Our Daughter and her Hubby made a deal on a big 5th wheel trailer yesterday at our local RV establishment. They agreed on the price and the rate. This was supported by an email from the dealership.

She called us to tell us the 'happy' news and we jumped in our car to check it out. The trailer was locked and had a SOLD sign in the window with their names on it.

A few hours later, they called and said the price went up by $5,000 and the rate went up by nearly 2%.

Now the deal was made over the phone and nothing was signed so I know they have nothing to go back on other then the email with the original details.

I suspect they'll look elsewhere.

Nothing like a car/trailer/real estate salesman.

Mike

RV salesman are the worst. They receive their training working in Used Car sales, then OJT selling windows and/or siding to low income home owners.

They will tell you that your 8 year old F150 CAN tow that new 40 foot, 5 slide out 5th wheel trailer, NO PROBLEM!

And I'd tell them "congrats Skippy, you just lost a sale."

Just lost a $15K commission because of greed for another $8K.

Yep. A lot of RV dealerships are like that. Until you have signed the sales contract with the details of the sale, they can and will change the Terms of Sale with you. Someone probably came in on their lot and offered more money for the floor plan. Summer time is the worse time to buy an RV, 5th wheel or travel trailer. Demand is high. Sale reps are plain a**holes. When we purchased or Class C, we drove 760 miles roundtrip 3x to Meza, AZ. First to check the RV, second to put deposit and showed them the check from my credit union (had it financed from credit union), third trip was to pick it up. The entire process was horrible. But I got everything in writing.

Tell your daughter not to be frustrated. That experience with that dealership tells how they will be treated once they need to come diwn for service. Last advice, when they find the next 5th wheel they like, go over the PDI (pre delivery inspection) with a fine tooth comb. I mean, go over everything. Google RV PDI check list. That should give them and idea on what to look for. Make a list of whatever they find that are faulty or damaged. Have dealership fix them first, then sign off on teh PDI. They WILL promise you that they will fix them once you take ownership. Then they will have to deal with the months of waiting to fix the issues.

Good luck for the next 5th wheel unit. They will have fun knce they pick the right one. We are 4 weeks away from our second summer road trip with our RV. Spent the last 4 summers with 18ft Travel Trailer. 5th wheelers are nice rig.

If it is a sellers market at the moment, they probably should have rushed down to sign papers on it. Obviously when they put a sign on it, it only means "going once, going twice...". There's probably at least one other salesman involved. Sounds like the standard procedure is to keep selling the same unit higher and higher if you can until papers are actually signed.

Scuzzy salesmen. There are a few honorable ones out there but they can be really hard to find.

quote:

Originally posted by Leemur:
And I'd tell them "congrats Skippy, you just lost a sale."

In the process of walking out on a crooked stealership in Memphis several years back, I called the smug sales manager "Skippy." He tried to bow up on me, but I was a good foot taller and wider so he settled pretty quickly. Very effective name sometimes, Skippy.

New rigs take a huge depreciation hit and most have long punch lists to get everything sorted.

They might want to shop the used market to save a bunch of money and aggravation.

RVtrader.com

You really need to do research when buying either a car or and RV these days. Salesman are worse in an RV dealership I believe. They dress casual in Polo shirts and Dockers but are still crooks. I am on my 4th new RV bought from a dealership. A few years back we where at dealership and asked for a salesman that had sold us a Class C several years earlier. The salesman was no longer working there but one salesman knew him and told us that the guy was such a good salesman, that he could sell you a nickel for a dime. Just can't trust them!

My wife and I went to an RV dealer a couple months ago and found one with a floor plan we really liked, it was a toy hauler.
The dealer told us that we had to put a lot of money down or it could be sold. At least he was up front with us.
We did not want to rush into it. We wanted to check out the toy hauler manufacturers reputation.
We did and did not want to buy that one. The dealer told us that they were selling them so fast and getting them in so slowly that finding the one we want would get tougher as the summer goes on. That is true we found out.

It is a sellers market for new RV's right now but most of these companies have very thin margins. Many will not survive the next down cycle.

Born Free closed down last week.

If I was shopping for a new unit I'd wait until late fall or early winter. This is prime time right now. Manufacturers are grinding out new rigs as fast as they can, probably at the expense of quality control.

You can pick up a used late model RV along the Gulf coast for a song right now, over 400,000 good paying oil jobs lost in the past 2 years. Boats and motorcycles as well. ALL TOYS MUST GO should be the motto.

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Yarchin:
If I was shopping for a new unit I'd wait until late fall or early winter. This is prime time right now. Manufacturers are grinding out new rigs as fast as they can, probably at the expense of quality control.

This is so true. We have our Class C RV for over a year now. After couple of trips, 3 windows started leaking. RV spent 4 months (back and forth) at Camping World. The "partially" fixed the problem. I filed complaints all the way to their corporate office. Filed complaint with Better Business Bureau-Chicago. Nothing happened. I am a member of couple of RV forums for the purpose of gaining knowledge about RVing. You should see all the posts about complaints regarding quality control from various manufacturers. RV, travel trailer and 5th wheelers are different when it comes to warranty and industry standard. MOST RVs only carry a 1 year warranty. Why is that? Simple. RVs are like house on wheels. The more you drive, the sealants of the connections (walls, windows, etc.) start to deteriorate. And the manufacturers knows that.

We've bounced around the thoughts of a travel trailer or a class C. One of the main reasons that holds us back is the quality issues we hear from friends that have bought in the last few years.

I'm the OP and our daughter will be returning today from their first trip in the 5th wheeler they finally managed to strike a deal on. I am looking forward so seeing their list of problems in a $55,000 toy hauler.

Mike

I have a friend who works at an rv place as a transporter and told me if I ever decide to get a used 5th wheel or whatever that has pull outs or not, prior to signing, have the salesman get a hose and let water run all over it for a while. He said you would be amazed at how many of them,even new ones, have leaks that cannot be fixed without spending a ton of money. I never thought about that until he told me.

quote:

Originally posted by mcrimm:
We've bounced around the thoughts of a travel trailer or a class C. One of the main reasons that holds us back is the quality issues we hear from friends that have bought in the last few years.

I'm the OP and our daughter will be returning today from their first trip in the 5th wheeler they finally managed to strike a deal on. I am looking forward so seeing their list of problems in a $55,000 toy hauler.

Mike

Tires. The manufactures in that price range use cheap tires. I'm talking $60 each that weigh 35 pounds in an ST235/85R16. Mine lasted from Indiana to the dealer in Texas to Florida, then we lost one on our last of five in-state trips before our long summer trip. I had planned on replacing them after that trip and before the summer one. The new tires are made in the USA Goodyear G614 RST LT235/85R16 that weigh close to 60 pounds each and cost over $300 a piece.

I have the weigh tickets that show we only had 11,700 on the trailer axles. The old tires were rated for 3,520 pounds each and the axles are 7,000 pound axles so we were not overloaded.

quote:

Originally posted by ador:

quote:

Originally posted by Jeff Yarchin:
If I was shopping for a new unit I'd wait until late fall or early winter. This is prime time right now. Manufacturers are grinding out new rigs as fast as they can, probably at the expense of quality control.

This is so true. We have our Class C RV for over a year now. After couple of trips, 3 windows started leaking. RV spent 4 months (back and forth) at Camping World. The "partially" fixed the problem. I filed complaints all the way to their corporate office. Filed complaint with Better Business Bureau-Chicago. Nothing happened. I am a member of couple of RV forums for the purpose of gaining knowledge about RVing. You should see all the posts about complaints regarding quality control from various manufacturers. RV, travel trailer and 5th wheelers are different when it comes to warranty and industry standard. MOST RVs only carry a 1 year warranty. Why is that? Simple. RVs are like house on wheels. The more you drive, the sealants of the connections (walls, windows, etc.) start to deteriorate. And the manufacturers knows that.

If you need to seal re-caulk any seams on an RV or 5th wheel, buy some 3M 5200 (they even sell it at Home Depot). It will seal the windows and seams for a very very long time and bumps and driving will not effect it providing you clean the surface before applying. DO NOT use on anything you need to remove fairly often as it is a bear to cut through and remove it. It has been the go to caulk on boats and yachts for decades for permanent or near permanent bonds.....

quote:

If you need to seal re-caulk any seams on an RV or 5th wheel, buy some 3M 5200...

I not any sort of expert, I've only owned a few boats and RVs, but do not use 5200 on anything you might want or need to take apart. RVs are not boats and aren't built any where near as sturdy as boats. 5200 is an adhesive not a caulk. For example, on boats it is used to permanently bond decks to hulls.

3M's 4200 maybe, but really there are plenty of RV specifc sealants and caulks the are compatible with RV roof membranes and other materials used in RVs.

On another note, found something else on our new 5th wheel that doesn't work, the fueling station. Shame on me for not checking it during the PDI, but I didn't want to put gas in the tank that I wasn't going to use for 6 months. I put 10 gallons in on the way to Michigan and tried to fill a lawn mower yesterday. The pump runs, but nothing but air comes out of the nozzle. I'm guessing the pickup is not right.