Looking at a 2002 Tradewinds, need owners input

[TrueReb]

Was wondering how it went for you? Did you get it?

I bought my 1998 TW from a friend who ordered it from factory. His wife died after having the coach for about 7 or 8 years and it pretty much sat in storage for 5 years (had only 32k miles then). I know how he was a perfectionist and the coach never wanted for anything. He took extremely good care of it.
I bought it from him for $16k and I told him I felt bad about such a low price, but he told me that didn't matter because he knew it was going to be loved and taken care of. I still felt bad though. I did have to buy new tires which ended up being about $3k, get it inspected and title transferred another $400 or so. I've upgraded the old tube-type TVs with flat panels, put in a new stereo with bluetooth, replaced the plumbing (had a bad/cracked manifold) and all that added another $2k, so I've got about $22k in a great motor coach and would not even consider less than $32k.
One thing, if you haven't already figured it out, National made extremely good coaches, they were very well built.

[yellowsupra]

We did end up buying it and so far we love it. We flew to New Mexico picked it up, drove to Tucson then home to Tennessee, loaded up the rest of the family and just got home from a week in Florida. The kids were playing in the Atlantic Sunday afternoon at Cocoa beach, and we made it home in time for them to catch the bus to school Monday morning!

I just retired from the Army and we plan to use the RV part time taking injured soldiers to fun/rehab events.

The one we bought seems to be in good shape, it is a little used, but we have kids, so not a big deal to us.

It drives so nice, its hard to explain. I didn't give much weight to turning cut angles, but my goodness did I accidently hit a gold mine. We have the Spartan Air ride chassis(that has a kneel function, awesome!), it rides very nice, and steers like a pick up, not a big rig. I was able to get into many tight gas stations, and my wife logged probably close to 1,000 miles behind the wheel with no issues. If you are looking for a wife friendly A, this should be on your list. Our standard driving position is cruise set to 65mph, feet flat on the floor, one finger on the wheel, it drives that nice.

The 330hp 3126 Cat is great. No issues through the real mountains in Northern Arizona, cruise set at 65mph, with the exhaust brake armed. Never dropped below 60mph uphill, never over 70mph downhill.

We have a few little plumbing issues(drips here and there). The under coach storage is massive and really, we don't have anything down there yet. Its myself, wife and two teenage daughters. Believe it our not we got everything in the closets in the coach, even have a guitar amp, and two guitars in a closet, and still room to spare.

So far, we are very pleased with the coach. We are going to do a few little things to fix it up(I can do wood work, some of the sticker wood grain stuff is going to go).

We stayed at Fort Wilderness at Disney and had a great time. It was a little pricey, but they offer a lot for the money as far as Disney convenience and such goes.

Next trip is taking a couple Purple Heart fellas down the Houston fishing with the Chris Kyle Foundation.

[DTS]

I love hearing about you using the coach to support wounded vets. As a former National RV employee who was there when that coach was built, it makes me feel good

[yellowsupra]

6 month report.

So far we have been from Northern New Mexico, to Tucson, then to Tennessee, on down to Disney, then back home, off to South Texas, back to Tennessee, down to Pensacola, Home to Tennessee, and to Valdosta and back!

There has been at least one wounded vet on board the whole time, me! haha. The trip out west I had another wounded vet with me the whole time. The trip to Texas and back was for "fish hard" put on by Boot Campaign and we took two wounded guys down for that. The trip to Pensacola was to meet up with Armed Forces Racing, and the trip to Valdosta was for Lights Out 8, a huge drag race, we took 4 vets there!

So far we are way happy. The cruise integration with the jake is awesome. It will cruise at 85mph but obviously fuel disappears quickly. It seems to do the best at 63mph fuel and speed wise. The air ride is sublime. Its so easy to drive that my wife drives the majority of the time(I can't sit for very long). So I kick back on the bed and relax while she cruises.

I think we have put about 11k miles on it, no issues to speak of outside of normal RV stuff(loose fixtures, small water leak underneath, all less than $10 fixes).

So when we got home from Pensacola the front A/C fan was really slow to start. I was able to remove the motor and fan and I cant find a replacement motor. the numbers are A.O Smith F42c38a61 1/4hp 1650/3spd 3.3amp 115v. It has a shaft out each side. I was hoping I could clean the gunk out of the bearings and get it going again, but the bearings are shot.

Any help in locating a new motor is appreciated!