Anyone make a mistake buying first MH ?

[Dollar98]

Just curious.. No matter how much research you do , it seems there is no substitute for owning and using a MH.. Anyone buy one and then realize you made a mistake on the first one.. If so, how did you rectify it. I haven't felt this way yet and hope I don't.. With all that is involved, I could see it happening.. I believe the best advice I got was to buy an older one and then see what you really want by trial and error..

[jplante4]

We realized that we needed to just do it to find out how it worked and what we needed. The trick was to not make it an expensive lesson. Buying an older MH that wouldn't lose a great percentage of it's value seemed like the way to go. I can't say for sure yet because we're just now looking for MH #2 and have yet to sell the Green Machine.

We now have a fairly short must have list - diesel, levelers, and maybe a slide out (depending on the interior layout), newer and longer.

[Dryfly01]

We didn't make a mistake in what we bought, just a bit impulsive in the way we did it. We were tent campers, through and through, for decades. We have never owned a camper but were thinking it might be something we should consider, since the ground seems a bit harder now that were 62 and 64. "maybe, if the right deal comes along", we said.

We had a last minute trip planned to tent in the Black Hills over this past Labor Day. We were leaving on Wednesday at around noon. On Tuesday, the day before, we saw a 26' TT and liked everything about it - including the price. It was a1999 Fleetwood Wilderness GL 26H and clean as a whistle. So we bought it. We have a 1999 Yukon, that I really like, to tow it with. Since the TT came with a weight distribution hitch and a stabilizer bar, I figured we were good to go. All I needed was a brake controller and 7-pin connection. Those we're installed on Wednesday AM.

We left the Arkansas Ozarks at 5 PM Wednesday afternoon. I had no experience pulling a rig like this, so the first few semi's that blew by me on the left side, and sucked me into the left lane, garnered a pucker-factor for this driver. After a couple of hundred miles, though, Iwas getting used to things. We only made it till 10:00 PM that first night, so we pulled into a Pilot truck stop and climbed into the TT for our first night. No frills, just laid on the bed, slept for a few hours and ack on the road at 5:30 AM.

When we stopped for the night on that second day, we pulled into "On Ur Wa RV Park" at Exit 112, on I-29, in Onawa IA. We were exited to set up and actually use the TT as a camp for the first time, ever. Everlything went rather smoothly, but we couldn't figure out how to get the refrigeratr or water heater to work. The owners of the RV park were wonderful and tried everything they knew to help. (coincidently, that is where, and why we joined Good Sam Club). Finally we conceded to having a technician check it out. There was one just an hour up the road in the same direction we that were headed. Turns out, the gas flow valve for the fridge was turned off. No big deal. The water heater needed a new circuit board. $250 for a new one, or, he had a used one for $100. We chose option 2. He could have ally socked to us, but only charged $100 or the circuit board and an hour labor. Not too bad.

Back on the road and finally made it to the Black Hill at midnight. This was my first time across the SD prairie. That place redefines the concept of "cross-wind". But, we made it-almost. 30 miles from our destination (Horse Thief Campground in Hill City, SD) we stopped for a final fuel and pee stop. Walking back to the RV I see a flat tire. Couldn't find a jack or a lug wrench (SUV wrench wouldn't fit). No problem- I've been a AAA-Plus member since 1992. Upon calling them, I learned the difference between AAA-Plus ans AAA-Plus/ RV. She said that the driver would call me with a quote. "Oh Boy, this is gonna hurt", I though. Well, he called and quoted me $75." C'mon in", I said. "I don't have a lot of choices". While I was waiting for my conscierge tire changer, I decided to take the spare off the back of the TT and save a few minutes of time. The spare seemed OK but a little low on air. The gas station had an air hose right beside the gas pump, so I pulled it out to top off the tire with air, except when I put that air chuck on the valve stem, the stem broke clean off. "Oh S__t" said I. When the tow truck driver got there, he, of course had no spare valve, but he did say that he wouldn't change me for the call, since he didn't do anything to help me.. He pointed out the Holiday Inn Express across the street and told me of a tire shop a mile away. "They're open til noon, tomorrow (Saturday)." he said. "And there's an RV shop right across the street from them", he added. He was a really nice guy and probably recognized the "deer in the headlights" look on my face. By noon the next day, I had a new tire mounted, a fixed flat on the spare, a jack and a 4-way lug wrench that fit our TT lugs. By 1:00 we were leveling the camper in one of our Great Nations most beautiful places -The Black Hills of South Dakota, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer State Park and so many other wonderful places.

The rest of the trip was awesome, beautiful, fun, and worth all of the agrivation of the outbound trip.. We made it home in one piece and fell in love with the RV life.

Oh ya, the mistake?
Don't buy a TT with GVWR of 8300 (UVA of 6470) and tow it with. 1/2 ton SUV with max tow capacity of 6500. And if you do, don't take it on a 2200-mile trip without knowing the first thing about towing a TT. They say "Ignorance is bliss" so we didn't know that we should be freaking out the entire time. Now I'm scouting for a 3/4-Ton Diesel tow vehicle hopefully a 2004 Duramax, crew cab, pick up. With that, we can maybe, upgrade to a fifth-wheel and have a vehicle that can handle it. Until I find one, it's local trips to RV parks within 50 miles. Fortunately for us, the are many in the Ozarks where we live. I'm sitting in one right now as I type this, while recovering from oral surgery, yesterday. It's the Sylamore Creek Camp, at the concfluance of Sylamore Creek and the White River, near Mountain View, AR. It sure beats lying on the couch at the stick house, watching Fox News while buzzing on pain meds.

In retrospect, we should have done this a few times first (sans pain meds), but, we're nothing if not adventurous, aren't we?

[Nutinelse2do]

We bought our first RV in 1993 after borrowing a relatives for a vacation and getting hooked.
It was a 1972 Winnebago. Ugliest thing we had ever seen, but it was what we could afford at the time.... $2000.00. and it was ours! Got it on the freeway driving it home and the entry door flew off and ran down the freeway! Fixed it up, interior and exterior and sold it for $4500.00 a couple years later.
Bought a 1978 Pace Arrow with that money, fixed it and sold it for $6403.00 a couple years later. Lol.
Next coach was a Class C that lasted about 6 months after we realized it had NO storage.
Then came the other Pace Arrow, 35 footer with no slides. Enjoyed that for a few years and during the crash and auto buy back thing that was happening, we traded for a double slide DP.
In retirement planning, realized we got more bang for the buck in a fifth wheel ( That we swore we would NEVER have ).
Three 5r's later, we found one that will work for full timing.
We do not believe any coach you buy will be a " mistake "
You will learn what type of layout you need to make you happy, and with each coach you own, you will learn more and more.
Only mistake is being scared of making a mistake.

[CRBuck]

I don't know if my late wife and I made a mistake buying our first motorhome, but 9 years later I have owned 8 of them. Seems that there might be a tad of circumstantial evidence that it can take a few misses before you get the right one. (To be fair, changing circumstances are a major factor in my case, but that's a different thread).

[DRTDEVL]

Mistake? Depends on who you ask.

Our first RV doesn't count... it was given to me. When my grandfather passed away, he left his 1981 Minnie Winnie 20RG to my uncle. My uncle wanted nothing to do with it, as he had little working knowledge of RVs and was in poor health himself. When I found it was going to be hauled off for scrap, I intervened and the paperwork was given to me.

I put a bit of work into it, but it was obvious it would never be what we wanted out of an RV (no A/C, no generator, and a tiny lavatory for a guy who is 6'5", 230?). We made it livable and left it behind my dad's garage in the same place it has sat stationary for 20+ years; only this time it is suitable to be used as guest quarters in the temperate climate of Santa Monica, Ca.

Last spring, we decided to get one we could actually use. We set a budget, albeit small, for an older Class A. We fell in love with a 94 Fleetwood Southwind in excellent shape (454/700R4) for under $10K, but it already had a buyer before we got there. After looking around a while, I stumbled upon an ad for an old Class A DP for $14K. I decided it was worth a shot and called the old guy up.

Turns out, he was a cabinet maker who came to NOLA form Alaska after Katrina to make money. The money was good, so he bought the DP and started traveling around performing his craft while living in it. After a few years, the economy tanked and he put all his stuff in storage in NOLA and returned home, only for "momma" to be upset a few years later when he still had a storage bill in the lower 48. She sent him packing to "take care of it," and he flew south. His truck sold immediately (8 years old with only 40,000 miels on it), and most of his tools sold quickly, too. He was only stuck with the RV, aqnd nobody in LA wanted it.

He headed west, blowing one of the ORIGINAL tires with 1993 DOT codes in East Texas. He eventually settled in Deming, NM, posting in Craigslist along the way. When I called interested about it, he asked what the ad said, as he had been lowering the price. I asked about the tires and he admitted they were really old, but if I would agree to $6k over the phone, he would come back to El Paso the next day to complete the deal.

It was a bit more work than we saw in the pics, but we talked him down to $5200, he called his wife who bought him a ticket home for the next evening. He wasn't allowed to return home until everything was gone.

In the end, we found ourselves in a worn-out 1995 Safari Continental 38' Prestige Edition in need of a lot of TLC on the cheap. We have used the heck out of it, and we still need to replace the roof before too much longer (not too important in the desert, but we wish to see other things). To this day, we are still only about $12K deep in the coach, all the appliances now work, we have remodeled the kitchen and currently remodeling the bath, and we are going to replace the flooring soon as well. Some would say the extend of the work was a mistake, but I call it a learning experience. There is little that can go wrong with the coach now that I won't immediately be able to identify and repair.

[reinolds753]

Two years ago I purchased a 2005 Dutchman Express class c 23' coach. When I had the walk-through with the sales person, I noticed a soft spot on the roof, next to the skylight. I asked the salesperson about it and he dismissed it as a non issue. I also noticed the skylight had moisture on the inside(a clear indication of a leak!). I purchased the RV and a few weeks later, It began to delaminate. I went to a local RV repair center and quickly learned that the roof needed replacing due to the leak, the skylight needed replacing, the side laminate needed to be re-glued. All the damages where due to the leak!!! The quote was for 7K. I was furious!!! Three months later, I was camping in Seabring Florida where a nasty storm broke a tree branch, it fell and penetrated the roof of my "new" RV. I was able to see the tree branch on the inside of my RV. My insurance company paid to have the entire roof redone with a new wood laminate and a new rubber roof and I also got a new awning as well.
Lesson: Don't believe your salesperson. Follow your gut feeling and ask a different person who has knowlege of RVs. Don't rush to purchase the RV. If you are unsure, leave a deposit with 24 hour reservation and ASK A DIFFERENT PERSON ABOUT YOUR GUT FEELING. You could make a $7 Thousand Dollar mistake OR more! Fortunately, I only had to pay my deductible.

[Spleenstomper]

Oops, class A forum....

[1985air345]

CCIntrigue wrote:
So far we haven't made a mistake buying an RV. Our first unit was an Airstream Argosy. Kept it 20+ years and made a lot of great memories in it.

Our first MH was an Airstream 345 that needed lots of work and I had a loan on it. I ended up selling it to a guy in the UK.

We now own a 1977 Argosy 20' motorhome and love it.

[Schertz]

post error

[brenda59]

I didn't know there was a shortage of Internet space for threads,maybe people just like to comment on their experience which is what I appreciate and enjoy learning from. Thanks to all those for passing on their story and to the ones that think the thread is too long please don't read. Thanks to all.

[MustangGT]

lol...the length of this thread...

[JimM68]

Wow. Yes I did read every page of this 13 year thread. Some really interesting stories.

A friend on the west coast wanted to do a shared vacation with us, and he camped in a fifth wheel. The original plan was for us to fly out and rent an RV. When I took full note of the hassle involved, I bought my own, a 99 pace arrow with a v10 and single slide.

No, not a mistake, a learning experience. 3 years later, having decided we loved the lifestyle, we bought our current Monaco Knight 40skq.
The Knight has (almost) everything we want. A real bathroom. quiet diesel power. smooth roadmaster chassis. very happy with it.

[Frank0524]

Only camped in tents and pop-ups before retirement . My kids wanted to buy a rig for me to explore the U.S A. The more research we did and the more shows and rigs we walked and the more we talked to other rv' ers, we realized that to be happy west of the Mississippi we needed a DP. I was freaked at what they wanted to buy and how much they were willing to spend. I told my oldest I would be elated with a pop- up towed by my civic.She quickly let me know that her daddy was not going to be living in anything too small to hang pictures on the walls. I then tried to move the conversation toward truck campers ( I'm a one step two step kinda guy ) . NOT. Then TT's. nope. 5vers look awesome. Okay, then I got a maybe. Then no. I think they are planning THEIR future RV, not mine 😉 . Ended up with an '06 34' Bounder . At first blush, appears awesome, but of course time will tell. I just want to get on the road. I don't care how!

[Just_Jeff]

hipower wrote:
Most of us can't say we bought the exact right coach the first time, but this lifestyle is a constant learning experience.

Part of the thinking that we erred initially is that often our needs change over the years and move away from what we own at the time.

Very good observation. We're really happy with our first RV and think we made the right purchase for this point in our lives, but we know that our needs will change when our youngest graduates so we're already planning our next one. (Smaller, off-road capability, etc.)

That doesn't mean we made a mistake on this one, even though we're not planning on keeping it forever.

Approaching it with that attitude, like you mentioned, makes it much easier to enjoy this one as the "right" one for now. And frankly, I think we'll be happy with our current one even if we don't get a new one when he graduates. Time will tell.

[CCIntrigue]

So far we haven't made a mistake buying an RV. Our first unit was an Airstream Argosy. Kept it 20+ years and made a lot of great memories in it. Our second and hopefully final RV is a Country Coach Intrigue. On both units we thoroughly did our homework over several years. We moved at a snail's pace on both units, and our patience paid off big time.