Rust Around Basement Doors on Power Bridge Chassis

[vfrmarc]

Looking at trading my 2013 Gasser with trailer style basement doors for a 2014 Diesel Pusher on a Power Bridge Chassis. When examining the basements noticed lots of surface rust near the bottom hinges on almost all the basement swing doors.

My current coach doesn't have that issue, just wondering if it is a paint touch up maintenance issue or a sign of lots of salty road driving. The areas in question are exposed to mother nature the basements themselves have good seals and look fine. Coach has less then 20K miles on it. The jacks and springs also look real rusty.

[way2roll]

vfrmarc wrote:
I didn't crawl underneath the coach to give it an overall look. I have gone under my coach on a creeper for maintenance and did not notice anywhere near as much rust and we live in the heart of the rust belt. My coach is a fairly simple 34 foot Class A on a F53 Chassis.

At this point it is all for moot as they offered such an insulting amount on trade-in value that it won't happen. They recently lowered the price of the 2014 by $20,000.00 so they may have already factored its less then "average" condition into the price.

Time to look in a different direction.

Good call. As with all vehicles you won't get near what your coach is worth on a trade. every MH I have ever owned I sold privately to move on to the next one. It can take a while, but if it's priced right it will move. The only advantage I ever saw to trading was it speeds things up.

[vfrmarc]

I didn't crawl underneath the coach to give it an overall look. I have gone under my coach on a creeper for maintenance and did not notice anywhere near as much rust and we live in the heart of the rust belt. My coach is a fairly simple 34 foot Class A on a F53 Chassis.

At this point it is all for moot as they offered such an insulting amount on trade-in value that it won't happen. They recently lowered the price of the 2014 by $20,000.00 so they may have already factored its less then "average" condition into the price.

Time to look in a different direction.

[chuckftboy]

Sometimes its salt air, sometimes road salt and sometimes it the lack of care by the coach builder, not prepping the metal corectly. I've seen rust on the chassis frames on new coaches before. Surface rust can be delt with though.

[Chainwright]

vfrmarc wrote:
Looking at trading my 2013 Gasser with trailer style basement doors for a 2014 Diesel Pusher on a Power Bridge Chassis. When examining the basements noticed lots of surface rust near the bottom hinges on almost all the basement swing doors.

My current coach doesn't have that issue, just wondering if it is a paint touch up maintenance issue or a sign of lots of salty road driving. The areas in question are exposed to mother nature the basements themselves have good seals and look fine. Coach has less then 20K miles on it. The jacks and springs also look real rusty.

I think your intuition is Correct: Salt. Hence poor maintenance (by previous owner). As you know up north you put salt on the roads to make them safer. The downside is that (as you know) it eats anything metal on your vehicle. BUT if you (like us) go to the coast a lot that Salt isn't your friend either. When we went to the coast the 1st time (we were 50 yrds from the beach)I noticed Rust forming around my Chrome Rim bolts after 2 nights there. I wiped most of the exposed metal down the best I could, but when we got back home, I took that Power washer and hosed down any exposed metal and got under that chassis and power washed it. When I got on my roof I ran my finger across part of the roof, my finger was full of salt film and sand, so fine you couldn't really see it with the naked eye. Anyway, make sure you give your RV's a thorough washing when you come back from the coast. If you live at the coast, I'd recommend a thorough wash at least once a week. Experts say to wash your car every 2 weeks, if you live in a salty evironment you should wash it more. Hope this helps a lil.