New to me MH and questions

[JWatkins]

Hi all! I am taking ownership of a first rate 2004 Adventurer this next week. It is on the W22 chassis with the 8.1 engine. It has 36000 miles and the owner has been meticulous in his maintenance. All recalls have been done.

My questions revolve around the fact that it has as many miles as it does and the fact that it is about 3.5 yrs old.

What items should I be wary of? Tires (they look good)? Batteries (there are two house 12v and one chassis)? Anything else? The coach is in top notch condition nad has been stored covered at all times. HWH jacks are a little slow in retracting, but I am going to try the lube on the shafts suggestion.

Thanks for any insight.
Joe & Sherri

[JWatkins]

Hi all! I am taking ownership of a first rate 2004 Adventurer this next week. It is on the W22 chassis with the 8.1 engine. It has 36000 miles and the owner has been meticulous in his maintenance. All recalls have been done.

My questions revolve around the fact that it has as many miles as it does and the fact that it is about 3.5 yrs old.

What items should I be wary of? Tires (they look good)? Batteries (there are two house 12v and one chassis)? Anything else? The coach is in top notch condition nad has been stored covered at all times. HWH jacks are a little slow in retracting, but I am going to try the lube on the shafts suggestion.

Thanks for any insight.
Joe & Sherri

[Gary the Wombat]

Have a close look at the tires, especially the sidewalls. At only 3.5 years old, and if the MH was stored inside, they should be fine, but remember that they may now only have another year or two of life left.

Other than that, have fun with your new rig and post often to let us know how things are going.

[ctcamper]

12,000 a year is not an excessive amount for an internal combustion engine. The auto industry considers 12K per year an average use.

Tires should be changed when the tread is worn out or the age of the tire is 5 to 7 years. You can find out the manufacturing date of the tire by reading the DOT number on the sidewall.
Locate the series of numbers preceded by DOT. The last four digits of that number represent the week and year the tire was built. A three-digit code was used for tires manufactured before the year 2000.
As far as batteries, they usually last a few years before requiring replacement. You may or may not need to change the house battery depending on if it is holding a charge and your intended use. If you plan on using the MH for campground camping and some one night overnighters, you can probably get away with the current battery, or if it's not holding a charge then getting another 12v replacement. If you plan on dry camping for extended periods of 3 days or more you might want to look into buying two 6v deep cycle golf cart batteries that you would place in series to get 12 volts. I had that setup on my previous Adventurer and I was able to fit the two 6v batteries along with the chassis battery in the battery tray.

Aside from that, Welcome and enjoy your new toy

[ichn2go]

If possible get the service records. This will tell you the last oil change, transmission, lube, brakes, generator etc. May save you some dollars if these have been done recently..

Spent a lot of money, yet when I finished I new the maintainence had been done on each item..

Workhorse recommends the caliphers be cleaned, greased every year..Sounds if you have a fine rig, I like mine..

[JWatkins]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ctcamper:
12,000 a year is not an excessive amount for an internal combustion engine. The auto industry considers 12K per year an average use.

Tires should be changed when the tread is worn out or the age of the tire is 5 to 7 years. You can find out the manufacturing date of the tire by reading the DOT number on the sidewall.
Locate the series of numbers preceded by DOT. The last four digits of that number represent the week and year the tire was built. A three-digit code was used for tires manufactured before the year 2000.
As far as batteries, they usually last a few years before requiring replacement. You may or may not need to change the house battery depending on if it is holding a charge and your intended use. If you plan on using the MH for campground camping and some one night overnighters, you can probably get away with the current battery, or if it's not holding a charge then getting another 12v replacement. If you plan on dry camping for extended periods of 3 days or more you might want to look into buying two 6v deep cycle golf cart batteries that you would place in series to get 12 volts. I had that setup on my previous Adventurer and I was able to fit the two 6v batteries along with the chassis battery in the battery tray.

Aside from that, Welcome and enjoy your new toy </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Good stuff Ctcamper! Thanks.I didn't know how to read the tire date, so thanks for that. I will probably go to the 6v when I change batterys. I saw one thread where a fellow had replace the 2 12v's with 4 6v in the same loaction. He had to remove the battery clamps to do it, but I doubt they will be going anywhere when the box is that full. I will have to give that some serious thought when the time comes.

Joe & Sherri

[JWatkins]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by ichn2go:
If possible get the service records. This will tell you the last oil change, transmission, lube, brakes, generator etc. May save you some dollars if these have been done recently..

Spent a lot of money, yet when I finished I new the maintainence had been done on each item..

Workhorse recommends the caliphers be cleaned, greased every year..Sounds if you have a fine rig, I like mine.. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The gentleman that I am buying this from has every record of everything ever done to this rig! Like I said above... meticulous

Thanks,
Joe & Sherri