lientrac said:
Hey Waverly,
If you don't mind me asking, I noticed that you had mentioned you had purchased a Winnebago Vectra for half of what I was looking at. So somewhere in the neighborhood of ~$15,000. Did you have to replace the tires? Batteries? What was the shape?
This is one that I am seriously looking at:
http://www.voyagerrv.ca/rv-1997-Winnebago-Vectra-34RQ-ID2506.htm
Any thoughts? It is expensive for the year - but NADA says this is below low retail. I will have to drive 6 hours to look at it. But they are sending me their pre-sale inspection report to look at before I head out. I'll update once I get that report!
Thanks everyone for the advice - especially regarding the Banks system...I've always wondered what that was all about... ;D
The Vectra appears to be an upgrade from my Adventurer...... The big thing that I see right off the bat is that the Vectra in these pics seems to be better cared for than my Adventurer. The finish on my coach is badly Sun damaged.
That Vectra is on the Chevy chassis (not like my Ford Chassis) so the exhaust manifold issue is a non-event. The Vectra has the larger 7KW Onan genset (as apposed to my 5KW). I did have to replace many things like tires, all 3 batteries, awnings, toilet, leveling springs, all cabinet lifts, bathroom vent, 6 interior light fixtures, all fluids. I have about $16.5K in it all together (Incl tax & lic). If I had to have had these issues taken care of at a repair shop, I would have $20K+ in it.
The Vectra you are looking at has only 40K miles and I would call that a non-issue. It some ways, that's better than the 19K miles on my coach because it shows that it was being used (which is a good thing) without being worn-out.
You may want to ask them to provide you with the "DOT Code" off of
each tire. The seller of our coach advertised it as having "New tires". After inspecting the date codes on all 6 tires, I found the front and outer rear were manuf in the 50th week of 2009. That may have been "New" to the seller but it certainly was not "New" to me. The inner rear tires were date coded in 1997 and were the original tires (FAR from "New"). The moral of that story is..... be careful with the term "New" tires.
Whenever one purchases a used vehicle (of any sort) it should be expected that a certain amount of $ will have to be put into it to bring it up to the standards that the purchaser desires. The key is to not have to put too much $ in it and end up withe something that you are into more then high book value and it still has major mechanical risks (just by virtue of being old).
Replacing items like tires, batteries, fluids, belts, hoses and the lke are items that would have to be dealt with at some point even if buying a new rig. The key is knowing (going in) that you will have to deal with those issues in the 1st year. Go ahead and take care of them right away so that you have a trust-worthy rig that you have confidence in driving.
To answer your question......... That Vectra appears to be a good deal as long as you don't have to put another $3K-$5K in it when you get it home (as I did.... and knew going in).
. That's over twice what we just paid for our gas coach. 
