New Member With Big Plans

[Sunline Fan]

Pextron,

From my experiences, you will have a very hard time finding a '90's or '00's trailer with water damage. Believe me, they are out there, but they aren't advertised that way.

As I've found with Gary's experiences, when a newer trailer is totaled, it is usually more worth their time to just crush whatever's left in with a backhoe and junk it. Apparently the appliances and other parts just aren't worth the work to disassemble them, since after all there are quite a few screws holding these units together. In order to get one of these, you just really need to be at the right place at the right time in order to get the opportunity.

Any trailer with non-flood water damage and no accident damage will never be sold as such. There are rare cases, but in most cases people try to deny the fact that it has water damage in this generation unit. Something '80's or older, yes, you'll find them, and plentiful too.

So my suggestion to you is if you are stuck on finding a newer trailer like that (like if you are wanting to reuse appliances, etc.), you really should look at one (possibly an older one) with severe water damage to see the signs. Then you will know what to look for when you look at the newer ones so you can point it out to the owners and hopefully get a better price that way. That's how I bought the trailer I had before this one, I pointed out what was wrong with the trailer to the owner and got him way down in price. Unfortunately it had more wrong that was hidden, but I still came ahead when selling it, even after all the repairs.

So all in all, broaden your search and just know what to look for...

Jon

[pextron]

Originally Posted by Sunline Fan

Pextron,

From my experiences, you will have a very hard time finding a '90's or '00's trailer with water damage. Believe me, they are out there, but they aren't advertised that way.

As I've found with Gary's experiences, when a newer trailer is totaled, it is usually more worth their time to just crush whatever's left in with a backhoe and junk it. Apparently the appliances and other parts just aren't worth the work to disassemble them, since after all there are quite a few screws holding these units together. In order to get one of these, you just really need to be at the right place at the right time in order to get the opportunity.

Any trailer with non-flood water damage and no accident damage will never be sold as such. There are rare cases, but in most cases people try to deny the fact that it has water damage in this generation unit. Something '80's or older, yes, you'll find them, and plentiful too.

So my suggestion to you is if you are stuck on finding a newer trailer like that (like if you are wanting to reuse appliances, etc.), you really should look at one (possibly an older one) with severe water damage to see the signs. Then you will know what to look for when you look at the newer ones so you can point it out to the owners and hopefully get a better price that way. That's how I bought the trailer I had before this one, I pointed out what was wrong with the trailer to the owner and got him way down in price. Unfortunately it had more wrong that was hidden, but I still came ahead when selling it, even after all the repairs.

So all in all, broaden your search and just know what to look for...

Jon

I am somewhat insistent about finding one with known or admitted water damage from around the mid 90's or newer despite the fact that they are almost impossible to find in my price range. However, I've began to adapt my shopping strategy to something similar to what you are suggesting by removing any mention of price from my wanted ad's and seeing what turns up that way.

If the price is in the ball park, I will attempt to locate and identify any damage that is present (it usually is) and use that to try and negotiate a lower price. The only drawback to using this approach is that I have to be more careful about how far I travel to go look at them as to keep my fuel costs for wasted trips as low as possible.

Unfortunately, you are absolutely correct about sellers trying to conceal water damage to get more money, I've seen it far too many times. It's just a shame that there aren't more honest people in the world but like the old saying goes, you have to take the good with the bad.

Ultimately, I may have to increase or perhaps even double the amount I am willing to spend but would only consider doing so if the right travel trailer came along because if I were to spend much more, I may as well wait and drop $5k on a decent newer used unit (supposedly) with no water damage when I have the money.

At any rate, I am hopeful that the odds of finding one that suits my needs start to improve as winter approaches. Until then, I will continue searching.

[JohnB]

Hi Pextron

We did not ask but you stated waiting and you may have to drop $5K to get a decent newer one.

I may have missed it but are you only looking for a frame and running gear or do you want a usable TT that you can get some of the appliance/tanks and other usable parts out of as well?

Reason for asking is the frame and running gear. Axles, springs, brakes, hangers, and a raw frame is not that much cost new. Have you looked into just buying a new TT frame with axles and brakes? Then build up the rest yourself. There really is not a lot to a TT frame.

Hope this helps

John

[pextron]

Originally Posted by JohnB

Hi Pextron

We did not ask but you stated waiting and you may have to drop $5K to get a decent newer one.

I may have missed it but are you only looking for a frame and running gear or do you want a usable TT that you can get some of the appliance/tanks and other usable parts out of as well?

Reason for asking is the frame and running gear. Axles, springs, brakes, hangers, and a raw frame is not that much cost new. Have you looked into just buying a new TT frame with axles and brakes? Then build up the rest yourself. There really is not a lot to a TT frame.

Hope this helps

John

Sorry if I wasn't clear.

What I meant by my 5k comment was that if I were too spend too much money on a used travel trailer to use as a donor for my build project that it would be more economical to wait until I had more money to buy an undamaged unit to use, thus abandoning my build project entirely.

With regard to what I am looking for, I hope to find a complete travel trailer (90's or newer) which has extensive water damage resulting from a leaky roof but is otherwise in tact. I plan to reuse as much as possible, including the frame, windows, doors, appliances, furnace, hot water tank, pump, siding, air conditioner, storage tanks, etc... Granted, there may be items which are not functional or missing but overall, it should save me a great deal of money in the long run because purchasing everything individually would be very expensive.

A much simpler way of looking at the travel trailer that will be used as a donor for my build project is to think of it as a kit, where I get almost everything I need except for the wood, paneling, roofing, etc...

It's a long shot, but I am hoping to find one that is the right length (24-26 feet) with the appropriate floor plan configuration so I can reuse the existing siding (as is) for the floor plan that I want to use. Fortunately, many travel trailers from the 90's seemed to use a front kitchen / rear bedroom configuration so it is possible that I may get lucky.

I have considered the possibility of buying just the frame and axels, then purchasing a newer travel trailer that was wrecked to harvest the needed components from, but my initial observations led me to believe that the cost could be prohibitive unless I got lucky and found a great bargain.