Newbee question for long timeRVer's

[nickelman]

So I am contemplating retiring in a few years and buying an RV to long to full time RVing.
The question is for those who have owned their MH 10+ years and bought a new one. Why did you get rid of the old one? Would you have felt comfortable still traveling with the old and just wanted all the new updates?
I'm thinking of getting one that is 10 - 15 years old as the prices (for the right one properly maintained) seem to be exceptional.
We have never RV'ed before and I 'm thinking 2 years of RVing and then go from there. We may hate it and quite after 6 months or we may love it and hit the road for the rest our health. So my thinking is get a well maintained older model and put a several thousand into it to get up to snuff then if we decide after 6 months to sell it then I can dump it without to much heartburn.
I'm afraid if I rent one first for a week or so and we have a bad experience the wife is going to nix the whole idea. I have been cultivating the idea for a while now and have gotten her from are you crazy to yeah maybe we can do this for a while if you really want to.
We have been researching and looking at prices for a while trying to learn all we can not wanting to go in things blind.
I would really like to get thoughts from those who own or have purchased older MH and the pros and cons.

[nickelman]

/

[nickelman]

Yes we get along in tight quarters and have the same interest in travelling. No she is not willing to give up all the stuff (yet). We are starting to minimize and getting rid of stuff but we may buy a condo to retreat to occasionally, and have a place to go when and if we are finished Irving,

[rk911]

nickelman wrote:
So I am contemplating retiring in a few years and buying an RV to long to full time RVing.
The question is for those who have owned their MH 10+ years and bought a new one. Why did you get rid of the old one? Would you have felt comfortable still traveling with the old and just wanted all the new updates?
I'm thinking of getting one that is 10 - 15 years old as the prices (for the right one properly maintained) seem to be exceptional.
We have never RV'ed before and I 'm thinking 2 years of RVing and then go from there. We may hate it and quite after 6 months or we may love it and hit the road for the rest our health. So my thinking is get a well maintained older model and put a several thousand into it to get up to snuff then if we decide after 6 months to sell it then I can dump it without to much heartburn.
I'm afraid if I rent one first for a week or so and we have a bad experience the wife is going to nix the whole idea. I have been cultivating the idea for a while now and have gotten her from are you crazy to yeah maybe we can do this for a while if you really want to.
We have been researching and looking at prices for a while trying to learn all we can not wanting to go in things blind.
I would really like to get thoughts from those who own or have purchased older MH and the pros and cons.

we just traded in our 15-yr old class A (89,000 miles) on a new 2016 class A. the old one was starting to nickel and dime us in repairs and the current set of tires were 7-yrs old. since we've been saving for a new one we decided that now was the time. we also kept our first class A for 15-yrs....I sense a trend. 🙂

[nickelman]

2gypsies wrote:
A 10 year old motorhome is just fine for traveling full-time but when you find one you should really get it checked out thoroughly by a private inspector - not the dealership. Also check the tire dates. So that you won't have to put a lot of money in tires right off the bat they should be 3-4 years old or less.

A diesel in this age would be better than gas, in my opinion, because it would just be broken in. 🙂 Mileage doesn't count on a diesel. If you can find one by a private party it would be best because you can 'feel out' the owner as to how the motorhome was cared for and he should be able to give you all records for maintenance/repairs done on it.

Also consider a top manufacturer. We full-timed ten years in our Newmar and it was great and looked like new when we sold it. We previously full-timed in a 33' 5th wheel before the motorhome. We liked a motorhome best because we were able to pull the Jeep. We didn't like driving a big truck around when we had the 5th wheel.

A good manufacturer will have better insulation, double pane windows and solid cabinets with good drawer fittings. Everything about it would be good quality and will hold up better.

If you're willing to put some money in an older one to update it then I think you'd do just fine.

I do have concerns though on you not having RV'd previously and it sounds like your wife isn't totally sold on the idea. Having full-timed for 16 years I will say that you BOTH have to want to do it equally or it won't work. Is she really willing to give up all the 'stuff' in the house? Are you both extremely compatible that you can live together in a small space? Do you have the same travel expectations such as siteseeing, outdoor activities, staying in rv parks or campgrounds or out in the boonies, moving around or sitting in one place, possibly volunteering in parks?

If you're not going to retire for a couple years yet I might suggest either renting at least a 30'32' Class C (big enough to have some extra space) and doing so for a couple weekends to see how you do. It's very expensive to rent so you won't want to do a lot of it but it would give you an idea of living in a small area.

Good luck!

[RayChez]

I have bought two brand new motor homes. The first I kept it only six months. It was a 36' gasoline motor home and I did not like the way it handled on windy days. So I traded it in for a diesel pusher which has been an excellent coach 38'. My experience with new motor homes is that the problems usually happen in the first two years. Things need adjustments and reinforcements.

I have had my diesel pusher now for twelve years. Two major problems I have had within those twelve years. The first was a Huei fuel pump which was still under warranty. That was about nine years ago. The second problem I have had was an exhaust leak on the exhaust manifold and that was like two years ago.

Don't make the mistake I made and buy a gasoline motor home because later you will want a diesel pusher. The diesel pushers are superior on every category. I have 61K miles on it now and it rides better then when it was new. The engine is just breaking in now to where you really feel the power.

If I was to purchase another coach, I think I would purchase a two or three year old coach that has had TLC and well maintained. The bugs are usually already taken care off. But my point of getting a two or three year old coach is that you would save a lot of money because these coaches as soon as you drive out from the dealers lot start the depreciation in value. But they sure are a lot of fun.

Good luck!

[2chiefsRus]

The motor home in our signature is our second RV. We initially purchased a 1999 Monaco LaPalma - gas coach with one slide out and we were the first owners. It had sat on a dealer lot for nearly 18 months when we purchased it. The dealer went out of business within 60 days of our purchase. We were basically on our own learning to RV.

We learned a lot from reading this forum as well as the IRV2 forum. We were both still working and were rarely able to use the coach for the first four years we had the coach. Then we retired and used it more frequently for longer trips up to 3 months in a row. It was at that point that we started to talk about going fulltime. We were returning from a longish trip and weren't looking forward to all the work that needed to be done to unload the coach, put it into storage and then the work to be done around the house.

That is when we decided to pursue selling the house and getting a larger motor home to full time in. By that time, we had a much better idea what we were getting in to with fulltiming. We knew, for us, for full time use, we would want to have the larger carrying capacity and room that a forty footer would give us.

That is my long way of answering your question. I would suggest doing your research now and getting a coach before you retire if possible, traveling in it for a while and then consider whether you want to get something different for full-timing.

[Mr_Mark1]

Nickelman, we bought our first coach new and kept it 7.5 yrs. and 69,700 miles. Even though our coach was in fantastic condition and overly maintained, I knew that it would be a wonderful coach for a new buyer with some value still attached to it.

I wanted to sell it within the 10 yr. period as it's harder to get an RV loan on coaches approaching 10 yrs. (from what I have heard) if someone was not paying cash. I think our buyer did get a loan.

Over the 7.5 yrs., we got back 45% of our purchase price including the commission, 49% without the commission. We could have attempted a private sale but I just didn't want to deal with people. I think our percentage of return was not bad.

So, we now have bought new again with intentions of keeping this coach for at least 10 yrs. unless life throws us something not anticipated.

I do like new and I take very good care of my vehicles which make them good, fast sellers.

MM.

[2gypsies1]

A 10 year old motorhome is just fine for traveling full-time but when you find one you should really get it checked out thoroughly by a private inspector - not the dealership. Also check the tire dates. So that you won't have to put a lot of money in tires right off the bat they should be 3-4 years old or less.

A diesel in this age would be better than gas, in my opinion, because it would just be broken in. 🙂 Mileage doesn't count on a diesel. If you can find one by a private party it would be best because you can 'feel out' the owner as to how the motorhome was cared for and he should be able to give you all records for maintenance/repairs done on it.

Also consider a top manufacturer. We full-timed ten years in our Newmar and it was great and looked like new when we sold it. We previously full-timed in a 33' 5th wheel before the motorhome. We liked a motorhome best because we were able to pull the Jeep. We didn't like driving a big truck around when we had the 5th wheel.

A good manufacturer will have better insulation, double pane windows and solid cabinets with good drawer fittings. Everything about it would be good quality and will hold up better.

If you're willing to put some money in an older one to update it then I think you'd do just fine.

I do have concerns though on you not having RV'd previously and it sounds like your wife isn't totally sold on the idea. Having full-timed for 16 years I will say that you BOTH have to want to do it equally or it won't work. Is she really willing to give up all the 'stuff' in the house? Are you both extremely compatible that you can live together in a small space? Do you have the same travel expectations such as siteseeing, outdoor activities, staying in rv parks or campgrounds or out in the boonies, moving around or sitting in one place, possibly volunteering in parks?

If you're not going to retire for a couple years yet I might suggest either renting at least a 30'32' Class C (big enough to have some extra space) and doing so for a couple weekends to see how you do. It's very expensive to rent so you won't want to do a lot of it but it would give you an idea of living in a small area.

Good luck!

[lanerd]

We have gone from a pop-up to a 43' DP with lots of variants in between. In each and every case, we changed due to one "main" fact....we wanted something larger.

Simple

Ron

[jrp]

I bought my class A DP MH brand new just before retirement, in preparation to go fulltiming at retirement. Its now 10 yrs old and I plan to keep it another 10 yrs. But I do all my own maint and knowing the condition of all the major components is a big part of using a 10+ aged vehicle. I would never buy a 10 yr old MH unless it was from a close friend - family member who I knew took as good care as I would. I agree completely with buying a well maintained used MH, but I would look more to 5 yr old units to avoid buying someone elses problems. It also depends on how mechanically inclined you are. Having to take a 10+ yr old unit into a $100/hr mechanic everytime you think somethings wrong, can add up quickly. At 5 yrs old, even a rig that didn't get top notch care is not too far gone to recover. But after 10 yrs of neglect, major problems are almost guaranteed.
just my opinion, others will vary