Maintenance costs per year

[DebbieMH]

My annual at Spartan in Charlotte runs between $2,500 - $3,500 - depending on what needs to be done.

[Victory Blue]

Our Spartan service last May (2017 coach) was $2,025; Entegra AIR and service (our coach was out of warranty) was $850. Just to be safe I'd anticipate double these numbers if I were you.

Depending on your handiness level, at Entegra you can choose to not have them fix certain items they find if they're items you can fix yourself.

[Gary.Jones]

Bottom line.... you may well get top of the line service at both places, but you will also most likely pay top of the line prices. Then again, most commercial shops are going to cost $140 to $190 an hour for any service. The only way to significantly cut into those costs is going to be to find a competent, private, "mobile" guy who has been doing it for 20 years, knows his/her stuff, and is willing to work for $80-$100 an hour, or do the work yourself (also without significant expense)

Now, not to be rough, but there is an old saying, if you have to be worried about costs, then you probably should not be buying whatever it is you are considering buying. While few of us are wealthy in the big sense of the word, most owners are "comfortable" enough, or "handy" enough, that they know they can handle what they are getting into without worrying about cost. In your situation where you are concerned about being able to do much on your own, keep in mind that none of these rigs are inexpensive to own..... all of them can and often do, cost a bundle and if you are talking about overall cost of ownership, then you have gotten several guestimates of the money they have budgeted in on a yearly basis, and stick away in a "repairs account ($3,500 - 4,000 out of warranty). Throw in the same amount for insurance (going up every year .... apparently not all of us are the most careful drivers or the most expert backers or stoppers - :-( ). Licensing can be as much as $3,500 a year in Nevada and some states..... wow!! The more you can do yourself, the more you can minimize the cost, but no aspect of a luxury class A motorcoach ownership is inexpensive.... note DebbieMH's thread up here entitled" Owning a motorcoach sure is not cheap " or something close that is up here right now.

Good to ask the questions now.... there are a lot of sad tales of people who buy a coach, finance it to the max, get murdered on general operating costs and maintenance ($300 every day and a half of travel just for diesel for example) or on depreciation (these things depreciate like a rock... ), etc. Best to have your eyes open now.

Gary

[Maddog11capt]

Originally Posted by FLJOE

How much was the annual maintenance on your Tiffin you had previously? I would think you could draw some comparisons from your experience with that.

Again, my sincere thanks for taking the time to help me determine what I should expect with annual maintenance costs.

FLJOE brings up the EXACT reason I'm asking these questions when he said "how much was the annual maintenance on your Tiffin you had previously? I would think you could draw some comparisons from your experience with that." Well to be honest, I'm hoping that a well cared for previously owned Entegra would NOT cost as much to maintain as the Tiffin did.

The Tiffin was a HUGE learning project for me. It was our first MH and I went into it with blind faith that the previous owner had taken care of it. (We bought it from the previous owner). HUGE mistake. What we later learned is that the previous owner not only did not perform any preventive maintenance but he also did not do any REQUIRED maintenance. (ok, he did change the oil but that was it). I was naive (remember it was our first MH) and I paid dearly for it. To be honest, I paid a LOT more for the annual maintenance of the Tiffin than all of you have mentioned that you pay annually to have your Entegra serviced, a lot more! And a large portion of the cost was trying to get the MH up to speed: (hydraulic leveling jacks did not work, alignment issues, electrical problems, A/C problems, slide out problems, water leaks, no mandatory fluid changes and that's just the top of the list).

So if you wonder why I'm asking so many maintenance questions, it's like Gary said, I want to go into this with "my eyes wide open." And as others have mentioned, owning a MH is not a cheap proposition.

All I can offer is my sincere thanks for helping me get some idea of the cost of ownership. I got burned once and as the old saying goes "get burned once, shame on you, burned twice, shame on me."

Thanks again for your patience and time! I REALLY appreciate it!

ron