Thinking something like this. Just an example I googled quickly.
https://www.rvtrader.com/listing/2002-Fleetwood-SOUTHWIND-32V-5009433258
Thinking something like this. Just an example I googled quickly.
https://www.rvtrader.com/listing/2002-Fleetwood-SOUTHWIND-32V-5009433258
I've been getting my butt kicked at work this week, so I couldn't find time to respond, but I have lots of words on this topic, so....
If you have low enough standards, there are plenty of great coaches out there in that 10k range. You've got to do some looking and you have to have good timing, though. Right now is probably a good time to start looking around -- most folks don't want to buy and immediately put the thing in storage, so it turns in to more of a buyer's market when you start to get into fall/winter. By low standards, I mean you don't want granite countertops, slides, a diesel pusher, or something that will require zero repair or maintenance in the first 6 months. You certainly can find a good-looking, very serviceable coach in your budget.
Having an older coach means that you are either going to get eaten alive with repair/maintenance costs or you're going to be a mechanic/plumber/hvac tech/electrician/roofer/carpenter/appliance repairman/handyman. The chassis tend to be well-built by people that know how to build a truck chassis. The motorhome manufacturer then overloads that well-built chassis with a house and all its accoutrements built out of flimsy and cheap materials and then they let them rattle down the highways and byways of America. After a time, that all starts to catch up with things and they start to break. The good news is that the parts tend to be fairly common among different RV manufacturers. You've got Dometic, Atwood, Suburban, Norcold, and Coleman making up most of the appliances out there and many of the parts for each manufacturer have very long design lives. For example, I think Norcold has used the same flame orifice for 90% of its fridges since something like 1972 or whatever. This means that if you're at home, you can get parts via the tubes of the Internet really easy and cheap and if you're on the road pretty much any RV dealer/shop will have the parts you need in stock.
On the chassis, the parts availability can be hit and miss. For example, I've got a Chevy P30 chassis under mine with a 454 TBI. Engine parts are dime-a-dozen but there are a handful of different parts they could have used for the steering system. Turns out, I've got the odd-duck one that uses some weird arm from the steering box to the whatever-linkage. Every other chassis design needs an arm that is about $70 and at every parts store in America. Mine is not only discontinued from GM but the secretary has disavowed it so I need to search for a part that never existed and is only available from Rare Parts for almost $400.
Ranting aside, forget anything you know about the RV manufacturers. Some of them are certainly better than others, but at this point you are going to be shopping condition first and floor plan second. Some manufactures have done a better job in making parts and documentation available over the years -- Winnebago seems to be one of the better ones for that, while some others are either out of business or don't care about anything that isn't being sold as a brand new unit. At this point I wouldn't be surprised to find a $10,000 Pace Arrow that is in better condition than a $15,000 Newmar. Also, watch out for super low mileage as that's going to be a unit that did a lot of sitting which means one of two things: (A) It was parked and lived in which means the cheap flimsy construction took a lot of wear and tear or (B) it was parked and forgotten about which means it's less likely to have been maintained and small problems would have been left alone and not noticed. Either way, you're going to have dried out rubber bits in the drivetrain which can be a pain.
I highly recommend renting a unit of any sort before buying. You can rent a travel trailer pretty cheaply so do that for a weekend. First of all, see if that's enough space for you and the people you expect to have in there with you. I found that a 24' travel trailer was way too small for just me and having 2 people in it made me insane for the week we had it. You'll also discover things about the layout that you like/don't like which can help you shop. You also might find that RVs are just not for you, and that's okay.
When you go to buy, if you're going to be using it during freezing weather, you're going to need to be sure that your plumbing is protected. My rig uses the furnace to warm the underside so that as long as the furnace is operational, the water lines and holding tanks stay liquid. If I run out of propane, though, I'm in trouble. You want to have a remote temp sensor or two down there to keep an eye on it and it would be a good idea to have a backup electric heater to put down there. There are also contraptions that you can use to feed the on-board gas system from one of those gas grill propane tanks, so having that as an emergency backup might not be a bad idea but if you have 80 gallons of propane (or is it measured in lpbounds? I don't remember, but whatever) it will last for a really long time. Some rigs are designed for cold weather camping and have some rudimentary insulation in the basement. I would shop for that feature. You could, in theory, retrofit insulation down there but that's a lot easier to say than to do. They call it a basement but there's less room down there than in a crawl space. You will also need to be concerned with your inputs and outputs freezing. They make a water hose with an electric heating element in it to keep the water flowing in, but I don't really know what people do about the sewer hose.
When it comes to condition, watch out for the roof. EDPM roofs need full replacement every few years and lots of sealing work in between. Some manufacturers have one-piece fiberglass roofs that need very little maintenance. Unless it has already been done, your first task upon taking delivery is to buy a bunch of Eternabond tape and tape over every seam on the roof. That stuff lasts forever, is totally waterproof, and can encapsulate anything the PO has put up there - including silicone. Speaking of which, don't use silicone sealant for anything. When it starts to leak you have to dig all of it out before putting a new sealant in place (except Eternabond) because nothing will stick to it. Windshields like to leak as well and that's one pain point that's common on Winnebagos -- the window frames rust out.
Speaking of windshields: Replacements are typically in the $800-$1200 per side for a two piece. No idea what a one-piece costs. So if you're looking at one with a cracked windshield, make the seller replace it under their insurance first or negotiate down off your final offer price. Because they're so flimsy, it is not uncommon for the rig to twist while leveling or going down the road causing the windshield to crack. So get glass replacement on your policy once you buy it.
The next big ticket item are tires. 8x19.5R are a bit hard to find now but were super common on the old gasser chassis from Ford and Chev. You can convert it to a metric size and run those, no problem. Check your date codes as the tires will age out before wearing out in most cases. I wouldn't run with anything older than 7 years. Figure a ballpark of about $200 per tire.
Towing. Okay, so this is a bit of a trick and will require some judgment on your part. For most coaches, you will be under your chassis GCVWR with an open-deck trailer and a car. You might find, however, that the back of the coach says you're limited to 3,500 lpbounds of towing. When the RV manufacturer got a hold of the chassis from Chevy or Ford, the frame rails were not long enough for them. So the RV company pulled out a couple sticks of C-channel to match and then brought in a drunk and blind man who was in the process of having a seizure but had no experience using a welder to butt weld the extensions to the original frame. As you might expect, this results in something of a weak spot in the whole thing. Not so bad when it's just the last couple feet of RV sitting on it, but when you put a trailer on there, it acts as a giant lever trying to pry the back of the motorhome up and off. While having the rear cap fall off would increase airflow quite a bit on those pleasant fall evenings, it tends to let a lot of bugs in. The honking from behind you can be a bit deafening as well.
I corrected that problem on mine by getting some C-channel - about 18 inches in length for each side - and bolting it on the inside of the existing frame and frame extensions. That reinforcement should (and so far so good) transmit the force from the extensions to the original frame and keep the stress off of the crappy butt weld. Your mileage may vary, of course.
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