RV's under $3,000

[highdesertranger]

good advice from johnny b. highdesertranger

 

[akrvbob]

If you can live without all the systems you can do what I did and bought a brand new 6x10 cargo trailer out the door or $2500, stopped by Home depot and bought insulation and plywood for $300 added 2 windows and 2 vents for another $300 and a pair of ladder aluminum racks for $200. Then I had a bombproof little home that will be trouble free for decades to come. After 5 years the only money I spent on it was to replace the weather checked tires this year. Don't expect to spend another penny on it till I replace the tires in 5 more years.

It weighs 1/3 the amount of nearly all TTs, straining my van much less! As icing on the cake, it will go 100 times more places in the backcountry than any TT will.
Bob

 

[john101]

If you can live without all the systems you can do what I did and bought a brand new 6x10  cargo trailer out the door or $2500, stopped by Home depot and bought insulation and plywood for $300 added 2 windows and 2 vents for another $300 and a pair of ladder aluminum racks for $200. Then I had a bombproof little home that will be trouble free for decades to come. After 5 years the only money I spent on it was to replace the weather checked tires this year. Don't expect to spend another penny on it till I replace the tires in 5 more years.

It weighs 1/3 the amount of nearly all TTs, straining my van much less!  As icing on the cake, it will go 100 times more places in the backcountry than any TT will.
Bob

If you can come up with $6,000 you can by my Rebuilt '85 Toyota Dolphin.  It gets about 15 mpg, everything works, five year old tires with about 2,000 miles on them.  Could be a cheaper route since a $3,000 RV will probably need about $2,500 to $3,000 worth of work.  Only 80,000 some miles on it, too.

John

 

[tripper]

I need some RV advice. Can anyone suggest a  used class A,B,C RV or travel trailer under $3,000?  Year 1970-19999. I am doing research.

I owned an old class A a while ago. The problem with old RVs, eventually something major like the engine, tranny, or rear axle goes out and the amount of money to repair those items is more than buying another RV. Trailers are easy to maintain and you can keep them for life if you stop the leaks, lube bearings and keep good brake pads on them. Even buying 6x RV tires will break the bank ($1500 or so). When the RV does break, if you put it in a shop your home is gone for a while.

 

[urbanhermit70]

Finding an older RV under 3G's thats in atleast OK shape is EASY out here on the left coast. General rule the bigger/older the RV, the cheaper it is. RV's like the old uber ugly, but for some reason looks cool at the same time Winnebago Brave.. I see these all the time for 2-3G's...

Steamjam1,

What part of left coast. I live in Northern California. I i'm looking for class C or short A RV 27-31 feet.

 

[ZoNiE]

When looking at RVs in the lower end of the price range, the real question becomes..."how good are your (& partner's) mechanical, plumbing, electrical and woodworking skills??"
If you are going to pay for the repairs/upgrades needed in a low budget motorhome, then that $3K can become 5, 7, 10K real easy and real fast.
Something else to think about with old motorhomes is the cost of a tow when broke down.

I'd go with a tow behind camper and pickup truck/van if I were looking for cheapest way to start out.

I concur. My $5K GMC became a $15K motorhome and this was before I even got around to the body work and paint, after 10 years of fiddling with it, and only camping in it a handful of times. Every trip was an adventure... :dodgy:

Six 16" (Michelin) Tires were $2K. Bigger, newer coaches have the bigger coach/bus tires, those 19.5-22.5" tires are even more... but, they supposedly last longer, and can be retreaded.

Class C's still run "consumer" size 16" tires.

Old coaches from the 70's ran 16.5's where the tire choices suck. My GMC came that way, and I spend $1,500 on 16" wheels to convert to modern tires.

Travel trailer, 5'er, or cargo trailer is the way to go.

 

[steamjam1]

Steamjam1,

What part of left coast. I live in Northern California. I i'm looking for class C or short A RV 27-31 feet.

I'm in Norcal. On Craigslist I'm seeing Dodge Class-c's for as little as $500 that run/drive. No doubt that for $500, your going to be working on it. But if your handy with a saw, and a wrench, its a good place to start.

 

[topknines]

Finding an RV for $3000 can be tricky, but they’re out there if you keep an eye on listings. I’ve seen some pop up on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. I came across this site that might help: travel trailers for $3k.

camptraveltrailer.com

 

[maki2]

Finding an RV for $3000 can be tricky, but they’re out there if you keep an eye on listings. I’ve seen some pop up on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. I came across this site that might help: travel trailers for $3k.

camptraveltrailer.com

You replying to a thread that has been dormant for almost10 years! None of the people who were attempting to converse with are currently active in the forum. In fact at least one is deceased. Bob Wells aka member AZRVBOB has not posted here for many years. Be careful and look at the last dates of the conversations when you click on those similar thread recommendations that show up below any current conversations. The archival postings in this forum can literally be from decades ago.

But of course it is OK to revive old topics such as finding affordable RVs as that has never lost relevance as a subject for discussion.

 

[INTJohn]

Dup.

Dup.

Dup.

Hmmm; 3000$ 10 years ago……..
Maybe retitle it at least to 5000$ maybe 10,000$?

Inflation and all
bch bum jon

 

[tx2sturgis]

Completely off-topic but it is kinda cool to see all those members who haven't checked in for several years...and yeah some have passed on by now. (R.I.P. highdesertranger)

But back on topic, my very first commercially built 'RV', if you can call it that, was a cheap used 1976 Lark pop-up tent trailer that I bought in 1995 for $450... it needed canvas repairs, new screens, new tires, and a few other repairs. The crank-up mechanism was not working smoothly, but good enough for what I paid for it.

I made several repairs and upgrades and eventually sold it after 5 years of use for $600.

Kinda wish I still had it.

Deals are out there....but the days of decent RV's under 3 grand may be a distant memory now.

 

[frodo2222]

Completely off-topic but it is kinda cool to see all those members who haven't checked in for several years...and yeah some have passed on by now. (R.I.P. highdesertranger)

But back on topic, my very first commercially built 'RV', if you can call it that, was a cheap used 1976 Lark pop-up tent trailer that I bought in 1995 for $450... it needed canvas repairs, new screens, new tires, and a few other repairs. The crank-up mechanism was not working smoothly, but good enough for what I paid for it.

I made several repairs and upgrades and eventually sold it after 5 years of use for $600.

Kinda wish I still had it.

Deals are out there....but the days of decent RV's under 3 grand may be a distant memory now.

I don't know about that, just sold a 30 foot 5er with 2000 Watts solar, minisplit residential fridge new tires etc etc for 4800 hundred

 

[LargeMarge]

Completely off... days of decent RVs under 3 grand...

.
July 2024.
.
Scene:
Eugene Oregon (aka 'Goofball Central').
We workkamp a small organic teaching farm near the outskirts of town.
Our place is the last driveway on a dead-end street... at the barrier, all around is only empty fields.
.
Players:
* Us -- we full-time live-aboard our ExpeditionVehicle.
* Them -- a pair of Recreationally Enhanced Individuals ('REI') were surrounded by LawEnforcementOfficials and a couple meter-maids, plus an idling tow-truck.

The REI were also hoarders.
Frequent visitors to our barrier and holy-invested [sic] in 'the life-style', these particular hoarders were always pleasantly congenial (congenital?), always asking if we had anything we needed to get rid of.
.
Object of today's story dujour:
* 1999 Bounder Class A factory RecreateVehicle.
Cummins pusher, 39', new 22.5 Toyo tires, excellent condition.
53,000 miles, maintenance records back to Day One.
With its insides stuft to the gills with:
.. single book-ends,
.. lamps,
.. a stand-still house display-hutch screwed to a built-in cabinet via a thin strip of particleboard and grocerystore-grade fasteners (they would shatter if you looked at them harshly, let alone securing anything during a wreck),
.. a collection of flower-vases to rival the Vatican...
and several tons of other irreplaceable crxp ('crip', no. 'crop', not that either. 'crup', almost!)...
...I estimated it was over-GVWR by a squidgen or so.
.
With the rig's owner -- a massive ex-convict -- in tears facing the loss of everything necessary to qualify as a hoarder, I stepped in the save the day.
.
Interested primarily in the low-miles Cummins and Allison, I offered her two grand (us$2,000).
She instantly produced the title, the deal was done.
.
Epilogue:
We used -- 'past' tense -- the motorhome as storage.
As you might imagine with all the crxp [see above...] infesting the interior, it provided the ideal habitat for vermin.
.
We discovered that...
...after moving a few crates into the Class A from a different storage on the acreage.
Next day, most of it was verminized, consumed by one end then expelled from the other end.
.
Moral Of The Story:
A good deal is not necessarily.
.
.
[edited to add]
PostScript:
The ex-convict swang by a few weeks after the purchase.
She hinted she secretly sold it to me for six grand, so I owed her another four.
Sure.
I patiently explained I thought that was a significant and distinct distance from known reality, and she should get a real job and quit the hoarding business.
.
Apparently, she burned through the entire us$2,000 I paid her by renting a motel room...
...and...
...wait for it...
...and...
... be patient...
... and...
... breathe deep the gathering gloom...
... and the motel room was jammed to the rafters with a fresh inventory of irreplaceable crxp.
.
'Yes', it is true, I know interesting people.
.

 

[INTJohn]

.. a collection of flower-vases to rival the Vatican.

best line ever to describe hoarders
It’s a hoarder prerequisite because Vases