking it to its new home in MD.

That was 9 seasons ago. since then there has never been the urge to get another truck or trailer. Bought the right combo first time.

Do the research first & doing the distance to get the right one is worthwhile.

[lee_worsdell]

Yes I would go get it. I did buy sight unseen of ebay. Mistake I drove from Toronto to Daytona to find out that it smelt like some one had died in it. The floor was rotted needed bearings and tires. They said it was in great shape in there ad.

[shovelhead86]

I would really convince wifey to find and pick one within driving range (day or so). It will be her choice. You really do have to inspect yourself and not rely on a salesperson. It takes time and some know-how. Problems can be hidden or not easily seen. Pictures won't do it I purchased on e-bay but did not turn over cash until I had seen the unit.

[laknox]

CarlT100 wrote:

IdaD wrote:
Okay you guys have me rethinking things a bit. Maybe I'll wait for the weather to improve and try to focus my search on somewhat closer population centers in the west. It's just frustrating to see trailers out here priced so much higher than you guys back east seem to have available, but I guess that's just a byproduct of the lower population density we have out here.

You have made the right choice. I learned the hard way to never buy a used RV without hiring a good, independent certified RV tech to inspect it.

I won't buy a NEW RV without at least sitting in one example of the exact model I'm interested in. My #1 choice, KZ, is out because there's exactly 1 dealer in the entire state of AZ and they don't stock the entire line I'm interested in, let alone the specific model. Would take a minimum 1,000 mile round trip to find one, just to sit in. So, it goes to #2 and a Jayco goes to #1, simply based on availability.

Lyle

[bpadamson]

We searched all over the west to find the fiver we wanted online. Made a trip to So Cal and Utah. In Utah just south of SLC there is a used dealer that has a multitude of great units, and that is not that far from Southern Idaho. Do a search on one of the sites and narrow it to Utah, you may find something. We found ours on a weekend trip and picked it up the next weekend. Keep searching, inventory changes quite a bit and you might find just the right one close.

[fj12ryder]

We found a 5th wheel toyhauler that we really liked nearly 900 miles away. It was a new one and we sent them $1000 as earnest money.

We drove down with our old trailer as a trade-in. We did an 8 hour PDI and were prepared to turn around and go home if all didn't go well. We were pretty sure it was all good ahead of time, but we insisted on a thorough PDI before we turned loose of any more cash. They fixed all the minor issues, put on slide toppers at a good price, and we paid for our new trailer. Everybody was happy.

Research will only take you so far, and then you need to see what you're buying. Money is too hard to get to risk $10-15,000 and get burned. Shoot, you hear of people getting burned buying face-to-face from a dealer, I can't imagine buying something sight unseen. Just the way I am. My dad said to never buy a pig in a poke.