Saturday, February 25, 2012

Owning an RV...

All new and ready to go!
Nana and I have an recreational vehicle, a Trail Manor 2720SL with some extras.  We bought it in late 2003 and took it on a few trips, 2 or 3 times to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, once on the great circumnavigation of the American west (but short of California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho) and to North Carolina as well as a couple of local "jaunts".  Unfortunately our purchase coincided with my mom's worsening Alzheimer's and the duration of our trips quickly shortened and the frequency of them petered out to nothing.  The trailer has been parked at the Parnassus place since 2006, moved only to put it in a more advantageous parking place.  The inspection was allowed to lapse and it hadn't been done in almost 6 years.

When one does that one encourages various creatures to take up residence even if only temporarily.  This isn't a good thing.  It is also left exposed, no matter how carefully covered, to the elements without necessary periodic maintenance.  It seems that anything glued or plastic will come apart or fall off!  So it is with our trailer.

So, pushed by the pending sale of Mom's place and the need to move it from there, I got the trailer and moved it to Valley RV for an inspection.  I also asked that the more experienced serviceman go over it and check the systems for problems.  He did so and got it road worthy for $222.39 (which included checking the other systems).  I'm glad it is a slow time of year for him...

Clearly, I'm going to have to replace some things like the shower curtain on which a rodent exercised his dentures, a faucet, some velcro, re-glue some things and clean/scrub here and there.  The big thing is the seal between the two upper sections might require replacement.

Unfortunately, the nearest Trail Manor dealer is in Salem.  Yes, we bought it from Valley RV Sales when it was Rule RV but they are no longer dealers.  So, I'm thinking I'll have to get it down to Salem for the seal replacement.

We are willing to sell the unit.  New ones have an MSRP of $32,000+ (!) so we are asking (but open to negotiation) $7,500.  If I don't sell it I'm guessing I'm going to hunt out of it and use it as a mobile rest facility.

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