5th wheel purchase pitfalls???

[Kennyg]

First time buyer! Am considering purchasing a 41 foot 2017 fifth wheel from owner. What should I be aware of and how do I handle the exchange of monies?
The price issue is not a problem but the process is unknown to me. Ahy advise would surely be appreciated.

[Veebyes]

Next to buying a house buying a RV is a big purchase. A house is an investment. A RV is a toy.

Lots of people buy RVs without doing research on what they need. Too often emotion puts the money down. People are always buying mistakes hence the high turnover of RVs for so many.

To the OP, do your research starting with just what will be your use of the thing. The couple we bought out 5er & truck from thought it was a great idea at the time. They bought top end Alpenlite 34'5er & a very nice dually to pull it. This was their very first RV purchase. They planned to fulltime with it. Six months later they wanted out. They wanted out in the worst way. The lifestyle was not for them. They had not done the research of what it was all about. Didn't even rent one for a sample trip.

That mistake cost them dearly. Don't be that couple.

[TXiceman]

One campground we have stayed at near Houston, we have seen a number of people rent a campsite for one day and pull the trailer over and show a potential buyer how to set the trailer up and demonstrate that all the systems work. Our daughter and son-in-law did this to demonstrate the trailer they were selling to an out-of-town buyer.

Ken

[time2roll]

Get a loan from your bank and they will handle the paperwork and verify legit title or work with the sellers bank to make sure all is paid and transferred.
Drag the whole works to your bank for the transaction.
Pay it off in 30 days if you don't want a loan.

+1 for an inspection and +1 that it seems large for a first timer.

I assume you have a dually one-ton or better.

[valhalla360]

hornet28 wrote:

Thermoguy wrote:

hornet28 wrote:

I guess you guys don't understand how inspections work - either the buyer has a mobile tech come and look it over or the buyer arranges for the seller to deliver it to a local service / repair center. You are right that you should not give a person the trailer and say see you tomorrow, but as a buyer, you want to know your not purchasing someone's problem. I didn't have mine inspected and it cost me about $3K in issues that weren't obvious. As a buyer, I would expect to pay a deposit on a condition of if it doesn't pass I'm not buying this thing.

If the person you are buying from is as rude and not willing to let you have it inspected, then don't buy from them - they are hiding something.

I said they can have it inspected or do it themselves as much as they want. If someone wants to consider me rude because it doesn't leave unless paid for, that's OK they aren't the only fish in the sea. When I bought our current 5er used I looked at and purchased it in less than 2 hrs. I don't dink around wasting peoples time

The point wasn't that you would hand them the keys and tell to have fun.

The idea was if YOU THE SELLER still have the truck, pay for a few gallons of fuel for the SELLER to pull it to a CAT scale and/or nearby campground (assuming the SELLER doesn't have a proper 50amp outlet at the storage location)

This would happen after making an offer contingent upon survey. If the SELLER refuses, that raises a lot of red flags. We aren't talking about a $2k hunter special. A 2017 41ft 5er is likely selling for north of $50k, so that's not a huge burden to finalize the sale...unless there is something to hide.

[hornet28]

Thermoguy wrote:

hornet28 wrote:

I guess you guys don't understand how inspections work - either the buyer has a mobile tech come and look it over or the buyer arranges for the seller to deliver it to a local service / repair center. You are right that you should not give a person the trailer and say see you tomorrow, but as a buyer, you want to know your not purchasing someone's problem. I didn't have mine inspected and it cost me about $3K in issues that weren't obvious. As a buyer, I would expect to pay a deposit on a condition of if it doesn't pass I'm not buying this thing.

If the person you are buying from is as rude and not willing to let you have it inspected, then don't buy from them - they are hiding something.

I said they can have it inspected or do it themselves as much as they want. If someone wants to consider me rude because it doesn't leave unless paid for, that's OK they aren't the only fish in the sea. When I bought our current 5er used I looked at and purchased it in less than 2 hrs. I don't dink around wasting peoples time

[afidel]

Skibane wrote:

Veebyes wrote:
What should you be aware of? You should be aware that 41' is one big rig.

Particularly for a first-time RV buyer.

Folks who are new to RVing tend to "go large" on their RV purchase, mostly because they can't visualize living in spaces any smaller than their current residence.

They also tend to want to duplicate every personal possession, and bring it along with them.

Besides having a capable truck to pull it, also big, you need to understand that there are many places that you might like to take it that you won't because of it's size.

About any private CG with FHU will accommodate you one way or another however many SPs, CPs, NPs & even BLM access will not. Size really does matter in this game & once you go over the 35-36' length site options rapidly decrease.

Yep.

In my observation, every 5 foot increase in RV length roughly halves the number of campsites capable of accommodating you.

For state and national campgrounds it's 85% of campgrounds (not spots!) at 35' or under, decreasing by 3-5% for each additional foot. If I had to guess if you looked at actual availability it would be closer to 10% decrease for each foot over 35 because while there might be some longer sites those probably fill faster than the average site.

[Thermoguy]

hornet28 wrote:

I can tell you for fact, you ain’t taking my trailer anywhere until you pay for it. You can have as many people as you want come look at, but it ain’t going anywhere.
I understand your point . But the trailer is only worth what someone is willing to pay.
If seller refuses inspection and ultimately the sale, I move on.
In the end if the trailer is worthwhile , we both suffer the loss.

I'm 100% behind what nickthehunter says. If I have a trailer for sale it's not leaving without being paid for in full. I'll let anyone inspect it or have it inspected to their hearts content but it's not leaving until I have cash in hand. If someone can't understand that in this day and age of scammers and thieves that's their problem not mine

I guess you guys don't understand how inspections work - either the buyer has a mobile tech come and look it over or the buyer arranges for the seller to deliver it to a local service / repair center. You are right that you should not give a person the trailer and say see you tomorrow, but as a buyer, you want to know your not purchasing someone's problem. I didn't have mine inspected and it cost me about $3K in issues that weren't obvious. As a buyer, I would expect to pay a deposit on a condition of if it doesn't pass I'm not buying this thing.

If the person you are buying from is as rude and not willing to let you have it inspected, then don't buy from them - they are hiding something.

[hornet28]

I can tell you for fact, you ain’t taking my trailer anywhere until you pay for it. You can have as many people as you want come look at, but it ain’t going anywhere.
I understand your point . But the trailer is only worth what someone is willing to pay.
If seller refuses inspection and ultimately the sale, I move on.
In the end if the trailer is worthwhile , we both suffer the loss.

I'm 100% behind what nickthehunter says. If I have a trailer for sale it's not leaving without being paid for in full. I'll let anyone inspect it or have it inspected to their hearts content but it's not leaving until I have cash in hand. If someone can't understand that in this day and age of scammers and thieves that's their problem not mine

[valhalla360]

As a newbie, if you don't have a very experienced friend to go along (and even then, they make talk a better game than reality), once you are ready to make an offer, include a requirement that it pass an inspection, then pay a mobile RV tech a couple hundred to give it a good once over. Make sure it includes operating every system.

Assuming, the seller still has the truck to pull it, consider including a swing by a local CAT scale and plugging in at an RV park with 50amp outlet for the inspection (at your cost of course)

Also, as someone else mentioned, make sure you have enough truck. A 41ft 5er can easily have 4-5,000lb pin weight, so even if the truck has sufficient tow rating, it may overload the truck. Assuming 25% of the GVWR as the pin weight to be on the safe side and don't forget to include the weight of the hitch, people and any other cargo in the truck.

[Lantley]

I understand your point . But the trailer is only worth what someone is willing to pay.
If seller refuses inspection and ultimately the sale, I move on.
In the end if the trailer is worthwhile , we both suffer the loss.

[nickthehunter]

Thermoguy wrote:
The only thing I did wrong when purchasing my 5th wheel was not having it inspected. There are mobile inspectors or you can take it to a local repair shop to inspect - if the seller won't allow you to do this, then there is something wrong with it and you are better off. You probably have to put money down, might be non refundable, but piece of mind is worth something.

As for payment, if your not paying cash, then the bank you are borrowing money from should be able to help. They do this all the time.

I can tell you for fact, you ain’t taking my trailer anywhere until you pay for it. You can have as many people as you want come look at, but it ain’t going anywhere.

[Skibane]

Veebyes wrote:
What should you be aware of? You should be aware that 41' is one big rig.

Particularly for a first-time RV buyer.

Folks who are new to RVing tend to "go large" on their RV purchase, mostly because they can't visualize living in spaces any smaller than their current residence.

They also tend to want to duplicate every personal possession, and bring it along with them.

Besides having a capable truck to pull it, also big, you need to understand that there are many places that you might like to take it that you won't because of it's size.

About any private CG with FHU will accommodate you one way or another however many SPs, CPs, NPs & even BLM access will not. Size really does matter in this game & once you go over the 35-36' length site options rapidly decrease.

Yep.

In my observation, every 5 foot increase in RV length roughly halves the number of campsites capable of accommodating you.

[Veebyes]

There are many ways to do it but here is the way we bought ours from a private seller.

Once price was set we got a negotiable check from our bank. We went together to the sellers bank & sat down with one of their officers who opened an escrow account. Our check went into it. The bank took out what the seller was owing on the loan. The bank gave us the title, which they had. The seller got the balance. The escrow account was closed.

Fifteen minutes without the small talk.

What should you be aware of? You should be aware that 41' is one big rig. Besides having a capable truck to pull it, also big, you need to understand that there are many places that you might like to take it that you won't because of it's size.

About any private CG with FHU will accommodate you one way or another however many SPs, CPs, NPs & even BLM access will not. Size really does matter in this game & once you go over the 35-36' length site options rapidly decrease.

Something to think about.

[ETCrockett]

In addition to inspecting the FW, you need to know the dry weight and maximum weight of FW when loaded with gear. Then make sure you have a tow vehicle that will comfortably handle the payload. Don't buy more than you can safely tow. Otherwise, you are going to be looking for a new truck also.