Good question and I have been wondering the same thing. I see such lovely trailers here and I wish I could have one as lovely.
My husband and I purchased a 1998 motorhome last year because we got a good deal and could pay cash for it and knew that we would be losing our home this year. We need to make sure when the bank took our home that we had a roof over our heads and we wanted to make sure that no one could take our home away from us again. We have used money that we saved from selling on ebay to make it as comfortable as possible since it will be our home for a while. Otherwise, I would have never spent that much, but since we will have to live in it, it needs to be comfortable.
But now, we have a serious problem.
We took the motorhome in this morning to have a PDI and they found several issues. We need a new roof, new converter and A/C servicing. I am devasated as we have already put $4,000 into customization and now it needs about $8,000 in repair. The cheap $11,000 motorhome will now cost us too much and perhaps we should have purchased a better one to begin with, but we didn't have the funds.
Is there anything we can do as I feel like the dealer should have told us that it needed all these major things. We bought it exactly one year ago and have had it stored since then. We were planning to leave in the next few weeks for good, but this expense is very concerning. To put that much into an old motorhome like that is stupid I think. For $25,000 we could have had such a better trailer, but now we have to settle for an old one with repairs.
Any suggestions? Is the dealer liable a year later? We didn't know about this since we haven't used it yet.
__________________ Jill ************************** Jill and Ed and the kitties
1998 Coachmen Leprechaun 31Q
1) Does the converter charge your batteries? If so it should be fine. If not they are not very expensive if you can do the work yourself. 8900 Series Main Board Assembly 55A
2) Does the air conditioner blow cold air? I can't believe the repair should cost more than a new one and a 13K air conditioner should only cost about 700 bucks. Dometic Low Profile Penguin RV Air Conditioner
There is old pre-existing water damage and some delamination. They did not do a water test, but said it needed a new roof. There are no tears on the roof and we have not seen any leaking inside since we have owned it. We haven't camped yet (except the one day we spent at a park down the street so that we could use the dump station) but it does rain a lot here.
The A/C does blow cold air. He said that it looks like it had never been cleaned.
The converter does charge the batteries.
You know what I thought was odd though? I saw on line that there was a recall on some Dometic Refridgerators, so I plugged in the info from our unit and sure enough, it was there, so I had the dealer order the parts and he replaced them too. The recall came out several years ago and I don't understand how the prior owners or RV dealer from where we purchased the unit did not do the recall repair.
__________________ Jill ************************** Jill and Ed and the kitties
1998 Coachmen Leprechaun 31Q
"There is old pre-existing water damage and some delamination. They did not do a water test, but said it needed a new roof. There are no tears on the roof and we have not seen any leaking inside since we have owned it. We haven't camped yet (except the one day we spent at a park down the street so that we could use the dump station) but it does rain a lot here."
Just because you can't see water coming in, does not mean there is no leak.
Delamination is SERIOUS and needs to be investigated. A new roof is NOT the answer to delamination. Stopping further water intrusion is easy. If you already have delamination, they should never have sold it to you for any price. (water over the bridge now though).
Some one who knows what to look for can inspect your roof with a tube of DICOR sealant and some Eternabond tape can stop further damage.
"The A/C does blow cold air. He said that it looks like it had never been cleaned."
Huh? What the heck does that mean? Take the cover off and wash it down with a hose on "soft spray." Make sure the drain holes in the pan are cleared of leaves. This could be where your water is coming from.
"The converter does charge the batteries."
Then it is fine.
"You know what I thought was odd though? I saw on line that there was a recall on some Dometic Refridgerators, so I plugged in the info from our unit and sure enough, it was there, so I had the dealer order the parts and he replaced them too. The recall came out several years ago and I don't understand how the prior owners or RV dealer from where we purchased the unit did not do the recall repair."
This repair is FREE and billed to Dometic.
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Lou & Freya the wonder dog
2008 GMC Sierra 3000HD Allison Duramax
2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
Okay, so it sounds like we can clean the A/C ourselves.
Re delmination. I didn't know what it was. I thought it meant that the decal was coming off or something.
It means the wall is coming apart.
The wall is a sandwich of materials and is glued together. When water gets in the wall, the glue holding the parts separates. This causes "bulges" and "ripples" in the side walls.
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Lou & Freya the wonder dog
2008 GMC Sierra 3000HD Allison Duramax
2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
If you have any delamination you have a very serious issue that must be dealt with.
Would worry more with stopping the leak. The delamination is more of a cosmetic thing and if the leak/s are stopped will not keep you from using the coach. It will progressively get worse, but the coach is still usable. It doesn't have to be repaired in the near future.
Thank you, Old Coot. I just started a thread about new problems. I did not start this thread, a moderator moved it here from a post I made on someone elses thread.
Hard to tell from the Coachmen Catalina photo, but that camper belonged to my Flight Engineer buddy.
While driving down the road the side peeled back like a banana dumping insulation and clothing down the highway. A passing trucker alerted him of the problem.
He used caulk and a screw gun to fix the wall till he could get it home.
It now lives as a deer blind.
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Lou & Freya the wonder dog
2008 GMC Sierra 3000HD Allison Duramax
2019 Flagstaff 8529FL
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