Noob Request Assistance!

[geekyguru]

Greetings all!

I have decided to take the plunge into getting involved in camping with a travel trailer. My family and I spend too much time on the interweb and I think we need to get the hell out of dodge on the weekends and have fun outside the home!

Anyhow, I recently purchased a 2103 ram Laramie 5.7L with tow kit. I know I am good to go to pull pretty much whatever TT I am wanting. I have spent a hundred or so hours researching what I feel is the best TT for my family. (Wife and 4 yr old) I finally starting hitting some of the local dealerships, I have a few pauses for concern!

1.) I have been preparing to offer 30-40% off of MSRP for a few of the models we were interested in .. Yet it seems the dealers aren't budging on their "Sale Price" (after reading forums it seems this is a standard start point.)
2.) I feel like "Fresh Meat" when I go looking at TT's and feel like the salesmen want to take advantage of me.
3.) I was anticipating getting a 30-31', But after seeing the sheer size of the trailer, I am concerned about being inexperienced with towing a load that I am going to crash into things!! ( I am a pilot for the military and cannot believe I am intimidated about this.)
4.) I want the flexibility of being able to invite two or three friends to camp with us, and it seems the small campers are extremely cramped.
5.) My wife is insistent that we stay small and get the best build quality i.e. 4 person Keystone premiere type trailer.
6.) I was planning on spending around 20k... and I just cannot figure out what is going to be the best bang for my buck / please my wife / allow the afore mentioned items.

I want to take the plunge very soon and like I said, I have done a ton of research. I wouldn't mind driving far to secure a great deal or pay for shipping.
I am now starting to look around for a 1-2 year old equipped TT. My wife is not exactly into the idea of rolling around someones "Funk" as she calls it.
If anyone out there has some Professional advice to help me out, I sincerely appreciate it.
I have a place to park my new TT - on post in a secure lot for 20 dollars per month. I have the truck / I have monies / Just need a proper fit!!

Thanks for reading my long post and look forward to your advice!

[geekyguru]

OH48Lt wrote:
Cool to have a Time Machine, getting a 2103 Laramie. 🙂 Hopefully its the 2500 or 3500, not the 1500 that has a load capacity of only 1600#.

For $20K, you can get a late model used TT, just might have to look around for a bit or just plain get lucky. There are some decent new ones out too for that price, but the choice is limited. We just bought a new FunFinder (in sig below), and it was under $20K.

Look at http://www.labadiemotors.com/ he is a local (to me) dealer that sells and ships all over the country, to Europe, and Australia. If he carries the TT you want, a deal can be made. Unfortunately, he does not carry FunFinder, but he does carry other name brand lines.

oddly enough.. there is a funfinder @ my local camping world.. I couldnt find any good info on the company.. but the camper looked great for the price!

[Jerrybo66]

I can lightly address some of your concerns out of my experience.
*I will only deal local. With the problems we had with this Forest River toy hauler I'm glad I only had to travel a few miles many times to the dealer for parts. One trip to show the defective part, another, weeks after, to get the replacement and hope it is the right one or do it all over again..
*We decided how much trailer we would need so that's as big as we shopped for. No more, no less. I drove an eighteen wheeler and didn't want to get back to pulling some oversized trailer for fun that we really didn't need.
*I don't do offers. I tell the dealers I know what I want and am shopping price. Give me your lowest price you can live with, I'll note it and continue on to your competition. I think it saves time and embarrassment on both sides. (Offering a buck for a 100 dollar item makes the buyer not to be a serious buyer, not worth their time to negotiate or consider..) .
*The more I shop the more confused I get separating models, brands, layouts, colors, prices, dealers, etc.. After three days I told the wife, lets go,I'll go one more day and at the end of today we'll have a trailer. She thought it was a great idea. She enjoys shopping but not mechanical stuff. That's my job. By 5:00 pm we had the toy hauler. As we sat in the office at closing time, I had a price in my head we would pay. I made no offers but told them I've been shopping price for comparable units. The out the door price was a few hundred dollars under my top price. The price quoted by the dealer across the street was acceptable but as we were leaving he said to get the other prices and come back to see if he could adjust his. I just ask him if he heard anything I told him, and left.
*I know haggling is supposed to be the American way but I just can't bring myself to haggle. I don't haggle as a buyer nor as a seller. It can be a back & forth waste of time and patience. My thought, the buyer has an idea of his limit. The dealer has his bottom line selling price. Each is going to haggle to their numbers. Why not eliminate the game? I look the salesman in the eye and tell him the way it is..
*As for a used unit, that's the way we started. After spending time looking at "funk", and there was definitely some serious "funk", we bought new but there are clean ones out there. When we sold our first trailer it was like new clean. The first folks to see it, paid with cash they brought with them, hooked up, loaded their bedding for a week travel and towed it away. One visit. Now that is a serious buyer. They saw the Craigslist pictures. When a haggler called and started to talk price without seeing the trailer I hung up on him.
If I may add an amusing comment of the caller he said, "it's a used trailer for God's sake". Geeze, I didn't know that.. CLICK.. 🙂
* So, this is my experience with a first time purchase. If it helps a little fine, if not, there's always the delete button. Anyway, good luck.. 🙂

[Farm_Camp]

Have confidence in yourself! Like anything practice makes perfect and if I can tow my 36footer you will be able to tow yours!

Do some more research about towing capacity. Make sure you understand what your truck can and can't tow safely. There is lots of information and opinion here on the subject.

From recent personal experience I can tell you that it is possible to get what you want new for 20 - 25k or close to it "out the door" with a quality hitch. Others have given you some good advise about getting competitive quotes. I did drive 100 miles to get the camper I wanted at the price I wanted. But that was a choice I made knowing the dealer was opening a location much closer to me soon.

Best of luck. The dealers will try to stick to their guns and I don't want to see them loose money. But there is room in most of their prices for quite a bit of flexibility if you keep at it.

[RedRocket204]

geekyguru wrote:
Anyhow, I recently purchased a 2103 ram Laramie 5.7L with tow kit. I know I am good to go to pull pretty much whatever TT I am wanting.

That is the biggest misconception by most people new to RVs.

As already mentioned, your listed payload will dictate what that truck can pull...but don't forget to subtract the weight of everything you put in the truck to know how much extra payload you have left for your hitch and tongue weight.

Not trying to burst your bubble, just being realistic.

[Goldstalker]

Check places like RVdirect & RVwholesalers for prices then get someone local to match it or have it delivered.

[Mvander]

No ones gonna mention payload.......ok. Watch your tounge weight if your in a 1500. It comes directly off your payload along with anything in the bed or cab. And have fun shopping.

[Cougarnewbie]

We went to the largest dealer in our state and got the deal we wanted. Smaller dealers had laughed at us for the same deal. Seems larger dealer order larger inventories and get better prices from the manufacturers.

[coolestdude]

At the very end of last year we purchased a 2013 31' shadow cruiser by cruiser rv llc. It listed for 34,000, I offered 20,000 and they accepted our offer.This was our first TT, so I know how you feel. If you have towed any kind of trailer before you will be fine,have confidence in your self.We thought a bought used but did not want some one else headache! We love our TT. It's nice and roomy. Will sleep 9 or 10. Good luck.

Happy Trails!

[the_bear_II]

1.) I have been preparing to offer 30-40% off of MSRP for a few of the models we were interested in .. Yet it seems the dealers aren't budging on their "Sale Price" (after reading forums it seems this is a standard start point.)
2.) I feel like "Fresh Meat" when I go looking at TT's and feel like the salesmen want to take advantage of me.
1 & 2- Salesmen and sales manager will take advantage of you if you let them. By doing research, you will have a pretty good idea what the TTs are going for in your area. Hold solid on the price and walk away if you need to. If your offer is close to what they need to sell the unit for, they will call you. It may take a day or week but they will call. It's a fun game of give and take.
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3.) I was anticipating getting a 30-31', But after seeing the sheer size of the trailer, I am concerned about being inexperienced with towing a load that I am going to crash into things!! ( I am a pilot for the military and cannot believe I am intimidated about this.)
3- after the first few times of towing a big TT you will get used to it. Just like you got used to flying a C-130. Thanks for your service.
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4.) I want the flexibility of being able to invite two or three friends to camp with us, and it seems the small campers are extremely cramped.
4- Most of your time camping is spent outdoors. We rarely spent time during the day in the TT. Our 24ft TT would sleep 6 adults comfortably and had space for 2 kids as well to sleep. There were two dining tables one would hold 6 and the other 3. So look for a good floor plan with seating and sleeping.
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5.) My wife is insistent that we stay small and get the best build quality i.e. 4 person Keystone premiere type trailer.
5- Use this statistic on her...most RV'ers go through 3 RVs before they get one that really fits their needs. We started with a camper, then a 25ft MH, a 24 ft TT and now have a 38ft 5th wheel. Here's another consideration- if you are camping and get stuck in bad weather where you had to stay inside the RV for a week would you rather be in an 18 ft or 30 ft TT.
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6.) I was planning on spending around 20k... and I just cannot figure out what is going to be the best bang for my buck / please my wife / allow the afore mentioned items.
6- If you can buy a good hardly used TT. The RVs lose a lot of value in the first 5 years. Let the original owner take the hit. There are a lot of hardly used RVs out there. In our storage lot, I can count on two hands the number of RVs that get used more than 6 times per year. The rest just sit waiting.

Good luck in your quest.

[WoodGlue]

I negotiated the price for my TT from the comfort of my home. I had 3 RV dealerships vying for my business. I included them all on various cc: in email, so they knew they had to beat the other dealer to get my business. Trust me, there is some major price cutting when they know that they are in competition w/ someone else who is on the cc: LOL

I never ever worried about MSRP and percentages!!

Finally, one of them gave me the best killer deal, so I went with that company!

WoodGlue

[OH48Lt]

Cool to have a Time Machine, getting a 2103 Laramie. 🙂 Hopefully its the 2500 or 3500, not the 1500 that has a load capacity of only 1600#.

For $20K, you can get a late model used TT, just might have to look around for a bit or just plain get lucky. There are some decent new ones out too for that price, but the choice is limited. We just bought a new FunFinder (in sig below), and it was under $20K.

Look at http://www.labadiemotors.com/ he is a local (to me) dealer that sells and ships all over the country, to Europe, and Australia. If he carries the TT you want, a deal can be made. Unfortunately, he does not carry FunFinder, but he does carry other name brand lines.

[dewey02]

I don't have answers for most of your questions, but would advise caution on purchasing a TT from a dealer that is pretty far from where you live. We bought a new TT at a home show in our town, but the dealership was 100 miles away. We had warranty work that was needed, and had to haul it down (100 mi.) leave it for a week...but we still had to drive back home that day (100 mi.). Then another 200 miles (there and back) the next week. 400 miles, 2 wasted days, lots of $ in gas. After a couple of weeks, we discovered the warranty work was done incorrectly. I decided to correct the errors myself, rather than hauling it all the way back and incurring even more costs.

So, even if a distant dealer may give you the best price, look carefully at dealers that are within easy driving distance as well as having a good reputation for service and repairs.

[Campfire_Time]

We didn't get anywhere near 30% off MSRP so I know we paid too much. Sales are up and dealers are happy to sit on them until they get what they want. You can walk away until the next show, but in my area that's not until Feb.

[Terryallan]

20K will get you a very nice NEW, well equipped TT with lots of room. Look on line for them. Then go see the one you pick out.