Timmer

im thinking about gettign a cheep 5th wheel to go camping in. being a towboater, im not too woryed about it being 100% clean, i can do a lot of fix it up things myself. i have seen a few, like mid 90's to late 80's for real cheep. like, 7K or under. just in by budgit!!

what kinda major problems in buying somethign as such? my biggest worry would be leaks and structal integerty.

Thundercraft

Might need a new propane regulator & hoses - those have a time life before they can start being a bit of an issue. Price to fix - cheap.

Any fridge over 6 years old can be suspect. When we bought our '91 the fridge was dead (ammonia leak). We took it out & put in a 9 cu ft. electric fridge. We mostly do camping with hookups. I just bought an 12v - 110v inverter so that I can at least run the fridge when we do longer road trips.
The guy who sold us the fridge warned us that he sells bar fridges to truckers, but that they report failures after a year or so - he figured from all of the vibration. I thought for a moment and decided that they drive more in one month than I do all year with the camper. The electric fridge was about 1/3 the cost of a smaller 3 way fridge - albeit with some less convenience.

It had a bit of rot in the roof around the a/c. They dropped the price down to 5000 and found someone locally from a shop that would fix it on the side for us (we were about 4 hours away from the trailer). In addition, the sellers helped me install the hitch - rather he did 85% of the work and he pretty much installed the fridge for us too while I "assisted" him.

Anyway - after Mr. ripoff fixed the roof (amazing how a 1700 estimate ended up at 2500) we took delivery. Somehow I & Mr. Ripoff missed the fact that there was some pretty hefty rot in the rear wall. I discovered that when we had the trailer parked at the ski hill for the winter.

I wasn't about to sink a ton of money into the trailer again, but it needed fixing. We had some very nice friends who let us park our trailer in a 20 x 40 shed on their farm. I probably put about 25 hours maybe into rebuilding the entire rear wall - mostly by myself, but with some help from friends & the wife too (she did an amazing job of cleaning off all the old putty from all of the sheet metal surfaces). I also built it better than factory (thank you very much). They couldn't even cut a horizontal support that the ladder screwed into to fit between the studs - it was about 3/4 inch too short!!

My total cost to rebuild the rear wall..... about $145 (half of that was just the panels alone). If I had known how easy it was (and that we could use this shed), I would have done the roof myself too.

I'm still only into this trailer for less than $8500 - purchase price & repairs.

Last year when I was at the RV show (great place to pick up ideas about mods to the trailer) I looked at the "easy payment" sheet on one of the trailers.... only $258/month .... for 15 years!!! And then in the fine print I noticed that yeah, the term was 15 years, but the payment figure was based on a 20 yr amortization schedule.... so that means at the end of 15 years, you still owed money on the stupid thing!!

Mines all paid for... what can I say.

I should some pictures from the repair..... first time I attempted something like this and it wasn't hard at all.

Alwaysworking

you might look for an old frito lay trailer thats what we have, ours has a wood floor with a fold down ramp, and my uncle has one that is all aluminium with 8 hole wheels he can haul a toyota in it
oh and ours is about 28 feet long

torquefan

As you mentioned, the biggest worry with any trailer is leaks and rot. The roof and seams on any trailer needs to be inspected and resealed as regular yearly maintenance. Many people aren't aware of this until one day they step into their trailer and fall through the floor. Often water will enter the roof or wall through a small void in the caulking, then travel through the wall and end up in the floor, causing rot which starts around the edges (usually inside a storage compartment or under a cabinet). Check the flooring out in these places first, making sure it feels solid and not spongy. Have a look up on the roof. Make sure the seams look well covered and not neglected with big hunks of sealant flaking off.

Busboy

You may want to spend a couple of dollars more and find one with welded aluminum wall structure. A trailer like this would probably have a rubber roof so you kill two birds with one stone. Strong walls and no leaks.

Jeff in TD

I think these guys already covered the big things.

Most of the appliances can be repaired fairly cheaply, except for the cooling unit on the fridge, and if the tank were broken on the hot water heater.

Roofing and rot would be the other concern. Look at the condition of the caulking, and look for any discolored areas inside, especially flooring.

I bought my little toyhauler for cash for about what I was going to put down on a new one. Though it needed recaulked it had no signs of leaking. I resealed the roof, fixed one small propane leak, did brakes/tires/wheels, and went through the thing with a commercial carpet machine and upholstry attachment. I also went through all the appliances, cleaning burnerners and testing for leaks.

It's been trouble free and great fun, and I think I could sell it for most of what I have in it...


If you look around, you will find the right one. Right now I'm kind of browsing for a 39' Patio Hauler with the 14' garage, so I don't have to turn quads sideways to fit them in...


Also, you might pick up a copy of RV Repair and Maintance by Bob Livingston. Good book covers pretty much everything you might want to know.

Timmer

lots of great info here, thanks a lot fellas, beers all around. (<not coffee)

iv noticed used 5th wheels are a lot cheaper then tag trailers. any ideal on why this is?

how about more on finding rot. should i take a little hammer with me to tap on walls and things? what should it sound like? ill look fer stain's arund the bottom of the walls and windows, if i do see some leaking, is that a automatic rot issue? i dont mind a little stain from leeks, just want to make sure its not roting.

how hard would it be to run new plumbing if it was something thatwould need ot be done soon of in a little bit?


anymore info is greatly appreciated. thank you all.

Oilguy

I bought a 19' 1996 Wilderness travel trailer that had a salvage title for a dent in the front corner of the unit for $2000.
Everything worked >> No Leaks >> Awning was in great shape >> interior was perfect >> appliances worked >> AC worked >> New Tires.... It just took 3 hours and one 6 pack to repair the damage and straighten the sheet metal. I took it to get it inspected for road worthiness and get plates for it.... Total invested >> $2200 including 2 new Propane bottles.
Pulled it from Central Texas to Colorado Springs and back with zero problems and we are looking to take more trips this Summer. I say it was money well spent!

I want to try hooking the boat behind it and see how that works out...

Oilguy

Jeff in TD

Rot wise, you may smell something, you might be able to feel that the sheeting under the rubber roof is swollen around a vent or other opening, or there might be a soft area. Discolored flooring would be a real bad sign.

How bad it might be to replace plumbing would depend, I suppose. Some seem to have pretty easy access, and some don't.