Success or Horror stories with older DP?

[DENSHER]

Bought our 1995 Gulfstream 2 years ago, May 2016. I new the dash A/C didn't work but no big deal it didn't work in the Holiday Rambler either. The previous owner did point out that left front wheel seal has a small drip after having both front rotors replaced and the steering was loose, free travel in steering wheel. I replaced the front wheel seal and found the pitman arm was loose and tightened that up.
In July we took our first long road trip with it traveling to Minnesota to visit family. On day one 3 hours from home we lost all 120v power from the generator, luckily we were only 2 miles from a campground so pulled and hooked to shore power which did work. Problem was the supposedly "RV specialist" that previous owner recently hired to do a 50 amp upgrade from the original 30 amp did not get the lug screw for generator neutral wire tight enough and burned to post in the transfer switch. This wasn't a vehicle age problem but negligence. Luckily Camping World in Bowling Green, KY is just across the interstate from KOA we pulled into. So replace the ATS, spent the night and back on road the next day. When replacing the ATS in noticed that the 50 amp upgrade was only 1/2 done. He had installed a 50 amp shore cable, added another load line up to the ATS but did not change the Distribution panel so everything except rear air conditioner was still running through the original 30 amp main breaker. I finished the upgrade with new panel at a later date. So back to the trip. On day 2 I started noticing more bouncing than I thought normal after hitting bumps, this became extremely bad when we hit I-64 West at Mount Vernon, IL to point of becoming sea sick. Shocks worn out. The morning of day 3 DW mentions that the carpet is wet between corner of the bed and the closet. By the end of the day that wet spot has gone to include the hallway from the kitchen back to bedroom but we have reached our destination at setup in my brothers yard. Investigation showed leak was from the water heater, underneath the water heater. Water heater had rusted out.
The water heater and shocks were and still are the only age related repairs I had so far. I guess being over 20 years old that isn't too bad. I did replace the locked up compressor and got dash A/C working last year and replaced the fan belt last week as precaution.

[DegoRed]

Have two friends who purchased Beavers, they have had zero issues (tires and oil change excluded), both coaches are built like tanks with very nice interiors. They both have been slowly changing out all the cheesy old grandma looking brass fixtures and gold looking trim.

Based on the build quality and good luck both my friends have had, I would not hesitate on buying a Beaver.

[Jthigh]

Middle of the road (I guess). Bought a 2002 American Eagle spring of 2016. Upgraded from an older Fleetwood Pace Arrow gas unit. Overall the previous owner took good care of the coach and would consider it to near excellent condition for it's age. I keep pretty good records of my repair and supply expenses. Maintenance and repair cost was 2,700 for 2016, and 3,400 for all 2017 to today (getting coach ready for long trip). My supplies budget to date (2 years) is 3,400. That included things I needed for this coach that I didn't have for previous coach like EMS surge protector, TPMS and interior items and the like. I do 98% of all the service myself so most of that is material cost. I had a couple big ticket items that I decided not to do myself which was broken exhaust manifold and pinion seal. Not horrible but still more costly than a maintaining a gas unit just because everything your buy for the DP is just more expensive (IMO).

Next big item is to replace the Norcold fire hazard with new cooling unit at about 1.5 - 2K. I do see the possibility of having to replace air bags and ball joints in 2-3 years as well.

[oldmattb]

1998 Monaco Windsor - we have had it for maybe 4 years. We had some initial expense with maintenance. Though I was confident the coach had been cared for, the records were sketchy and many things were coming due. I changed oil, coolant, hydraulic oil, trans fluid, etc. I replaced a dripping kitchen faucet. Very recently, I replaced the seals in the shower set. New engine belts and filters. New tires.

We had the air dryer fail last year and had to be towed. Frustrating because I had replaced the entire unit several months prior.

Over 100K miles now, no engine or transmission issues. I did have a fuel line split, but it was repaired for $5 at the side of the road.

We have done lots of small upgrades - USB outlets, new radio, replaced CO and propane detectors, replacement and new reading lights, LED tail lights, additional side markers, new clearance lights.

I replaced the "rubber" roof. I did it myself at home for way under $1000. New air bags and shocks, along with suspension bushings - very strenuous and dirty work, but not technical. I did it myself.

No regrets on our coach.

I kind of rambled there, but the point is that things do wear out, there are lots of things to maintain, but the big things - engine and transmission, have been dependable.


Matt B

[docj]

Originally Posted by DegoRed

Have two friends who purchased Beavers, they have had zero issues (tires and oil change excluded), both coaches are built like tanks with very nice interiors. They both have been slowly changing out all the cheesy old grandma looking brass fixtures and gold looking trim.

Based on the build quality and good luck both my friends have had, I would not hesitate on buying a Beaver.

We love our Beaver and we love the brass hardware in it!

Just because brass/gold fixtures have been "out" for a number of years doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with them. FWIW, as recently as ~20 years ago brass bathroom fixtures were significantly pricier than chrome ones. No doubt, the "lords of style" will bring brass back one of these days, if for no other reason than to give people reason to buy new stuff.

However, that doesn't mean that we haven't changed out all the furniture and window treatments, flooring, appliances and more. That's where we've put our money.

[RVBrick]

Originally Posted by mtofell

Anyone care to share good or bad stories buying a +/- 15 year old DP of good quality? I'm thinking brands like Country Coach, Beaver, Newmar, Tiffin, Monaco, etc.

Do/did you have many unexpected and/or expensive repairs? Would you do it again the same way or spend more to avoid some pitfalls?

Obviously, there are all the easy things to check or figure in when we purchase - tires, fluids, batteries, a good inspection, etc. I'm mainly looking for stories of unexpected, unforeseen things.

We inherently hear mostly of problems on these forums and I'm hoping there are a lot of happy folks out there.

We bought a 1993 Foretravel U-240 about 3 years ago. Put new rubber, start batteries and a few minor repairs with a few more on the list. My best advise when looking at a used motor home is documentation. Ours was just serviced by a local CAT center before we bought it and the service history was fully documented. We get about 11mpg on the highway and love our Foretravel.

[Agility57]

Just because brass/gold fixtures have been "out" for a number of years doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with them. FWIW, as recently as ~20 years ago brass bathroom fixtures were significantly pricier than chrome ones. No doubt, the "lords of style" will bring brass back one of these days, if for no other reason than to give people reason to buy new stuff.

Couldn't agree more. Who are all these people that say the gold fixtures are not 'it' nowadays? Just wait and they will be 'it' once again.

[Edingale]

I bought my 1998 HR Navigator in 2003, when it was just 5 years old. Within the first year, I noticed excessive porpoising and occasionally a loud thump on the road. I decided to replace the shocks (all 8 of them) with high quality Koni shocks. The first couple were easy to do, but then discovered one after the other were broken off the frame. I found out that this was a known issue with the Roadmaster chassis and called them. They said there was a break in their production and if I could get the coach to South Bend within the week, they would fix it. I jumped in my rig and wasted no time taking up their offer. After a week in the Roadmaster shop, where they welded new shock mounts, I was presented a bill for $2000. I expressed my surprise and said other owners had said this was a factory defect and HR did their fix at no cost. It took several months and letters, but HR eventually refunded my expense.

Long story short: Original shock mounts were welded onto too thin of a metal plate at too low weld temperature. The original shock mount plates were replaced with thicker ones at higher temp welds, and I haven't had any issues since. This defect was repaired at no cost to new owners during a short campaign, but this info was never disseminated to subsequent owners. Check not only recall history of your coach but also the RV forums for indications of non-published factory defects.

[CountryFit]

here is another country coach, 2000 intrigue. we bought it in 2012 with 60kmi on the clock, today it's 86kmi.

other than tires, i had a shop replace the broken exhaust manifolds, which was noted on ppi and factored in the pricing. that cost $1k. anything else? well, i have done many upgrades, guess those are not in the scope of this discussion.

country coach is solid. you can't go wrong with one.

[FatChance]

A year and a half ago we bought our 2004 Newmar Mountain Aire DP 4016 from a private party. The coach was in excellent condition with great documentation. I put on new tires the first day (factored into the price). The only problem we have had was the failure of the Norcold 1200LR. I replaced it with a residential refrigerator myself. All of the other work has been elective upgrades. At some point in the not distant future I am going to replace the old front Bilstein shocks with Konis,and I can do that myself. The only work I pay for are the oil change, fuel filters and lube only because we full-time and I don't have a place to do that work. No regrets about this coach at all.

[TowDawg]

Bought a 2002 HR Scepter earlier this year with 93k on the clock.
It was older than the other units we'd looked at, but in better overall shape than any of them. It had been VERY well taken care of and had great records.
Not to mention, we absolutely STOLE it.

I've probably put $15k-$18k into since buying it, but the only true expenses were 6 new tires, new house batteries, and full maintenance at the Cummins dealer. (All of which we were 100% aware of before buying it.) The rest was in-motion satellite, stereo, lighting, fixtures, hardware, furniture, etc that we just wanted to do.

I've had to fix a few things, but nothing major.
Dash A/C was only working in defrost mode when we bought it (ended up being nothing but a fuse for the vacuum pump) and the fog lights wouldn't work (ran new wires), which were both nothing to fix.
The only unplanned expense that was over $1k was when the large slide topper awning took a dump. I could have probably fixed it or replaced it for much cheaper, but I wanted a cleaner look so my cost went up to go to a nicer one that's fully enclosed in an aluminum extrusion.

Overall, a DP (old or new) is going to have things go wrong and need little things fixed quite often. If you think about it, you're essentially talking about a house (with even more complicated systems sometimes) that is essentially going through an earthquake all the time.
The key is to pick a quality manufacturer/model that has been taken care of. I mean both maintenance records AND overall condition/appearance and functionality of all the systems/features.

[Ludmilla]

We purchased a 2004 Newmar Northern Star 6 years ago. We purchased a service plan because we did not have maintenance records. We were glad we did. We had an air bag go, a slide motor and controller go, a HEUI pump go and it caused to have to have the lifters replaced. That was all covered under the service plan and we got more out of the plan than we put in.

The big expense we did not expect was we had the sidewalls replaced and the coach repainted due to the paint checking issue. I thought it would not get worse if we kept it under cover - it did. But we decided, after looking at the cost of newer coaches, we were better off putting the money into the one we have. We love the layout and we love traveling in it.

The coach has given us many, many happy memories and we plan to keep it for many more years.

But if I knew what I know now, there are two things I would have done differently:

1. Require complete maintenance records and check to see if everything was done when it was supposed to be done.
2. Do not purchase a coach with the paint checking issue.

[falconman]

If you have the skills and the location to do repairs then costs can be kept way down. If you don’t then be prepared to pay. It seems that most items for these things is in the hundreds of dollars range. A full service plus some time repairing air leaks was $1200, a similar bill last year. Also, rigs like ours in the 10-15 year range start suffering from exposure. Awnings, rubber seals,etc all start showing their age. When looking at a unit the mechanicals are important but don’t dismiss the cosmetics! New side mirrors are $1K each!
Clear coat repair $3-5000, window fogging $250 each. Choose carefully.

[TMan59]

Our first DP was a 2001 Monaco Windsor we bought in 2011. Had 90,000 miles on it at the time. Sold it four years later with a 130,000 miles on it, had done tires and some routine maintenance and upgraded the floor.
Sold it for the same price we had bought it for minus the upgrade cost.
Just loved it but wanted a bigger bed and auto leveling. Along with aqua hot.
After we sold it we bought a 2007 Alpine limited that had 40,000 miles on it and absolutely love it.
I guess we actually bought the Alpine before we sold the Windsor!