Ok, so I have carefully read the library topic here on purchasing a fifth wheel for full time living and have a little story to tell after carefully following all of the instructions on how to buy this thing correctly. Please let me know if I have done anything wrong or could do something different.
We found a 14 year old DVR unit for full time living that looked wonderfully cared for inside. It looked good on the outside too, good seals, everything looked nice and stable from floor to ceiling--except for the tires which looked deflated and a bit flat. This rig was being sold on a used car lot by a used car salesman. So taking all of the precautions we insisted on a full point by point inspection at a well regarded rv shop locally where the rig could be carefully tested and operated by the mechanics. So the first thing this salesman did was try to talk us out of this blah blah blah "buy now before I sell it this week" cheezy sales tactics which is basically all this guy was about--he knew next to nothing about the rig he was selling. Another reason in our mind to get the thing inspected by professionals before we made an offer. We were even willing to pay for the inspection (around $400).
So the first thing was that we found out that the rv shop did mobile inspections if the rig could be hooked up to power and water. Great. Salesman says yes it can be hooked up. So we booked the rv shop to send their mobile inspector. A few hours later, after the rv shop has closed for the day the salesman calls me and says ooops I don't have 50amp power source to hook up to can you have the mobile rv inspector bring a converter and extension cord. Next morning I called the rv shop and told them what the salesman said and they said that they could only run tests on individual elements of the rig not do a whole power up and 4 hour refrigerator test without either a generator OR towing it into their shop for inspection where they do have the 50 amp sources to properly power the whole thing up at once.
So I called the salesman back and of course he doesn't want it towed anywhere 'because insurance liabilities' (lol) and I could rent a generator and bring it to the lot for the testing. Um, well I guess I could do that but also the tires on it are deflated and possibly flat so how is that going to work--obviously this rig needs some new tires and he's already trying to be very stiff on his asking price. He was already arguing with us about the health of the tires which we could clearly see with our own eyes had issues and if we bought the rig we would need to move it and so the price would already have to come down at least 1500 even before testing procedures just so we could buy new tires to move it off the lot.
I am pretty sure we are going to walk away at this point. He is making us work way too hard and isn't willing to admit the clear issue with the tires. What do you guys think? I can get past the cheezy used car salesman lies and tactics if the rig actually passes the tests and we could agree on an immediate 1500 price drop to cover the costs of tires.
We found a 14 year old DVR unit for full time living that looked wonderfully cared for inside. It looked good on the outside too, good seals, everything looked nice and stable from floor to ceiling--except for the tires which looked deflated and a bit flat. This rig was being sold on a used car lot by a used car salesman. So taking all of the precautions we insisted on a full point by point inspection at a well regarded rv shop locally where the rig could be carefully tested and operated by the mechanics. So the first thing this salesman did was try to talk us out of this blah blah blah "buy now before I sell it this week" cheezy sales tactics which is basically all this guy was about--he knew next to nothing about the rig he was selling. Another reason in our mind to get the thing inspected by professionals before we made an offer. We were even willing to pay for the inspection (around $400).
So the first thing was that we found out that the rv shop did mobile inspections if the rig could be hooked up to power and water. Great. Salesman says yes it can be hooked up. So we booked the rv shop to send their mobile inspector. A few hours later, after the rv shop has closed for the day the salesman calls me and says ooops I don't have 50amp power source to hook up to can you have the mobile rv inspector bring a converter and extension cord. Next morning I called the rv shop and told them what the salesman said and they said that they could only run tests on individual elements of the rig not do a whole power up and 4 hour refrigerator test without either a generator OR towing it into their shop for inspection where they do have the 50 amp sources to properly power the whole thing up at once.
So I called the salesman back and of course he doesn't want it towed anywhere 'because insurance liabilities' (lol) and I could rent a generator and bring it to the lot for the testing. Um, well I guess I could do that but also the tires on it are deflated and possibly flat so how is that going to work--obviously this rig needs some new tires and he's already trying to be very stiff on his asking price. He was already arguing with us about the health of the tires which we could clearly see with our own eyes had issues and if we bought the rig we would need to move it and so the price would already have to come down at least 1500 even before testing procedures just so we could buy new tires to move it off the lot.
I am pretty sure we are going to walk away at this point. He is making us work way too hard and isn't willing to admit the clear issue with the tires. What do you guys think? I can get past the cheezy used car salesman lies and tactics if the rig actually passes the tests and we could agree on an immediate 1500 price drop to cover the costs of tires.
