Considering a well aged class A

[newsomer]

Up front, is there any sense in buying a one or two decade old class A and expect it to reliably carry and operate long trips for another decade or two without it costing more to maintain than buying something built in the last five years?

Before I even set out with the idea I'm looking for a sanity check. As I am about to set aside full time employment for a more "retired" attitude we are looking to purchase an RV that will allow us to explore the US. I have located a used class A that seems to be a nice candidate even though it is rather long in the tooth. It's a 1998 Coachmen Santara 370MBS being sold locally so I can easily get a hands on viewing before getting serious.

[newsomer]

Well the fever has broke and we're going to wait for this travel/camping season to close. I'm thinking we might find some good private or commercial deals in November or later. We did see some enticing older Tiffin, Newmar, and Monaco coaches though. In the mean time we'll save for a nice down payment and dream a lot.

[bitster98]

If your gona buy an older motorhome , buy an older high end unit. Beaver , executive , fore travel , provost ect. The initial build quality was far superior to common rv's. They hold up.

[mike_brez]

newsomer wrote:

mike brez wrote:
Do a search for Thor

I followed the advice and after reading five pages of posts in the search I found one very talkative fellow lamenting his purchase due to many unrelated deficiencies in his Thor class A and a few other postings about Thor purchasing long time RV lines and their purported decline in quality.

Am I to be wary of Thor products?

Here are a few

[mowermech]

I usually don't much care for "Extended Warranties" or "Service Contracts", but when buying an older motorhome it might be a good idea.
I sure wish the one we had when we bought our coach was still in effect. It would be nice to only be on the hook for the $100 deductible to fix the generator!
Just something to think about.

[newsomer]

mike brez wrote:
Do a search for Thor

I followed the advice and after reading five pages of posts in the search I found one very talkative fellow lamenting his purchase due to many unrelated deficiencies in his Thor class A and a few other postings about Thor purchasing long time RV lines and their purported decline in quality.

Am I to be wary of Thor products?

[JoeH]

When I was looking to get into our first motorhome, I too was looking at older models. There was a huge number of older units for sale and I checked out dozens of them. Some had very low miles, some very high miles and some in the middle. The one I bought had sort of high miles, but the owner drove it frequently which , in my opinion , allowed all the systems to be exercised and maintained. We had that old coach for 6-7 years and drove all over the
country. During those years, I had a front tranny seal leak and I had to replace the starter. Of course also the normal maintenance on the chassis and house appliances. A couple years after we sold it , we came across it in a south Florida campground, still providing the owener good service. It was/is a 1978 Class A ( Bendix was the brand) on a Chevy chassis with a 454--
So yes, you can find a well used unit that will get you around for many years.

[mike_brez]

newsomer wrote:
We went out and checked out the Coachmen last evening. It turned out to be a $20K "fixer-upper" they were selling to try to recoup a recent $8,000 repair expense. No maintenance logs but they were very happy that they had an old beat up owners manual. Don't get me wrong, they were nice folks but they just didn't operate at the same level as those that understand what it means to keep a class A in good condition.

I have a friend bringing down his friends 2015 Thor Windsport that he is looking to sell. It's a 32' gasser that is in pristine condition from what I hear. I'm not sure it's within our budget but he's asking way below Nada at $70K.

Do a search for Thor

[newsomer]

We went out and checked out the Coachmen last evening. It turned out to be a $20K "fixer-upper" they were selling to try to recoup a recent $8,000 repair expense. No maintenance logs but they were very happy that they had an old beat up owners manual. Don't get me wrong, they were nice folks but they just didn't operate at the same level as those that understand what it means to keep a class A in good condition.

I have a friend bringing down his friends 2015 Thor Windsport that he is looking to sell. It's a 32' gasser that is in pristine condition from what I hear. I'm not sure it's within our budget but he's asking way below Nada at $70K.

[garyemunson]

Have always had older RVs until our most recent Class bought new. Having gotten older (WTH???) I'm concerned that I'm no longer as mechanically adept as I once was. I used to scamper up on the roof at least 2x a season to inspect the seams as well as crawling around underneath to keep tabs on all the fluids and grease fittings. 20 years ago I'd think nothing about getting a BIG hydraulic jack and stands to do a brake job. No more. An older coach can be a fun purchase but just keep in mind it's older and things WILL need to be fixed or replaced. High end or not, if the previous owner didn't do his 'due diligence' you will have problems, some which can be extremely costly to fix. Hopefully you know someone who has RV experience who can help you examine any unit you are interested in. As mentioned, ANY soft spot is a real red flag.

[doxiemom11]

We have a 2000 motorhome. It still looks nice and everything works. We don't hesitate to take off and go anywhere we want. We have had very few problems since purchasing it at 10 yrs of age. We don't plan on changing anytime soon. We will put in new flooring and furniture in the next year or so and do some updating, but we are just getting close to 50,000 miles and it should have a lot more miles to go. We did put new tires on when we got it and will change them due to the age (they look great) soon.

Our Monaco is a gas model 36'very well built.

[jplante4]

You might also have a look at Foretravel coaches.

[jplante4]

Beaver was a coach manufacturer in Bend Oregon. They built high end coaches in the 90s. The VP of sales for Beaver left and founded Safari, thinking that there was a market for a shorter diesel class A, and came out with the Trek. They ended up building several models in the 90s and bought out Beaver in 2002. The whole company was bought by Monaco.

[Mondooker]

Thanks Mr.Mark, that was my point exactly!

I recently saw a 40 ft 94 Prevost Beaver Coach with the 8V92 DD motor. As I remember it had something just over 170,000 miles and were asking $139,000. It was one of the most beautiful coaches I've seen and I've seen some! That puts it at 23 years old and I swear the inside and outside of that coach looked new. Even the basement! Prevost is an incredible piece of machinery and who would have thought a 20+ year old coach could look like that?

Anyone has to understand they may have to put in new airbags, brake chambers etc (assuming it has good tires and batteries which this coach did) to bring it up to 2017 standards but at this point its almost a good investment because a 23 year old Prevost isn't going down in depreciation anymore!

[Mr_Mark1]

Mondooker wrote:
When you say "Beaver Coach" are you talking about a "Prevost Beaver Coach" because there's a world of difference?

Mondooker, when I mentioned 'Beaver' in my post, I was talking about the Beaver line that Monaco offered on the Roadmaster Chassis.

Since we don't l know the original poster's budget, I didn't mention a Prevost conversion because a 20 yr. old Prevost conversion ranges between $150,000-$200,000.

MM.