My wife and I are retired professionals; Ruth is a retired Librarian and I am a retired electrical engineer. We have grown children and have been empty nesters for at least 10 years. When the kids were growing up we wanted to expose them to the outdoor camping experience. So in the early 90’s we purchased a used StarCraft popup camper which we towed around with our 1987 Caravan and then our 1998 Isuzu Trooper to various campsites in New England. The popup was a step up from our pre-kids tent camping days. We did have our disasters and was a good learning experience.
In the late 90’s we retired from camping. The kids had lost interest when the teenage years came and it was a chore moving from campsite to campsite once our seasonal campsite went belly-up in the Catskill mountains of New York (oh and they kept all our fees, the dirt bags!). We took a family vote one evening around the fire-ring and it was a 3 to 1 vote to sell the camper and stop the camping expeditions.
We are a pet home and have had dogs and cats in our home for years. Cats have been a constant pet with three cats being hosts to our homes since the early 80’s but dogs came a bit later. Now the household has three cats (the Candy Cats: Snickers, Skittles, and Caramel) and two miniature long-haired Dachshunds (Thelma & Louise). Dachshunds are barkers and will bark at anything and everything. We are at a crossroads in our lives and want to take in the sights of our country while still mobile enough to do so. We found in the past putting our pets up at kennels while we travel is expensive and stressful on the animals. Staying in motels is an impossible task with two barking crazies and so we opted to investigate purchasing a motorhome. For us a motorhome was the obvious choice because I recalled what a chore it was (for me) backing the popup into parking / camping spaces.
I always liked the looks and thoughts of owning a VW based Winnebago Rialto. Many years ago I had a co-worker that praised this brand of coach and so that is where I started my search. I came to senses when I recalled the maintenance costs of my 2002 VW Passat 4-motion. Every time that went into the dealer for service is was a minimum of $400. I soon realized the Rialto wasn’t a good choice. I then starting looking at the Toyota Granville coaches. These coaches boasted reasonable gas mileage, built on a Toyota truck frame that were manufactured in the late 80’s and early 90’s. I soon realized these compact, fuel efficient coaches were ‘dogs’ on the road. Achieving 65MPH was done only with a good tail wind and going down hill. I did come very close to purchasing an ’86 Granville in the spring of ’23 but backed out of the deal after reading a lot on the performance and having a discussion with my local mechanic.
I briefly looked at (remotely) a Class C Jayco coach in the summer of ’23 that was located at an RV dealership in Albany New York. This coach had very low miles for the age, it was a 2004 and had less than 35k miles. Before I trekked the 120 miles to look at it, I asked if the salesman could send me a video of the exterior and interior. The coach had been on the lot for nearly 60 days and was price reduced to move. Asking price was $25k and reduced to $16k when I saw the ad. After viewing the video there was obvious water damage because the rear curb side rear was delaminating. I backed out of that deal only to be pressured by the dealer to purchase the coach with an additionally $8k off the asking price. My Dad would say, “if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is”. Of course we backed out of the deal.
A few months later I happened to see a 10-year old Jayco coach on RV Trader for sale. It seemed nice with reasonably low mileage for the year. Ruth and I put our emotions in check and said lets look at it but make no commitment. The coach was located only 30 minutes from our home, so we decided to have a look. The coach seemed in good shape and appeared to be well maintained with a stack of paper receipts of all the maintenance done to the coach. No obvious water damage and no dings or dents in the coach. We spent two hours with the owners who had brought us through every nuances of the coach and pointed out all the items broken or potentially needing addressing. The price was within the low range of what I had seen other Jayco Greyhawk coaches of this year being recently advertised for sale. The low range was perhaps because the the driver and passenger seat covers where worn badly.
The current owner of the coach was selling, after only owning the coach for a few months; they felt the coach was ‘too small’. These owners downsized from a Class A diesel pusher to this 32 foot Class C but their pet Parrot wanted nothing to do with the downsizing and so they decided to move back to a Class A which put this rig back on the market.
Ruth and I really shinned to the sellers who were a few years our senior and seemed like really down to earth folks. They assured us they didn’t think anything major was wrong with the coach but understood our request to have it inspected by an independent RV inspection team (something we highly recommend).
We signed the contract in late September to have the coach inspected and if no major issues were found we would purchase the coach. The inspection revealed some minor issues and the 100+ page inspection report provided us a detailed check list of things to fix or address if we were to purchase this coach.
After several weeks waiting for our funds to get freed up to purchase the coach, we took ownership. The first hurdle was getting the coach to our home. While the distance wasn’t an issue, only some 40 miles, however in Connecticut one must make an appointment to register your vehicles and this can take 2 to 3 weeks. We got the coach to our home using the sellers license plates and after two week weeks we got our appointment with the Connecticut DMV and registered the coach. No inspections are required here in CT, just write the DMV a check and off you go. Amazingly the new title was received in the mail in less than 1 week.
Some things that needed addressing right away was the valve stems on the rear wheels. The placement of the valve stems made it impossible to check the inner tire air pressure, so first order of business after registering the coach was getting this fixed. A local truck tire service center fixed this issue up for about $200 and now I could set the tire pressure to the appropriate 80PSI on all six tires.
Minor rust issues on the integral propane tank, rear bumper and receiver hitch needed addressing. Some wire brushing and paint solved this problems and these now look like new. Some of the seams on the roof needed re-caulking with Dicor self-leveling sealant. This tasks was a bit more labor intensive than I thought and took up a two day slot to get things done right.
We have not gone on our first ‘camping’ trip yet, but continue to get this coach ready for our big trips we are planning for 2024. Adding a full time rear and front view camera and recording system, a tire pressure monitor system, and a refrigerator safety shut off are just some of the safety features we’ve added to the coach in preparation for 2024.
Update December 2024
Racking up 6,500 miles and 13 or so states was our travelling adventure in 2024. The highlights were seeing the Badlands, Mt Rushmore, Devils Tower and meeting so many nice folks on our travels. The lowlights were getting stuck in a field, losing our brakes, broken water heater mount, and generator issues. In hindsight the lowlights were not that major but at the time they were a show stopper.
We’ve installed new tires, brakes, all hydraulic lines, all engine coolant lines, changed antifreeze, installed full time rear view camera system, installed Fridge Defend, and many small improvements to the RV. Fuel mileage is better than expected averaging about 8.5 mpg but the best mileage was in South Dakota where we exceeded 10.5 mpg.
The RV is put to bed for the winter. She treated us well in 2024 and the furry five really enjoyed living on the road for a few weeks.
Coachella 