Buying an "Orphan"?

SoundGuy wrote:

4x4van wrote:
If you are any kind of a DIYer, then an orphan RV is a non issue, as 99% of what's found in and on all RVs are common across the board.

A complete fallacy ... ask the owner of a Coleman / Fleetwood folding trailer (of which there are still hundreds of thousands) about getting parts to repair their trailers which were orphaned when the company went out of business in 2011 and you'll get an earful. :E Simply put, there's very little left, even Beckley's Camping Center which purchased most of the remaining stock at the time of bankruptcy is running low. Buy one of these Coleman / Fleetwood folding trailers and you'd better darn well hope you don't ever need parts for it. :R Want a tank cover for your R-Vision trailer that is molded to match the trailer's front wall profile? ... good luck with that, start searching the wreckers. :W No thanks, I'll hedge my bets and stick with a non-orphan. :)

No, it isn't a "complete fallacy". Most of what is in/on those folding trailers is common to ALL trailers and RVs. Do you actually think Coleman/Fleetwood manufactured their own stoves? Ovens? Water heaters? Water pumps, furnaces, refrigerators, cabinet hinges/latches, LPG tank & regulators, taillights, hitch coupler, stabilizer jacks, light fixtures, toilet, black/grey valves, water lines, faucets, converters, monitor panels, fuse centers, switches, etc, etc, etc? Yes, the 1% that is proprietary can indeed be problematic, but is the exception, not the rule. Some body panels, cabinets, etc, but even most of those can be repaired or duplicated by good body shops, woodworkers, or DIYers, and those parts are by far the minority of what typically breaks down and needs repair/replacement.

If I was buying new, then obviously I would want a non-orphan for the factory warranty. But used RVs don't have a factory warranty anyway, and ALL RVs can and will become orphans in time. There are thousands of old orphan RVs on road right now; they aren't junked/crushed simply because a proprietary part was unavailable at some point in time; they were fixed. 27 years of driving orphan RV(s), and it was never an issue for me.

Is an orphan the right choice for you? Well, do you fix a leaky faucet in your S&B home, or do you call a plumber? There's your answer.