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Old 05-10-2017, 10:16 PM   #1
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Trying to decide between two coaches.

Officially my first post. Bear with me..I used to write GMP guidelines and now try not to post novels but cant seem to avoid it. I do try to post relevant information, its just a lot. lol I did put in a TLDR spot

I am looking at two 2000 Coachmen Santaras. The difference is price, mileage and upkeep. I think i already know my answer but want to bounce my reasoning off someone.

Both coaches, exact same floorplan. One has whitewashed cabinets and green/wine colors. The other mid color oak with a jacobean pattern multi color.
Both have washer/dryer
Both have a drivers side door
Ford V-10 engine
both have satellite - not in motion though.
Asking prices are negotiable.
Both are local

Negative about the floorplan. The bedroom is tiny. No slide but there is a fair amount of closet space and drawers considering. I HATE carpet in the bathroom but that can be remedied. The dining is on the non patio side looking at the neighbors campsite. The good about the floorplan. The rest checks all the boxes.

Coach 1- asking $22,000, 43K miles. 2011 tires Michelins. Has sat for the past year not being started. Its on consignment at a small lot that doesnt deal with gassers. They tried to get it started yesterday. The owner is coming out over the weekend (I have to work) to get it running. The lot thinks its a solenoid. I have not been able to pick the owners brain. They live out of the area now.
The roof is likely the original. It looks ok. Didnt get on it and have a look not going to bother if they cant get it running.
I gave it a once over looking for water issues. Smelled ok considering it hadnt been opened for months and had been raining for days. No evidence of wet. No bubbling of the exterior.
No idea if they did any mods to the suspension and havent tested anything yet except the electric steps. The interior is in like new shape. The awnings look ok but havent unrolled them yet.

Coach 2- $17,000 84K miles. 4 yr old tires, dont have the date code to know for sure. They are goodyears. I did a little bit of checking around seems its a durable engine. Not sure about the tranny. Transmission park prawl has been park brake substitute. Cant figure out what the general cost of replacing the tranny would be.

Owner has owned it its entire life. It is a southern unit. Owner seems to care about it and takes the effort to keep up with it mechanically. They have all the receipts. Used yearly.

Roof rubber removed and replaced 3 years ago. Gets it re coated at Camping world yearly. They don't know what they use. However I have spoke with their lot techs and well cant say its a positive. At least it gets cleaned once a year and something is better than nothing....

New fridge, side by side. Only a year old. New roof AC in the front. It got taken out by a branch. New front awning. Havent seen the slide awning. They have bags on the rear axle, aftermarket and dont know the condition. Not critical to the operation just helps with the squirrelyness when hitting bumps.

Havent been inside, not many pics. Going to look at it tomorrow. They said there are stains near the shower skylight and AC but nothing recent. The nose will know...lol
I prefer the pattern on the couch. I expect some wear even though they say its in good shape. Usually the captains chairs are cracking. I would prefer it to be new but cant have everything.

The known bad- the mileage and they havent done any maintenance on the slide seals. although I don't see us putting a ton of miles on it we are within a 4 hours of most things. It had most likely all its service at camping world. Ive only been to one camping world...that one. Wasnt impressed when they tried to tell me a particular MH was super clean and they seemed genuinely surprised that the front of the cab leaked like a sieve into the footwell. I have not spoken with their mechanics though.

They weakened the E-parking break driving it with it engaged, big surprise. The mech that looked at it 3 years ago said it didnt have to be replaced but dont trust it if on any sort of an incline. I always chucked my old RV tires because it was a manual drive. So shouldn't be too hard to remember. I was actually looking at info about that earlier today (before knowing about this unit) and understand the cost of new. I thought there was a place out of CA that did rebuilds but don't think i noted it down. I can rebuilt it myself. I don't want to for various reasons. I would rebuilt it myself before letting camping world do it. lol
The tires might be needing replacement soon.

TLDR- Which is better/worse
A. Low mileage, like new interior, no leaks yet (might need roof) and possible neglect. havent tested the slide.

or B. high mileage, no slide maintenance with one repair on it, new roof, worn interior and little neglect? The park prawl in the transmission has substituted for a parking brake. How much is a new transmission? Havent been able to find that info yet.

For details...read the novel above.

And....anything i should look for that I havent already covered?
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Old 05-10-2017, 11:23 PM   #2
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You have told us a fair amount about each coach, but you have not told us much about you, and how you plan to use it.
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Old 05-11-2017, 12:11 AM   #3
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You have told us a fair amount about each coach, but you have not told us much about you, and how you plan to use it.
I posted a little about myself in the newbie thread I'll include a little more here.

I am an old lady according to AARP and inspite of my husband trying to convince me the other day that I'm only 50 I did the math and apparently I am in fact still 51. Lol

Been repairing various equipment since 1988. Equipment with electric motors not engines. I have repaired my own stuff. Did a lot of work on a salvage Ninja (mine) and salvage Katana (his). The reason I dont want to work on things anymore is that somehow in the last move all my tools are lost or missing and I'm not interested in repurchasing anything yet. And what I did have together in my toolbox is strewn all over the barn not by me. We have a total role reversal. We both to tech support for a living now.

As far as use. Mostly within a few hours from home and cheap boondocking is what my goal is. We go to Myrtle Beach a lot in the off season and usually fish off a pier that is part of an RV park. Then once a year making a trip out west to see the kids. Son is a nuke ELT in the navy on a sub and is in Guam right now will probably be stationed on the west coast since he has some control over where he is stationed and doesnt want to be in Norfolk.

I also work from home and can travel if i can get plugged into decent internet for 10 hours.

My concerns... the length of the rig is 36 ft. I have driven my truck that is 21 ft long towing my 28 ft boat trailer and a 26 ft box truck between NC and VA. I feel straight over 26ft is more difficult to get around corners.

Im afraid of getting into trouble by pulling in a non rv friendly parking lot. Or just where do you park to sightsee in myrtle beach if you dont bring a toad and your just passing through and want to hang out a bit.
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Old 05-11-2017, 05:53 AM   #4
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I am not going to tell you which one is right for you, but I will say would look at the one with the most mechanically sound drivetrain if planning on transcontinental trips. I would also like to share with you that I was in a very similar position before buying my 28 ft 2002 Safari Trek class A about 7 months ago. I am also 50ish years old, though still on the lower side of 50, have an older 21 ft long Ford F250 with which I have a couple of thousand miles experience pulling various non RV trailers 8-30 ft long. Along with limited box truck experience, the biggest of which was helping an old friend move from Louisiana to Montana in a uhaul with a Ford van cab a few year ago.

I do like the sub-30 ft length of my Trek when it comes to parking lot access, etc. However there are a few things I have learned about maneuvering in my roughly 4,000 miles of class A ownership, the biggest thing is that length itself is not my primary concern pulling into places, instead it is often height, followed by width and turning circle. Turning circle does relate to length though, but also has to do with limit on wheel cut (which is not great on my Workhorse P32 platform chassis), awareness of tail swing and off tracking are also very important, both of which get worse with added length and more wheel cut. With a Class A due to seating position and position of the steer tires below your seat a person become far more aware of the height and width of the vehicles vs a similar size class B or C with a van chassis, it is sort of like being a todler, if your head will fit through then chances are the rest of your body will vs being in a Class C with a cutaway van body that gives you the feel a smaller vehicle but with that big box behind you that is easy to forget about.

I wish I could tell you that traveling without a TOAD is easy, I can't, but what I can tell you is even with a 28 ft class A and a few thousand miles of experience I still avoid small parking lots when I can, but have shoehorned it into some very tight spaces when necessary a few times.
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Old 05-20-2017, 08:50 PM   #5
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An update in case anyone is interested. They guy with the high mileage coach put way too much trust in the local camping world and the "yearly" roof maintenance. They missed a leak around the drivers door and it was dry rotted from the top to bottom. His 3 yr old tires were a date code year 08, either camping world took advantage of him or he was not recalling correctly. Told the guy thanks for their time and went on our way.

Got a best price on the other coachman, with what I know needs to be done its not worth the time to get it taken care of even if adding it all up might be in the ballpark of what its worth. Still havent fired up the water system etc. Its still in consideration.

Looked at a 2000 Newmar, really liked the floor plan. The mold smell was overwhelming. I have a moisture meter and couldnt pinpoint where the issue was. It has vinyl ceilings, checked the seams, no moisture. Checked the edges of the slide, looked good, couldnt reach the back without more effort than it was worth. the carpet in the middle of the slide was soaked, grey and stinky. Probably came down the back of the slide however, there was a spot in the middle of the bedroom carpet the same way. Odd thing is the laminate in the kitchen was not affected. There was nothing above or below that was wet. it was right in front of the hallway. Nothing going to the edges. Really sad, really like the floorplan. Even if the leak was fixed and the carpet pulled and the floor sealed the smell gets into everything and lingers forever.

Going to look at a 2000 Monaco with 70K miles. Aluminum roof which after reading a lot of posts from people happy with their aluminum roof. Only negatives are from people that "heard" it can be noisy in the rain. Pretty happy that its not rubber, in this price range and age I havent seen a decent rubber roof yet.

I read some comments about the chassis twisting and popping wind sheilds out. problem is couldnt determine if they were diesel, ford or chevy or the length of the rig. the complainers didnt mention any specifics. That definitely would be an issue. Its a rough haul up our drive.
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Old 05-21-2017, 12:09 AM   #6
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Thats the way shopping goes, I spent about 5 months shopping before I found the right one. Do keep us updated
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Old 05-21-2017, 07:31 PM   #7
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Thats the way shopping goes, I spent about 5 months shopping before I found the right one. Do keep us updated

Thanks Yeah not in a hurry and dont need a MH. Ive also wondered if I get one sooner than later....am i settling or missing something more awesome? haha thats a thought that could drive you crazy. I have a list of what I think I want, and hope I dont focus on having something that I think I need only to find it doesnt matter.

I figure buying used you pick your battles based on your ability to manage the task or cost of repair. I just hope I can make a good selection and not regret or run into an issue trying to get it home.
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Old 05-22-2017, 11:39 AM   #8
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The one thing that confused me was implying that both are on the Ford chassis (V-10) and the description of an issue with the parking brake and transmission pawl. I know that the Workhorse (nee GM) had a driveshaft mounted AutoPark brake that would sometimes not release fully and get prematurely worn. Since that transmission did not have a park pawl, it could roll off. The Ford F53 chassis did not have the same setup.
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Old 05-22-2017, 12:18 PM   #9
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I see you passed on both of them, which would have been my answer. You'll find something that's right for you.

FWIW, I had a C of that era and it did not have a bedroom slide, and now I have an A with a bedroom slide. Yes, there is more room, and slightly more closet space, but the head of the bed is in the slide and it's a PITA to make the bed. So you win some, you lose some. :-D

I would check RV trader for private sales. That's how we purchase our first. We found an owner selling a great deal, was lucky to be the first to inquire. It was a babied, and a great first RV. Good luck!
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Old 05-22-2017, 12:39 PM   #10
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Old 05-22-2017, 03:50 PM   #11
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If you ever need it the place in CA. that rebuilds the parking brake on the F53 Ford is C.H.Topping in Long Beach, CA
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Old 05-23-2017, 08:54 AM   #12
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The one thing that confused me was implying that both are on the Ford chassis (V-10) and the description of an issue with the parking brake and transmission pawl. I know that the Workhorse (nee GM) had a driveshaft mounted AutoPark brake that would sometimes not release fully and get prematurely worn. Since that transmission did not have a park pawl, it could roll off. The Ford F53 chassis did not have the same setup.

Well...what I have gathered (please correct me if im wrong) from trying to decide between the various Chevy and Ford platforms in the older 1999-2000 yr models (not considering the rough ride) is the narrow front tire width in the p30 chassis, the change from that set up to the parking brake that the workhorse chassis uses called autopark that gets stuck, tends to engage itself while in motion and some have bypassed. the concern with this really seems to be engaging itself when not intended and not releasing when needing to move.

And Fords V-10 chassis with the E-parking brake, that is an assembly on the axle that contains brake pad, 4oz of transmission fluid and various bearings.
What usually happens is that people forget to release the park brake. Many complain that they dont see the light. Then they drive long distances smoking the pads and assembly and it usually does damage or hopefully just glazes the pad which allows it to be "used" in triggering the various things that require the park brake to be set but it wont be a very effective park brake. Honestly they should all be chocked but thats just my old school process because my first motorhome was a manual transmission.

And like many many people that think that putting their transmission in park serves as a park brake just never are in the habit of releasing the park brake before moving. Sadly those people also dont understand that you can shorten their transmission life...but thats for a different story. So most of the older v-10 units need their e-brake repaired.

Anyway, back on the subject. What I was talking about is the park prawl inside the transmission that holds the vehicle in place when in park. The damage/wear that happens when someone would use a small piece (park prawl) in their transmission that was not really meant to hold an HD truck and most certainly not a 26,000 lb motorhome in place on a slight incline.

Not only is it really stupid safety wise but its really bad for the trans (of any manufacture) to have that sort of pressure and subsequent clunk when moving from park to drive.
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Old 05-23-2017, 09:02 AM   #13
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Glad to have you here. And keep looking and asking questions, you'll find something that meets your needs. Lots of rigs out there!
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Old 05-23-2017, 09:24 AM   #14
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If you ever need it the place in CA. that rebuilds the parking brake on the F53 Ford is C.H.Topping in Long Beach, CA
Thanks! for the info. I couldnt remember the name, when I came across the info I had marked ford off the list. Ive since changed my thinking.
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