Buying travel trailer by phone w/o visiting dealership?

[saguaro]

An acquaintance recently bought a small travel trailer at a dealership 300+ miles away. He is happy with the trailer and happy with the dealership. I've decided I want one too and I know all the desired options. That, said, is there any reason I need to make this overnight trip just to make the deal. Of course I realize I would need to have in hand a copy of the invoice before I sent any payments, but other than that what do I need to watch out for? Would appreciate your insight on both pros and cons. Thanks ahead of time for your wisdom and input. saguaro

[Huntindog]

drsteve wrote:

73guna wrote:
Bought my tt 600+ miles away saving around $3000.
Had some minor warranty work local dealers were unwilling to do.
Keep in mind local dealers are not obligated to do your warranty work if not purchased from them.

Somewhat OT, but the reason don't like doing warranty work is that the factory makes it a PITA for the dealer. Any significant repair must be preapproved by the factory, and there is often a wait for parts. The customer wants to go camping, so now they have a guy calling wanting to know what the holdup is. Also, they will get paid what the factory deems sufficient regardless of the time spent... it's not like taking your Ford or Chevy in for warranty work.

That wasn't my experience.
When I bought my Sabre (a Forest River Company) in 2010 in Sylvania Ohio. After doing the paperwork, the power jack had a problem. It was a different brand than the Atwood I had on my previous TT, so I asked them if I could upgrade to another Atwood if I paid the difference. They agreed. They did not have what I wanted in stock, so they set me up with a hand crank jack for the trip home, and said they would ship the Atwood to me.
We stopped off to tour the factory, then headed back to Phoenix. at our first nights camp, we were outside looking it over, and noticed a problem with the fridge. I immeadiatly thought we were going to have to return to the selling dealer.. Gave them a call. and they wanted to know our route home, so they could set up the service for us enroute.

IIRC, it was in Springfield IL.
When we arrived, this dealer had an open bay reserved for us. Two techs got right to work, and we were back on the road in 30 minutes!
It really felt like a NASCAR pit stop.
3 days later we made it home, and the Atwood jack arrived 6 hours later.

[Grit_dog]

frankgibbons1947 wrote:
A class C motorhome is a perfect option for those who want something roomier than the tiny class B but prefer a truck-like driving experience rather than the bus-like setup of class A.

Here is an article that shared good information about small travel trailer that you can check.

https://rvingreviews.com/smallest-rv-with-shower-toilet/

^ Not a thread ressurection, just an early to rise spammer named frankgibbons.....if that's even your real name "Jake from State Farm!" Lol

[drsteve]

73guna wrote:
Bought my tt 600+ miles away saving around $3000.
Had some minor warranty work local dealers were unwilling to do.
Keep in mind local dealers are not obligated to do your warranty work if not purchased from them.

Somewhat OT, but the reason don't like doing warranty work is that the factory makes it a PITA for the dealer. Any significant repair must be preapproved by the factory, and there is often a wait for parts. The customer wants to go camping, so now they have a guy calling wanting to know what the holdup is. Also, they will get paid what the factory deems sufficient regardless of the time spent... it's not like taking your Ford or Chevy in for warranty work.

[deltabravo]

HOLY THREAD resurrection BATMAN.
The original post was: 03/17/19 12:05pm

[Barbwire_Blues]

I just bought my new TT though email and text. Leaving Jan 3rd to go full time. The whole transaction was painless. Drove over 600 miles with my trade in and back home the my new one the next day. I didn’t mind the trip because I got exactly what I wanted.

[B_O__Plenty]

I bought my current fiver new from a dealer over the internet. I was about 300 miles away. It was the exact model and had the options I wanted. Made the deal over the computer, went and did a PDI, paid for it and took it home. Whole deal was over in 2-3 hours. 100% satisfied and I saved thousands over the local stealers.
B.O.

[Huntindog]

Gdetrailer wrote:
I am simply amazed and often shocked at just how much effort folks put into finding "the ideal" RV for a special layout or a special deal.

Its a RV folks, basically a SHELTER from weather, a place to lay your head for the night, sometimes a place to cook a meal inside and sometimes a place to get out of the rain, snow, heat, cold..

I would not ever consider driving 100 miles or even 50 miles for a RV, they are a commodity, they are cheaply made for a cheap audience, they are readily available pretty much anywhere you can drive to within 50 miles one way for most folks. Dealerships are everywhere, used ones all over the place also..

Most folks do not keep a RV for long, often suffering from the "super size mentality..

Kind of reminds me of a friend of mine, spent 4 yrs designing the perfect home then finding a builder then having his "dream house" built.. Spent $50K on the ideal 1/2 acre lot in just the right neighborhood and $450K on the house.. 5yrs down the road and ended up in a divorce, lost the house to now ex and kids.. Now lives in a $400 per month shoe box apartment and has another 10 yrs to pay of the mortgage on the ex wifes house..

Find a RV that you can live with that is close at hand and move on.. Folks put way to much effort into a mobile shoe box..

Well,,,, I spend a LOT of time in my TT. Probably over 2 monthes every year. I looked for about 2 years to find what I wanted for our 3rd TT... And, was not impressed enough with what I was seeing to sell #2, for a new one not much different than what I already had.

Then one night on the web, I found it. My present TT. Setup with two 42 gallon black tanks and two 42 gallon grey tanks. A heated underbelly, with the dump valves heated as well. 3 TVs, and a larger fridge.
This was what I had been looking for.

With this TT I can now boondock in remote locations for longer periods, in style.

I have never been sorry I made the purchase.
And I got a really good deal on it to boot.
Sold my ten year old #2 on the first day for more than half of what I paid for it new...Had two backup buyers for it as well.

That money made a huge dent in the price of the new one.

But hey, as I always say.... It is your money, your choice.

Conversely.. It is my money and my choice.

[deltabravo]

saguaro wrote:
Of course I realize I would need to have in hand a copy of the invoice before I sent any payments, but other than that what do I need to watch out for?

Can you elaborate a little on this statement?

Are you planning on financing it?
Paying cash?

If you are financing it at the dealer, you likwly have to be present to sign their bank paperwork.

You can arrange your own financing too and have the daler fax / email over a purchase agreement to the bank, the bank can either mail a check or you can take it to the dealer.

[Waunacamper]

Bought a trailer over the phone from a dealer 450 miles away. Got a super deal and they were great to work with. They let us camp in there lot for a night and next morning they fixed everything we ask them to. Sold it 3 years later for same price we paid for it. Nothing wrong with trailer, floorplan just didn't work like we thought. Bought an Outdoors RV over the phone from a dealer in Idaho 1400 miles away. Treated us great, drove out to get it and camped our way home. We did have an issue with the slide on the ORV, called service, they sent parts and I fixed myself. Both deals were great, would do again.

[Gdetrailer]

I am simply amazed and often shocked at just how much effort folks put into finding "the ideal" RV for a special layout or a special deal.

Its a RV folks, basically a SHELTER from weather, a place to lay your head for the night, sometimes a place to cook a meal inside and sometimes a place to get out of the rain, snow, heat, cold..

I would not ever consider driving 100 miles or even 50 miles for a RV, they are a commodity, they are cheaply made for a cheap audience, they are readily available pretty much anywhere you can drive to within 50 miles one way for most folks. Dealerships are everywhere, used ones all over the place also..

Most folks do not keep a RV for long, often suffering from the "super size mentality..

Kind of reminds me of a friend of mine, spent 4 yrs designing the perfect home then finding a builder then having his "dream house" built.. Spent $50K on the ideal 1/2 acre lot in just the right neighborhood and $450K on the house.. 5yrs down the road and ended up in a divorce, lost the house to now ex and kids.. Now lives in a $400 per month shoe box apartment and has another 10 yrs to pay of the mortgage on the ex wifes house..

Find a RV that you can live with that is close at hand and move on.. Folks put way to much effort into a mobile shoe box..

[Huntindog]

I bought the TT in my signature from All American Coach in Sylvania Ohio.
It was a very good transaction. There were a couple of things that needed taken care of. A support strut for the bed had popped off it's pin. Fixed immeadiatly.
And a bigger problem with the special order jack I had requested.
It had arrived with a defective light switch, and they couldn't get one locally. They had already ordered a replacement jack, but it wouldn't arrive in time for my return trip back tho Phoenix AZ the next day. So it was agreed that the new jack would be shipped to me with a return label for the defective one.

When hitching up, the jack locked up in the extended position as it was on it's way down.

At this point I had little faith in that brand of jack, and asked if I could swap it for a Atwood, as my last one was still working at 10 years of age. I would pay the price difference (around 60.00) and it would be shipped to me. They put a hand crank jack on it to get me home.
The new jack arrived at my home about 6 hours after I did!

A totally fair solution to a unexpected problem.

So yes I would do it again.
I saved around 10K and had a great experience, and got to see a lot of the country.

[Gjac]

To me a 300 mile trip for the right TT or the right price is nothing especially if you know what you want and are buying new. The down side is after you inspect it and find a number of things to be fixed be prepared to either stay in a hotel several days or return home until the TT is fixed and you have to make the trip again. The other downside is your local dealer my not want to do warranty work if you did not buy it from them. If you can find what you want locally see if your local dealer will match the price.

[frankgibbons194]

A class C motorhome is a perfect option for those who want something roomier than the tiny class B but prefer a truck-like driving experience rather than the bus-like setup of class A.

Here is an article that shared good information about small travel trailer that you can check.

https://rvingreviews.com/smallest-rv-with-shower-toilet/

[CincyGus]

I bought my new camper this past fall over the phone, 90+ miles from home. Negotiated the price, My trade in value and my agreement to purchase pending my PDI and inspection and their inspection of my trailer. I informed them I would come up on Friday (This was a Tuesday) and expect the camper to be plugged in, slides extended, water tank full with a battery pack hooked up so I could test 12 volt items with shore power unplugged.

I did a roof inspection, ran all the sinks, the shower and toilets multiple times, test all appliances, fridge, AC, furnace, etc. Crawled underneath checked for leaks, loose coroplast, any issues.

I found a couple wires dangling that I made them zip tie up securely and a couple of the bedroom doors seemed borderline out of adjustment. Other than that, found no issues.

Signed the paperwork, went to the bank to get a certified check and paid cash for the balance.

The reason I bought there and not a dealership that is 5 miles from my home is they were about 5K cheaper on a camper that had more optional equipment on it than the local one. I got fiberglass sides, electric stabilizers, a roof ladder, 11cf residential fridge on an inverter for $5000.00 less than the local dealer. Since I'm fairly handy and not likely to take it back to the dealership for service unless it's something major, I felt it a good risk/reward decision. Would likely take it to the local dealership if I do have an issue as they have a much larger service department, I have bought 2 previous campers there and my current truck so I'm feeling pretty good about them taking good care of me.