Advice please? Forums

morgsrv

Hi

Hope this post is in the right forum, I'm trying to decide if I should by an RV- We've borrowed this one for the last week for a holiday and had a brillant time, now I'm a bit stuck;

- The Rv is a Fleetwood Phoenix Flyer 1996 with 52000 miles.
Its MOT'd until next March and the owner ( who I know well) has had the front brakes redone ( calipers/ discs) . We did 400 miles in it without any mechanical problems but it is quite tired inside and out nothing other than cosmetic but the dilemma is do I buy this one and make it how I want it - LPG conversion, new carpets, blinds etc or do I start to try and find one with everything done. The price he wants is £13000. so I reckon that leaves enough in the value to get the mods done without it costing anymore than a normal one, but again prices seem to be a matter of opinion.

It has all the normal bits F/Freezer, microwave, onan gen , towbar etc.

Has anyone gone down this route - and is there anything that's a must do?

Sorry for all the questions but hopefully you may be able to convince me!

Main use will be family getaways and motor racing ( an even easier way to spend money) Razz

thanks in advance
Morgan

ScotJimland

Hi Morgan.
This post will generate a lot of opinion I'm sure.. and not everyone will agree, my thoughts are this..
Decide first of all if you like the layout, size etc.
Do you want a petrol / LPG conversion or would you be happier with a diesel.
The costs of getting it 'just the way' you want it will stack up:

LPG Conversion £2500 ish
New Upholstery £1,500 +
Carpets, Blinds £300 +
Total ~ £4.5k

IMO, provided there are no other serious mechanical problems this would still be a good buy for what is a low millage RV .. total now £17.5k

olley · Campsite DB Admin

Hi morgsrv, I am with Jim on this, at 52,000 mls. its hardly run in, so the mechanics should be ok. and the bonus to me is that you know the owner well, so hopefully he will have told you about any faults. Something a dealer or private seller is unlikely todo.

Olley

BERTHA

Hope you don't mind me jumping in on this post but I have a similar question.

We purchased a new 27ft European (Burstner 747) last Year and although we looked at the American RV's at the time I was a little bit worried about the size and the cost of ownership.

However, a Year on and although our European model is a great van you can't "lounge" in the same way has you can the americans.

When in Dudleys yesterday I spotted a couple ice vans with between 37,000 to 45,000 miles on the clock and some looked very, very clean.

The question is, how easy is it to get parts, how fixable are they?
If I invest in one of these should I want to sell it say in 12 months time will I get a good return on my investment?

Regards
Hugh

morgsrv

kands · Account Deactivated

Hi Morgan

Well we have been there and done that, we have all the T shirts too....
I would advise getting it checked over by a competent RV mechanic just to be sure that there are no surprises waiting for you....
The price is good to start and as Jim has indicated everything can be done, only your imagination and pocket depth will stop you Laughing

You comment about buying this one versus a "normal" one, well for what it is worth I think a decent 10 year old RV would set you back £25Kish at least, and bear in mind that everything in it is 10 years old too, unless there is another looney out there like me Laughing

, and so you will still need or want to refurbish it at some point in time.....
If you look at some of my posts you will see the things that we have done to ours and we are just about finished (yeah right!!!) with the spending now.
You will see from my posts that we have just had ours reupholstered and Jims figure is close to the truth and so is the carpeting cost although I would add the cost of the blinds, say another £300ish.
Everything is obtainable usually (maybe not model specific, so beware...) but things for the chassis will be available and usually not too expensive, it is the shipping that costs though Laughing

Our RV is a 30ft diesel Chevy P30 based, an returns around 14 - 16 MPG, which we think is reasonable. Is the LPG conversion a must? At £2500ish you would be able to buy 550 gallons of petrol and do approximately 8250 miles on the conversion costs alone, so you would need to do some serious miles to recover the cost matey......
I don't know where abouts you are based or where the RV is located so cannot offer any more advice re getting it checked over but keep asking questions on here and you will get plenty of answers. Remember though, that as a non subscriber you only have 10 posts max and no-one can PM you, so you may consider that it is worth a tenner to keep getting help.
My final thought here is that if I had the room for another RV I would buy it at that price and refurbish it, again like with ours you will have just what you want (you will probably never find one that way on the market...) and you are in control of the spend, so go for it... But do get it looked over by a professional first........

Good luck

Keith

olley · Campsite DB Admin

artona · Moderator

Hi Olley

Why £1600 on insurance, that seems quite high mate

stew

BERTHA

Thanks Olly

I think this steers us away from an RV

Hugh