B+ motorhomes

[Daniel_C_]

I just bought a Trail Lite B+ 211s with 8.1 Chevy
engine. This is my fifth motorhome (others range
from an old 20' Vagabond, and three Winnegagos, from 19 to 32'. This vehicle is fantastic. I am
using it as a mobile office (and sneaking in a fun
journey from time to time). It gets about 9.5mpg
and I believe I could pull a bus behind it if I wanted! I paid low $40's which is about what I had expected to pay for a five or six year old Chinook with a nicer interior, but fewer features
(slide). I am delighted thus far.

[happyjack2]

Almost blew up HappyJack 2 this weekend !!!!!!!:o

We were at our new seasonal site near Colonial Beach VA for the Independence Day weekend and I must have bumped and accidently turned on one of the stove top burners while moving stuff inside the rig. We were watching the campground fireworks show on Saturday nite from a nearby dock and someone said the had heard an "alarm clock" beeper for a while then realized it was an alarm from inside our camper when they smelled propane. It was closed up with the A/C on at the time.

I ran into the camper( dumb move ) and turned of the burner. I shut off the valve at the tank then killed the power at the switch on the pedestal. With the front doors and rear door open it took thirty minutes for the alarm to stop beeping. With the fan on high and all the windows open after the alarm stopped, it was an hour before the smell had cleared enough to sleep.

The rig had almost a full tank of gasoline and was parked in a park with 400 nearby rigs. I figure if it had went up we would have been the lead story on the evening news on saturday nite.

[B-Plus]

GKJreutzer, I don't recall that that was an option at the time of my 2nd RV purchase, otherwise I think they would have offered it to me with the fit I was having over the phone with while on my trip. I told them to make sure the RV that I was driving was covered for my trip and when I returned home I was going to cancel my policy. The only option they offered was to give them 24 hours notice on which RV I was going to use and they could switch it back and forth as required , that's almost as bad as AAA telling me that it would not be a problem to get reinbursed if I needed to get towed in a State that they didn't have coverage in, hell getting reinbursed was not the issue ,having to look for a tow service on my own was the problem. A few years ago in Canada I had been on a dirt road for about 50 miles ( lost ) I hit a town and the people didn't even speak English ,I had to get gas from someone's 55 gallon drum in their back yard , can you imagime having to look for a tow service!

[gkreutzer]

I have Coach-Net and it appears their Platinum Plan ($10 more / year) covers multiple RVs. I've been pleased the two times I've needed their services.

[B-Plus]

I had triple AAA RV service and found out that AAA was not available in every state, When I questioned AAA I was told that they would pay me back for any service if I had to be towed . That means that I would have to contact a tow service if I broke down in some back county " NO Thanks " That's what I really want to do is start calling around for a tow service in the middle of the night that's has a tow vehical capable of towing my Rig
Then I went with Coach Net and found out while I was on RV trip ( by phone call from them ) that my 2nd RV that I was driving was not covered because they will only cover one RV. So I went with Good Sams Platinum RV service and it makes no difference how many RV's you own.

[Teacher_s_Pet]

rvhunting wrote:
Thanks for the feedback so far!

The unit I found is at a dealership about 45 minutes from us. Not sure they have the maintenance records for it. We wouldn't be going cross-country, but maybe just a couple of states over (ie Washington/Oregon) at most. Probably mostly just exploring all the sights around Northern CA. We have AAA membership, so we'd be covered by emergency towing etc. I unfortunately have had to use it quite a bit a few years ago!

Unless you upgrade the AAA to RV coverage they will not tow a Class B. We had a hard time with them even finding a towing service we would pay for when we lost a water pump on our Class B on I75 in FL. Our insurance paid us back, we didn't renew AAA and switched to Coachnet.

[rvhunting]

Thanks for the feedback so far!

The unit I found is at a dealership about 45 minutes from us. Not sure they have the maintenance records for it. We wouldn't be going cross-country, but maybe just a couple of states over (ie Washington/Oregon) at most. Probably mostly just exploring all the sights around Northern CA. We have AAA membership, so we'd be covered by emergency towing etc. I unfortunately have had to use it quite a bit a few years ago!

My family had a TT while I was a kid, so I'd like to share that experience with my kids now, but without all the overheating tow vehicle problems we had back then. We have 2 boys, age 10 and 7. Do you think we can all fit comfortably in the Trail-lite for the next 3-4 years?

Thanks again!

[Gene_in_NE]

rvhunting - I tend to agree with "happyjack2" that the engine and transmission is not nearly as stressed with these short Class C's. A lot of miles do not have to be a death knell, however. If a mechanic of your choosing could do a compression test, it would give you a vote of confidence in the condition of the insides. Checking for oil leaks would be another valuable indication. The transmission fluid could be analyzed by a testing lab to indicate unusual happenings. The balance of the mechanicals are more routine maintenance items like brakes, hoses, belts, batteries, alternators, starters etc. A couple tests by a good mechanic can detect the difference between an engine about to give major problems and one that is still in solid condition.

I have seen some very high mileage internal combustion engines that just seem to run and run. I personally know of one two cylinder air cooled motorcycle with an excess of 500,000 miles that is still going strong.

[Artum_Snowbird]

It's an interesting amount of miles... it could come from a couple that retired, and decided to see the limit of their travels in every way. In reality, it's just over 20K per year, but if that includes a few trips to Alaska, and some winter travelling with salted roads, well... do inspect carefully.

[happyjack2]

You got me. From Winchester I can drive to places in WV,MD,PA,DC all in an easy day. Most of the states in my visited states map were one day drives. Left coasties have a whole different distance thing. I remember driving to San Diego for duty and TX was almost a thousand miles long from Texarkana to El Paso and I drove it in a 100K miles car. That's all I had. Wouldn't do it again.:E

[TMBLSN]

happyjack2 wrote:
... and I was going to stay local ( a few states in any direction ) ...

:E

Spoken like a true East-Coaster. :B

'A few' states would get rvhunting from CA to WA to the Dakotas and down to Texas, with OR, ID, MT, UT, NE, CO, WY, NM, KS, OK and AZ in between. Only 16 states, but nearly 2/3 the land mass of the lower 48.

For a central California perspective, he's probably not recommending going farther than Oregon, Nevada of Arizona. And, from an east-coast perspective, that might even be too far.

"A few states in any direction", that's just funny. :W

[happyjack2]

150K is a lot of miles on a RV. Our 03 now has 57K and it only had 33K when we bought it in 2007. I was thinking we were putting a lot of miles on ours. The rig you are looking at has three times as much and a year newer.

Do you have any maintenance records on the rig? At the least I would have a trusted mechanic give it complete going over. The 6.0L / 460 LE tranny are a great drive train but that would be an expensive replacement if they fail. The nice thing about the T/L is their light weight ( ours is 9K ) so the drivetrain should not have been abused like a big class C with the same set up.

If it way below book and I was going to stay local ( a few states in any direction ) it might be a great deal. I would really wonder about a cross country trip with that high of mileage. I would definately look into emergency break down / towing service if I bought it.

[rvhunting]

Hi, Everyone!

My wife and I are kicking around the idea of getting an RV, and the Trail Lite 21 B+ looks perfect for us.
I see used 2004 for sale close by us, but the catch is that it has 150K miles on it already!
Of course it's at an great price, but I'm wondering can the engine on this one possibly still in working shape after all those miles? I know many of you have had your Trail-lite's for a few years now, so I'm hoping to get some wisdom/opinions after long-term use.

Thanks for any/all info!

[cheeze1]

Pretty good old friend!
We were going to attempt a trip for this weekend but some family arrangements we were counting on were not final until it was too late. In addition, Annie, our big pup, who has diabetes, was kind of sick a couple of weeks ago and is now fully recovered. We couldn't plan a trip without knowing if she was going to be ok. We are going to wait until my daughter, who's baby we take care of twice a week, is done with teaching for the year so we can plan to go someplace.
I'm in landscape mode right now, and have 10 yards of mulch coming tomorrow. I also am planning some minor modifications to my Honda Element to snazz it up a bit, perhaps mild graphics, wheel paint, billet grill, etc.

[B-Plus]

Corgi3, sorry have not been on the computer for a few days. Yes I have an electric scissor Jack rated to 7,000 lbs , nothing fancy like your talking about. In all of my trips the only problem I have ever had was leveling front to back and this jack does it for me. It will actually lifs both wheels 6" of off the ground. The picture shows it in my drivway using it for the fridge right b/4 a trip I was taking. I can raise it almost another 9 inched.
I think what your looking at is a little more than the set-up I have. Sorry don't know if this helped you or not.
How ya doing Chas?

[Coalminer_UG]

Mine you can use both ways. When I level I just push one button and it levels itself. Yes they are hydralic.

I have used the manual side when it has rained out. I lower the slide side a bit and the rain water if on top runs off. Works pretty good.