Carrol

My question here has been answered and thanks to some great recommendations have booked a flight to Lazy Daze to make a purchase. Thanks for the kind words Shopper , but really can't take too much credit on this--it's pretty much common knowledge that Lance makes the best camper out there and Lazy Daze makes the best motorhome. I'm glad you were able to separate the noise from the signal on all the advice you were getting and would like to see another 10,000 follow in your footsteps--for 30 years I've watched the poor buyers of the big boxes get beat up by the sleazy manufactures and would love to see that end Best, Carrol

From Wolfe10, What point do you want the rest of us to take away from your posts? I want this elderly couple to know that for every big motorhome they see in a campground there is another one in a repair shop. The area we live in has several RV manufacturers and there are always hundreds of them that have had to return for repairs -- likewise, our motels always have hundreds of guests with the same sad story -- they stretched themselves really thin financially to buy their dream coach and it's nothing but a troublesome money pit. What do you own and what are your experiences with it? Our RV is a 96 Lance camper that is permanently attached to a 96 F-250 and we travel with a couple who drive a class C Lazy Daze. Both of these setups are nearing 100,000 miles and have never been in for repairs. This isn't at all miraculous; it is what the buyer of a modern-day vehicle should expect. The big-box builders have promoted the idea that RVs are so complicated that a buyer should expect breakdowns, but that is complete nonsense. Breakdowns are the result of substandard manufacturing, which unfortunately is the norm in that segment of the RV world. The bottom line is I'm really tired of seeing nice families taken to the cleaners by these manufacturers and want prospective buyers to know what they're in for.

Please point out a few of these posts describing the "financial and emotional disaster I do not actually see too many of these" I believe you are being honest that you do not see the horror stories but this isn't because they aren't prevalent-- it is because you have a world class case of denial which is a very powerful condition, FYI issues that come up in the first 50,000 miles of a 21st century vehicle are defects plain and simple. This fact is recognized in the auto industry, the light truck industry and the heavy truck industry, The only group that does not recognize this are RV buyers such as yourself who believe that if an RV falls apart in the first year it must be because the oil wasn't changed often enough. The quotes below are all from the very first entry in the Class A section of this forum--finding stories like these is no harder than finding sand on the beach We have owned our Storm for one year & the poor thing is just falling apart: slide outs leak, kitchen sink is rusted, hot water heater quit working, shower floor is broken, rubber slide seals are torn, entry door is not set properly in coach & makes terrible noise while going down road - when we get to destination we can hardly get out, driver & passenger windows do not sit tightly in groove & rattle when driving (loudly), screws on outside of coach are rusted, shelves in cabinets fall down when driving because they are cut too short, and the cherry on top .... The generator does not work! I could go on and on. My 2012 Holiday Rambler Vacationer was in the shop for the better part of the Spring/Summer and Fall season ( roughly 7 months ) However the hassles and inconveniences for us have been significant - including time without the coach, vacations cancelled, and every time repairs are completed the coach seems to come back with more issues. The ownership experience thusfar has been a significant stress on our family. Of the 17,000 miles on our coach probably 5,000 if them have been to and from the repair center I bought a new Class A in 2004 and it spent the first two years in the shops with 2 or 3 trips back to the factory

"You cannot base your purchase on what you see along the roadside" This says it all--Just assume when you see a big box with the hood up and smoke pouring out, the happy owners stopped to use their luxurious bathroom. You also want to turn a blind eye to all the posts that describe what a financial and emotional disaster their purchase of one of these gems has been. Don't even consider that the cheerleaders for these babies often have 300K "invested" in something that wouldn't sell for 1/3 of that and they have a little bit of denial going on and may not be seeing the world for what it is.

If you think 15K a month is expensive to rent you are going to faint if you buy one and tally up the cost of what you spent to own it. Depreciation alone can easily run 60K a year and if you spend two fulls months in it per year that alone is $1000 per night. You also need to be prepared for the costs, both financial and emotional of "working the bugs out" if you buy new--this can involve several "repair vacations" back to the factory where you will be spending an undetermined amount of days in a motel waiting for repairs to be completed. I don't mean to discourage you from RVing because it is a ton of fun but many of the units you are contemplating would rival an aircraft carrier for complexity and costs to operate

All you need to do to make this choice is use your eyes--look at the units stranded on the side of the road or hooked to a tow truck and you'll see 99% of these are the big boxes with the cushy ride. You can also look on this forum in the class A section and read the horror stories of trying to get one of these beauties fixed--one recent post had the familiar complaint that the unit had been in the shop more than at the campground,