new trailer purchase questions

[springfever]

My husband and I are new to this forum and haven't been r.v.ing for many years. We are adopting 2 of our grandsons, ages 12 and 5 yrs old and decided we needed to do some things with them; camping and road trips. I am disabled and don't leave my home except to go to dr. appts. so thought this would be good for me as well. We just purchased the cherokee grey wolf 26dbh and are supposed to take possession on April 4th. I think these dealers saw us coming as there were so many things that were wrong on our contract and what was told to us. I feel we paid too much for the trailer to begin with but we do like the floor plan and feel it will be great for us as well as taking any other family members with us. They offered to throw in the hitch pkg and then was charged for it; supposed to be getting that price back. The 3rd party warranty we were charged $2391 for 7 yrs, GAP ins. $920 and duratain $1772. I have already sent an email to the dealer and told him to cancel the warranty and the GAP insurance. I am going to try to get the 2nd yr warranty that you have talked about here. Now, what about GAP ins.? How do you all feel about it? Did I make a mistake cancelling it? and the duratain? We had a used motor home before when we went someplace but this is our first travel trailer that we have purchased new. We can't afford to make any costly mistakes due to our situation...we just wanted to get the "He-- out of dodge" for awhile as one would say. Any help or feedback would be appreciated.

[CampingGator]

The gap insurance pays the difference between what you owe on your trailer and the value of your trailer, should you have an accident. For instance, if you owe $2,000 on your trailer and have an accident where it is totaled, but the trailer has a market value of $1,000, the gap insurance would pay off the extra $1,000 that your insurance company would not cover. Without gap insurance you would be responsible for paying that $1,000 difference. Gap insurance might be especially important if you over paid for your trailer when you purchased it.

[SilverbackMel]

Spring Fever,
The explanation by Camping Gator is basically correct. As your unit depreciates, it covers replacement value in the event of loss. Policies can be VERY different.
Just FYI....
At age 72 and having been the VP of indirect ( dealer ) lending for the largest bank group in Florida, 630 branches, multi billion $ portfolio, with 40 years of dealer finance experience, I personally believe all purchases have RISK. Only YOU can assess the RISK you are comfortable with. Match that risk with cost ( risk vs reward) and assess the likelihood of occurrence and make an informed decision that fits your family. Yes, dealers can make commissions from sales. That does NOT make them BAD by any stretch. You want your dealer around when you need them. ( and you will ).
Just READ THE TERMS, ASSESS THE LIKELIHOOD OF OCCURRENCE, MATCH IT AGAINST YOUR WILLINGNESS TO PAY NOW VS LATER, DECIDE AND RELAX...

Camping is supposed to be FUN...
and it will be SOON.

Please feel free to Private Message me at any time. You can find me posting regularly on the Cedar Creek portion of this forum.

SilverbackMel
2015 33rl

[lbrjet]

I would skip the 'warranty', skip the duratain (had to look it up as I have never heard of that before) and check with your trailer insurance company about the gap insurance. There are some policies that have full replacement coverage (for the first few years) in which case no gap coverage would be needed right away, if at all.


2010 F250 5.4L 3.73
2011 Flagstaff 831FKBSS
Equal-i-zer 4pt 12K

[vinmaker]

Welcome to the forum.

X2 on the warranty. I am just not a big fan of them. Too many exclusions and arguing over what is covered and getting paid Others may feel differently but that is JMHO.

Vin.

[surv294]

Check with your insurance company since it may already cover GAP.

[spud60]

I could be wronge but I believe u have a 30day grace period with a bank to cancel a loan,since u haven't took possession of that camper I would call ur bank and see if u can get out of ur problem


Sent from my iPhone using Forest River Forums

[markb5900]

If your trailer is brand new, (you didn't say) you get 1 year bumper to bumper from Forest River, and you can buy the 2nd year for I THINK 200 (may be less than that). Don't recall, but didn't seem like much to me so I bought it and it paid for itself.
2K for an extended TRAILER warranty seems pretty dang high to me. Better cover everything for 5 or 6 years at least for that price.
Actually that is more than I paid for 6 years bumper to bumper on my chevy truck.
Don't know what the duratain is, so can't comment on that
As for the GAP insurance, as stated above, that is up to your RISK factor and check with your insurance company about what they would actually do if you totaled it.
You might be able to buy replacement insurance from them cheaper than that.
Good luck

[springfever]

We cancelled the duratain (hopefully), dealer said he had a call into the company who is doing all the things to get the trailer ready. Hope he doesn't come back and say it has already been done. We also cancelled the warranty and are going to check on the 2nd yr one that was discussed in this forum. We kept the GAP as our insurance won't cover that, but will cover comprehensive and collision. I checked around with different insurance agencies and it was less expensive to stay with our insurance and take the GAP ins that the dealer offered. If we do go to the east coast, I would feel more comfortable with the GAP ins., hopefully nothing will happen, but better safe than sorry. The trailer is new 2015, so we do have the 1 yr warranty on it already. I looked over our contract some more and found that the dealer charged us 9% sales tax on the extended warranty instead of the 6% that he said he was supposed to charge us. He said the funds would go back to our loan company so have to make sure he sends it all to them as well as the duratain funds. We are still supposed to get a check for the hitch that we were charged for. I hope this all gets done soon as I am really getting frustrated with all of this. We are supposed to pick up the trailer on the 4th of April and I am thinking we shouldn't pick it up until all the funds are returned on our loan that are owed back to the bank as well as the check that is owed to us. I had asked the dealer two days later about cancelling the deal as I thought the law here was that we had 72 hours to cancel a contract. I was told that is only on things like vacuum cleaner sales, etc. My husband and I decided to go ahead and just take the trailer as we do like it, but some other things need to be done that we were told would be done before we take possession of it. Anyhow, just trying to figure out where to go and if it is feasible to head to the east coast with our time frame. No matter what, I am sure it will be fun and relaxing once everything gets done and we get on our way in June.

[Bob Birchmore]

Please check the other threads about the cheap China Bomb Tires.

Bite the bullet and go buy some real tires from a reputable tire dealer.

[Toddupton]

Why in the world was anything signed before you had the trailer? I would never sign a contract until I could see it and check out everything and have anything fixed before I put pen to paper. Now if there is a problem when you pick it up you are stuck with it.

[whitmw]

Originally Posted by Toddupton

Why in the world was anything signed before you had the trailer? I would never sign a contract until I could see it and check out everything and have anything fixed before I put pen to paper. Now if there is a problem when you pick it up you are stuck with it.

They are newbies and just didn't know. They relied on the saleman/dealership to be completely upfront and that rarely ever happens. At least to me it doesn't.

[ColoradoRick]

Congrats on the new trailer! We, also, have grandkids (4) and the two oldest are so much fun bringing with us! (The two youngest are under 2 years old)

Lots of great info in here but we all need to, sometimes, grow thick skin as some posters are a bit harsh sometimes!

[springfever]

Toddupton We signed a contract to purchase said trailer. We didn't sign anything else until all issues were done or is in writing to do to the trailer. We are new to purchasing a travel trailer and didn't/don't know that you are not to sign a contract to purchase a trailer. How are we to get the financing if we don't sign a purchase contract? If there is another way to get financing and purchase a trailer without actually signing the contract, then I would like to know how that is done. We did our walk through today and there were some things that were fixed and a couple of things that are on order and have in writing that they are to do when the parts come in. We did sign papers to have the extended warranty cancelled as well as the duratain. When we got there, the duratain was already done. I am still waiting to hear back from the finance manager about this as I want something to show those funds were refunded to the loan. If I don't hear back by Monday, I will be calling the bank that we financed with and discuss situation with them. Yes, if we had to do things over again and know what we know now, we would have done things a little differently, guess that is live and learn as one would say. Hopefully we will get this all straightened out and everything will be fine. The person that did the walkthrough with us was great and explained a lot of things to us as well as answered the tons of questions we had and the same with the parts dept.
I appreciate your feedback whitmw and ColoradoRick. We are new to all of this for the most part and trying to get through a lot of things while trying to do something good for our grandsons.

[Terier]

Congrats on the new camper!

When I was a newbie I quickly found out that knowledge comes from experience and that in time I would gain experience. If I were to buy another RV I would likely handle it somewhat differently but I'm pleased with the outcome of my first TT.