We were tthhiiissss close to buying....

Decided to kill time today wandering around the lot at the RV place while we had our TT inspected and a few minor repairs. We found a used TT that we REALLY liked. It was a 2004 Fleetwood Terry Quantum, 30' with a big slide for the dinette/couch, and 2 rear bunks. The layout was pretty similar to the '04 Fleetwood Wilderness Yukon that we currently own-a 29' with NO slide.

They wanted to sell it to us badly, as is expected. They talked and talked, and terms were in the favorable range for us. We kept telling them that while we were interested, we wouldn't make a decision without at least sleeping on it. They let us go out and look it over again, just the 2 of us. That slide would really open things up with 2 kids, 2 dogs, and all the other stuff. But....

We were VERY interested, but when I started poking around a little more, I found a bad spot on the wood trim that goes around the slideout. It sort of had a water damage look to it, and felt strange, and was a buckled right where it touches the floor. We also found a faint water mark where the water had dripped from the nearby window and ran down the wall. Other than that the wood looked fine. Then, I went outside and laid on the ground and looked underneath, and WOW!! was there a lot of rust! Like I said, the one we currently own is the same year and comparing the 2 side by side, you could almost eat off the underside of ours. This one looked like it had sat somewhere damp for a long time. The backs of the wheels were rusty, the springs were rusty, the gas line was rusty, the braces holding the water tank were rusty, etc. It just scared us a little. Strangely enough, the scissor jacks looked pretty good, like they may have recently been replaced. The water damage on the wood trim was in a place that it would be hidden by the chair, so it wouldn't be obvious right away.

There's nothing wrong with our current TT, other than the extra space would be wonderful. In fact, ours looks pretty darn near perfect, having looked at other used TT's. We really could have bought this unit, but were worried about the rust and that one spot on the trim. Are we being paranoid, or do you think we were smart to pass on it? I'm just worried that if we did buy it now and wanted to sell/trade it in the next few years, it would look even worse. Please let me know what you think? I'm glad we passed on it, but the floorplan and price were perfect....

Thanks,
LuAnn

If you had a bad feeling  you would have been sorry down the line.  I always trust my gut.

Don't be sorry, enjoy the one you have.

Betty

Rust and visible water damage are always questionable and would scare me a lot.  Maybe it's one of those "rust buckets" left over from the hurricanes.  Like Betty said, trust your instincts and you'll be happier in the long run.

ArdraF

I'm glad we passed on it, but the floorplan and price were perfect....

Click to expand...

You were smart.  Rust and wood damp are hard to combat and can kill the value of a vehicle.

Well, thanks for your replies. I wish it hadn't had that visible damage, because it really would have worked well for us. When we bought our current trailer, we didn't even dare look at anything with a slide out due to weight restrictions with our Expedition. But with the Excursion, we have a little more 'wiggle' room in the weight department! Ardra, you are right, I didn't even think about a hurricane trailer since we live in VA, but I guess it's possible. It really looked like it had been left near the water, possibly. And, there were a lot of spiders and different kinds of bee's nests, so that made me wonder how long it had sat also.

I could see that this trailer had originally been bought at a dealership in Delaware. On the front of the trailer, the current sales place had written "winterized 11/06", so we know it's been sitting there for a while. That was the other clue. And, someone had spray painted most of the front of the frame from just in front of the propane tanks to the top of the hitch itself. That left us wondering "what were they trying to cover up?" When we mentioned it to the salesman, he said that that 'touch up' had been done there, that they had a guy that would walk the lot and touch up the new trade-ins like that. Now, mind you, we bought our current TT in the same place, and it doesn't appear to be spray painted. It was only a year old when we bought it, but ours looks almost perfect compared to this new one. We have very little rust underneath, and our hitch doesn't look so bad after having it for 2 years now that I think it would have to be 'touched up' before we sold it. Hubby and I usually sleep on our decisions, but boy were they trying to get us to make a decision that same day! I told them "nope, because this is our first stop to look, and an unplanned stop at that. We don't do impulse buying of this magnitude." He said "well, when can you tell me if you want to buy it or not?" You should have seen his face when I told him "in our experience, if the TT is still here when we make up our mind, then it was meant to be for us. If it's gone already, then it wasn't supposed to happen."
Hey, we've bought 2 FW's, a TT, a house, and several cars with the same plan, and it's worked for us so far!!

To add to our experience there yesterday, when we got home from our TT inspection we noticed that they had a) not given us the little pink slip from the inspection like we usually get, and b) they broke off our level that swings out on the front of the TT. We had bought it there and paid to have them put it on last year. It probably got knocked off when they lifted the cover off of the propane tanks (if that's something they check). Hubby already called, questioning this, but we are still waiting on the return phone call from the service dept. about these items.

Thanks to all of you,
LuAnn