Travel Trailer Depreciation?

[tshirtman]

What is the "rule of thumb" depreciation on used travel trailers?
I know that if the MSRP is real(lol) than 25%-30% off new.
what is the norm for 2-5 year depreciation schedules?

thanks to everyone:)

[SoundGuy]

RavensFan24 wrote:
In the end the value lies in the maintenance.

Certainly if you're selling privately a well maintained, clean unit will attract more interest than one that's obviously been neglected and may in some cases encourage the buyer to ante up a bit more for something he thinks he really wants. However - and this is a BIG however - dealers negotiate in wholesale value only and on average will calculate depreciation at 20% the first year and 10% for each year thereafter until the fifth year by which time any unit at best would be worth at most 40% of it's original value. Trade in the first five years and you're going to take a beating ... even if you think you're not the dealer will always get it back on anything he may next sell you. Beyond five years you'll still take a beating if you trade as recreational vehicles depreciate like a rock tossed into water but at least you will have (presumably) gotten good use out of the unit during the time you owned it. It's an expensive sport. 😉

[DavidP]

RavensFan24 wrote:


In the end the value lies in the maintenance.

This means more than any book value.

[dadmomh]

We just sold our Rocky 2604 after only having it for 1 1/2 years. We bought it for about 33% off MSRP. Never expecting the changes we're making in our lifestyle now, we looked at 5% interest we'd pay on a loan vs 8%+ on our investments. Debated whether we should take money out and pay cash, but decided that seemed like a no brainer with making 3%+ more plus being able to deduct the interest as a second home. Now the bad news. Long story short, it cost us about $1000 to sell it. One of those things that if we knew then what we know now, we'd probably have kept our '07 ROO 23SS or just gotten out of camping entirely at that point. I can't imagine how folks that trade every couple of years keep from taking a bath on it....maybe they don't avoid it. I checked NADA, did tons of online searches and our price was right where it should have been, except for that darned $1000. So guess the answer is that you need to keep it for 3 or 4 years or so to come out at least even, maybe ahead a smidge. In any event, it was a key part of our changes and we're just thankful it wasn't any worse. The man who bought it is from LA and had seen the layout, but he said he never buys new and had a heck of a time finding a really good almost new. We feel like he'll be a good "dad" for Rocky and take excellent care. Making this huge change is like watching money flying out the door, which it really is, but in the big picture we'll be ahead when the dust settles.

[jaycocreek]

I think it depends on the area your in. Trailers go for more in Boise and Spokane than they do here.We have a like new Honda 3k used only once for less than 20 hours for $1200 In Boise or Spokane it would be a lot more. Lots of trailers under $2000.

[rbpru]

My three year old 25' Duchmen TT sold for 60% of the the Manufacture's price after three years, I have no idea what the previous owner paid for it.

[ugh]

I was shopping for a used TT. The TT that I was looking for is around 26ft bunk house camper with or without a slide. I noticed that the cost or asking price of a 5 year old trailer was sometime too close to a brand new TT that was on sale with huge mark down like a RV show price. I almost made a mistake of buying a used one without a looking at the new one to see what kind of deal I could get. I bought my camper for 18K last Saturday, a lot of used one with similar floor plan between 8 to 10 years old have a asking price of over $10K. Many of them were in $12-15K range. So I figured that in ten years, I may loss around 6K or more. The math is much different for higher end TT. Like Mercedes, it deprecate a lot more than a Honda. My 2 cents

[RavensFan24]

I've seen a chart for this somewhere before. I Can't find it right now, but I think it basically said if you sell a travel trailer within 3 years, you would lose less than 20% of the original value....assuming you maintain your trailer well.

I originally bought a TT because I was leaving SoCal and wanted to see the country. I had a 90lb lab and a girlfriend and we didn't want to stay in hotels everywhere or risk tent camping in October in Oregon or Washington. My original plan was to buy it, use it for 3 months, get back to Maryland and sell it. At that time, it would've still been 2007 and I had a 2008 trailer to sell. Instead, we fell in love with RVing and kept it until we just traded it in a couple months ago. I guarantee I could have sold that thing for close to what I paid even if I had kept it for a year.

The beauty of the trailer is that it doesn't track miles. I lived in my 2008 for 8 months after traveling in it for 3, plus my normal camping use over 7 years and when I traded it in the dealer said it was spotless and the cleanest trade in he had in years.

In the end the value lies in the maintenance.

[wing_zealot]

Go to NADA.com and find out what they say any particular RV is worth. I don't think you'll find any blanket depreciation "schedule". Just conjecture.