New UK member buying an RV for use in Canada and the US

[ROBFP]

Hi, I am a new member and hoping for a bit of advice. We are UK residents looking to purchase an RV for use in Canada and the US. Our son lives in Vancouver and we are booked to arrive in Vancouver on the 17th of August for 11 weeks and hope to have purchased a C or A class RV by then, for use for those 11 weeks and then to use for 3 months in march 2013 in the US.
We are both retired and mid 50's, we have always had a motorhome in the UK and have travelled a lot in europe and are really looking forward to travelling in North America.
As we have a budget of a max of $10,000, we realise that we wont get a great van, but there does seem to be quite a few older RV's for sale at this price.  We really dont want a large RV and idealy would like one under 26' and this seems to point to C class vans. Our present van has a fixed rear bed and wouldnt really like to be without this but apart from that we are fairly open to any van that will do the 'job'.
So any advice would be great, we have been looking in Canada to buy as we can then register it at our sons address but find it strange that that they dont have to have an annual test to make sure that they are safe as we do in the UK, so worried that we could end up buying a complete heap. 
Thanks a lot

Rob and Kaz Prisk

 

[Tom]

Hi Rob and Kaz, and welcome to The RV Forum.

... we are booked to arrive in Vancouver on the 17th of August for 11 weeks and hope to have purchased a C or A class RV by then

Does that mean you plan to buy (from a distance) before arriving? Or will your son be buying it for you &/or checking it out? I'd urge you not to buy an older RV sight unseen. Our forum library (click the Library button above) has some checklists that might help whoever goes shopping for the RV.

We also have a section of our forum library called Visitors to the USA which contains some useful articles on RV purchase, and our message board of the same name has a number of prior discussions that might help.

Good luck with the purchase and the trip, and let us know if we can answer any questions. Also, be sure to keep us posted on your adventure.

P.S. Some folks here might not understand your use of the term 'van'; I should explain for their benefit that it comes from the UK term for a caravan (aka trailer). Over time, it's become a generic term equivalent to our use of 'RV'. Our Glossary of RV terms contains a number of equivalent UK/US terms; I just realized it doesn't include the above explanation of 'van'  :-[

 

[donn]

Ten thousand, especially in Canadian dollars is not going to buy you much of an RV.  You might consider something else of increase your budget.

 

[seilerbird]

You can buy an outrageous RV for under $10k no problem. All it requires is doing some shopping. This is the RV I am currently drooling over. $8k and literally in perfect condition:

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/ant/rvs/2823968457.html

 

[Tom]

[quote author=Tom]I just realized it doesn't include the above explanation of 'van'  :-[
[/quote]

I updated our Glossary to add the term 'van' and to edit the term 'caravan'.

 

[ROBFP]

Thanks for the replies. We are hoping to find an RV via the web and then get our son to view and arrange to get it checked over before agreeing to buy it. Not ideal as I wold prefer to view it ourself but the other option of waiting till we arrive and then try and find a 'rig' (is this the correct term Tom )in one week in the middle of August, we think would be hard.

I have had a good look over in the forum library and slme excellent advice there.

$10,000 is the price we want to pay and hopefully we can find something, i budgetting to have to pay for a full service, new tyres and maybe a few repairs on top of that price.  Last year my son bought a getaway van for $1500 and it took him from Canada down to Mexico and back. He did have a break down in Las Vegas, but he had it fixed and carried on to Mexico. When he got back to Vancouver he carried on using it for about 6 months before selling it for $1000.

Anyway best carry on reading on forum library.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Tom]

We are hoping to find an RV via the web and then get our son to view and arrange to get it checked over before agreeing to buy it.

Good deal; That's far better than sight unseen, which is how some folks buy their RVs.

Remember, we're always here if you or your son have questions.

... find a 'rig' (is this the correct term...

Good enough for me, although the purists might restrict the term to, for example, a combination of truck and trailer.

 

[Larry N.]

...

Good enough for me, although the purists might restrict the term to, for example, a combination of truck and trailer.

I've heard the term RIG used for radios, radio setups, RVs, trucks, safety harnesses, and several other things -- it seems to me to be, in some fields, a semi-generic term to indicate a device or setup.

 

[Tom]

Aye Larry and, in nautical vernacular, I suppose that it could be short for rigging, but I'm sure that rag sailor Ned will correct me if I'm wrong  ;D

 

[Ned]

Sometimes the mast and associated rigging is referred to as "the rig", as in "the rig fell down".

 

[Tom]

[quote author=Ned].... "the rig fell down"[/quote]

That could only happen on a sailboat or the Costa Concordia 

 

[Ned]

Or on one of my sailboats.