Hey, We Bought a Motorhome!

During the time Brenda and I have been together, the topic of camping has come up at various points in our many conversations, and she has let it be known that peeing or pooping in the woods was not something that was within her comfort zone. To me that sort of nixed any camping excursions in the foreseeable future. More recently, the notion of visiting nudist parks in locations farther away from home had become interesting to us, and the topic of overnight camping was rekindled. We decided that if we were to go out on any nudist camping or similar adventures we needed a trailer or motorhome. While a trailer would afford the luxury of being able to disconnect at our destination and still have local transportation, my truck was not a tow vehicle. Hell, it's barely adequate for going to get lumber at Home Depot. That meant a motorhome was a logical choice. A motorhome would enable us to move freely and also allow us to take Ruby with us.

I'll be first to admit that I don't really know shit about motorhomes. That fact is underlined by the P.O.S that we bought when Teresa and I were married. What a huge money pit that ended up being. Still, I learned quite a bit (through the school of ignorance and repair) about the basics of a motorhome, and we had fun with it during the couple years that we owned it. That was a long time ago, and like I said--just the basics was all I learned because the "basics" was about all that motorhome had. You might even say that it put a slightly foul taste in my mouth with regard to motorhome ownership.That was a long time ago, though, and things are different now.

The search began.

After looking at a lot of Craigslist ads, and talking between us, we decided what kind of basic features we wanted to look for.

• Class C, no more than 28 foot
• Mileage no more than 60-80 thousand
• Generator of course
• Bed you could leave made up and crawl right into

My price range went all over the map as the search evolved. When I learned new or specific things to include or exclude in my search, the price range kept being revised up and down. I found out a lot of things like, none of them under 26 feet have single beds in the back, and most of them do or have leaked at some time in their life. I also found that buying used put motorhomes in pretty distinct categories:

• high mileage, with nice cabins, but the vehicle portion tired from road miles
• low mileage units with lots of wear in the cabin areas from spending a lot of time stationary in RV parks
• worn out all the way around and ready to become no-income housing in downtown Seattle

In our case, the biggest part of the search adventure was actually the sellers themselves. One we went to look at was a beautiful 28-footer, fairly new with really low miles and a "rebuilt" title. The rebuilt title bothers a lot of people, but these days it only takes something stupid for an insurance company to total a vehicle, so that doesn't bother me much any more. Anyway, the seller was a young Russian guy who seemed really nice. I have nothing against Russians, but I generally avoid doing business with them because they just have a completely different tactics and ethics that I don't trust 100%. As he outlined what had actually "totaled" the rig, something didn't smell right and we bailed. Also, it was $20k, which was more than I wanted to spend.

I found another, this time up in Everett. It was a low-miler, one-owner type rig, and he wanted 18k for it. We drove up there on a Saturday to meet the guy at the storage lot where he had it parked. I thought it was convenient that it was almost right across highway 99 from my bank, so if it met my expectations I could just go over and get cash. Because he lived a half hour away from where the motorhome was stored, we texted the guy (like he asked) when we were still quite a ways away, to which he responded. We got there before he did, so we parked along the street and sat in the car. And we sat. And we sat. It was a beautiful morning, and we saw a lot of activity going in and out of the gate (I guess storage renters had a gate remote), but never heard a peep from the guy after his "on my way" when we first texted that we had arrived. Imagine our surprise when, after waiting about an hour, got a text from him saying, "the motorhome has been sold. sorry." WTF? Apparently, he and his customer comprised a couple of the cars we saw enter the storage lot during our wait. I just told myself it was meant to be. Maybe right after we bought it the engine might have blown up or some such shit. Still, what an asswipe. It just goes to show you: Craigslist may be known for "deadbeat buyers" but it has deadbeat sellers too.

Then there is Walter, the guy we bought ours from. Complete with a pretty thick Boston accent, he was the consummate salesman. He declared that he was a private dealer right up front, so there was no pretending. We met him at a business park right off the freeway in Spanaway where he had it parked, but we weren't there very long. It just didn't "grab" me when I first saw it. It was raining lightly when we were there, and that didn't help either. I wasn't looking at everything that was "right" about it--I was picking it apart and counting up all the things wrong. At first Walter left us alone as we looked it over, playing the "good salesman" role. I kept looking and trying to justify the $13.9k he was asking for it. When I told him I didn't want it and was going to keep looking, that's when the "bad salesman" in him came alive. He started hounding, saying the same things over and over, "what don't you like about it?" and declaring what a great motorhome it was, and touting the "$400 detail job" he had done to it. He couldn't answer shit about it or its systems because it was never his vehicle to drive. He didn't know anything about how parts of it worked. I kept quiet as I looked it over, refusing to give him any ammo. I do remember telling him at one point that I thought he got ripped off on his 400-dollar detail job. I don't think he cared for that comment. (Maybe it was a relative.) When we left that day, we were running more from Walter than from the motorhome.

Discussion about the good and bad ensued as we talked over the points of the motorhome, outlining the good and bad. The more we talked, the more I realized I didn't know. I decided I needed another look. I contacted Walter again the next day, telling him we wanted to see the motorhome again and take it for a drive, and also asked him if he'd take 12.5k. He responded instantly, saying he'd go down $500 and give it to us for 13.4k. I frowned at the ridiculousness of the offer, but told him we'd come for another look.

The next morning we went to the bank and got the money, and we met him again that afternoon. He really ramped things up in the sales department this time, repeating his pitches and turning the screws a little tighter. I went through the motorhome again, this time with a lot more detail. I poked around underneath, inside, and tried everything I could. That's when I found the generator wouldn't start, and without the generator I couldn't test the microwave or the roof A/C unit. I also saw oil leakage under the generator. Again, I was turned off, this time by the unknowns. At one point I was checking out the leveling system control and wished I could see it demonstrated, but had no idea how it worked. When I mentioned it to Walter I was under the impression that he either didn't know it was installed, or had forgotten about it, because he got all excited because he found another sales point to dangle in front of me. Believe me, it was a lot harder to leave him this time, because he thought he had interested suckers. We did get away, and our drive home was all about our findings and feelings about the whole thing. Later on that afternoon I decided to go on the offensive. I called Walter (I hate calling!) and told him we were interested in the motorhome but have a new number in mind. I told him, pending the outcome of a short test drive, we would give him $11k for it--bottom line. It was tough, but I stuck to my guns and he relented.

We drove to meet him the next day, this time at someone's house. He had moved it, saying something about wanting to park it in a better place. Imagine my surprise when we arrived and saw he had plastered two big neon green signs on it with a new, higher price on it. To add to it, they were put on with package tape, which was half melted in the sun. (I still haven't gotten all the residue off yet.)

 At this point I still hadn't driven it yet, but really didn't have any reason to doubt it would drive fine. After all, it only has 40k miles on it. Brenda stayed behind in the car with Ruby while Walter and I took it for a drive. Wouldn't you know it--that guy would not let up. The whole time we were driving around he kept chipping away at me, saying like, "Can't you give another $500? Can't you give me something more--another hundred? This is a great motorhome" yada, yada, yada. I finally silenced him when I told him I had 11 thou with me, and that was it.

The deal was made, and we headed home. Whew.

Next: After the Buy