Parting Out Travel Trailer

[dmullen]

I have a 2007 Four Winds 18B travel trailer that has some bad water damage in the front. I have decided to just part it out and get something else.

My question is how do I go about parting out a travel trailer on someplace like Craigs list. I still owe around $2500 on it so I cannot sell it outright since I have seen perfectly good bigger trailers going for less. How do you list a trailer that you are parting out and how does that usually work? The frig, stove, microwave, etc. have not even been used. The person who sold it to me obviously knew it had problems and I didn't know enough about TT to check what I should have. Any way, want to cut my losses and part it out.

Thanks

[dmullen]

We've already gone round and round with the insurance company. They won't cover a thing saying "preventative maintenance" was not done by the previous owner which caused the water leaks so no help there.

Thank you again for all the great advice and information. I really appreciate it!

[jmatthews]

If you are paying on this TT then you should have insurance on it. Before you part it out I would contact your rep and see what would be covered. If they send out an adjuster they may fix it who knows. If it is really bad they may even see it as a complete loss and you may be able to get another without having to go through the whole ordeal of parting it out.

A 2007 is not that old in TT years and may be something that soemone may want to refurbish.

Good luck!!

[westend]

I would list it on Craigslist for $3K with mention of the water damage. There are still guys like me and Gdetrailer that are looking for a "handyman's special".

[69_Avion]

I agree with the folks above who say to try to sell it first. Give it a try, disclose the damage and see what happens. If you decide to take a loss, you need to be able to pay the difference in order to pay of the loan. If you put it up for sale you can continue to pay it down until the sale price and the loan balance are the same amount.
If you do decide to part it out remember that some parts are worth more than you think, but you have to find a user that needs it. A new Dometic refrigerator can go for around $1,000 new and if yours is like new you may be able to get close to $500 for it, if you can find the right buyer. I wouldn't start parting it out until you can get the loan balance down to about $1500 so you can get it payed off with the parts you take off fairly quickly. Besides, it may sell sooner than you think.

[Gdetrailer]

dmullen wrote:
I appreciate the advice. Anything I make from parting out the trailer will go directly on the loan balance along with my usual monthly payment so it will not take long at all to pay that balance off. I will not sell the actual trailer until the loan is paid off, just everything built on the trailer. I am not a handy man enough to handle this level of damage and would rather start off with a sound TT and keep it up from the start.

The reason for my post is how do you part out a TT. What should I put in the add, etc. Not letting someone remove the parts themselves was a great piece of advice. That is what I am looking for. I'm thinking I should just start removing things and price them, and keep updating my add as far as what is available now. I will also put in the add "tell me what you need and I will see if I have it" if for instance they want a kitchen sink and mine hasn't sold yet. You get the idea.

Doors, windows, furnace, A/C, stove, water heater are your primary items which will sell. Some faster than others so be prepared to hold onto some of those items for a long time.

The bad news is those items ARE used.. You MUST price and sell them accordingly..

Windows, $40-$50 each, doors if not damaged say $100, stove perhaps $100, furnace $100, A/C $125-$150, Water heater $100, converter $50 if single or two stage, $75 perhaps if three stage.

So, 10 windows you might get $500 plus $625 for the other items above gives you $1125. Then if aluminum skin you might get $50-$100 in scrap. Frames with title generally will get you $300-$500.

So in reality you have $1725 in "sell able" items, add in your labor and it is still a big loss.... And depending on the demand in your area (it isn't like you are going to ship these items) could take months to years to sell.

For that reason I mentioned selling entire trailer as a whole..

I have sold a few "used" items like furnace and A/C and honestly it wasn't worth the effort to field phone calls and having no shows...

[Francesca_Knowl]

dmullen wrote:
I'm thinking I should just start removing things and price them, and keep updating my add as far as what is available now. I will also put in the add "tell me what you need and I will see if I have it" if for instance they want a kitchen sink and mine hasn't sold yet. You get the idea.

I think that's a great idea- that's how guys taking old pickups apart do it.

Only problem I can see with that approach is where to "classify" it...someone looking for a stove, for example, might not be looking in a general "parts-type" section of Craigslist.

You might consider dual-ads- one in appliances, for example, and one in general merchandise.

[sh410]

Sent you a private message.

[dmullen]

I appreciate the advice. Anything I make from parting out the trailer will go directly on the loan balance along with my usual monthly payment so it will not take long at all to pay that balance off. I will not sell the actual trailer until the loan is paid off, just everything built on the trailer. I am not a handy man enough to handle this level of damage and would rather start off with a sound TT and keep it up from the start.

The reason for my post is how do you part out a TT. What should I put in the add, etc. Not letting someone remove the parts themselves was a great piece of advice. That is what I am looking for. I'm thinking I should just start removing things and price them, and keep updating my add as far as what is available now. I will also put in the add "tell me what you need and I will see if I have it" if for instance they want a kitchen sink and mine hasn't sold yet. You get the idea.

[Gdetrailer]

robsouth wrote:
I might suggest that you contact whomever you still owe "about 2500.00" and let them know what is going on. You will probably need to pay them what is due before you part it out, but if sold whole, you can take what you get and add enough to it to pay your debt, but either way, they need to know what is going on.

In some respects might not be a bad idea since the bank (lender) put up the money on the trailer for the value of the entire trailer (trailer is the collateral).

By stripping out essential items the collateral losses value.

But on the flip side, the water damage was not known to the OP (buyer) nor the bank. With the knowledge of the water damage the trailer is reduced to a value below what is owed.

Personally, the way I would handle this is hold on to the trailer and pay it down to a point that the loan can be paid off with cash.

At the same time TARP the trailer to prevent any more water damage.

Most likely the leaks are coming from items on or around the roof and covering with a tarp will stop the water from coming in.

I myself got burned on my first TT, paid $2K and when I got it home found bunches of rotted wood laying on the bed. I was extremely upset but I decided to push through, repair the damage and moved on.

Our first trip I found another leak which happened to find its way to the center of my new ceiling and dripped through the overhead light down on US in the middle of the night!

We still laugh about that even though it wasn't funny at the time.

Unless the OP isn't handy with power tools and such I would say why not take the lemon and make the best of it?

[robsouth]

I might suggest that you contact whomever you still owe "about 2500.00" and let them know what is going on. You will probably need to pay them what is due before you part it out, but if sold whole, you can take what you get and add enough to it to pay your debt, but either way, they need to know what is going on.

[Dtaylor]

You can do well parting it out IF you have the time to wait until someone needs what you have. My question is since you still have a lien on it, how is the bank going to react to you removing items of value? You need to talk with them BEFORE you do anything since technically they are the owners

[chorbelt]

You could make some money parting it; I had to have some siding on a truck camper bent a few years ago, about 50sf ran me $500. Even still, like Gdetrailer said, I'd trying selling it whole first.

[Oaklevel]

It is alot of work to truely part it out yes it can be done some will even buy the frame to make a utility trailer out of it, the stove etc. as before it could be sold on Craigs list, Ebay etc........... Where you live should determine also what you do.... some areas charge to get rid of the leftover wood etc.. some areas like here you can haul it to the dump for no charge........

[Francesca_Knowl]

If you're willing to do the removals yourself, I think you could do very well parting it out. There are a lot of things that make up a trailer...check out the "new" cost of things like heater, converter, fridge etc. It's only six years old, for cryin' out loud!

Even a single RV window could be worth a hundred bucks to SOMEBODY...and once everything of value has been stripped, you could haul the plucked carcass to the dump/ wrecking yard and leave all the trashy body behind, just going home with the bare frame behind you. A street-legal, Titled trailer frame (with brakes) ought to be worth a nice chunk of change.

Thing is, it will take awhile. But if you're patient, I think you could at least get what you owe. Under NO circumstances, though, would I recommend that you allow anyone to do the removals themselves...that could leave you with one heck of a mess.

[Gdetrailer]

2007 isn't all that old.

I would suggest that you simply sell the entire trailer AS IS disclosing that it DOES have a lot of water damage.

This way you don't have to find ways to "dispose" of A LOT OF unwanted materials. The cost of disposing of all the old wood and non recyclable materials will easily eat up any profits you would get by parting it out.

Offer it for $3000 and go down to $2500 and someone will get a pretty good deal and you don't have to figure out how to get rid of all the wood and such.

Like I stated though, DISCLOSE the fact that you KNOW it has water damage.

My current TT was SEVERELY water damaged when I bought it. I knowingly bought it that way although I paid under $1000 for it. But keep in mind that when I bought it it was over 20 yrs old at that time.

I removed all the siding and roofing, gutted the interior then resided, reroofed and rebuilt the interior the way I wanted it.

There ARE adventure seekers out there that do not mind a bit of hard work to take a diamond in the ruff and make it a gem.

Put it craigslist.org, it is FREE and you can post 4 pictures also. You will need to relist it every few days to bring it back to the top of the list but hey, FREE is good.