 If you guys have watched my videos or read my books, this video might surprise you. And it's taken me a while to do it because even I made some mistakes while I was buying an RV. Mistake number one is that I got obsessed with one RV. Now you might know I had never been in an RV. Before I went on the road, I didn't even know anybody that had one. I just discovered that I could really reduce my expenses and write full time if I was an RV boondocker. So I got on YouTube like a lot of us do and started looking at a bunch of videos. And like a lot of you, I was getting decision fatigue. There were so many rigs and so many different ways to do this. And then I stumbled across one type of RV. It was for a B plus van by a manufacturer that made really great videos. There was nothing like them. They were really glossy and well edited. And there was a happy guy in the videos that was showing all these spectacular options. And I would watch them over and over and over. My mistake was that then that rig was in my head and I didn't expand my search and look at anything else. My second mistake was that I bought a new RV with a warranty because I thought it gave me a safety net. Now, it's still a toss up for me whether new or used is better. And I can go into that later in this video. But for me, because I didn't have any experience in RVs and I didn't have anybody I could call, I thought with a warranty I would have this group of dealers across the country that could help me if something bad happened and I was totally wrong. You see, when you go into a dealership and buy an RV, everybody is so friendly and they really talk up how they're there to help you. But what I found along the way is that after you sign the paperwork, they don't really know who you are anymore. You go to the shop, department, you have to wait weeks to get in and then once you do, they don't get paid to diagnose a problem. They get paid by the manufacturer to replace a part. So with that first rig, I had a bunch of problems. The first problem was that I had a flood. Rainwater came in through an outside bin that wasn't sealed properly. When I went inside, I saw that that water had just pooled through my dresser drawers into the floor of my RV about an inch deep. So I had to get that seal fixed. While the shop fixed that, they tried to fix a small electrical problem I had. The problem is that somewhere during that process it wasn't fixed right. So I would go to one shop and they would blame the last shop or the manufacturer for sending the wrong part, but nobody was taking the time to diagnose my problem. I was taking a lot of time off the road. So finally, I decided to get somebody who didn't have a dog in that fight that was a mobile repair guy. I'll tell you about that in a little bit. Mistake number three is that when I went to my second rig, I didn't research enough and I jumped too fast because I was homeless. Because on that first rig, I had water problems. I had electrical problems. Two things you don't want at the same time. And then about a year in, I had a second flood from a different source from something else that broke. And I had just had it. I knew there was water damage under my floors and I felt like I just needed to move to a new rig before I got some mold or some dry rot. And here's the problem when you're full-time, especially if you have an all-in-one, like your Class B or Class C or Class A. Because my house and my car and my office were all inside that rig. So it's not like I could sell that rig to a private party that would give me more money and then take the cash and then look for a new rig and go through that whole process and get it inspected. I didn't have that time because that was my house. So there were two dealerships in my area. I had a few boxes I wanted them to check. And sure enough, they found a Class C that was 25 feet long, just like my first rig on the same chassis as my first rig. Two things I really liked. The manufacturer's name was great. I thought it was going to be a similar ride to the first one. And so I didn't do the research that I should have done. It turns out that manufacturer was not known for their Class C's. They were known for the quality in their Class A's. And if I looked at some of the forums, I would have seen that there were problems with manufacturing and weight. My first rig had the same chassis and the same length and the same GVWR, which is the gross vehicle weight of 11,000 pounds. So I assumed that this new rig had the same. I was totally wrong. It turns out that with my old rig, I could carry 1,600 pounds in stuff. On my new rig, it was only 832. And that includes me and water and tanks and fuel and all my stuff, let alone another passenger. If I traveled with just fuel and totally empty water, gray and black tanks, it still left me with only about 300 pounds. My rig was shaking. What if my slides looked funny? And my bathroom wall started to separate. I've never told you guys this. As I went down the road, I started to wonder if this was because I had too much weight. So I kept going to weigh stations and weighing myself and weighing all the wheels and trying to level out and getting rid of things like barbecue grills, trying to stay under the weight. After a few months, I could literally put my hand through the bathroom wall where there was now like a one or two inch gap and wave at somebody in the bedroom. Because this was a structural problem, I couldn't go to a dealership. It had to be sent back to the shop. The problem was they fixed that wall, but everything else in the RV started to fall apart. It wasn't flesh. You can see here that there was a giant gap in the shower that they filled with a bunch of silicone. They clearly tried to like stick it back up together and it just fell out in these dried goops. The cabinets were drooping and trim was falling off and when you press the walls, they moved. Now, do I know that I have those problems because of the weight? I don't. But if I had done my research and not made that mistake, I would have seen that they only made that RV for a few years. It was the exact same length, the exact same floor plan and materials and somehow the carrying capacity kept getting bigger and bigger every year. I started to wonder if they raised that carrying capacity at the expense of a few screws. The mistake number four, you guessed it, is a doozy. I didn't think about the weight. Now again, if you go to creativityrv.com, I have a bunch of resources on this, but basically here's the deal. When they show you the GVWR, the gross vehicle weight inside of your brochure, that is how much weight can go on that chassis. In my case, it was a Mercedes chassis. After that in the brochure, they usually tell you like square feet of storage. Great on my rig, what they don't tell you usually is the dry weight of your RV because you can take that dry weight and subtract it from the GVWR with some other calculations and figure out how much stuff you can carry. In 2008, there were new regulations established telling the dealers that they had to put a sticker on the rig that says what the carrying capacity is because the manufacturers only deal with the dry weight. Then it goes to the dealerships where they might put on things like stabilizing legs or solar. When they change the weight, they're required to put on a sticker that tells you what the carrying capacity is prior to the first sale. The problem is that sticker, which is usually yellow if you're looking for one, is usually found inside of the passenger door. Inside of the driver's door, you probably have a sticker that tells you what the gross vehicle weight is and maybe how much you should inflate your tires. So when I bought that second rig, I really didn't think it was a problem and that was a huge rookie move. My fifth mistake is that I didn't get my rigs inspected. Now, it never occurred to me to get a new RV inspected because no one's been using it. It's brand new from the manufacturer. And the dealerships have these great shops, right? Well, you might have seen recently I did an interview with Lido's Law, who's an expert in RV lemon laws. But everybody should hire a third-party inspector to inspect a rig even if it's new because if a rig sits on a lot for a long time, it can get something called a lot rot. Like, let's say a slide is out one direction for a month so people can come in and look at it. That might make the rig uneven or it could have gotten into an accident while being delivered or even on the lot or they may have taken that rig to a bunch of shows where lots of people were walking through the rig and possibly damaging it. They'll make cosmetic improvements so you never know if there was damage before you drive it off the lot. So for about 250 bucks, you can have an outside inspector go through the rig. Now, I have not done that yet, but I plan to. I would imagine that the dealerships would balk at that, but if I do it again and they balk, I'm going to walk. Now, let me tell you guys what I did right. The first thing is that I negotiated really well. Sure, new RVs depreciate about 30% when you drive them off the lot, but when they're used, they depreciate about 10% a year. I had seen a bunch of people have problems with their used RVs, expenses were popping up, so I decided to go with a new one where my cost was fixed, but I chose one that didn't depreciate as quickly. If you go into my blog, I have a comparison chart that gives you a five-year depreciation analysis where you can actually see over five years how much the rig depreciates. So I paid more for my new rig, but I calculated out if I sold that rig in two, three, or four years how much money I would actually spend for that housing expense during that time, and it actually worked out in my case to be better than if I had bought one of the models that has flooded the market because it's all about supply and demand. So being the geek that I am, and the rates that gave me a range of offers that I could make on that dream rig, then I low-balled that number even more, and I emailed 13 dealerships and made them that offer. Well, you can imagine my responses weren't great, but a couple of people nibbled and we negotiated from there, and I ended up getting a great price on that rig that most people would pay after about a year of use. The second thing I did right is learning to repair things myself. The first rig was I had a propane alarm that would go off almost every night at 3 o'clock in the morning. I couldn't wait for somebody else to fix that, so I got into some Facebook forums and found people that told me how to cut the red wire, like Tom Cruise and a Mission Impossible movie. Like I said, I'm a writer. I never imagined myself being neck deep inside of a wall, looking at a schematic for wiring using tools I had never used, but I found that I couldn't take the time to, for the dealers, to get their stuff together. Now I can fix all kinds of things in my rig, and I have to tell you it's really satisfying to know I can do that. And if I can't fix something myself, I use a mobile repair guy, which is success in number three. Now you might be thinking what I did, which is that mobile RV repair guys are expensive, maybe shady, and you don't want to pay for that because things are covered under your warranty. When I decided to get my first mobile repair guy and I've used three, I found that wasn't the case. I looked at reviews and found somebody really good. He only charged about $100 an hour, which seems like a lot, but remember how much time I had taken with the dealerships. I literally called this guy. He called me right back. I explained my issue for five minutes. He did an hour of research, came out, and fixed my problem. And not only that, he charged the manufacturer. So your RV manufacturer or the manufacturer of a component, let's say your hydraulic system, will actually pay the mobile guy so you don't have to. Of course he has to get approval in advance, and it has to be something that's actually covered. The fourth thing I did right is a big one. I was able to hold the manufacturer accountable. I got paid. Now this is kind of unusual, but I followed some certain steps that I'm going to tell you what they are. So if you've had ongoing problems with your manufacturer and warranty like I did, you might be able to do the same. The first thing is, you have to give them a chance to fix it. You have to show a pattern that that wasn't done and that somebody is accountable for that. So the first thing is that I took notes of everybody I talked to and everything that was said and everything that was spent. And I also kept copies of the emails that I had, the images and the receipts. After giving them time to fix it I asked for money for my time off the road and my additional expense. Of course the first person laughed at me. If that happens to you, you can do this. Go onto the company website and see if you can get any executive emails or go onto their Facebook page or go on to LinkedIn. Then you want to just go up the chain. You have to fill out the company and decide if you want to send an email to one person that can shut you down. Or you want to send an email to a whole group of people and just lay it out and say this is what happened and this is the remuneration that I want for my loss of time on the road. Now it takes a little time and a bunch of people are going to tell you no. They told me no until they paid me. And the fifth success and the one that I think is most important is that through it all my life is really for me. I had a viewer ask me recently if all the problems and things you have to do on the road were worth it and it totally is. At least for me. Here's what I discovered. I didn't have to have the dream rig. That's not what I was going for. I was going for the dream life. The rigs can come and go to me now. They're just a vehicle that takes me where I want to go. If you want to be on the road and buy an RV, this video has helped you. If you need any of the resources I've mentioned head over to my blog. I'll see you guys next week. Until then, have happy travels and be free.