Used HitchHiker 5W Purchase

[HBarlow]

From time to time a member posts here about a new travel trailer he is considering and asks for opinions. I have learned from long experience that about 98% of the time that member doesn't really want opinions, he only wants reinforcement for the decision he has already made, but I post anyway because other members may read my reply and others similar to it from other members and the answers may help someone make a good future decision.

My answer is always the same: "don't buy a cheap new trailer, buy a used expensive trailer for the same amount of money." I know that my advice is rarely followed but many older, more experienced TDR member/RV owners share my opinion. The reasoning is a cheaper brand trailer is only new for two or three years then it is simply a cheap older trailer. They typically have weak frames, mediocre construction, poor insulation, and lots of shortcuts. On the other hand, if the same amount of money is spent to buy a used but high quality trailer, in two or three years it is still a high quality used trailer, worth almost as much as the buyer paid for it and with many years of service remaining.

This past week I was involved in such a used trailer purchase which might be useful to someone considering the purchase of a good RV. My son-in-law is a very successful general contractor but not an RVer. A year and a half ago he was starting a hospital remodel/upgrade project in another city 100 miles away and no temporary housing was available for the job superintendent he was sending to oversee the job. He bought my used 1995 Travel Supreme 5th wheel and I delivered it to the jobsite. His employee loves it and it has since moved on to another jobsite. Financially, it worked out so well that when my son-in-law recently started yet another project in another city he wanted another used 5er for his employee.

I began looking on all the websites last week and found a one-owner 1999 HitchHiker II 28.5' 5er in LaGrande, OR on RVTraderOnLine. I called and spoke with the owners and liked what they told me. My s-i-l agreed to buy it and I took off last Saturday morning for LaGrande to pick it up. It was exactly as described, a very clean '99 HHII that had been towed very little and used only by an older couple who bought it new and took care of it. All the appliances work as new. The interior shows little or no wear. It had the original GY Marathon tires on it that hadn't been pulled enough to even show wear and the brakes and bearings had never been serviced. I took along a new set of tires and had them installed before I left LaGrande with the trailer. We paid $12,000 for it, about market value according to NADA. I didn't try to beat the sellers down to their bottom dollar because they were honest and fair and because my s-i-l could afford to pay for it and it will be a tax tax deduction for him. Some may be thinking....."so what?"

My point is for only $12,000 and the cost of a roundtrip to OR we purchased a very nice, clean, quality used RV that has easily another ten years of good service left in it. A HitchHiker II, while not a top-of-the-line luxury unit, is a very well-built high quality RV for value-minded practical buyers. NuWa uses dense blue Dow-Corning insulation in all the sidewalls and excellent insulation in the roof, floor, and end caps, sturdy frames, and excellent construction methods. An identical new one would have a sticker price of $45k or so. A brand new cheap brand would probably have a price tag of $25 - $30k.

The old used HHII is a bargain for its intended use.

Edit: Afterthought: And beside the bargain used 5er, I got a nice paid trip out of the deal. I got to visit OR again and took a quick sidetrip along the banks of the mighty Columbia River along I-84 over to Portland, south to Salem and then east across OR-22 to Bend, Burns, Ontario, then south to Spanish Fork, UT and then south through the canyon lands of UT, SW CO, and NW NM. It was a great trip although a little too quick for a 4,000 mile journey.