Best way to sell 5th wheel and truck

[Jerry Burks]

I am considering selling the trailer and truck after this season without replacement. By then almost 4 years old, 35k miles and in excellent shape.


Should I try to sell privately (and where best to advertise)? Or just sell off to a dealer (anybody knows the typical price penalty)?


Better sell directly after the season, i.e. November or wait until Spring?


Sell the truck and trailer separately or is there a market for a complete package?

[MFL]

Selling to a dealer is an easy way out, if you don't care about getting wholesale for your well kept rig.

I'd sell separately, but best to sell the FW first, in the Spring, when buyers are more actively looking. The truck will sell anytime, but nice to have it, if you need to move, or deliver the sold FW.

[High Road Travelers]

I might would advertise it both ways, as a combo unit and separately. I just bought a new fifth wheel at the first of the year and bought a truck. I bought new, but if I had been in the used market I would have very much considered buying the truck and camper together.
Thanks,

[JDT]

I agree, fifth wheel spring, truck anytime. There are several legitimate websites to list trucks and rv's such as autotrader and rvtrader. Selling to a dealer will probably mean a hard hit on the price, especially the fifth wheel. Texas Auto Value has a pretty good reputation for buying trucks.

There are issues with advertising to the public. I'm getting a new truck in the next few weeks and decided to list my 2020 on Facebook Marketplace to see if I could sell it myself. Very first thing I get a response that says "I have cash and can be there Monday morning to buy it". No questions other than the VIN to check Carfax. Red flags go up. Where's the scam in this is my first thought. That's what I hate about selling anything anymore. The potential scammers are the first to respond hoping for an easy mark. I know there are ways to protect yourself but you have to be careful. That's why I'll probably wind up trading it.

[Nlambert]

When I sold my last setup, I advertised both the truck and trailer as a pair, or separately with the caveat that I would not sell the truck without the camper unless it sold first (in case I had to move it).

I sold the camper in less than a week in the spring. Kept the truck for a few months after and then it sold.

Just beware of scams. In my case I only listed it locally, had to meet the buyer in person, and had to complete the transaction at my bank. A few tire kickers balked at that (likely scammers) but when the real people were ready they showed up. Went off without a hitch.

The RV buyer had no truck and wanted to have a transport company pick it up and haul to Florida. I wouldn't allow it until their check cleared my bank. Then I made them be on-site while the transport company hooked up in the event that something got damaged.

[corn18]

Originally Posted by Jerry Burks

I am considering selling the trailer and truck after this season without replacement. By then almost 4 years old, 35k miles and in excellent shape.


Should I try to sell privately (and where best to advertise)? Or just sell off to a dealer (anybody knows the typical price penalty)?


Better sell directly after the season, i.e. November or wait until Spring?


Sell the truck and trailer separately or is there a market for a complete package?

If you can convince my wife I will buy it. That is our dream setup.

[JDT]

As I said above I listed my 2020 F350 on FB Marketplace Saturday evening. I had about 10 inquiries, all dealers I'm presuming. Most tried to low ball the price and once I said no, no more responses from them. There was only one that asked more detailed questions who finally asked me to call them. It was in our area code and turned out to be a Ford dealership 45 minutes from us. Their offer was exactly where I wanted to be if I did a trade. I am taking it to them this morning. I do have a back up as I called the dealer who has my order for a new F350. I told my salesman what I'm doing and if they wanted to match it. They had been reluctant to give me what I wanted but he called back in 10 minutes and said they would match it. So, I have a back up if the first deal doesn't work.

You asked about the price penalty of selling to a dealer. I would say I probably gave up $2 to 3K if I could have sold it to a private party. A dealer can take trades, arrange financing, sell a warranty, all things I couldn't do so I'm sure they will make more than that or they wouldn't be buying it. Mine will be sold as certified so I'm sure that helps them also. Just not having to deal with potential scammers makes it worth it to me.

[Toby Dog]

I'm selling a like new 2017 low mileage vehicle for a newly widowed friend.
Car Max and Carvana both came in with ridiculous offers.
Don't believe their ads, they are not your friends.
Carvana came in higher than CarMax sight unseen.
CarMax came up with all kinds of nonsense with downright fibs as to condition.
I didn't tell them about my long career in the service side of the business but it did give us a starting point.

[Jerry Burks]

Originally Posted by corn18

If you can convince my wife I will buy it. That is our dream setup.

If you can wait until November, write me a PM then.

[Jerry Burks]

Thanks All for the feedback. I guess I will try to get that baseline for both vehicles separately and then play it by ear.
The nice thing if I could sell together would be that everything fits together, i.e. auto slide hitch, camera setup, tire monitor, settings for the hydraulic brakes, ready to go.
On the other hand, if we could trade the truck when buying a new car, the dealer penalty could be eliminated by saving the sales tax for the trade.


Oh well, let's see what happens and maybe we change our mind and keep the rig...

[kdauto]

Originally Posted by Jerry Burks

I am considering selling the trailer and truck after this season without replacement. By then almost 4 years old, 35k miles and in excellent shape.


Should I try to sell privately (and where best to advertise)? Or just sell off to a dealer (anybody knows the typical price penalty)?


Better sell directly after the season, i.e. November or wait until Spring?


Sell the truck and trailer separately or is there a market for a complete package?

Hopefully your health is good and you're simply planning on replacing with different units? I know you've been through a fair amount of issues in the past couple of years.

Take care, happy camping and good luck.

[Jerry Burks]

Originally Posted by kdauto

Hopefully your health is good and you're simply planning on replacing with different units? I know you've been through a fair amount of issues in the past couple of years.

Take care, happy camping and good luck.

Yes, health is reasonably O.K., thanks for asking.


If we sell, we will not replace with another RV. We have been doing mostly long distance 1-3 months road trips over the last 7 years, first with a class A, then with the 5th wheel. Before that other long road trips in a sports car. Besides the fact that we kind of ran out of unknown good destinations in the US and some of Canada (see the black lines on the map), we now have 3 dogs, mid-size and larger and one of them a bit "difficult". So we decided to leave them home and make shorter trips. But then we don't really need an RV anymore and can go anywhere with rental cars including abroad for 2-3 weeks at a time. For the money that we can get selling the rig and the savings on storage, insurance, registration, maintenance, diesel, repairs, etc. we can go on such trips for a long time.


I know, it is not an RV vacation but has some other advantages.



As for the difficulties, most of the serious ones (truck fuel injection damage and broken trailer slide) were of my own making. The rest was the usual quality stuff fixed on warranty, except the broken rims of the 5th wheel. These were also warranty but that was kind of inexcusable. Could have killed us. But that is not the reason for selling.