A year has past and we were able to enjoy some 5th wheeling adventures that have left good memories and and fun thoughts of the future. As you might have experienced with a car or house purchase, once you have had them a while you discover things you wish you had and some things you wish you did not. That is true of an RV as well. So what did we do, we went to the first RV show of the year to see what was out there for our future RVing needs (needs is used loosely, more of a want). It is always fun to go to these places and see all the new goodies you would love to have if you had no $$ considerations. :-) However, since we do have money considerations, we are grounded and could see where in a few more years we could buy a newer used model than the one we currently have. The RV show did put a bug in us for the quest to find something we would love to have. We discovered that we really wanted a bunk house in our next 5th wheel and an outdoor kitchen might actually be a good thing.
Just for fun we scoured the internet to see what was on the used market. This was kind of to see what was available and what might be around at a good price point in a few years when we were ready to make another purchase. What we found was the opportunity to MAYBE make something happen this year. We found that a bunkhouse model was not far from our reach, after selling our current 5th wheel. We took a day and went to a lot not far from us to see a model that we thought might work for us. The layout was more in line with what we were wanting and the price was decent enough. It was good to look at because we found the same model, a year newer in OKC and for 1k less. When we got home from our excursion, Cherilyn called the place in OKC to inquire about the model they had for sale. To our surprise, the salesman told her that it was not what she would want. The pictures on the net did not show it but it had some damage. Cherilyn asked if he would take some pictures and send them to us so we could decide if we had the ability to do the repair work.
Here are the pictures we saw before we knew of the damage
Saturday, we received the pictures. Not only did it look to Cherilyn like we could do the work, the damage looked to take a significant amount off the price and that was REALLY intriguing to Cherilyn.
Here is what we found out
Someone had purchased the RV a week earlier and after leaving the lot, the siding pealed back and they simply returned to the dealer and said we cannot have this and they were given their money back. Evidently there was a leak that was never properly repaired and this is what happened. Water caused the rot and the wood just gave way when the last person got up to speed. Their misfortune has turned into our new project.
We drove to OKC after church on Sunday and stayed with our good friends - shout out to Jason and Trudi for putting us up and watching the girls while we worked the deal! :-) Monday morning we drove to the dealer and after looking at the RV, we decided we could handle the project. We negotiated a GREAT deal and the team there screwed and taped up the siding so we could drive home.
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| We need a dealer license now! LOL |
PS - just to let you know, if money was no object, I would want to purchase an Open Range, check them out, absolutely top of the line in quality and innovation.
Update June 3 2013: The 5th wheel is complete to the stage of being able to use it, just a few details to handle. Pics of the remodel are HERE
