Even tho I had never owned a camper of any sorts I took the Class A plunge about one and a half years ago after spending endless hours on this board and on the used RV for sale sites. I decide to skip the Class C to Class A upgrade thing after reading about folks that had done that and wished they had gone to a Class A in the beginning. I was very glad I did. I followed the advice here and SHOPPED, SHOPPED, SHOPPPED. I focused on private owners because you can talk directly with who owned it and didn't want to pay extra for "reconditioning" since I doubt a dealer would do anything to a used coach that has been traded in unless absolutely necessary. It got rather frustrating after almost 6 months and I almost gave up when BAM I found what I was looking for at the right price right here in my hometown. Previous owner bought it new for around $90,000 and 2 years later was asking $63,000 after dropping the price $10,000. He had added a lot of upgrades and nice extra's that I didn't have to buy if I had bought new. We haggled down to $58,000 and it even came with an extended warranty. My feeling is that a private owner will ask more than he is willing to take so he can haggle. So after checking it out, make an offer and, if possible, go with checkbook in hand cause cash talks. Newer is not necessarily better but 60,000 miles can be a lot of miles on a mid to low end gasser with more concerns for the chassis stuff like generator hours, coach batteries and wear and tear. Expect to still have to spend money after you buy to set it up how you like it and fix a few things. If you are handy with fixing things that is a big plus.
A friend of mine just went from a 5th wheeler to a class A and he didn't really do his homework. He believed everything the dealer told him, probably paid too much and didn't get it checked out well. Now the generator doesn't work, he found he had 5 different brand of tires on it and they were dry rotting and he has fiberglass damage that can't be repaired, even tho the dealer told him it could be repaired.
Shop for what you want at the price you can afford, have it checked out, then knowing you did the best you could, enjoy the hell out of your new to you home on wheels cause you and your family will have the time of your life.
"Now that we have two young children, we are ready to start exploring!" Unless you are going to home school the children while you are "fulltiming" on the road???, Money appears to be an issue?? ... go look at some trailers. . Inexpensive. Lower maintenance than a Class A, cheaper to insure. Lower cost for amount of time you will actually use it. Slap a small, inexepnsive generator on it if you dry camp alot.
How many times per year will you use it?
Buy what your budget can afford with the type/amount of traveling you will do.
Example: Buddy of mine has a trailer. Uses it about 4 times a year (he still works)
I had a Class C, used it about 7 or 8 times a year (while I was still working}
I now have a Class A Diesel, 40 ft, we use 8 months out of the year. (I'm now retired)
It's amazing how many different experiences there are that cause as many diverse opinions.
We grew very weary visiting individual owners. Too many trips over too many miles and too many wasted hours to see one rv that ended up not being what was described.
We finally searched at mega dealers which was a much better use of our time. The dealer we bought from has 150 acres and daily average of like 1200 rvs always on site and all sitting in a site plugged into power and unlocked so we could browse as much as we wanted with or WITHOUT the salesperson.
You can't imagine the advantage of having so many class Cs and class As and TTs all in one place for you to sit in and drive and compare.
There are simply tons of very nice and very well maintained pre-owned motor homes on the market. We sought $25k rv and found a great one for just over $30k.
Our dealer did an outstanding job and we actually are happier now with our Class A than when we bought it several years ago so don't believe you can't find a wonderful rig for $25 to $30k.
IF you have a realistic idea of your travel needs you can buy the perfect one for you the first time out.
GoodLuck
JimAndCat
Just keep in mind that whatever you buy you will be spending lots of money after you buy it!!! I'm on my fourth motorhome since 1987 and I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchases which includes the motor homes and the costs of maintaining them and repairing them.
Motor homing is not cheap by any means. Good luck in your endeavors
Wow, thanks for the all feedback so far. It's so great to read about your experiences.
We would plan to take the RV on a 3 weeks of trips each summer, and probably once a month for a weekend or long weekend during the year. Yes, we have school-aged kids, so we are stuck with school schedules for the next 10 years. As the kids get older, we would probably need to downsize.
It is so much work... reading, thinking and comparing prices!
Good luck with the purchase. We just picked one up for our own use and had similar requirements. We got a 94 Winnebago that is 33 feet long. For the price, we got it just above low retail price for NADA.
My recommendation is to ask lots of questions and shop around. There are decent deals to be found at that age, but there are many if not more in rough shape. You just have to look for them. Mine did have a few issues, and estimating that you will need 2K is probably a good idea (I'm at 1500 including tires, and still not done)
That being said, we had two trips that were great. We upgraded from a truck camper, and with four kids, the extra room was a godsend.
We bought our first MH earlier this year from a dealer. It's a 99 Itasca Sunriser SE, 32 feet. Had 29,000 miles on it with 1.5 year old tires. Dealer originally was asking 33,000. They quoted me 29K over the phone. After negotiations we ended up at 23,300 and EVERYTHING had to work before we took it home. Low NADA was around 22K, so we paid slightly over low NADA, but nothing needed fixing when we took it home. They had to replace both mirrors and the controller for the steps along with new batteries. I figure I would have had to put a couple of grand to get it ALL working, but I made sure that was part of the deal.
When I went to pick it up, the mirrors weren't working. I said fine, fix them and then deliver it to my house when you're done. They did.
I did the read and learn thing for a year or so, then we took a plunge with a private sale deal. Liked the look of it, went for a drive, (asked owner to pull it out into street, he said it was my dad's, the only time I drove it was to the dealer to get it serviced, and i'm not getting behind the wheel. You want it out, you back it out!) and haggled for it. Bought at $8200 (15 y.o. Allegro 32'). drove it Connecticut to Nova Scotia to Florida, lived in it for a winter, and slod it in the spring for $8500. I figure i learned $8200 worth, then got my money back!
Looking now, I think there are some tremendous deals out there. Some of the rigs on ebay must be pretty terrible underneath the polish, or else they are unbelieveable deals. For example, see this one that just closed at a little over $15,000 - http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=003&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWA%3AIT&viewitem=&item=130156590559&rd=1
If it's not a complete dog, someone did real good!
PPL in Houston has a good site with reasonable prices, demartini has some decent ones, and there are some good ones on ebay, craiglist, and in the classifieds. Check the tire dates, have a mechanic check the drive train, and suspension, and look it over good. If you only invest $15,000 you will be risking less than the average $70,000 buyer loses in depreciation in the first year.... PM me if i can answer specific questions.
fulltime 5 months a year
FMCA 368297
1990 Beaver Marquis 40'
Gillig MHA 3208T chassis, 300 HP Cat 3208, Allison MT647
Did you notice that the dealer said they put $5K into each MH but it still needs tires? Watch for those dealer lips moving!
Yes, you should pay more at a dealer. And you should have some assurance that the MH at a dealer is OK and not a turkey. But, the paying more is a sure thing while the avoiding a turkey is not.
The best deals are private party. A thorough inspection on your part, followed by a tech inspection should get you as nice a coach as you'll find on a dealer lot--especially in the $10-20K price range.
Look for a CLEAN MH. You can LOOK at grungie ones just for educational purposes since they'll probably have more visible issues. Drive as many as possible. You need to calibrate your hands, brains and butt to being in a MH. If any one of them say "turkey", walk.
Like others have noted, this will be your learning coach. Keep the cost low so you have money left over to learn with. Also, the lest money you have invested, the less you will lose when you do decide to move up. You might even make a small profit--we did on our first 2 coaches.
Steve & C. J.
"Gracie" the Rough Collie & "Bo'sun" the Bichon Frise
Such practical advice, I really appreciate it. You guys make me wish we were all done with the buying and on to the fun part. I'm finding the whole process exhausting. Maybe I will take a day or two off and NOT look for anything RV related anywhere. The Internet is really a curse sometimes !
My husband had insisted that we have a queen bed, dinette and fold-out couch, but this afternoon he said that he could do without the fold-out couch if we had a cabover, so now I don't know whether to go looking for a smaller C now or stick with an A. I like the wide windows and ability to see the world from a Class A. The Class Cs that we have seen have small windows and are a bit dark for me.
Your experiences give me hope, and the price information is very helpful because maybe I can offer 20K on the Suncruiser or $10-11K on the Brave and who knows!? I'll let you know what we end up with for our "learner."
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Just keep in mind that whatever you buy you will be spending lots of money after you buy it!!! I'm on my fourth motorhome since 1987 and I've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in purchases which includes the motor homes and the costs of maintaining them and repairing them.
Watch for those dealer lips moving! 
!
