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Diesel Pusher inspection near Halifax NS?

Discussion in 'General' started by tophyr, Feb 6, 2020.

  1. tophyr

    tophyr Grid Filler

    I'm eyeing a big 45' diesel pusher that's for sale in Halifax NS, but I can't really find any place remotely nearby that sounds very comfortable giving it an inspection before I plunk down a shitload of money on the thing. I called the local RV repair shops and they immediately balked as soon as I said "motorhome".. two of them said they didn't even have a registered mechanic on staff and the third heard "45 feet" and sent me straight away to call truck repair places. The truck shops then sounded very uncertain about the RV stuff, saying they would try to fit in an inspection where they could but that they would really only know about the chassis and motor stuff.

    What's the general procedure for buying a used swank-ass motorhome? Heavy-duty RV shops seem pretty few and far between. Do you just inspect it yourself? Bring a guy? Have the owner drive it several hours to a competent shop (or pay a mechanic to drive several hours to the owner)?
     
  2. pscook

    pscook Well-Known Member

    3,500 miles? It must be a hell of a deal to waste a week of time plus fuel costs to get it home. Plus any import duties and other paperwork (time). Nothing local that is close to price or within the tolerance for cost/benefit of buying that far away?

    Contact Tim Weig to see if he knows any inspectors in that area or thereabouts.
     
    tophyr likes this.
  3. tophyr

    tophyr Grid Filler

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/332267716945050/permalink/1430451777126633/

    Doesn't look like a screaming "HOLY SHIT BUY THIS NOW" deal but it looks pretty good. Fuel to drive it home would be about $1000 assuming 10mpg, and the road trip would be fun. Don't know much about the import process, that's another thing I'm wary of. The coach was originally built in the US though so it shouldn't be too hard.
     
  4. Jedb

    Jedb Professional Novice :-)

    @tophyr
    Dude, look at Used Marathons or such down here in Oregon. If you need to register it here, you can use my house. No sales tax and cheaper registration.
    Granted no cool road trip through America's polite hat, but cash saved...
     
  5. tophyr

    tophyr Grid Filler

    Have you seen any in the <100k price range? Best I've found Marathons for were ~20yo (which is same age as this Monaco, to be fair) for around 200k - about two to three times the price of this unit.
     
  6. Jedb

    Jedb Professional Novice :-)

    To be honest Chris, I’ve never bothered to look. One of the OMRRA guys Had a really well put together Motorhome, and I think he ended up selling it for 80 K
     
  7. Jedb

    Jedb Professional Novice :-)

    @tophyr Look in Junction City, Oregon for used RV/Motorhome dealers.
    There's several in this 4 mile section of "downtown"

    I'm pretty sure you could get a deal there. Again, I don't know the market that well, but having lived in Eugene, and going north/south to PDX all the time, I was either on the 5 or the 99 and went past Marathon and the others all the time.

    Worth a look at least.
     
  8. pscook

    pscook Well-Known Member

    I had a bit of a thought yesterday: If that is $89k CAD, that converts to $67k USD, which isn't too bad, and a road trip would be a fun way to get used to the machine and shake it down without the deadline of hitting a track in time for first call.

    If you want to keep your search in the lower 48, look at the stuff that @assjuice cyrus was looking at in his motorcoach thread. There might be some overlooked gem that fits your bill.
     
  9. tophyr

    tophyr Grid Filler

    It is, and that was my thought too! Even with import duties I'd probably end up getting this thing home, sorted out and registered in my driveway for well under $80k USD.
     
  10. tony 340

    tony 340 Well-Known Member

    I'd have a local truck repair guy go through it as far as powertrain.

    All the goofy stuff inside like shower pumps and whatnot......you're on your own.
     
  11. XFBO

    XFBO Well-Known Member

    That's a pretty nice unit!
    I have always been a fan of the Monaco line up, I just sold my '02 Monaco Knight 2 weeks ago, mega difference in price points between those two rigs but it was our first and we weren't sure if RV Life was for us or not.

    To answer your question, I didn't do any inspections but it was only about half of what you're looking at. If there is ANY delam issues, imho, stay away from it....I learned the hard way, mine did and when it came to sell I got a lot of people who lost interest once I'd mention it did have some. Also know, at 18 yrs of age, things will start quitting on that unit so have some money put aside for the inevitable failures, like the rooftop AC units, refrigerator, heating units, etc. and Im not even bringing up chassis related issues. On a positive note, in those 7.5 yrs, we put on roughly 25k miles, never got stranded. The closest we came was when we moved down south, I had a brake caliper seize up on me which needed repair, found a RV shop 30 miles away in Roanoke, we had it repaired there, 2 wks and $2200 later I picked it up and finished the drive.

    What is your max budget, 100K? I ask only because I think you're going to find that a lot of repair shops won't touch a diesel pusher, this is especially true with truck repair centers. I owned mine for just under 8 yrs, there were two occasions that I just wanted something checked out while fueling up at an exit with truck shops, they'd always say NO. I can recall one place asking if it was on a Freightliner chassis, so thinking they MIGHT HAVE but Monaco's use their own chassis so again I was SOL. I don't if this is your first RV purchase but feel free to ask any questions.


    Although I'm NOT in the market for another one right now, I am almost positive my next one will be a Super C, they use a truck chassis, motor is upfront, you can get'em with a Detroit Diesel, Volvo, Cummins ISX, etc...almost positive, any truck repair center would def work on those. The one I've been drooling over lately is an IWS Renegade 40-45' models. Brand new, they're almost $500K so I'm thinking they'll be at my price point in about 10-15 yrs....:D The dealer IWS is in Idaho and looks like they're really NICE units! Capable of pulling 30K lbs too!
     
  12. assjuice cyrus

    assjuice cyrus Well-Known Member

  13. tophyr

    tophyr Grid Filler

    Interesting. Why did everyone refuse to touch it? Are the pusher chassis so different from the truck chassis they're used to? I would assume that diesel pushers are basically buses with different build-outs on top (which seems to hold water with outfits like Marathon building their coaches out of Provost units).

    This is my first RV purchase actually, so I don't really know the ropes. I've talked to a couple people and gotten a general run-down of "shit i don't know i don't know" to ask about, but "where to get it repaired/inspected" is top of the list of things I know I don't know.

    I've thought about the Super C stuff but reading about them they're trucks first and RVs second - and I don't really actually need the heavy-duty truck stuff. My trailer's only got axles for 8500lb so 30k towing is wasted on me, and I don't plan to put more than a few thousand miles on the unit per year - nothing like the 100k+/yr the "real trucks" are designed for. I basically want something that'll be comfy af at the track, and also can take me + fam to Montana for a week with.

    And yeah, I've been picturing 100ish grand as max budget. I probably could go higher but I don't see any reason to. I don't see any point spending the money on a new unit since they seem to start at 200k+ for anything 35' or above, and I reeeally value not feeling cramped.
     
  14. tophyr

    tophyr Grid Filler

  15. pscook

    pscook Well-Known Member

    As a former boat guy, I think that most of the systems stuff is really similar between the road and water going units. Once you get above the chassis a system is a system. Most pieces are easy to acquire for repairs, unless they are buried three layers back under a glued panel with layered laminate on top of the seam (I have seen it but never done it). Every boat that I ever worked on had a provision to remove the offending part with the exception of large tanks and whatnot.

    So, if the chassis is good, you can likely stay on top of the niggling stuff. Two edges to the sword at 100k miles:
    1. Most of the issues have been resolved by the current owner, or
    2. There are issues from things being worn out from 100k miles of use
    But as I suspect you are thinking, solid chassis is first and foremost the run toward or away factor.

    Good luck and I can't wait to see what you get!
     
    tophyr likes this.
  16. ow01

    ow01 Well-Known Member

  17. tophyr

    tophyr Grid Filler

    This looks interesting indeed. What's the story with this? Does this guy just really like this particular brand? Are all these listings even the same brand?
     
  18. ow01

    ow01 Well-Known Member

    He is the leader of our cult!

    https://www.wanderlodgeownersgroup.com/forums/

    Those were all made by Bluebird. Have a look at one before you buy a Monaco.
     
  19. XFBO

    XFBO Well-Known Member

    I'm guessing they're not as familiar with what's where, accessibility to the motor is tougher, etc... If the shop services buses then I'd imagine you'd be OK but not all truck shops seem to. Regarding the drive on Super C's I think you'd be correct for units older than 10yrs old but I think they've greatly improved, that IWS Renegade I mentioned is pimped out pretty nice with collision avoidance system, lane departure alerts and a whole host of other goodies.

    That's NOT to say Class A's aren't nice too.....just because of this thread I actually did a few searches earlier, as good as that price sounds converted to the USD, I found a similar one in Ga for only about $5k more, so don't rush and keep looking. If you're lost on other brands, Newmar makes a really nice RV, their DutchStar and Mountainaire are nice units that you could find near your price range that should be at least 5 yrs newer than what you're asking about.....either way you go, GL!
     
  20. fastedyamaha

    fastedyamaha Well-Known Member

    Just buy Mongo’s.
     
    pscook likes this.

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