PITFALLS to AVOID before You Purchase an RV (2023)

We made the mistake of purchasing an RV without knowing what we were doing. If you're thinking about buying a camper, avoid these pitfalls because they are costly!

These are hands down the best tips when buying an RV and helping you to avoid ending up in a situation like ours.

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*Items In This Episode*

Storage Benches for Dinette

Magnetic Knife Strip

B&W Fifth Wheel Hitch

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Carl’s American Straw Hat

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_A large influence on this series has come from content creators like Kara and Nate and Keep Your Daydream. The style of this video is also similar to Changing Lanes or Eamon & Bec in parts._

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_DISCLAIMER: HappilyEverHanks is a YouTube channel intended for entertainment purposes only. We are not RV experts and these opinions are only intended to show what methods we use when it comes to RV Living. Do not use this information as professional advice.

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[HappilyEverHanks]

Here is a quick link for that free checklist we mentioned 🤗

👕Merch Store is FINALLY Here!

Catch-up on HappilyEverHanks from the beginning

RV Newbies - START HERE

[ricksmith]

Pretty good video. I work as a tech for a major dealership, cant say who and ive been doing this since moses crossed the red sea. I like what you said and agree with it. The biggest thing I want newbies to remember is you are buying something that was put together in days, never meant to be lived in fulltime( most carry the caveat "not intended for full time residence") and most have a life expectancy of 10 years before real problems arise. I've camped since I was barely two feet tall in every kind of camper made, still got the pics-love the bowl haircut, thanks mom :) Anyways if I can put this very simple, all flash, little gash, remember I work on these things for a living and I have alot of work all the time. There are two kinds of campers, ones that are broken and ones that will become broken at the worst time - have a plan B when things break and extended warranties are nothing more than extended grabs at your bank account-youre still gonna be forking out some cash overall. dont settle for flashy things or salesman that want you to buy because you have outdoor speakers - theyre usually crap anyways and sound like crap when you turn the volume past 5. Salespeople are there for one thing, to earn a commission 10 to 15 percent of the price. I couldnt agree more with the space thing, make sure you arent planting your face in the vanity cabinet every time you want to pee....One thing i noticed with the layout on most of them, if you want to watch tv you better be a good contortionist or very flexible, and the furniture, who invents some of this, the Marquis de Sade, absolutely horrible for the most part and make sure the furniture is fastened down, nothing like tipping a recliner and having it come unhooked from the center section. The tables are usually fastened down with 1 inch screws so dont lean on the table getting up or junior is gonna have his dinner in his lap when the table breaks loose from the floor - the best designs are now fastened to the walls. Residential fridges are great but have at least two betteries for you boondockers and unless they are winterized properly the icemaker valve will shatter in winter, very expensive repair. Storage space is paramount, especially with smaller campers, you can never have enough storage space unless youre a minimalist and like to wear the same pair of undies all week, ick... Now they do try to design them to appeal to people but the workmanship is usually the first casualty. the factory has to move so fast and they drive screws into things and then give them a little extra twist to strip the screws out so cabinet doors will fall off. Trim is fastened with nailguns set for a zillion psi so expect trim to pop off all the time. Like you said the arctic package thing is tricky, all they have is foil bubble wrap lining the underbelly and rely on the furnace to duct heat underneath, this takes away from interior heating and a cold camper takes about 6 hours to heat til its livable at best. Remember this isnt your house furnace but a suitcase sized furnace that puts out about 25 percent of the heat your houses furnace will. The AC's work pretty good but depend solely on the exterior ambient temp and are rated to cool 20 degrees below that temp unless you want them running all the time. At night run the main AC and not the bedroom AC, it will duct into the bedroom and wont be so loud you cant sleep, during the day I like to use the Bedroom AC so I dont have the noise right above me. When you get a new camper, the first thing you want to do is camp in your driveway for a weekend, set it up, make it do its thing, check out all the features and make sure they work. A major part of my job is warranty work because the crack addict at the factory didnt install the sink traps or forgot to hook up the toilet water line. Check all the windows, make sure they open and close properly as well as the blinds and shades. You just financed this thing over the next 15 years and the unit depreciated 20 percent as soon as you took it over the curb from the dealership. I'm not downing on the manufacturers but their sole purpose is volume over quality. Ive seen several brands that were put together well and several that were basically glued together by a 3 yr old. this is the nature of the business and dealerships job is to sell these things even though they should be set on fire and sold for scrap metal. As for the customers, information is your biggest weapon, reviews, complaints, compliments all will help you, but all that aside dont settle, dont fall for high pressure from sales people. When you buy a camper, the onus is on you to learn everything you can about its operation and requirements. Many dont know but manufacturers require all the exterior seals to be checked every 90 days, water is a campers worst enemy since 90 percent of the interior is compressed paper and manufacturers will go to great lengths to shift the blame on the customer than themselves. I would rather spend my time repairing campers that suffered from genuine problems and not manufacturers callousness and carelessness. If something breaks and I fix it I establish a reputation with the customers and have many that insist I work on their unit, but if its a warranty or workmanship issue from the factory, Im dealing with pissed off customers who feel theyve been ripped off and taken advantage of - no happy camper there plus they dont want the camper they are paying 500 bucks a month on sitting in a shop over the summer. I've watched a few of your videos, just discovered your page, so im gonna look thru some more. Keep the good stuff coming you guys.

[wgreenjr]

I was all with you until you said get rid of the DVD players. Many of the state parks my wife and I frequent, there is no cell service and DVDs are a great form of entertainment when we just don't want to talk to each other anymore

[McScott]

Just bought a new travel trailer for our family. My number one piece of advice is this: While you're still in the shopping process, and once you think you've found "the one, " flip your POV and pretend you're trying to talk yourself out of buying it. Look for every possible downside -- quality control issues, missing features, things that could go wrong or be difficult to repair. Pretend you're an RV inspector trying to save your client from making a mistake. This will force you to find all the problems and look at them objectively. If you can look at all those issues honestly and are still ok with buying it, go for it! You won't have nearly the buyer's remorse that you'll have when you discover them later.

After the emotional high of buying our "perfect" travel trailer, I immediately started noticing things that made me uncomfortable or just didn't make sense. For example, ours is a bunkhouse, but it didn't come with a ladder to get into the top bunk. My plan was for the kids to just step on the bottom bunk to climb up into the top one. But not until after we bought it did I realize that the padded bumper on the edge of the bottom bunk was flimsy plastic wrapped in foam. Stepping on it would crush it. So I had to end up building a custom ladder and figure out how to mount it. After a few weeks of projects fixing, reinforcing and rebuilding things that were not installed properly, I'm finally starting to feel good about this travel trailer again. But those first few days I had MAJOR buyer's remorse. And honestly, I think we might have gone with a different model or manufacturer if I had been more diligent and objective during the buying process.

[lizcort]

It was a rainy cold day in PA
The mood was bad in every way
Then I remembered it was Thursday
HANKS DAY !
you don’t say !
POOF 💥 Bad mood gone away 😂

[corinutza]

Spot on Guys, We have a 2015 Silverado with 58, 000 miles Gas Dually with 4:10 rear end. It gets 12 mpg empty and 6 MPG pulling a 9, 000 lb TT
and it HATES Hills. Diesel is the way to go

[brianl]

I found this video 2 weeks after i got my first RV. I'm not disappointed, my salesman wasnt pushy and we got the right RV for our family.

[McScott]

I disagree about the DVD player. Our RV doesn't have a built in one, but we have a separate player that we installed. We camp at a lot of state parks in remote areas that have sketchy or no cell service and no antenna reception. Having a DVD player allows us to still have family movie night or pass the time on a rainy day watching old seasons of sitcoms that we have on DVD.

[janetswope]

Love love love our dinette! My husband cut holes in the ends of each bench, installed long tracks, built drawers on rollers, and now we have two huge, long drawers that pull out from under each bench. Tons of storage and we don’t have to remove cushions and wood panel to gain access to the storage.

[blackiron]

Hi guys, love this video, I just want to say that on our 2018 Jayco HT T/T, I use the outside shower to flush out our black tank. I take the fresh water curly hose, and connect it to the black tank flush inlet, after connection on the quick release coupler, then turn on the pump for the shower, and it sends that fresh water to the black tank to flush it out. So easy, peasy.. Have a good day. Safe travels...

[marshaclifton]

IM OLD. 68. I drive a Class A Winnebago Adventure with no problem. Fulltime

[InTheDirtAgain]

I'm a travel lab tech and try to stay in my 36ft travel trailer as much as possible, but RV parks in my current working area are super expensive. Can't believe some places want almost $1000/mo and they ARE NOT beachfront. Happy trails!

[kentwicker]

My dogs are always turning on the sofa lights seat heater and massage. They use it more than I do 🤣

[ddarkhelmett]

I had to pause and rewind 10 times to get all the advice Dexter gave. He packs in so much in such a short amount of time. Total Boss. As always #ThanksHanks

[ocean_kin]

I'm planning on doing Travel Nursing after I finish college and I'm saving up for an RV to Renovate. I want to live debt free as well and save money to buy me and my parents a plot of land! Thank you so much for making these videos to help Newbies like me! 😊Keep doing what you're doing!

[chrismcgaughey]

Dang it #happilyeverhanks I wish I would have seen your content - specifically this video - before we walked onto that big box dealer floor ‘just to look’ last September and ended up signing the contract on our 37’ behemoth the same day. We jumped into the #weekendrvlife with both feet. While I don’t regret buying AN RV, I would urge everyone to get out and look A LOT so you don’t make a $60K impulse purchase like we did. Great advice, love you all!

[erickessler]

Sooo funny!
The sales folks I met also pumped the outside speakers and sofa lights. Lol. I told them, don't be one of those... "sharing" your music with me. 🧐

Cheers, Eric

[BrohamerT]

I loved and can relate to so many of the glitzy items on the RVs not being useful, or even necessary. The one item you missed on the whole truck size issue is the payload. Too many people do not take that into account. Your insurance company sure will if you're in an accident and over your maximum payload. Great video. Keep them coming.

[sandycochran]

I totally agree about all the crazy LED lights. We’re the designers thinking I was going to have a freaking rave every weekend in my 23 foot camper?!? They’ve been on once in 2.5 years of full time living.

[Stranded-N-Paradise]

Thanks Hanks!! We made all the big mistakes as well then after 14 months of full time we determined that it wasn’t for us, purchased a house sold our 5th wheel. Long story short we found a 21 year old Airstream and rescued it, No frills, No Bells and whistles, we added our own bells and whistles to make it the way we wanted and what works for us. Wish we had done more research before we purchased the first one thank you for this video.