Today I am driving to New Jersey. There is an RV for sale there I want to evaluate. This model has all the equipment I want, but I was told by the owner that when he bought it the unit was a repo. He said there had been some grease marks in the cabin and a couple of the tires did not match. The unit had a diesel with 40,000 miles on it. Hardly broken in, I thought.
When traveling by motorhome, you soon discover that replacing your old unit can be a uphill climb. Many floorplans have changed over the years, and the one you are stuck on may not be combined with the powerplant you need to get down the road.
The RV I have now is a LaSharo. When this unit was new it sold for around $50,000. Today you can find them anywhere from $4,000 to $14,000. The seller asking $14,000 is really dreaming. The maker of this RV is Winnebago. The powerplant is a Renault, and just try and buy a part for this anywhere in the U.S. Everything important can be found rebuilt at four and five times the price of the same part on any other RV. Why? Because Winnebago controls the parts, and if they don't want to supply that part anymore -- you are out of luck. That means you have to find a broken down LaSharo with the part you need in good enough shape to use. Not fun.
How do they get away with that? Because they purchased the rights to the parts when Renault went out of business. They will not sell parts directly to the customer. These parts must be purchased through a third party. Your parts store is getting it from the same place you would if you called for the part. Sometimes these folks are locked out as well.
Why? Because Winnebago would like this unit to go away.
Why would I keep such a unit? My family loves the floorplan. It gets 23 mpg. Many things about this unit are great. All the comfort items are terrific. The house is problem free. It has an air-conditioning unit overhead that cools perfectly. Each person has their own travel lights, vents, drink, and stow areas much like being on an airplane. The furnace heats beautifully and the water system runs off the engine when driving and the water heater when camped.
The problems come in the gear box. The transmission is far too light duty for the work that is asked of it. I have 90,000 miles on my RV. One of my best friends did the transmission work when it failed during a trip to Florida. After the repairs there it still needed more work in order to drive it. We have replaced almost everything under the hood except the engine, which we have found to be solid as a rock. Once repaired it went over the Rocky Mountains without a problem. We had the time of our lives.
If you need to buy a used RV like I do, the value of this purchase is going to be determined by the care this engine gets. Most gas-powered small-block engines were really made for cars and light-duty trucks. Put a 327/350 Chevy engine on a Vette and it will fly. I know because I had one. Use the same great engine in an RV and it still works great. The problem is that it is working as hard as it can most of the time. This means the parts become worn early and if the owner is not on her toes, this unit will fail. If this engine is in a small Class C that is 21' to 23' long -- with care -- you are fine. If this engine is placed in anything larger, you are really asking more of this powerplant than it was made to do.
The larger gas-powered engines have done the job, but the fuel economy is awful. It normally gets six miles-per-gallon and eight is considered good. I'm sorry, but that's not good enough. The makers of these units can do better. Gas-powered RV's tend to break down much earlier than diesels. A diesel can go two or three times the distance of a gas-powered unit prior to any major repairs. The same RV with a diesel engine can get almost twice the mpg of the gas motor. A new diesel-RV has a higher ticket price than the gas. Pay it. The value of the diesel far exceeds the sticker price. The bonus to the owner is in the upkeep, fuel economy, and, more importantly, a higher resale value.
Oil changes and other scheduled maintenance must be followed to the letter. Towing more than your unit is able to carry, or overloading your RV with "stuff you just cannot leave at home" will lead to failure. This is true for both types of engines. All engines need upkeep. Keeping up with maintenance will lead to many happy trips. Oil and coolant are the life blood of these homes/vehicles, and it always shocks me how many people expect these engines to perform without normal maintenance.
Visit local dealerships and ask the service reps about common problems concerning the engine you are investigating. Make a list. Try to go to dealers that sell a large number of trucks. Visit the Internet and look for areas where RVers swap information. You will find a pattern in the problems certain motors have.
Never fall so much in love with the house that you ignore problems under the hood. You don't want to make more trips to the bank than you take to the campground. I love my unit, but with parts becoming more difficult to find, my first RV with its small size and wonderful fuel economy will now take the baseball team to Burger Heaven close to home. Control your feelings. I can't tell you how many times my son's games were booked in parks without rest rooms. -- how many injured knees and elbows have been cleaned up and sent on their way from my RV. I drove my mother to the hospital during her heart attack in my LaSharo.
But when the cost of upkeep exceeds the value of the motorhome, it is time to move on.
The next time we will discuss the bathroom.
