Checking out a used RV

[Lakota Wolf]

I went and checked out a used RV, for a quick project,,,

*Ad says, 2008 Terry bumper pull, 25 ft, w/slide,

A/c furnace,stove,fridge all work. Great shape, Use for weekend trips or hunting. Ready to roll, $1500.00

Welllll,, alrightyyyyyyy then,, Off we go to check this bumber pull out.

I pull up, to check it out,,, seems to look pretty decent,,, a couple dings,, a little faded paint and graphics,, and tires are holding air. I ask about the cover across the front and roof,, and owner says its an RV cover,, Ohhhhhhhhhhhh,, okayyyyyy, (red flag). The owner unlocks the door and swings it open and holy moley, like wow !!!!!!

(Thinking to myself,,, dude,, at least clean out the crap before you advertise it for sale).I step inside and 1st thing I see is, Spray painted card board on the ceiling above the bed in the front of the trailer. Then I turn and notice the range hood above the stove being held up with speaker wire,,, which is wrapped around 2 cabinet door handles. The stove itself was probably used excessively and no one ever thought about cleaning it, or for that matter to even wipe up any spills,, To put it mildly,, it was BAD,,discusting and gross. and not exactly in that order.The floor midway was soft,,, not just a little but alot,and the only thing keeping me from falling through was the carpet. If I weighed another 3 lbs, I would have fallen through. The interior support beam on the slide out was soft and wobbly. (meaning that if you have the slide out fully extended,, you would need to support it from underneath or the slide would literally fall out due to no roof support.The bathroom in the back, looks as if it has never seen bleach or pinesol in its entire lifetime. I would compare it to an abandoned restroom at an old amusement park,,,, Im still doubting if it has ever been flushed,, yea,, it was THAT bad. The shower had the biggest drain I have ever seen,, Actually it probably wasnt an actual drain,, more like the shower floor broke through,, making it a very big hole for the water to drain out,, You just have to straddle your feet on each side if you were to actually use the shower,, and the water would just run out onto the ground,, and yes,,,, saving from filling the holding tank. I walk back up to the front,,, Laughing as I pass by that vent hood dangling by speaker wire,,and look at the bedroom area. Im looking up at the ceiling and I ask the owner, whats the deal with the spray painted card board? He says, he had a vent that was leaking and when he was sealing it up with several tubes of silicone, he fell through the roof. (FELL THROUGH THE ROOF). He said he landed on the bed, and the bed dropped down a little and he thinks it may have cracked the pedistal storage are under the bed. I look at the side of the bed pedistal and I notice its only about 3 inches high. For those of you that havent seen a storage pedistal under a bed, its usually 12 inches high with a lid that flips up (with the matress still on top,) for under bed storage.

Upon further investigation,, I noticed that the bed pedistal actually FELL THROUGH the floor and the only thing keeping it from going all the way down was the cross straps that hold up the under belly plastic that seals out the weather. He did say he fixed the hole on the roof,,, approx, 4X4 ft hole with 3/4 inch plywood and he siliconed it real good so it wont leak anymore. The closets that used to go on each side of the bed were not there and the owner said that they fell off the wall when he moved the trailer and they had some slight water damage,, so he took them out. 2 small night stand tables had warped top wood on them,(I guess to keep your coffee cup from falling off while trailer is going down the road. In the front, it has a window on each side,, and with a light push, my finger went through the paneling and the wall moved,,,, Can you say SOFT?,,, Neddless to say,, I declined to even offer him any money,, even though it had 4 brand new tires on it,, (Car tires at that,). I had the intention of reinacting Tom Hanks movie, Forrest Gump,,, and RUN,,, But I drove there,, so I told him,, I will pass and got out of there quick...

Dontcha just love when the sellers tell ya,, it had a small leak but is fixed now.

If a seller says it had a small leak,, make sure that leak was ONLY a dripping faucet,,, NOT a ROOF VENT.

And if they say its a fixer upper,,, it usually means a total rebuild.

Remember,,,, look the rig over carefully,, And its not always true, that one mans junk is another mans treasure,,,, it can be rephrased as one mans junk is another mans headache,

I think my winter project will be,,,, Testing different bottles for my Dehydrated diet bottled water idea.

[Rich Thomas]

I saw one similar to that about a month ago. It was on a lowboy loaded with old car parts, water tanks and other bits and pieces of scrap; which is probably the only way you can make money on something that bad. 

[Russell E Johnson]

LOL, ya just gotta love what people will try and pass off as a sell-able item. Sounds like this thing is literally a refugee from a junk yard. Great write up to help others avoid the pitfalls of buying the wrong RV.