Saturday, May 12, 2012

Decisions, When Is The Right Time?

We have been giving the idea of upgrading so much thought over the past year, but as time goes by our rig goes down so in value, when is the timing right? If we thought the timing was right then we would give it a try, but doing so after replacing the tires on your current rig doesn’t seem to make much sense does it. Well, when a 2002 diesel pusher with 26,000 miles on the rig and obviously very well maintained comes along you go for it…. right?  Confused smile

The rig is priced aggressively, they are offering enough to pay ours off and our payment doesn’t go up much. Only problem, American Express has a mark on our credit for a $54.00 charge off, we have never missed a payment or have been late, ever, so where did this come from? Why in Gods name wouldn’t they notify US?!? It pisses us off that we work this hard on our credit and this happens but we’ll get that fixed right quick I can tell you.  Steaming mad We won’t know until Monday about the Amex issue and we won’t know until Monday if we go forward on this rig.

There are a few things that need attention on the Dutch Star, like, of course, it needs new tires Disappointed smile  and I can guarantee you we will not be buying this rig unless that is cared for.

If you own a gas powered Class A but have never driven a diesel pusher DON’T do it! Not unless you’re serious about moving up.. Why? Because my friends, it will completely change your impression of how your rig drives. The sensation is something you won’t believe. I was driving in 20 to 30mph winds with one finger, with Semi’s passing me!! Accelerating is different as well, my V10 does a fine job but sounds strained, it feels strained so I adjust my driving for it. The diesel just pushes you from behind literally effortlessly. 65mph is effortless…. 65mph in our rig is easy enough as well but the rpm’s are too high and it sucks gas at that speed. So I always kept it to about 60.

Ronda is afraid if this doesn’t go through I won’t want to drive our Endeavor again, I disagree. While very impressed with this rig I’m not going to get my hopes up. It will give us a goal to attain and we will move up when the time is right, if it’s not right now that is. We’ll see Monday.

Cross your fingers folks, if this was meant to be it will be, right, if not we move on, nothing lost.

These are pictures I took, I was too busy going over it top to bottom to take more.

2002 Newmar Dutch Star 38 (Diesel Pusher) with 26,000 miles

Floorplan

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Tire checking aaaaaagggggghhhhhh!! Disappointed smile

TireChecking

Here are some pictures that I cropped from their website.

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STORAGE!! Good grief Charlie Brown!

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13 comments:

IdahoRV said...

Erik...good luck with your Dutch Star purchase. We hope all goes the way you want!

JO said...

Credit people are the worst. I recieved a threatening letter from a hospital for $17. not to long ago. I was never in that hospital. Go figure.
Good luck with the Dutch Star.

Sue and Doug said...

Hope everything works out for the two of you!!..fingers are crossed!!!..and the tors too!!

Merikay said...

Looks good! We drove a couple of gas class A's, but when we drove the diesel we really felt the difference. We were limited to the 36' by our driveway, and if we ever get out of here we may move up to a larger one, who knows.

I really like the lighter wood. Thats what we have too, and it makes the interior feel more spacious.

Do you have to tell them about the mold in the bathroom, like you would in a house?

David, Sheila and Stella the Beagle said...

Best of Luck Erik! We went from 35' to 28' & visited all of the places we didn't fit well before. Space is relative, but there is such freedom in taking less with us! We still have too much stuff, the back inside of our jeep proves it, LOL.

David & Sheila

Kevin and Tracy (a.k.a. kcgaz) said...

Wow...the new rig you are looking at looks great. I hope it all works out well for you. Enjoy!

Anonymous said...

Erik, the rig looks great. I've read mostly positive comments about the Dutch Stars from Newmar and it's certainly one I too would consider someday for ourselves. Bill Joyce posts on another forum that I've been reading for quite awhile. He full-times in a 2004 Dutch Star and seems very knowledgeable about them. I've read some comments from him about diesel engines and he sounded like he knows a few things so you might see if he can offer any insight. He's at sacnoth.com. Good Luck!

Bruce (& Val)

Diana said...

Wow Erik, that is nice! What about the price of Diesel? I know it's higher than gas. Is the mileage better with the diesel enough to make up for that?
Good luck with AMEX. Things like that happen, it's just a pain getting it sorted out!
Love Di ♥

Erik's RV Blog said...

IdahoRV - Thanks! So do we! ;)

JoJo - I hear ya, it makes no sense and why are they allowed to plaster whatever they want on your credit profile with no warning or letter?

Sue and Doug - Thanks! I had to un-cross my toes because of the long walk to work, but they are crossed again at my desk. :)~

Merikay - Thanks, I love the interior of the rig and Ronda loves how large the kitchen is and it has a bahttub, she LOVES that!

Since we didn't have black mold we are ok, in fact I have yet been able to properly identify what growth that was but I disinfected everything. We probably have the best smelling RV around!

David, Sheila and Stella the Beagle - We needed to go up in size and we also needed a bedroom slide but I can appriciate downsizing. We are in the middle of downsizing our home, a HUGE project!

kcgaz - Thanks, we'll find out today we hope!

Bruce & Val - Thank you very much for the information! I am going to contact him and ask him some questions. Hopefully we'll see you camping this year!

Diana - The price of diesel here is within a few cents of gas but you're right. This rig will get about 2mpg better than our current rig which will offset the cost. Also, having a 100 gallon tank means we fill up less often because we don't typically go too far.

Regarding Amex, they messed with Ronda and she WILL hold them accountable! She'll have that fixed up real qucik!

David, Sheila and Stella the Beagle said...

Erik, you are doing great & yes, only you can choose which way to go, LOL. One thing we learned, what we choose today will be different 5 years from now as our perceptions will be different. We didn't expect to buy a park model after only 4 years of full-timing, but after selling our 5er it turned out to be a good complement to our truck camper. We do a lot of crazy things like remote camping and gold panning in the back country. We knew we wanted to retain the 4x4 capability of our last truck and yet we grew weary of fitting into a lot of small spaces with our 35' 5er. So for us the truck camper works great as we spend a lot of time outdoors and go to places we could never fit ... plus towing the jeep with us allows us to even further find the back trails. We we are ready to settle down (never!) I suspect a small motorhome will be in our future. After workamping for 4 years after selling our house, being parked for 4-6 months at a time meant it was a chore to pack up, put away family picture, trim limbs in our way, worry about getting in or out, etc. Every time we weighed our coach and truck we were overweight and ended up continuously giving away this and that. When the farm sold and we had to go to a tiny storage unit, that is when we decided to go light for a few years and to go have fun, maybe go to Alaska and not have to carry our 45 pound Kitchen Aid with us to all ends of the earth. When we eventually get a motorhome again, we always have the option of renting out our park model, LOL. -Dave

Big Matt said...

That critter is the twin of the Dutch Star that was camped out in the parking lot here at work for the past couple weeks. :)

Erik's RV Blog said...

Matt - She is a beauty ain't she? :)

Big Matt said...

Well, as I've always said, "She's a big wee beasty!" :p.