In the RV Business news this morning: Canadian RV manufacturer Triple E recently purchased Canadian van builder Leisure Travel. In spite of fuel prices it appears the Class B market is in tougher shape than the Class A market. A strong, well managed company like Triple E coming in is good news all around. Triple E has always been in the business for the long term and has never ever, ever compromised quality for short term gain. Good news for Leisure Travel, their employees and all Class B owners.

Long before the NADA and Kelley Blue Book guides became available we in the RV Business had to establish values the good old fashioned way, We would have to guess. Yes, I’m talking before computers here. Remember, I’ve been doing this for quite a few years. Anyway it went like this: If a new model 26B was worth $10,000 then a one year old one would go for about $7500. Same new $10,000 26B, a 2 year old would sell for about $6400. A 3 year old would be about $5700. And on, and on. Our formula was like this (remember the numbers are approximate and certainly depend on condition and market) Selling price of the comparable new multiplied by .75 for year one. Multiply that number by .85 for year 2. Times .9 for 3 yr old. Times .95 for each year after that. So in ball park numbers for a five year old RV you could expect to pay 50-ish % of a good deal on a new one. Remember I said about, approximately depending about a dozen times in the last 150 words. So when you are out shopping for a good used RV the asking price is close to the formula check it out. If they want way more or way less be a even more careful. Oh and before you make the offer, factor in condition, subtract repairs, check the guide books, take your expert for a good look, then drive it  and shop, shop, shop.

And then, this is the most important part,  when you get the one you want; Enjoy

 

Are you frustated by RV Park WiFi? Understand Satellite Internet? How about Google Maps or the Picasa sites your friends are all raving about? Hell, How about anything Computer? 

Relax, there is help, Here’s a couple of real friendly folk who’s main purpose in life is to make our lives easier. Really! You gotta meet them. Their names are Jim and Chris and their website is Geeks On Tour They’ve even got video tutorials done in plain old English..honest, I see no Geek talk... I can see they can certainly make my life a lot easier, that’s why I’ve added them to my Blogroll. so that way you and I can always find Geeks On Tour. You’re Welcome.

Whether you are looking for a life long career or a job for a few months a year why not check out your local RV Dealer.

Next time you are out in your RV check out your local RV dealer. Chances are if you are in your RV, so are others and the dealers are busy. Their sales people may not be too busy this year but that doesn’t mean that things are slow in other areas. You could be the perfect employee: you come in when they are busy and go away when things slow down. Perfect!

At the store we work at there’s probably 8 or 10 people (out of 80 or so) who reappear every spring and they will all happily disappear when Fall arrives. The dealer is happy, he doesn’t have to carry all these folk through the slow season. And you couldn’t be happier, you are off for a good chunk of the year enjoying your RV.

Time to get out of the house for a bit? Want to earn some extra cash to cover the high cost of fuel?  Check it out.

Got a question or a comment? Email me:    mrmotorhome@yahoo.com

 

Let’s see now, we’ll attach our house to our car, then we’ll be absolutely amazed by the drop in fuel efficiency. Obviously, if fuel economy is important; the smaller the house, the better the fuel efficiency.

Our first motorized RV was a 1979  Volkswagen Westfalia, the ultimate in fuel efficiency. It was the perfect RV for a young family. We would head out with our two kids and the dog, 2 bikes on the front, 2 bikes on the back and lot’s of gear up top and would enjoy our van called Hooter most weekends all summer long. Then off to the kid’s soccer games in the fall and tobaggoning and skating all winter. Did I mention picnics? Lot’s of picnics! It was truly the perfect recreation vehicle. In our case both the kids and the dog grew, we moved on but all these years have kept the fond memories of our “Hooter”.

Jump forward 25 or 30 years. Boy have vans changed. Flush toilets, showers, microwaves, flat screen tv’s, furnaces, airconditioners, generators, soft leather upholstery, all in one small neat luxurious package. Some are even available in four wheel drive and you can choose from gas or diesel. Compared to their bigger Motorhome brothers they offer great fuel economy, often more than twice the miles per gallon.

But there’s more to these Class B’s then just fuel. Just like Hooter, they are versatile, you can go shopping, get in and out of tight spots and pretty much park where you could park a car. My friends that often travel on ferries rave about their affordability! And they all use them as a second car.

So where do you find these, the most fuel efficient Recreation Vehicle? Strangely enough, most of the better know manufacturers are Canadian including Great West Vans, and  Leisure Vans. My inlaws enjoyed their Pleasureway Van for years and lots of dealers in both Canada and the US offer vans by  Roadtrek. Remember though, all these advantages come with a price. Most B’s start out as a van and are remodeled in to your future small home on wheels. and just like in home constuction, renovating is always more expensive than the original construction. Be prepared for the condition called Sticker Shock.  I think you’ll find though, when you talk to van owners the majority of  them feel the extra dollars they invested were well worth it. 

Why not drop down to your local RV Dealer and see for yourself? Then you can plan your own picnic.

Got a question or a comment?  Drop me an email  mrmotorhome@yahoo.com

 Which is the right one for you? The easy answer is: Depends.

20 years ago, almost all new Motorhomes were gas, 10 years ago it was probably 50/50. Now  over 70% of new A’s are diesel. Why the shift? Mostly the coaches are bigger, heavier, have more slides and substantially more equipment. These days most everyone wants a satellite dish, washer/dryer, 3 or 4 slides, 4 door fridge, icemaker, vacuum cleaner and more. Hydronic heat systems, Internet satellite systems and dishwashers are now very popular. Corian counters, Porcelain tile floors and the finest harwoods are now the norm. The strongest of the gas chassises only carry 24,000 lbs and the GM 8.1l or Ford V10 engines are at their max.

Hence, the popularity of diesel. Now you can have it all,  you can carry 50 or 60,000 lbs and pull up to 15,000 more. There are lots of other advantages to diesel as well;  They ride on from 4 to 10 airbags, for a much softer ride. The engines are usually in the rear (Diesel Pusher) so it is very quiet in the driving area. Some diesel chassis manufacturers offer a “raised rail chassis” for dramatically more storage. Diesels usually come with an Exhaust or Jake Brake and therefore are much easier to control, and let’s not forget the Torque. Gas engines usually top out in the 400 or 500 ft lb range where as Diesels, depending on the engine  offer torque up to 1600 ft lbs. It’s torque that gets you up the mountain. And the Air Brakes that most of the diesels come with stop that heavy load when you need to.

So why would you buy Gas? Less money to purchase, less money to fill the tank are 2 biggies. If you aren’t planning on doing too much travelling, don’t need all the fancy goodies or just want to see how you like the lifestyle why not start with a good quality new or used gas coach.

  It’s time to move on. So you’ve been snooping around a bit trying to figure out what you can get for her…the RV is what I mean!  How do we move it quickly for a good price?

 First, why not sit down and write a list of everything that’s not quite right with it. Needs a couple of tires? Put it on the list. Radio doesn’t work? Water heater kinda backfires? Put em all down. Be honest, would you buy a unit with all those problems? No? Me neither. Maybe we should fix them. Actually you should fix em, I’m really not very handy. Remember you only get one shot at that prospective buyer and there’s lot’s of comptetition out there these days. All fixed up? Now how clean is it? Maybe it’s time to check out a good Detail shop. Sure it’ll cost a bit, but they can do amazing things. I’ll bet the dollars you invest in detailing will be repaid many times when you sell it

Now we gotta advertise, but where? check out the paper, the trader, the Buy and Sell. Go online. Where are other people advertising their RV’s? Can you park it somewhere to get some more traffic by it? Once you get past all the calls from the dealers who “have somebody looking for your exact coach” and the email offers from foreign countries, you going to show it to some folk. If you’ve fixed the problems up, made it nice and shiny and priced it right (notice the italics) you’ll sell it.There’s lots of people out there who for what ever reason want to deal with the previous owner. To them, they will judge your RV by how they feel about you. so as you sit down to count the cash there are yust 2 things left to do: 1, congratulate yourself on a job well done and 2, tell all your friends about this great site you found on the net. You’re Welcome.

Whether you are buying or selling, that’s probably the most important question of them all.  In reality the actual value of anything  is what a willing seller and a willing buyer can agree on. It’s really that simple. Compared with other similar RV’s how’s the condition? The colors? How clean is it? Does everything work? How does it smell?

You certainly want to check with NADA Price Guide. That’s pretty much the bible of the industry, but only a guide. In some areas RV’s sell for less than the guide while somewhere else they sell for way over what the book says. Buying or selling, shopping around a bit first is very important. You can also check the Trader Publications, local dealers and of course there’s always E Bay.

I’ve been agonizing for weeks as to how I was going to set up this post. This is definitely the most asked question every RV salesperson ever hears. And not an easy one to answer either. There are so many variables. In my opinion these folks, Jayco, have done a great job of getting you started. So let’s start here. I’m not flogging Jayco product here, although I would think if you are looking for something they build, you need to have a look at their product. They among others, build good stuff.

You gotta love our free enterprise system. If there’s a buck to be made there’s someone ready to help, so yes of course you can finance. Banks in our area will finance new or near new RV’s for up to 20 years on an open loan. That means you can pay the loan down or pay it out anytime without penalty. They also sometimes finance with zero down, so getting into an RV can be very affordable. As the age of the RV increases the number of years you can finance decreases, so the payments per thousand borrowed increase. For example payments on a new RV might be $8.00 per thousand per month, where as on a 10 year old unit payments may be over 10 years and would be more like $15.00 per thousand per month. Talk to your Bank or Credit Union before you go shopping to get an idea. Often the dealer can set up favorable financing with the Dealer Plan Department of a local bank. Shop around, there are differences.

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