Class c motor home purchase

[Vic65]

Hello I'm looking at making a purchase of a class c motor home. I would like it to be under 30' I live in Virginia and was wondering where the best place to buy a class c would be. eBay, Craig list or another state that may less expensive. I'm looking at paying 25,000 or less. I would the one mostly using it for car shows.i plan on taking the family out from time to time. I would love to hear your suggestions on this topic. Vic

[avan]

I spent 6 mo looking for mine utilizing RVT.com, IRV2.com, the Escapees for sale thread, RVTrader.com, craiglist.org and a craigslist aggregator (but I don't remember which one) and pplmotorhomes.com. I kept a separate window for my RV hunt with a tab open for each of the above so it was easy to refresh daily. Once I got focused in a several brands/models that I was interested in, I added google tabs for those with "Make model RV for sale". I found very few dealer used rigs that were remotely as clean as they described. I finally discontinued the PPL link since they steadfastly refused to answer questions and I wasn't about to travel 1200 miles to see a consignment rig based on their standard 1/2 dozen pics with formulaic descriptions. I found I couldn't trust their representations having paid an independent RV inspector to look 3 times at selected units on their Houston lot.

I did end up buying from a private party about 200 miles away via a Craigslist posting.

[answerswillvary]

Moved to Class C Forum

[answerswillvary]

Moved to Class C Forum

[bikendan]

avan wrote:
Maybe you might want to ask the moderator to move your post from the Campground thread to, say, Class C section or even General RV?

already notified Mods.

[ryegatevt]

Vic65 wrote:
Thanks for the advance. I'll be towing a Subaru outback, if needed. For longer trips for vacation I was thinking about renting a car. I feel it would be cheaper and save on fuel.

Caution: AWD Subarus with automatic transmissions may not be towed with any wheels on the ground. You'd need to get a flatbed trailer of some sort. I think this applies to all recent Outback years. We have a 2010 Forester and sometimes have wished we could tow it...

[avan]

Maybe you might want to ask the moderator to move your post from the Campground thread to, say, Class C section or even General RV?

[Vic65]

Thanks for the advance. I'll be towing a Subaru outback, if needed. For longer trips for vacation I was thinking about renting a car. I feel it would be cheaper and save on fuel.

[DrewE]

I found mine through Craigslist, being sold by a private party.

If you're planning on towing a car to the car shows, particularly on a trailer, be sure you pay attention to the tow ratings of the units you look at as well as how heavily loaded the rear axle is. It is not unusual to find, for example, a tow rating of 5000 pounds but with the tongue weight limited to 350 pounds. It's also not too unusual to find that the rear axle is not too far from its weight rating with the RV unloaded, and with the hitch so far back the tongue weight gets multiplied by leverage on the rear axle (and, of course, the front axle simultaneously unloaded some). If the water tanks and RV storage space are also towards the back it's not hard to overload the axle in many cases.

Very few class C's in your price range will have tow ratings higher than 5000 pounds, by the way.

[Trackrig]

You have to look everywhere. Just because Frank lists his on RV Trader, Joe might list his in the local paper or on the bulletin board at the local grocery store, Bob might use EBay, Harry might use the local consignment lot, Harry put his on Craigs List and Ralph may have traded his in at Camping World when he bought a new one. etc, etc.

When you start looking, narrow it down to one or two models, this will be a real time savings so you don't continue to look at everything getting yourself side tracked.

Do use Craigs List, EBay, RV Traders, Lazydays.com, and once you have settled on a particular model, just type it "XXXXXXXXX 26X for sale" into Google and see what comes up.

Bill