RV Shopping

Well, I did it. I went to look at some RV's today.

It was cold and overcast and the weather kept trying to convince me to stay inside.
I left the house at 11am, and drove about an hour. The first RV dealer I went to was gone, vacant, a for sale sign on the fence. Last night I printed pictures of RV's for sale from their website, and wrote down the address. Oh, well. I was going to call the number on the printout, but didn't.

I stopped at an antique store to look around, I am looking for 50's style melamine dishes for the RV. I don't need anything else because I am in the process of cleaning out my house. I did buy 2 books, and a small twin size quilt. I can use the quilt in the RV, it is handquilted and very soft, not like the imported ones for sale in department stores.

Then I went to Camping World, the salesman asked basic questions and told me to be "totally honest" with him when I went inside the RV's. I looked at four: 1 Class B Van, and 3-Class B+.  I was surprised at how dirty they were inside and told him this. When I would go to a car dealer to buy a used car, they always detailed the used cars to have them looking there best.  I was going to take pics with my cell phone, but I forgot. All of the RV's are on their website, so I can look at the pics when I compare these different models.

The Class B Roadtrek Van is tooooooo small. I won't be getting one of those, I had to bend over to go in the side door, not enough head room.  The Class B+ are wider, but are small and cozy and this is what I want. A small little cocoon to stay in while I travel. Many of you have bigger rigs, but I am not ready to commit to a bigger RV at this time, I just need to really get away, and small and simple is what I want.  These are what I looked at:

2005 R Vision Trail Lite 235S with a slide for the couch/bed

The quality of the shower surround is poor, and would need to be replaced, previous owners added wood floors, but did not go under the dinette seats. I would want to put a desk in place of the dinette, so I would have to redo the entire floor. This one has a Chevy engine, I prefer Chevy over Ford.  RV.org states that the entire quality of this brand is poor.

2007 Coachman Concord 235SS with a longer slide for the couch/bed and the closet. Across from the sofa are 2 swivel chairs with footstools - there is a fake narrow cabinet with a ledge behind these and it had a terrible looking caulking around the edges. And someone added a cabinet in the bathroom, that would cause you to bang your head anytime you were in there. It does not match the original cabinets in the RV.  RV.org states that this model is unsafe and they would stay away from it. Maybe its overloaded - to heavy???? It is bigger and wider, but has same engine as the smaller Phoenix Cruiser.

2001 Phoenix Cruiser Model 2100, this is small, just like I want, no slides. (it's like a Chinook) It has tile floor, which is good and I would replace the dinette with a desk. There is an outside door for storage under the sofa, and this is a good size, would be good for lawn chairs, etc.  I looked around the other outside compartments, and the propane tank looks very rusty - what else is rusty under there???  I doubt that the dealer would do anything about it. I asked the salesman and he said they might do some things, the salesmen is supposed to get more info on these models and email them to me. I like the size and the floorplan of this one, but the rust concerns me, it would have to be worked on and I'm not sure that I want to take the time and money to do that. I may be better off spending more up front on a newer model that does not need the work done.

I'm glad I went, even though it never got over 40 degrees, and was very windy, we didn't spend a lot of time outdoors, all of these RV's were parked in the same row. I am now looking for another group of RV dealers to go to next weekend. I may have to head into Indiana or Michigan.