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Bradtaylor20 · 11-11-2015, 07:37 PM

First time on the forums. I have owned a 2004 national islander rv that is in great mechanical shape but starting to show its years physically. I still owe around 40k but it books around 90k so in the green. I am back and fourth on trading up tp a newer model that may better suit my family. Bunk house and such. The issue is I believe I have spoiled myself with a diesel pusher that was high quality when built and may not like the newer cheaper gas versions. Has anyone gone through this and felt they made the right decision? I only have used the coach 5 times this year and I believe old water damages are starting to wear on the slides plus cause delamination along the exterior. Thanks for the comments

Scarab0088 · 11-11-2015, 09:09 PM

To upgrade or buy new...hard question.
For us, you cannot buy a massive 8.1L gas V8 RV any longer. It's Ford's 6.8L only for gas RV's.
For Diesel's, the current made engines are burdened with DPF/DEF systems...more stuff to feed and break

Only you can decide what's best for you.

Best luck

Mr_D · 11-11-2015, 09:24 PM

We upgraded from a perfectly good '02 Dutch Star to the Magna. Wish we had kept the DSDP. Could sure use the money back we spent on the change over and engine repairs now to pay medical bills!

Ramets · 11-12-2015, 04:46 AM

We've thought many times of trading our 2000 Dutch Star, going to the Tampa Super Show every year to see what's available. Each time we've come away with the same thought...why? So we've remodeled ours to make it much more livable. The greatest thing is...it's paid for.

Sky_Boss · 11-12-2015, 06:14 AM

I'm not sure you will ever get an answer to that question because there are so many subjective reasons involved. Sandee and I are going through the same decision process and are starting to lean towards NOT upgrading. We put a lot of money into our coach 2 years ago for new floors, residential refer, AGS & BMK, sat dish upgrade and other odds and ends. There are only 2 "major" things we can't do to the coach that we would look for in a newer one. Those are a 3rd AC & Oasis.

IMHO, any upgrade (for us at least) should probably needs 3 qualifying factors.

1. Does it maintain or improve your RVing needs?
2. Does the joy gained from such a purchase offset the additional costs of a depreciating aspect?
3. Can you do this without undue burden on future plans?

I'm certain others could expand on this or reword it but I think these are pretty fair considerations.

We are not rich folks and when we opted to go full time we realized we couldn't maintain a S&B home. Besides, we didn't want to and we also wanted to relocate anyway. As we begin our 3rd FT year we find ourselves anchored down in the Lakeland, FL area seriously considering buying into an RV community. It wasn't our plan but we found a place/area with great promise.

How does this fit into the subject you might ask?

Well...we didn't think we would contemplate such a decision so quickly and thought we would upgrade for several more years of FT experience. Given the current prices for RV lots in this area being fairly low post 2009 and some other factors we may choose to divert our "upgrade fund" to buy a pad. This wouldn't force us off our FT pleasures but give us an anchor to go back to and live in if needed due to reasons we can't foresee at this moment in our lives. All of this now factors more immediately than we expected in our upgrade plans.

So...these are the things we are working through right this minute. These are things you may or may not have to work with or around but if so...you have my $.02 on the issue.

nothermark · 11-12-2015, 06:29 AM

FWIW I wonder if the trade value is there. If there is detectable water damage the unit might be worth a lot less than you think. You might be a lot better off just driving it until it hits a major repair bill.

foreverfree · 11-12-2015, 02:43 PM

My DH and I hit the road full time last year in our first RV. We chose to buy an older DP in case we didn't love the lifestyle but we do so started talking about buying something newer. After weighing the pros and cons as well as writing down the numbers we have decided to invest in the one we own. Our numbers look like this:
Current DP owe $50k worth $70-90k depending on location and buyer
DP with floorplan we want: $220k

We would be increasing our monthly payment from just under $600 to almost $1600. We would still be getting a slightly used unit so no guarentee that we would not still need repairs. In addition this 220k unit would still be depreciating so if we did have to leave the road we would be upside down and would have to pay to get out of our loan while our current coach should be near the bottom of its depreciation.

For almost $12k a year we can easily maintain and upgrade what we have so we have decided to live and love what we have.