One of the first decisions often made when buying an RV is “New?” or “Used?” While some people would never consider one of those options or the other, for many of us either is a viable choice, each with their own pros and cons. In some surprising ways, neither is “all good” or “all bad” in most regards.
Cost is of course a major consideration for many of us. Although we purchased both of our RVs new, we got around the cost issue the same way that most people do with their only home: a mortgage. Regardless of your financial situation, or preference for size or type of RV (gas or diesel motorhome, class A, B, or C, a 5th wheel or a travel trailer), going with a used RV might be worth considering, even if you can afford new.
While we don’t (and can’t) lay out every possible factor, we cover a series of the most common considerations that might help you decide whether a new RV or a used one is a better fit for you.
After you watch the video and hear things from our point of view, please leave a comment down below letting us know your take. Do you totally agree with where we’re coming from, or do your needs and situation include other factors that we haven’t even thought of?
We mention RV Trader in the video as a way to expand your search for both new and used RVs, making it more likely you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for at a competitive price. To learn more visit www.RVTrader.com.
Hello Peter & John.
My wife and I are in the process of going full time. We are in our 60’s . We looked into 5th Wheels and found that if you could not spend in the $200,000.00 range for a well built 5th Wheel like a DVR and a newer Dully Pickup that we could not comfortably feel secure in our investment to last for any length of time.
We did however find a 2006 Numar Essex 45 foot beauty with only 32000 miles on it with everything in great working order
with the exception of a small tare in the main awning that is about 6″ long that had been patched. The RV was exercised every year until now going from Oregon to Southern California. The Tires dot date has 3 years left with tons of tread and no cracking.
I used to work of Country Coach when they were in Business so I am no stranger to the potential maintenance costs to maintain a Coach of this caliber. This Numar was kept under cover. Even the 12.5 KW generator has under 500 hours on it.
I am thinking that at $135,000.00 it is a fair buy. My wife and I will be living on a fixed income of about $2000.00 a month and staying in RV parks for about 3 months at a time thus not putting a lot of travel on the coach. Perhaps 3000 miles a year. My question is do you think we are biting off more than we can chew with maintenance costs? We think we can save on average
$500.00 a month in saving toward anything that might arise in the unfortunate event that something breaks. We will be making money thru working Camp jobs as well.
Hey guys! Sounds like you’ve found a nice package in that Essex… but as to whether or not it’s “biting off more than you can chew” is hard to say. In our 15 years of full-time RVing, we’ve spent, on average, about $1,700/year maintenance (both scheduled and non-) and repairs. That includes replacing the tires and repairing an engine oil leak in our current Mountain Aire.
We can say that for only 3,000 miles a year of travel, having an RV that has it’s own whole powertrain that needs to be maintained definitely adds to the expense. Fifth wheels & travel trailers are so popular because you can get so much space for your dollar… AND they don’t have an engine, transmission and other motorized parts to have to maintain. Sure… tires will need replacing (but they’re a lot cheaper than the $1,000 per tire it cost us to replace all 8 of ours) and axles will need lubrication. But you don’t need to change the engine oil, coolant, air filter, or the transmission fluid. Add to that the 12 year old age of the RV you’re looking at, and we’d be extremely reticent to recommend purchasing something like this on a fixed budget.
Obviously, you need to do what you’re comfortable with. But we think that the lower maintenance costs of towable RVs is definitely an appealing item for you to consider… and it might be worth looking deeper into other makes/models of fifth wheels that might suit your full-time needs without the high upfront costs.
Thanks so much for the reply and advice. I think at an average of $1700.00 per year we could budget for that easily. You are correct about the space. 5th wheels are evolving into great things. However ether way I think used is the way to go in ether case. I would not want to be the sucker to take the depreciation hit. That is having more money than sense. If I were to finalize the Nurmar purchase I could possibly recover the full cost within a year as the NADA book value is $159,000,00 depending on our economy in that time frame. If all works out I would just keep it or even trade for a 5th. wheel and Pick Up truck. All I know is that our home is in a pending sale and our time is limited to make that decision. We are also aware of the size issue. This motor coach is massive. LOL
Question for you, we are going to purchase a class C bunkhouse model and will consider a new or used one. Would it be a good idea to consider a purchase a motorhome from a rental outfit? They claim that they maintain a high standard of upkeep.
Hi Steve! Actually, a rental RV would be our very LAST choice. Like a rental car, it is exclusively driven by people who have no vested interest in caring for it. And worse than a rental car, it’s mostly used by people who are the least qualified to actually know how to operate the systems properly. We’d suggest that buying a 1-owner used vehicle off a dealer’s lot would be far superior to going the rental route. Just our $0.02.
We are looking for our first RV and would like to thank you for the Video on New or Used. There were some items such as House Batteries and Tire rot that I should have thought about. We experienced the “Dead Batteries” while looking at an Renegade up north. Had to wait for a short time to get the slides open, but they opened and we looked and the Renegade is still in the running.
Hi Donald,
Hope things work out and you end up with a great RV! Batteries and tires are definitely two items that are often overlooked when evaluating ANY RV purchase… new OR used! Sounds like that Renegade needs a new set of batteries… so if it makes it to the finals, be sure to factor that into the pricing! ;)
Good luck!
Block out time and money to rent your dream RV and spend at least a week or two living the life.
We are replacing our A-Liner with a camper that has a bathroom and larger refrigerator. We like the looks of a R-Pod. Have you had any experience with one?
Hi Alexander! We have no experience with towables, but we sure do love the look of the R-Pod! We’d suggest searching though the posts at iRV2 for better opinions on them (there might even be a user forum for R-Pod). It’s free to join and read/post questions at http://iRV2.com/forums. Sorry we’re not more helpful on this one, but hope this gets you heading in the right direction. Happy New Year & Happy Shopping! ?
Hi Guys,
I want to apologize if I am not in the right spot for this question, but I had a hard time finding any of your AC videos to post to. I’ve been watching your channel for a while now and I am enjoying it very much. I follow you, and Less Junk, More Journey, and a few others. I think y’all are doing a great job with your videos especially for those of us just starting out.
I’ve actually put a deposit down on a 2007 Winnebago Tour, its 39′, Cumming Diesel with the Allison Transmission on a Freightliner frame, its only has 26K miles. I’ve driven it and am having it checked out from top to bottom. This coach has a basement AC unit, which the salesman is telling me that these basement units don’t cool the coach as well as the roof mounted units. I have a few friends who are also RV’rs and they are telling me the opposite, I was wondering if you would have an opinion on the matter and also if you would share any suggestions on the purchase? I feel pretty confident in the coach, and the salesman is also impressed with it. For my very first time driving the coach on the test drive, I impressed the saleman…so I am confident I can handle it, I just want to make sure I check everything for full time living. I look forward to your comments.
Until then, I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and wishing you both a very Happy New Year! Tony
Tony Placella
datonplace@gmail.com
281-825-2059 If you are ever in the Houston/Galveston area.
Hi Tony! Congratulations on your pending purchase. We only know one couple with basement air in a Winnie, so we emailed them today to see what they think after owning their rig for many years. Here’s their exact reply:
“We absolutely love it and have only had it serviced once. No problems at all and
leaves the roof free for more solar panels.”
We’ve heard similar things from others, including basement A/C being quieter. The only negative we’ve heard is the potential for increased repair costs in the event that’s needed, due to more complicated access than roof units.
We’d suggest it’s not a make or break issue.
Sounds like you’re doing due diligence and a thorough pre-purchase inspection. Please let us know how you make out!
Thx for the reply. I have to admit that a website like yours is an incredible source of information for beginners like us. We almost looked like experts when we rented an RV this summer even though we were beginners. All the merit to you… (and to the Wynn’s).
Keep up with the good work!
We are in the process of buying our first RV. We knew we wanted a small RV (25-footer class C) with a decent space of living (i.e. with slideouts). Since we know nothing about RVing, we decided to rent one this summer to get a bit of experience. It helped a lot.
First of all, some features became part of the “must” list. We had the chance to drive a F-450 and a Mercedes Sprinter. The Diesel Sprinter became a must rapidly for many reasons.
Although we tought a big slide out would be a must (ours had a bed that was part of the long single slide out), we noticed that the queen size bed took 6 feet away from our living space (5 for the bed and 1 to go around it) leaving less room in the vehicle. Since we like to cook a lot, the very small galley became anoying. So we new we would have to find a compromise about this.
We looked at website like RVtrader and yes, it gives you access to a very large inventory of vehicles. The problem for us was that I am from Canada and I received contradictory information about the custom fees associated to importing a vehicles from the US. Mercedes Canada does not support the warranty of the vehicle if bought in the US… unless it’s built on a Canadian chassis. A canadian chassis looks very much like another type of chassis but you pay 4000$ more for it. Why? Do not know. Maybe some sort of a gimmick to subsidize canadian dealers who will have to honor the warranty.
Then I phoned the canadian customs to know if our 6,1% custom fee would apply on the vehicle. Even though some american dealers told me that there was no duty fees apply to an RV, the guy at the customs told me that they work with the VIN number of the vehicle. If the VIN starts with a number from 1 to 5, it means that it has been built in North America and there is no duty fee applicable. If it start with a W (Germany), the 6,1% applies on the vehicle AND on the RV itself. These extra fees made buying in the US less tempting.
We really liked the 2016 Winnebago View 24M. The compromise was big though since there is no fixed bed on this floorplan. It meant that we would have to make our bed every night before going to sleep or keep the cab over bed unfold all the time. We were ready to go with that but then we learned that Winnebago had decided not to produce the 24M in 2017. We assumed that the demand was not so big and it scared us a bit as we will have to resell it one day. Added to the extra fees (canadian chassis and the “maybe” duty fee), it made us start ot look at other options.
We are now shopping for the 24G floor plan. We will probably buy new in Canada for the reason mentioned above. Our market is incredibly smaller than the US so not so many dealers have it in stock. The good thing about that is it will be custom built, but we will have to wait a bit.
Thanks for all the tricks you gave us. We learned a lot from you guys.
Hi Luc! It sure sounds like you are doing your homework, with due diligence on all the most important factors. Nice job. We imported our RV from the States to Canada also, but we’d already owned it for quite some time when we emigrated, so there were no tax issues at all. We rented a Sprinter-based campervan in Australia for 3 weeks earlier this year, and have a lot of respect for the chassis. But there are indeed so many considerations, that other things may take precedent as you’ve said: bed space and layout, kitchen space, country of origin for cost purposes, etc.
We think you’re doing a bang-up job of researching and preparing (especially renting first, which is a brilliant move). Hope you end up with a great experience in the end. If you plan and accept that you’ll have to compromise in some ways, you won’t end up being disappointed, since there’s no “perfect” rig. That’s the single biggest thing we hear if someone is dissatisfied with RVing or their RV… that they extremely high expectations, which can of course be a challenge to rise to. We’re happy with our rig despite its drawbacks (like too big and expensive, but very comfortable in exchange) because we’re okay with accepting compromise in the name of happiness and quality of life. You’re being very thorough, so we bet you’ll get there, too! :)
My wife and I just took 9 months off to practise snow birding ! We are still a few years away from retirement. Any thoughts of the merits of a class A diesel pusher vs a toy hauler 5er on the basis of accessing some of your boon docking sites? We are set up in our toy hauler with lots of solar, lithium etc and do a lot of boon docking. Looking hard at a Used Dutchstar and wondering if the 40ft length would limit our boon docking choices?
PS we are almost neighbours living in Fort Langley.
Thx Denis and Val
Howdy Neighbours! Generally, the smaller the rig, the more freedom & choice you have for places to stay. That’s true for both boondocking and commercial RV parks, and especially national park and national forest campgrounds. If there isn’t some substantial difference in size between your toy hauler and the motorhome you’re considering, we wouldn’t think that access would be noticeably different. And if you’re set up well already (as it sounds like you are with solar and lithium!), we’d opt for staying with what you have. Unless you have other reasons for considering a motorhome besides access, we can’t think of any obvious reason to switch.
Does buying from a dealer guarantee a roadworthy vehicle, as opposed to a private owner who may not disclose a serious problem to make a sale?
We don’t think there’s necessarily much difference buying from a dealer or a private individual as far as dependability of the vehicle or honesty of the seller. We’ve heard good and bad on both sides.
That said…
Some pros about buying from a private owner, especially the original owner: 1) They’re of course much more likely than anyone else to be very familiar with the condition of everything and the maintenance history (hopefully with records), and 2) You can get a feel for your confidence level in their honesty by spending some time talking with them and hopefully getting the “warm & fuzzies” (of course not a guarantee, but it’s good to have a good gut feeling that someone is telling the truth).
We’re not as keen on taking a salesperson’s word for much of anything, since they have one job: selling. Of course many are honest, but if they’re not, it’s probably harder to tell since they do it all the time vs a private seller, who is less likely to be a professional salesperson.
Also, a private sale will often come with a lower price, since they don’t have a sales business to support and a commission to pay to a salesperson.
So we do like private sales, especially if the rig is 1-owner, with maintenance records, a transferable warranty, and from a person who gives our gut reason to feel good about everything they’re telling us (look for any inconsistencies in their story about what they’re selling, vehicle condition, or anything else that might make you feel they’re not being completely forthcoming).
That said, dealers have pros too: a business reputation that can often be checked, a place to go back to if you have a problem, and greater potential for a warranty of some sort to be included.
The actual condition of a used vehicle might be easier to determine when buying private, as ANY purchase should be preceded by a pre-buy inspection from a qualified RV technician who specializes in these types of inspections. That type of inspection is not only a must, but may actually give an advantage to the private sale, as a dealer generally does their own inspections, and has a conflict of interest that an independent inspector doesn’t: they want to sell vehicles while spending as little as possible to rectify problems. A privater inspector works for YOU, and does generally not have that conflict of interest, since they’re simply paid to report back to you.
Hope this helps a bit.
I recommend you add the pros & cons of buying the “extended warranty” for each (new vs used).
I would have liked you to mention the pros and cons of not only purchasing an RV but also selling or trading up or across.
Great Job Guys,
I certainly agree that in order to get the features you want in an RV, you may have to go back a few years to get your budget properly aligned with your wants. I also totally agree on the value of RV Trader as a resource for learning what is available and what prices at least “look” like fair prices.
One point I might add, whether buying new or used, is to research your dealer as well. We bought a 10 year old diesel pusher from one of the largest volume dealers in the state only to learn that they had no one on staff really qualified to work on the engine or chassis. After 5 months of a very painfull process, the RV is at a dealer who really knows what they are doing and we may actually have the use of it again soon. Once we get everything fully funtional, we can begin the updates to make it our own and we are looking forward to many years of use before we tackle that process again.
Keep up the good work!
Thanks for that great input Don!
Looking to buy a Rexhall 375ss. Has a rear engine gas workhorse. What can y’all tell me on pros and con of gas pusher.
Sorry Doyle. We’ve never even heard of a gas pusher! We suggest posting your question on the user forms at http://irv2.com where someone might know about it.
5th wheel / Gooseneck will always pull easier and ride quality is bar none compared to a bumper pull. Additional benefit is 5th wheel will always have more storage and larger floor plans. Downside is your tow rig will need to be at least a 3/4 Ton or 1 Ton for weight hauled. Good luck and happy Rv’ing
great video amd well done.
Oh, if one can and plans to do a lot of traveling, go pusher, the ride and air suspension make all the difference in the world. Plus when you are driving, the engine is in the rear and boondocking, the generator is in the front . Don’t really hear it when sleeping.
Christian
Question? Pusher with workhorse engine. Have a used one in sight and want to stay with gas, What can you tell me on gas pusher?
I enjoyed your video.
We are new to the RV lifestyle. We stared 10 months ago. We sold everything and purchased our 3rd RV first. This was a suggestion that was made to us while going through the rv driving class at LAZY Daze down here in Tampa Fl.
We had no Idea on what to purchase so Laura, my wife being a computer wiz, looked up which RV’s had the most owner complaints. Those manufactures were eliminated from our search.
We, like you, ended up looking at Newmars, only we were looking for used. We wanted to make sure we didn’t invest in something we wouldn’t like…..
We were RV virgins , didn’t have a clue about it ! Never drove one, stayed in one or even considered one in the past. In fact if you would would have told us 3 years ago we would be buying one let alone living full time in one , I would have said you are crazy.
We were just sick and tired of all the house expenses and taxes and insurance and maintenance and grass cutting and crappie neighbors and so on and so forth. So in a fit of disgust we sold everything and purchased a 2004 Newmar Dutch star with 22000 miles on it, with only one owner !
In our mind used is and will always be the way to go. We bought ours through a dealership, it was on consignment.
Your comments that just because it worked yesterday does not mean it will work today, is truer that we would have guessed. I/we had the misconception that buying from a dealer ship protected you during the purchase process. They made sure it was running when we got there, kept it running during test drive , walk through and sent us on our way. Now we told them we had never had one or done this before and we’re moving it to a site and moving into it full time. I said I wanted it fixed and even paid an extra $ 2200.00 for the mechanics to go over the chassis, changing all the hoses,oils, transmission fluid, filters, belts etc….
I am sure you are by now sensing the other shoe is about to drop. Well it did. We purchased the coach on Friday in Fort Myers, drove it 142 miles to Clearwater Fl. Moved our personal effects in it on Saturday, drove it to the the rv park on Sunday morning and plugged it in at 9:00 am. ,Boy were we excited!
Now we went grocery shopping. Came back home, at 1:00, yes this was Now home … it was wonderful.
While unloading the bags of groceries, I smelled burning wires…. We walked around the coach sniffing, went outside sniffing and found the issue. The inverter was burning up, melting actually……… Holy crap batman what does one do ??????????
Not knowing anything about these machines, I unplugged the damn thing. That seemed simple enough but wait I still need power to run the refer and freezer and ac. units after all it was memorial weekend in Florida. So I tried, but the batteries were dead. So the generator wouldn’t start. And the engine also was unable to start.
To make a long and traumatic story short, this is a list of everything that went wrong with the coach during the first week and it took us more than a month to get the dealership believe us and send service to fix what they could and reimburse us the first $ 1300.00 we had to cough up on Monday, plus the $ 600.00 service call to get power going again.
4 house batteries
2 engine batteries
50 amp shore power cord
Inverter
Break light bulbs
Backup light bulbs
Both roof ac solenoids
Front cap leak repair
Replace ignition switch, key kept falling out while driving.
Chest freezer kept blowing fuses, needed new freezer
Rear leveling jack wouldn’t retract all the way, replaced and upgraded all the jack springs.
toilet bowl rubber seal.
ice maker 2x.
Wow, I didn’t realize how bad it was.
Well that was the first round. Like I said the dealership covered some of the original issues. The rest were were covered at 60%. Of course letters had to be written to the owner, and fortunately being the largest Newmar dealer in Florida, he cared about his reputation, and our ability to negatively comment about their service after the sale on line. We finally kissed and made up, I have actually recommended the dealership to others looking for Newmars, he has a huge selection. Like you said when going used, bigger selection gets you closer to what you are looking for.
And since then, I had to replace the awning motor, water heater, and the damn ice maker again !
Suggestions,
1 . Get a good Sam’s extended warranty. The gold package, covers everything. Not the one the dealers try to sell you. ( They only cover after a zombie apocalypse! )
2. No mater your budget, make sure you have an extra ten grand in cash on the side for everything that will go wrong or you want to improve like new truck sound system and speakers throughout. (That was the cheapest thing to replace. ) got a Sony with blue tooth and mp3 player for $130.00 and 6 – 6×9 Alpine speakers for 169.00 a pair. It was worth every penny. Talk about great sound.
3. Remember , used is out there for a reason. The previous owners could have been tired of all the little things going wrong every time they took it out. Which was probably 2 – 3 times a year. When you are full time, you can fix items as they go bad or break.
I love reading your articles, they are very interesting.
Thanks for letting me put in my 2 cents.
Christian and Laura
Wow! Thanks for the input Christian & Laura.
So glad I found your site. I will be in the market for a motor home at some future time…..(caregiver for my 99 1/2 year old father who has major health problems. Not looking forward to what lies ahead there.) There are things I must have in a motor home like an 80 inch long bed, as my future travel companion is 6′ 2″. We in California have to have motor homes that pass smog inspection, and going to another state to find a deal on a motor home may not work for us. You have great tips and as my travel mate has only traveled twice with me, I am going to have him watch episodes that can clue him in as to what you can and cannot do while driving. He already learned you cannot go up steep driveways. Keep up the good work!
You go Kathleen! Happy shopping. ?
Hi RV Geeks!, I got your link through an RV Trader email; first time I’ve seen you. Very informative video and as a result of finding you, I’m going to sign up on your website.
I’ve just sold my older Foretravel RV and am looking at a travel trailer next; getting a layout that basically gives me a “condo on wheels”, as I live full time in my rig. I’ve found layouts back a couple years that I like very much but these units go fairly quickly and I’m stuck looking at new. I like your idea of buying the year or two old unit much like buying a slightly used vehicle, you get that off the lot depreciation already taken care of.
At an RV show, a dealer told me that buying out of state or not from them, and then bringing the unit home means that I’ll get shoved down the line on any servicing or warranty work locally done. They of course would prefer you buy from them, even though the cost savings can be thousands. I’d love your opinion on this, as I’ve used the RV Trader website just as you guys said, comparing prices and models.
My other question is about buying and towing a fifth wheel (higher cost and going “upstairs”) versus the travel trailer (lower cost and one level living, probably a bit more difficult to tow). I thought I was firm on the travel trailer until I went into a fifth wheel at a show that had my ideal living room/kitchen layout and then a nice ‘landing’ design to the bedroom instead of the typical three steps up situation. Is this just all personal preference?? or are there some things I should consider between the two that you have knowledge of??
I’ve found over my 5 yrs of the RV life, I sit in one spot for longer periods of time than I drive the RV around.
If you have time to give me your thoughts, I’d love it!
Thank you Geeks! :-)
Welcome Margaret! So happy you found us. Yes, floor plan is about personal preference and one of the biggest factors in deciding what rig is right for you.
Enjoyed your article and I will watch your show. We currently are selling our 2005 beautiful Mandalay four winds. 41.7′. Would appreciate any tips you can offer or referral to someone looking to buy.
We’d list it in RV Trader