RE: Daylight running lights
It a simple simon thing to do to turn the headlights on once the vehicle is started. Then you also get the benefit of tail lights on if there's fog or poorer visibility back there.
Not worth spending a penny on unless y0u have to meet some regulatory requirement at an inspection.
RE: just gotta ask
Whatever they tell you to back out of a deal is usually not accurate.
Don't spend money on new tires and paint based solely on a buyer's comments. I even went so far as pricing tires after one guy told me they needed replacing. In fact, he was just telling me and his wife that he didn't like it for whatever reason and was using a "guy expert" thing to back out.
Whatever comments they make amongst themselves pumping themselves up are usually true.
What you have to sell is a great unit. I think that this year, in my neck of the woods, anything for sale that involves gasoline expenses, such as vacation property, RV's and boats, are NOT moving for love or money.
Next year, once gas prices have been stable for the better part of the year, will bring more confidence to the market.
In the meantime, we have to choose between giving it away today or selling it tomorrow,
RE: just gotta ask
Most buyers will not even know what an inverter is, unless you are talking seriously upscale units.
When it comes down to the crunch, you could have bent the price down about $2K allowing the buyer to install the brand new inverter of his choice with a warranty.
But folks will often invent a reason why they don't like something in order to save face. I don't think that guy was buying if you dropped the price $4K and threw in 4 new batteries for free to feed the inverter.
PS: We still don't even know what year and make and model you are trying to sell at what price.
I don't think many of us will spend too much more time on this post till we have a few more facts.
RE: 1990-93 Safari thoughts? How wide?
Build quality was excellent (based on '96 model I had).
Anything of that vintaqe will be seriously underpowered by today's standards (100 lb/HP).
Do you want to spend all day doing 40 mph on hills?
A reasonable test under the driving conditions you can expect is really mandatory, since only you and a fewe other colleagues know what to expect in your neck of the woods.
RE: 1990-93 Safari thoughts? How wide?
Build quality was excellent (based on '96 model I had).
Anything of that vintaqe will be seriously underpowered by today's standards (100 lb/HP).
Do you want to spend all day doing 40 mph on hills?
On the other hand, if you are parked most of the time, or ploughing through Australia's flat-as-a-pancake transcontinental highways, at the right price it could be a terrific deal, because US local west-coast buyers will stay away in droves based on mountain performance.
The reason I sold mine was more mechanical than house-based. Too many fluid leaks due to under-use.
Make sure that your drivetrain has better than adequate representation down under before signing on the dotted line.
The house portion should last you a lifetime.
RE: farting water pump?
To check for water leaks, stomp around the rig's plbg in bare feet covered by cheapo stockings. You will quickly find your leak.
On my Allegro a few years ago, it was the joint between the tank and the first plbg fixture, which was under the bed, and amost impossible to find otherwise.
RE: Allison 6 Speed Transmission in the Mountains
For the newbie driver, make note of what the transmission selects going up the hills on its own.
Those downshifts are a good choice for what you should manually downshift to going DOWN the same grade at the same speed. You will be using engine braking rather than using the service brakes at all in most cases.
RE: Delamination Adhesive Question
Sorry, but the single, solitary, without-exception repair required that you should run from is DELAM.
Everything else can be patched/semi-faked.
I've seen too many where the siding was just stripped off and replaced. Period. $1xxxx for the proper repair.
Not worth investing the money to fix an almost 20-year old rig. You will never get your money back.
Enjoy it as it is or sell it cheap for something newer and in better shape.
RE: Bank Repo Auctions - how do I find them?
We've all hear of stories where mom and pop just got tired of replacing toilet seals, leaky compartment doors, faulty electronics, etc, so what do you think a REPO can add positively to the equation?
There are many flood-damaged, wrecked/amateur fixed units out there. If that's what you want, please continue your quest.
The repos are usually bought by dealers CHEAP who will pretty them up without fixing the underlying problems and then unload them onto unsuspecting newbies, after adding a few finishing touches..
Pull a Carfax on many of them and you will find serious trouble, such as totalled by insurance, mileage discrepancies, title problems, etc. enough for a lifetime of lawyer to fight over.
RE: For those not from the US, please
Look at your previous post for an answer. In the meantime, get the moderator to delete this duplicate, as you wi\ll just aggravate the folks that can help you.
I'm already tired of typing everything right once, let alone twice.
RE: Registering motorhome when not resident in that state!
Talking to lawyers in Montanana is for guys who want to avoid/evade taxes.
99.9% of the snowbirds are willing to give to Caesar what is his and not into schemes.
Only interested in legal stuff that keeps the gov't happy, and not looking over your shoulder, ready to feed the "legal" parking meter again.
RE: Registering motorhome when not resident in that state!
I bought a car in Arizona, though I am a resident of Quebec, Canada.
YOU, like me, are NOT a US citizen, so our mileage definitely varies.
Your driving record and insurance history are not accessible south of the border.
Can't ask for a more outfield case than that. And I can only vouch for Arizona, which is very RV friendly.
Rent a PO Box or have a "permanent" mailing address within the state. Spot #xxx in such-and-such RV PARK does NOT WORK. I DO currently own a property in AZ, so I'm not a trickster/transient. You will have to get your current province/state of residence to forward your driving record to the local insurance broker, so you will not be penalized as an "unknown" case.
There are no annual inspections in AZ. Buying/registering are LESS than NS or QC by a fair amount. Insurance is not 100% comparable to what you are used to at home, but Progressive really came through for me when I needed a claim payment.
You can send me a PM if you wish, but I will feel free to share whatever we discuss, other than confidential issues, with the rest of the crowd.
You are not a pioneer in that regard, as many of my friends in Wellton, AZ have given up driving the big rig and have a registered AZ 5er or Trailer as their home away from home.
Arizona (or most other states) is more than happy to collect the sales tax. Thereafeter, the plate fee is a % of what you paid for a typical vehicle in the same year.
You should be aware that you cannot just cherry-pick your state of "residence", because insurance may deny you claims coverage for the flimsiest of legal reasons. Your rig should be plated and insured in the state where it will sleep for most of the year.
RE: just gotta ask
You have to be relentless in your advertising because you have to find that ONE right buyer. An extra thousand dollars in ads can make the difference between sale or no sale. These things depreciate at the rate of several thousand a year, so you may as well spend money up front rather than lose 5x that amount because you have to accept next year's distressed price plus pay for plates and insurance in the meantime.
I may love your rig, but I can't call you if I don't know you're for sale.
My personal experience from selling 3 motorhomes over the last few years is that they will usually take over 3 months to sell, and even then you will feel lucky to have found a buyer. Buyers have come from local advertising (buy and sell magazines) where it pays to have the larger display ads rather than be buried somewhere in back. National advertising is sometimes just an invitation for other advertisers to try to sell you space, though your mileage will vary in California. They are popular with the dealers or on eBay because just about any rig can look good in a photo no bigger than a business card, and are a way to get people to call and visit so that they can be upsold.
If you have some local RV friends, ask them to look at the rig and your ad and be forthright with whatever changes they would suggest or questions they would ask. Get it in as near to perfect shape as you can without spending a fortune. Sometimes it's the little things like a torn window screen or missing floor tile that put off a buyer.
Price it aggressively and be prepared to "deal" quickly. Know what your bottom line is and don't take it personally when people make lo-ball offers. Remember, next year's prive is NOT going to be higher, and if they do like the rig, they may be back with another offer.
The fact that it's paid off means there's no delay in having title in hand. You can now advertise "clear title", which may mean not too much, but lets a buyer know that YOURS is good and might have him thinking that others may not be or may involve some red tape.
Know your merchandise inside out because inevitably you will get a cell call when it's least convenient with questions that have to be answered on the spot. Be honest in your discussion.
I always show a file folder with all my maintenance bills, and this goes a long way towards impressing Mr. Buyer. The Mrs. will be looking for a CLEAN rig and easy maintenance.
RE: Pilot Stations for RV Gasoline
In terms of hits and missed, I would tend to "miss" most Pilot locations.
They overall have seemed a little tighter than many others, though I have seen at least one location with then welcoming "NO RV's" sign.
I guess they know something we don't.
RE: rv.org ratings?
Simple laws of physics. Which vehicle will track easier down the highway, a 40-foot tag axle bus with the wheels essentially at all 4 corners, or an 8-foot trailer with a double axle and wheels centered in the middle?
Now, admittedly that's not the only criterion to judge, but any rig that RV.org stated had poor or excellent road handling turned out to reflect my driving experiences accurately.
You can use their ratings as a guide as to what you can expect, but they are not gospel.
RE: also have battey probs
We should keep track of all the posts that start with a "friend's" opinion and treat them the way they should be... just conjecture. I'm sure we all have "friends" who will vote for Obama or McCain come November, but none of them can be cited as a fount of wisdom that everyone should follow, even if they end up on the "winning" side.
RE: Freaking out about which brand to go with
I was always a big fan of National products and came close to buying one. However, National was in litigation with their laminated wall supplier when they pulled the plug.
Best to assume that you have NO WARRANTY at all on any of their products, and pay accordingly.
Not to say that they were not well designed or built, but a bad supplier of siding or windows can tank a brand's reputation quickly.
RE: Back to the Garmin GPS question
It would be great to be able to check all the versions on line with complete confidence. Sure as shootin' v6 covered much more territory than v5, but once it was loaded I was apparently ploughing up farmers' fields about 30 feet away from the highway in some areas, and every time we approached a side road, Mother Teresa would insist that we turn left and rejoin the highway.
Very tiresome.
They should sell these things with a money-back guarantee or liberal return/exchange policy within 7 days.
RE: Propane alarm keeps going off!
Propane sensors will go off for a variety of vapors, including glue, nail polish or other organic compounds.
Did you recently work on flooring or something at that level?
Close the valve at the propane tank itself and see if the problem persists. IF YES, then it's something in the neighborhood and not a leak. IF No, then you probably do have a leak. Bring it in to a propane tech for verification.
