Re: OT Buying a used camper, any advice?

Posted by Jim.UT on May 11, 2004 at 16:29:15 from (64.122.18.247):

In Reply to: OT Buying a used camper, any advice? posted by keith on May 11, 2004 at 13:14:12:

People seem to use different words in different parts of the country. To me a "camper" is a slide in camper that you plunk in the back of your pickup truck. Is that what you're going to look at?

I've owned a 23' Class C motorhome and enjoyed it very much. Frustrations are:
1. You have all the same problems you have with any vehicle (oil, tires, engine, transmission, brakes)
2. Plus you have all the problems you have with any home (plumbing, roof, windows, appliances, etc)
3. The problems are accentuated by the fact that the items in #1 are for a heavy duty vehicle and therefore more expensive than a normal car and the items in #2 are made very cheaply to save weight so they fail a lot more often than the stuff in your house.

Having said all that, a small motorhome was just the ticket for us when our kids were smaller. It was easy to keep them happy and entertained on long trips. Plus we could go a lot more places than we could with a tent.

Now as for campers: I just bought one last fall. WE looked at all the $1200 price range campers and basically decided it would be a waste of money. So we stepped up to a newer camper and paid $5500. We're very pleased with it so far. As we were looking we learned a few things:
1. Older campers may not fit in newer pickups. Along about 1995 the truck makers made the tailgate opening narrower which makes the older campers not fit unless you cut them down and do a lot of redesigning. Not worth it.
2. This applies to any RV: look at the water heater. If it looks bowed out it's been over-pressured and probably will leak.
3. Also for any RV: Stick you nose in the fridge and sniff real hard. Smell any ammonia? If so, run the other way. RV fridges use ammonia instead of freon. If you smell ammonia that means there's a leak somewhere and you're looking at an expensive fix or replacement. The RV repairman that I trust told me he had never had much luck replacing the guts in a fridge. They always seemed to fail again in a year or two. By contrast a new fridge can run in the $1500-$2000 range.
4. All slide-in campers should have a tag on them listing their weight with a tank full of water and all propane bottles filled. Add to that 300 lbs for your gear (or more). Then go look at the GVWR tag on your truck. Now go weigh your truck with a full tank of gas and all the people on board who will be traveling with you. Add the weight of the truck to the weight of the camper. That number better be less than the GVWR or you'll wish you had a bigger truck (or a smaller camper).

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