Finding Mona (our Monaco motorhome)

For us, the starting point in acquiring our latest motorhome, the one we currently live in full time, was looking at an essential “must have” list. We had the benefit of owning our original motorhome (a Georgie Boy 34 foot Ford powered gasoline unit) some years ago so we weren’t without experience.

After that, we had a 26 foot travel trailer with a single slide, followed by a 32 foot Tiffin Open Road which had slides, so we started with some background using and driving various RVs, but had not lived in a motorhome day in and day out. Whatever your background, we suggest starting with looking at as many recreational vehicles as you can. RV shows and dealers are a great resource to see and touch the various options. Giving the concepts a lot of thought will pay off in fewer mistakes or later regrets.

In our case, we wanted the maximum possible size which means four slides, or at least three with one very large (“full wall”) slide. We also really liked the pull out kitchen cabinet floor unit idea and that was high on the list. We also wanted a king size bed (note that an “RV King” is still 6 inches narrower than a standard king size bed, but it is the same length). A large shower was on the list. We wanted one from a manufacturer with a reputation for good quality and support. In our case, we primarily looked at Tiffin, Monaco, and Newmar.

This was also going to be a Diesel pusher for carrying capacity and power train longevity. We also set a price point which limited the list to used vehicles of a general age. For that reason, we wanted to make sure the unit had been maintained and the availability of maintenance records was of high importance. In the end, we found a suitable unit not too far away and were able to negotiate an acceptable price.

In our case, there was some obvious wear and tear on one of the sofas that we knew would have to be replaced. There were a couple of other problems (broken power foot rest and an inoperable awning over the door), but they were all something that could be dealt with. The biggest item was going to be replacing the tires, especially the two front tires as they had some pretty bad wear, and they were all about to “age out”. [If you don’t know, RV tires will typically not be used enough to wear out the tread before they get old enough to need to be replaced simply due to age]

Since I am pretty mechanically inclined and have done a lot of car and home repairs, I felt confident in my ability to examine the coach and find out what I needed to know. The previous owner (an airline pilot) had meticulous service records from buying the unit new, so that was a plus. If you are not competent to do this yourself, then you should hire a qualified inspector to go over the unit for you before settling on a price, so you can take needed repairs into account. Even then, plan on some surprises as you live with the coach or trailer.

As we have lived with and used the coach we have also upgraded some systems (residential refrigerator) and added some features (solar panels) we think are important. Some of these are general RV types of items, but some are unique to our circumstances. We will add some more details as time permits.