Buying a Former Rental Class C. How many of us out there?

[IAMICHABOD]

While researching these pages for my next Motor Home I saw a few threads discussing Rentals, most were Pros and Cons but very few posts from people who had purchased one.

I thought it may be a good resource and helpful to hear from these people. The good, the bad, what they liked and what they didn’t. Also if they had any problems, things they changed, if they would recommend this to others or do it again.

Here is my story: I am not a novice, having owned a Class A for more than 15 years and doing the camping thing with my wife and two daughters, I can say “been there done that” But life changes, and I sold everything so I have been away from this for several years. Starting over I lurked here for a while and got a lot of good insight then went looking.

My criteria was: A Class C within by budget, less than 30 feet so I can keep it at home, saving storage $, a rear bed, and a lot of storage space.

What fit that was Winnebago, Fleetwood and a few others, what I found mostly was Jamboree / Tioga 26Q. In the year models 2002 thru 2006. I did my home work looking at NADA and other sites to find the fair prices for the models that I was looking for.

After several months of searching the internet, Craigslist, private ads and Dealerships for a Class C that suited my budget and needs, this is what I found. Of the dozen or so I inquired about.Most were upsidedown in their payments, owing more than they were worth. All were on Ford Chassis, 7 needed tires, all had the original 7 to 10 year old tires, and they all needed repair of the awning and most needed some work inside or out and the maintenance records were sketchy, but most had low mileage. The Dealerships offerings were better but they had a profit margin to maintain so I got older models within my budget or huge up sales that didn’t work for me.

My next step was looking at the rental market for sales. In my area there are 2 large companies that have rental sales, Cruise America and El Monte RV,who also sell Class A RVs.

First up was El Monte RV Their units are production RVs that are made by major manufactures, with TV antennas and hookups inside and out, Ducted A/C and heat, 2 house batteries, a rear ladder and parts are readily available from those manufacture’s. I looked at their web site and it detailed their warranty and what was checked and serviced by their factory trained technicians. The unit I looked at was like new inside, the upholstery on all the seats was new as was the floor mat in the driver’s area, it had a new mattress, still in plastic and a new bedspread. All of the curtains were new also. Newer (2010 mfg date) tires with 98% rubber and the mileage was ninety thousand (90,000).

Then there was Cruise America: Their units that I looked at seemed to be Spartan,no TV antenna or hookups for one,non-ducted A/C,small counter space and only one battery, no rear ladder for inspection and maintenance of roof and built just for them, they were all “refreshed” their words not mine. They offered extended warranties at a huge cost. All had high mileage, one hundred and thirty thousand (130,000) or more and the price range seemed a little high. The sales staff had a take it or leave it attitude and were not very forthcoming when asked about maintenance records and service,they claim to have proprietary info in those records,It doesn't seem to be a problem for El Monte RV.

At El Monte RV I took a test ride; This Unit was a 2006 Tioga 26Q on a Chevrolet Chassis it rode
Drove and handled much better than the Fords that I had driven. It also had more leg room and was quieter. We got back and I asked about the service and maintenance on it, the salesman, Joey, handed me a 28 page single spaced document asked if I wanted some coffee or something to drink and said “read this and if you have any questions I will answer them”.

It detailed everything that was done before and after each rental, the mileage, generator hours and hours billed. Each time it was washed and detailed inside and outside, all fluids were checked and replenished if needed, the holding tanks were washed, LP system was checked for leaks, all torque on wheel lugs were checked, brakes front and rear checked for wear and cracks, pressure in tires, all appliances, generator oil, lights inside and outside, the list goes on and on.

It also listed all oil changes,coolant change,trans service,fuel injector service and cleaning,fuel filters,air filter, new brakes, all repairs and replacements all with date, mileage and time spent in complete detail from day one to when it was pulled from the rental fleet and was refurbished. I have a complete service record on this vehicle.Also the service records on the Onan Generator,all oil changes,air filter and spark plug replacement with hours and date. I negotiated a good deal with them and am very happy with my purchase.

It came with a 1 yr. 12000 mile power train warranty and 30 day on all appliances. It also came with a 28 page maintenance record that detailed everything. Also the original sales packet from Fleetwood with the manual and serial numbers on all appliances,refrigerator, microwave,furnace, AC, water heater, etc. and the manual for the Chassis. I have had no problems with it so far.

(ON EDIT) 5 Years and close to 14000 miles.Just Scheduled Maintenance and new tires,old ones were at the 5 year mark and I wanted new Michelin LTX M/S2s.

There were a few things that it didn’t have as it was a rental and the ones from private parties did have.
• Power steps, outside Stereo/CD don’t need or want them.
• An Awning, this I wanted and had installed. A Swivel Seat and a new Window in The Door that I installed.
• Wheel Simulators, I like the looks so I had them installed and at the same time had Tire Man valve stem kit put on.
• Replaced the Chinese WFCO with a US Made converter/charger
• It came with mini blinds and not the day/night that most have, these are more practical and have a lot less failure.

• It also came with Stainless Steel sinks,easier to maintain than the cheap plastic ones that come in the noncommercial units.
  

I am very happy with my Rig, it suites my needs and it was in my Budget range, I think I got a good deal.

So if you bought a rental please share your experience here for others to use as a resource.
Or if there are any other questions that have not been covered in these pages, just ask, there are many helpful people on this thread.

[IAMICHABOD]

eldel wrote:
I'm looking to replace my setup with 200W of panel and 200AH of LiFePo4 batteries. Estimating with charge controller and the labor that'll be around $3K - $3.5K.

I know that this guy is a bit out of your area but may be worth the trip or at least give you a base line for the install that is included in the price.
High Watt Solar

One member is really happy with his.

[eldel]

According to the salesguy at Denver CA when I got my 28A it's a 7W mini panel which is basically just there to stop the coach battery totally depleting if the rig is standing unpowered.

I'm looking to replace my setup with 200W of panel and 200AH of LiFePo4 batteries. Estimating with charge controller and the labor that'll be around $3K - $3.5K.

[Booner]

IMTank said........ Our unit also has some sort of small battery solar charger integrated somehow. I am having a tough time locating information on the our system to figure out how to begin.........

Hello IMTank
I seem to remember reading that on top of your rv they put a small solar panel to trickle charge your house battery. The panel may not be much bigger than a 5 or 10 watts panel, not big enough so a charge controller is required. it all of this is true, then I don't know if the existing wiring is of a sufficient size to handle a larger panel, say a 100 or 150 watt panel. Of course, if you did go to a large panel, then a charge controller would be needed.

As I haven't received word yet that my unit (23A) is ready yet, so what I said about the small trickle charge panel is from my memory, so bear that in mind.

I hope you have many enjoyable years with your unit.

-Booner

[626OhanaCA]

fadumpt wrote:
626OhanaCA, out of curiosity for this thread. Were any of the issues that came up covered by El Monte? How useful is their included warranty?

I have not used any of the included warrant. The leak was easily fixed with some new caulking and tightening the shower drain plumming. The co2 and lp alarm I just replaced due to the time it would have taken to drive to El Monte and pick up would have been a pain and it was worth the money for me just to replace it. We had our second trip planned in less than two weeks later. The latches were cheap and not a big deal for me to replace. Mostly I did not do it out of time constraints of our work and sons school starting.

We did buy the tire warranty and are still waiting to hear back from the company about them paying us back for the replacement tires. El Monte had not got them the paperwork yet. I was told it can take up to 75 days for them to get the paperwork from them and then have to wait for them to refund us. Ill follow up when anything changes with the tires. But hopefully soon it gets taken care of.

[zachcycles]

IMTank wrote:
Good afternoon, we recently purchased a 2016 Thor Majestic 23A from Cruise America. One of the first things I would like to do is upgrade the battery system, including the 1. battery monitor and 2. going to a lithium battery.

My former rental is from Camping World and is a Thor Freedom Elite... they are pretty much the same as you Majestic. I just upgraded to Li battery(s) last spring. It was spendy. It hurt a bit and I've yet to add the second battery. I immediately added the Victron battery monitor system which calculates what you have used and what is left based on your usage. The little light panel or even a volt meter that works ok on flooded cells is useless for Li. I did not immediately change my converter to Li capable. It charged the battery fairly well but never completely to 100%, usually stopped charging around 90% and took it's time doing it. I saved my pennies and upgraded the converter the first of summer and wow, what a difference! From 0 charge to full charge 100% in 2 hours! There is a bunch of dated and just plain bad info out there... a bunch of assumptions also... the technology is changing rapidly so be sure to contact a battery supplier directly. I went with Battleborn and they were great answering questions and making recommendations based on what I had and what I wanted. Do your own research and beware the naysayers, there are many but Li is the wave of the future IMO...

[fadumpt]

626OhanaCA, out of curiosity for this thread. Were any of the issues that came up covered by El Monte? How useful is their included warranty?

[626OhanaCA]

Hello everyone,

I wanted to follow up after our first trip in our 2018 Coachman Leprechaun 32 ft former El Monte RV rental. We ended up taking a 16 day shake down cruise with 5 people on board though 7 western states. We did not originally plan to go out like that but with all the problems of getting items needed for the RV that how it needed to happen. I would suggest to anyone to take a short trip for a shake down to get to know your systems before cramming people and gear in a small space for that long.

So a lot of things on this trip did not break and held up great. After hearing some people complain about the power in the V-10, I have to disagree. Yes it did slow down on steep grades but i was still passing some small cars going up the hills. I was impressed how mechanically things held up. There may be some suspension upgrades in the future, but when I figured out where to have the ride rite inflated to it helped a ton with ride and passing big rigs.

Also all the main systems worked as expected with no problems. The only system we did not use was the heater. The only odd thing is the level sensors for the black and grey always reading 1/3 full(worked when purchased). They do seem to work right other wise.

Now the things that broke, We had two tires go. One complete blow out (boom sound) and one starting to come apart. Both were inner rear tires. I looked too quickly when buying and thought everything looked good.I noticed that the inner tires were a different tread pattern but looked new. Found out after the second tire they were over 5 years old by the date code.

Next thing that broke was the CO2 and LP alarm failed (low voltage ) in the middle of the night. Fun was had by everyone that night. Researching the problem found this was common with this and got a replacement at Wal-Mart.

We had a water leak coming from under the shower. Caused by bad caulking and a loose drain connection.

Then the last thing is the drawer catches. This is going to be a on going issue as they are plastic and i am going to be changing them as they break. Unfortunately my father in law didn't see one of the slider drawers open that are under the bench of the dinette and kicked it breaking the drawer.

One thing we are definitely changing are the faucets. They work but are way too close to the sink basin causing water to splash everywhere. We did change the shower head before leaving to a oxegenetics one and everyone did like that.

So we are still glad we got our former rental but would definitely recommend looking at all the tires to make sure they are all new and matched. And maybe see if you can get them to replace all the latches to metal to save headaches in the future. Also buy a TPMS trust me I am now a believer in these. I think it would have warned me on the first tire blow out. I feel better now seeing the pressures and temperatures of the tires now.

[IAMICHABOD]

IMTank wrote:
Good afternoon, we recently purchased a 2016 Thor Majestic 23A from Cruise America. One of the first things I would like to do is upgrade the battery system, including the 1. battery monitor and 2. going to a lithium battery. Our unit also has some sort of small battery solar charger integrated somehow. I am having a tough time locating information on the our system to figure out how to begin- has anyone else with Majestic upgraded their system? Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello IMTank
Welcome to the Forum and the Former Rental Owners Club..I will put you on the books as #124

I see no one has come back to answer your questions but they may be along soon,keep checking.

I did find one post that may be of help to you on the solar charger.

This Link May Help

I hope that this helps and Have fun with that RV. Come on back and tell us what has been done or any other mods you make.

[IMTank]

Good afternoon, we recently purchased a 2016 Thor Majestic 23A from Cruise America. One of the first things I would like to do is upgrade the battery system, including the 1. battery monitor and 2. going to a lithium battery. Our unit also has some sort of small battery solar charger integrated somehow. I am having a tough time locating information on the our system to figure out how to begin- has anyone else with Majestic upgraded their system? Thanks in advance for your help.

[Booner]

MtnBike and Ich,

Thanks for the ideas and photo's.
I think I said this before, but I think I'll head down to my buddies place in Colo Springs and borrow his saber saw and do some modifying before I take the RV up into the mountains. Cutting the back out of the dinette booth looks pretty simple, and easy to convert back to a usable seat if needed.

As far as a bed goes, I think the dinette probably converts to a rather short bed, probably good only for kids and dogs. I'm pretty sure I won't be using it.

Thanks again to both of you.

[IAMICHABOD]

Great pictures,it looks like it can be done as it was Done on mine

One thing that Fleetwood did on theirs is that they made a cutout in the dinette seat back so the drivers seat could be relined more.

Now I know how that all looks on the CA models I will archive this for future reference,good job

[MtnBikeMarty]

Booner,
Here's my CA 27G with the dinette seat cushion removed.


Here's below the seat, sorry it's dirtier than I thought, but I never open this up... shows the back of the fuse box and the storage tube for the table leg.


And finally the driver's seat leaned back.

Hope it helps,
MtnBikeMarty

[MtnBikeMarty]

Booner wrote:
MtnBikeMarty--

I called a couple of the companies that sell the rotating bases and asked them why they didn't list and Ford bases past model year 2008 or so. The basic response from the sales people didn't know, but I suspect it has something to do with the airbags. I know Fords have tight cabins but there should be something available.
Then I thought I'm doing it wrong, instead of looking at a class C RV, I should look for a Ford E350 truck and I found a seat base from the Sportsmobile company that would fit, but the price was around $350.

I can wait until I get the unit and take my own measurements. I've modified several vans into campers so I know it can be done, all it may take is a cutting torch, a good drill, and a little creativity.

I'm more concerned in getting a little more recline in the drivers seat. It could be an awful long trip back to Missouri if I have to sit so close to the steering wheel. I have a friend who lives down in Colorado Springs with a pretty good shop and a lot of tools, so that may be my first trip and modification. He used to have an RV so he and I can go over my unit and fix some of the problems that CA don't address.

Booner,

I just got back from a week long trip to San Diego, with plenty of time to look at the dinette area, setting it up in the morning and putting down at night so the dogs could sleep on it. Anyway, I was thinking it would be somewhat simple to cut the dinning seat back, leave the seat bottom box intact with the fusebox and table pole holder, and yet your driver's seat would recline way back while you're driving, I don't have that problem at 5'-10". Then when parked you could install some hinges or brackets so that the dinette seat could be re-installed and the driver's seat tilted back up. I got thinking of doing something like that if I get the rotating base for the driver's seat.

If I get a chance today, I'll take a couple pictures of mine, so you can see what you're up against.
MtnBikeMarty

[texasvwnut]

Good luck! Swing back by if you have any questions. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here.

[TVO]

I read all 124 pages. Discouraging at first with Rangers and whatnot saying they would never buy a rental, but I stuck with it looking for any negative reviews. But it all seems to be pretty positive, thanks for all your input. So now I have decided to drive to Bay Area next week to look at a 28a from CA. We are planning on a full country trip while my 10 boy is distance learning. I’m a noob so the simplicity of the layout and the year of the rig for the price are what I was looking for. I will keep in touch.

Thanks again everyone.