Community Forums

Rich and Cork · 09-28-2011, 09:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by daveshan

Ok
I'm very handy, for a hobby I build rock crawling Jeeps

Me too

....see my avatar. Good luck in your searching.

gatorv · 09-28-2011, 01:04 PM

Hi Dave
I paid 62K for my 2000 Alpine coach with 50K miles on it about 2.5 years ago.
Owner was asking 80k for it and I offered 50k so he told me bottom line up front.
Interior was good and so was paint, engine was dirty and maintainance was so so.
I too build sand jeeps and do a little rock crawing myself.
I drove about 1k to look at several Alpines and found my 2 miles from the house.
Keep looking or make a really low ball offer, you never know what they will say.
Good luck, I love my Coach

Gator

daveshan · 09-29-2011, 09:11 AM

Guys, can't tell you how much I appreciate the input, however after a bit of thought and discussions with my wife I'm going to pass on this one. If it was close to Durango I'd limp it home and do all the work myself (probably need a bigger air tools ;-) but even if he fixes/bandaids the issues I'd be sweating the 1100+ mile drive home and long term viability of the unit given the apparent lack of adequate maintenance.
Best to all,
Dave and Jay
Durango CO

JC2 · 09-29-2011, 09:21 AM

Have you, by chance, checked this Houston area dealer out in the link below? They reportedly carry excellant quality units and appear to be customer orientated. I've never been overly impressed with PPL and their unit quality. There failure to get back to you in a timely manner tells me a lot . The inspector couldn't find the VIN; kinda gives you a warm and fuzzy feeling about his qualifications.
Best Preowned RV. Used Motorhomes in Houston, Texas

daveshan · 09-29-2011, 09:52 AM

Thanks JC2, yes I have looked at their site and will keep checking it. What with combining the "deal breakers" "don't wants" and "would likes" that Jay and I have finding the right rig will be tough but we'd rather wait than settle. The only thing the Alpine had that was on Jay's "don't want" list was carpet, otherwise it was great, just not great enough to take a chance on when that far away.

As to the VIN, when he called with the overview I asked about it and he said he hadn't gotten it but would go back and look, (not part of the checklist) I've got a feeling he may have gotten busy with the next inspection and just didn't go back. If the unit had checked out I would have gotten it from the salesman.

Dave

EngineerMike · 09-29-2011, 07:59 PM

Vin on most Alpines is on a label on front bulkhead below the driver, visible when the gen slide is out, and on all Aplines I've inspected from below- on a riveted tag DS frame just ahead of forward tire well facing left side of coach. Probably corroded on an older coach and will need to crawl under w/a rag & flashlight to read it.
Some earlier units also had a label inside one of the cabinets.
A clever guy would ask to see the registration where VIN could also be found, and which might also yield other useful info, like the legal owner(s).

MFortie · 10-05-2011, 10:31 PM

Not to sidetrack too much, but what t-case are you running in your Jeep? Atlas II? If so, I didn't know you couldn't flat tow with an Atlas.

We have a 2K, mid-door, single slide, and yes we've had to deal with brake issue. We didn't get much info with ours either. I also tow a Jeep ('98 TJ) and am shopping for a brake system to use with the Jeep/MH.

Regards,

Mark

daveshan · 10-05-2011, 11:43 PM

Yes the TJ has an Atlas II, I talked to Advance Adapters at last year's Moab Safari they said you had to unhook and drive it about every 100 miles as it is splash lubricated. Even if I was willing to do that I'm not flat towing a rig with Maxxis Creepy Crawlers (~$400+/ea) on it

.

The Cherokee is already setup to flat tow and it will be our toad when Jay and I travel.

Lindenberg · 10-10-2011, 04:33 PM

We purchased our 2000 back in 2006 from Texas and we live in California. Back then WRV was in business and they gave me the complete history of the coach from the vin number. I was also able to get the engine serial number and Cummins gave me its history. Based of a bunch of photo and good reports from WRV and Cummins we flew to Texas, bought the coach and drove back home to California.

There were only two issues of workmanship I ran across which I discovered on this site. The first was the water heater was plumbed backwards. The hot line came out of the bottom of the tank as we always had sediment plugging the faucets. This was an easy fix. The other item was the house battery charging monitoring lines to the batteries were reversed. The charger was charging the house batteries but monitoring the chassis batteries. Again, a simple fix.

We both love the Alpine and are glad we got it. Also, the previous owner of our coach sold it because he purchased a newer Alpine.

daveshan · 10-10-2011, 08:24 PM

Hi Tom and Laurel
I just did a "verbal handshake" to seal the deal on a '99 36' SDS that has been in the hands of a couple of fellow forum members. I'll be flying out on the 23rd and driving it back home that week, nothing like a 2000 mile shakedown cruse to learn how to handle a new coach.