discus277 said:
More good advice which I appreciate!
I have almost concluded already that 24 feet may be too short. We have decided that we must have a queen bed that you can at least slide around sideways (if not really walk around) ...the corner Queen seems OK but still one person has to climb over the other which will get old.....and the slide in the living area has become a must. To get those two "musts" in a Coachmen Freelander you have to go to the 29QB model in a new one which is 31 feet......Hmmmm "top heavy on turns" too
So, if I go to a 31 foot Class C, as Bob B says, does it make more sense to go to a Class A....I guess I will expand my thinking again....it seems that many Class C owners eventually migrate to Class A..
If any Class A owners or want to be owners have some thoughts on Class A please let me hear from you......trade offs from say a 31 foot Class C?
Minimum size Class A to consider? Should it be a DP if we go Class A?
Thanks again for your opinions,
Jim
My wife and I recently went through the same process that you are going through. We started out wanting a Class C, under 26' and were bound and determined to find one. We must have looked at 20-30 of of them (over 3 months). Each one was a major compromise and we finally realized that we need to at least broaden our research.
We started exploring Class A's and found that a 29' Class A had about the same over-all space as a 33' Class C.
My wife (70-years-old) was very intimidated by the 33' Class A, that had
everything that we wanted, with no compromises. We bought the 33' Class A in February and I started out having my wife drive for about 1 hour on each trip. On our last trip, she insisted on driving all the way home (~150 miles). She is having fun driving it.
This weekend we parked in a number of parking lots (Camping World, Home Depot and Coco's Restaurant. We had no parking issues other that we need 2 spaces (one in front of the other). We've found the 33' Class A to be a perfect size
for us.
Thankfully a little research on the mechanical issues on this rig that we chose offered a negotiating tool for a price reduction. I think that we have found a great rig that I can avoid the typical mechanical issues for that particular engine. I found that the retrofit can be done for under $2K. Much less than what we saved by buying this coach.
That's another good thing about buying a coach that is 5+ years-old. By that time, the mechanical issues are widely discussed and work arounds have been discovered. When one buys a new coach, they are (sort of) financially protected for the term of the warranty but nothing can replace the stress and inconvenience of having issues on the road. However, by the time the owner is ready to sell, all of the mechanical issues are widely known and often those issues are either a distraction to a potential buyer of the owner will have to make the retrofit before selling.
The moral is, buying used can offer some benefits if you research the vehicle in question
before the purchase. Chances are, the seller is well aware of many potential issues and are hoping to find a buyer that is not aware. By making the seller understand that you are aware of the cost of dealing with certain issues (they all have some), you become a much stronger negotiator.
In our case, I was able to negotiate down several thousand dollars (~$10K). However, the purchase price does not reflect the final price on buying a used rig. In the last 3 months, we have spent over $3K in correcting known issues and we still have another $3K to go before we are (~sorta) finished..... (You're really
never "finished".) The nice thing is, we will have a rig at fair market value with all of the important items "Brand new" (tires, batteries, awnings, all maintenance items, fluids belts, hoses etc). When we are finished, I feel as confident (if not more so) as if we had a new rig. Most of the items that we replaced are of higher quality than the rig came with new.
). The number one criteria with me is that at least the john "must" be behind a real closed door.
