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..

[Westenthal]

Our first MH was a 1990 HR 33' with a 454 Chevy engine. The only mistake was the engine, not that the 454 was a bad engine but the only place in my area that I could get service work done was at the local Ford truck delership. That just didn't work out very well. We paid $20K for that rig, drove it all over the place for two years and sold it for $26K. So in retrospect, it turned out to be a pretty wise purchase, not a mistake at all.

[MuddyDuck]

I'm new to the board, so if I'm dredging up a topic that's old, sorry, saw it and had to reply.

We bought our MH three years ago, and it's been a love hate relationship. We made so many mistakes from being uninformed, naive, young, or just plain stupid.

Pretty much the major mistake was thinking we were getting a great deal on a motorhome that was quite old, but only had 30k miles on it. It has bled money from us to get it to this point of finally being dependable. Gets my eyes all moist thinking about the money we've put into it and how we could have bought a newer more dependable rig with less headache.

The upshot is we have learned a lot about MHs and have improved our do it ourselves skills. When we buy our next one we'll know so much more. So...considering we bought our first one when we were in our late twenties and just turned thirty, and we'll be working up to our dream luxury class MH for retirement, then it's been a valuable education for our future.

[RayChez]

Yes! I made a mistake by buying a gasoline coach. The wind bounces them around too much. Traded it in after five thousand miles on it.

[wanck]

We did make a mistake. We enjoy camping and taking our Class C places. It is too small. We bought a rental return and we paid too much. We have records of all the maintenance done on it. It was evident on our second trip in it we got taken. The dealer Dan Gamel in Fresno, just took us. The outboard tires on the rear of the coach were all shiny and new, but the inboard tires were old and waiting to fail. When the tire blew out on our second trip we felt we had definately made a mistake. We feel now that for the money we would have been better off with a new travel trailer than a used motorhome. We had to reseal the roof and a couple of windows. The coach battery is already bad. We have already replaced the AC and the refer cover. We have had to work at getting the dealer to make right on the situation. When we went back to trade in our Motorhome, they offered us $18k after charging us $32k. We were really naive shoppers to begin with and it has been a good learning experience. But a very expensive mistake.

[grm77979]

I did make a mistake buying my first RV, I should have bought it sooner.

[millikeg]

theyngones wrote:
We freaked with a heavy dose of buyers remorse. Any ideas on how to get over it?

Use your RV sufficiently so you realize the value out of it for the money you're paying into it. 🙂

[theyngones]

We started with a coleman Taos popup (eight footer) weighed 1100# and towed by 2001 Suburu Outback in 2002 at 20 mph. Both paid for Just retired, settled in new home, went camping on the beach. Just right. Then, we got the bug to move up to Class A. Couldn't flat tow the suburu so we traded for a 2002 saturn wagon. Now we have 700/month payments. We freaked with a heavy dose of buyers remorse. Any ideas on how to get over it?

[Deen]

If you look at my sig you will see that I started RV'ing 48 years ago. That was when my parents rented a trailer, the next year they special ordered their first TT. Special built and heavy so it kept blowing out tires till they put mobile home tires under it. Got my first TT in 1968, tried pulling it with my 1967 Camaro 396 CI/4 speed. Plenty of power (factory rated at 375 HP but NHRA factored to 450 HP) but not enough cooling! Finally went to a 26' TT (with several TT's in between) towed by a 3/4 ton Chev P/U.

Moved to a MH in 1988 and have had several since then, 1988 (17' Type B), 1997 (29' Type C), 1998 (35' double slide Type A), 2000 (39' Single slide Type A DP) and now a 2002 (41' triple slide DP).

[Deen]

corgimom wrote:
After camping in a pop-up and TT for 25 yrs, we decided to look at a used class C. Saw one on a lot with 23K miles on it at a price we could afford. It was only 2 yrs old and we thought the milage was about right. It was trouble from day one. When the title came, we were surprised to see that it actually had 123K miles on it and was a rental. We weren't told that at the dealer, but then we didn't ask. So we traded it (at another dealer) and got a new one. We've traded several times since then but always bought a new one. We learned a valuable lesson.

Depending on the year this happened you should have been given a Federal Odometer statement, that would have told you the actual mileage before you signed the papers.

[Deen]

Of course NOT!! We started with a 17' Type B, then the dog decided the couch was all hers!! Now up to 41' and only one dog, and three cats.

[lovnlife]

Not counting our 9-1/2ft camper, our first MH was a used 1977 class C on a Dodge 440 chassis. We bought it in 1989. The interior was a major project. Re-finished all the cabinets, rebuilt the genset, re-upholstered the interior, new mattress, bigger tanks for dry camping, etc. On the outside/chassis, the darn thing would do fine until we towed our boat. Then it would vapor lock and get a whopping 4 MPG. We'd have been better off getting something new/newer. Anyway owned it with my dad and we sold it about 5 years later. We did, however, get out money back/out that we put in it.

[OpenRoad]

Yes...we went from a trailer to a Class C in June 2004. It was a 30Jamboree GT. Actually great while camping but on longer trips wore you down. The ride was horrible, poor turning radius, wind sheer from large trucks now parts my hair on the other side. We have scheduled a cross country trip this year. But after several trips of 700-800 miles we decided the class c was not for us. So we ordered and just recd a Class A 2005 35'Dolphin. Love the ride on WH 22. We feel more comfortable taking the larger coach x country. So I owned 2 different MH in 12months. Yes the first was a mistake. But from what I've heard we are not the only ones who went to small early on.

[GLBosn]

We bought a new 31' class "C" in 2003 with no slides and after two years and 8000 miles finally realized we made a mistake. Not enough storage, refrigerator too small for our extended use, terrible sitting positions for watching TV on rainy days and we are tired of bumping into each other when moving about. The search for its replacement has been well underway and thanks to all the information I have learned here we have narrowed our choice to either a Mountain Aire 3501 or Allegro Bay 34XB. I just hope that we do not take to bad a beating when we trade-in.

[noRVtoheaven]

Very few people who RV will tell you the truth as they will almost never confess to having made a bad purchase or having an RV that is not as good as their neighbor RVer. It's a pride thing especially for the over 50 crowd. Do not gather info. this way.

[corgimom]

After camping in a pop-up and TT for 25 yrs, we decided to look at a used class C. Saw one on a lot with 23K miles on it at a price we could afford. It was only 2 yrs old and we thought the milage was about right. It was trouble from day one. When the title came, we were surprised to see that it actually had 123K miles on it and was a rental. We weren't told that at the dealer, but then we didn't ask. So we traded it (at another dealer) and got a new one. We've traded several times since then but always bought a new one. We learned a valuable lesson.