Sight unseen coach: what sending your own inspector actually looks like
Started by newcoach_nervous · Oct 2, 2025 · in Buying and auctions · 6 posts
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newcoach_nervousOP
WeekenderSt. Cloud, MN5 posts · joined Aug 2025
#1
megan, St. Cloud, 34, husband and two kids, no coach yet. after reading dave's thread the thing i kept hearing was "send your own inspector," and nobody said what that actually means. so here is what it meant for us, including the part where it did not work out.
the coach was a 2019 Winnebago Vista 27PE, V10, 31,000 miles, sitting at a lender yard outside Nashville and listed on lakeparkautoconnection.com. i called and asked if we could have it inspected. yes, buyer pays, and the lake park people gave me the yard contact and a two day window. i found a certified inspector through the NRVIA locator, there were three within an hour of the yard. i picked the one who answered the phone.
level 2 inspection on a class A was 675. fluid samples were another 120 and i skipped them, which pat will tell me was dumb. he was at the coach 5 and a half hours and i had a 61 page pdf with 140 photos that night. what it found: lap sealant cracked at the front cap and around the fridge roof vent. tires with 2018 date codes, all six. house batteries at 12.1 volts rested, which he called weak. generator 410 hours, started, ran under load fine. slide seals fine. moisture meter dry on every wall and the floor. one cabinet latch broken. a bent awning arm bracket. the chassis side he does not really do beyond a cold start and a walkaround.
we bid 57,500 with the tires and the sealant in the number. we lost. so i paid 675 to learn a lot about a coach somebody else now owns. i do not regret it and i am also a little sick about it, both.
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pat_fixes_slides
Full-TimerKerrville, TX26 posts · joined Aug 2025
#2
you did it right and you got a bad roll, that is all. two things for next time. the report is not there to tell you whether to bid, it is there to tell you what number to bid. tires alone on a 22.5 coach are a 4,000 dollar line, sealant is a saturday and 60 dollars, batteries are 300. you subtract those from what a clean one is worth and that is your number, which is exactly what you did. and yes, get the fluid samples next time. 120 to know whether the V10 has coolant in the oil is the cheapest thing on the list.
a level 2 covers the house and the systems. it does not cover the Ford, which is the other half of the coach. ron will say the rest.
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f53_chassis_ron
WagonmasterOcala, FL34 posts · joined Aug 2025
#3
the RV inspector is a house inspector, a good one, but the engine and transmission are the expensive half. next time ask him to plug a code reader in and screenshot the codes and the readiness monitors, that is five minutes and most of them carry one. then take the VIN to any Ford dealer and ask for the OASIS report, ten minutes, it shows every warranty repair and open recall on the chassis. between those two you know more about the Ford than most dealers will tell you.
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newcoach_nervousOP
WeekenderSt. Cloud, MN5 posts · joined Aug 2025
#4
second try. 2020 Thor Hurricane 29M, the 7.3, 22,210 miles on the listing photo, lender yard in Springfield Missouri, the second lake park listing i have put money into. different NRVIA inspector, 600, fluid samples this time, and he did the code reader screenshot for ron. no codes, monitors ready. findings: a soft spot in the shower floor pan about the size of a dinner plate, everything else clean, tires are 2020. shower pan repair is 400 or so from what i can find.
we bid 66,800, which was the comps with the shower money and a little more taken off. got the email tuesday. we won. i have not stopped shaking. Springfield to St. Cloud is inside the free thousand miles so no overage this time.
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mod_gary_w
ModeratorDetroit Lakes, MN41 posts · joined Aug 2025
#5
congratulations megan. this is exactly the kind of thread i want on this board, an inspection cost, what it found, and a lost bid in the middle. one request. post the delivery date and the odometer when it lands, and who winterized it, because a december delivery into Minnesota means somebody has to do that the same day.
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newcoach_nervousOP
WeekenderSt. Cloud, MN5 posts · joined Aug 2025
#6
it landed december 7th, 11 days after the wire. driver out of Kansas. odometer 22,846 against 22,210 on the listing, so 636 miles of driving. it was 8 degrees when it pulled in and a mobile tech from here in St. Cloud winterized it in our driveway that afternoon for 140, the outfit in lake park had actually told me on the phone to line that up before it arrived. shower pan gets fixed in april. first trip is memorial day weekend at Sibley State Park, and i will come back and say how it went.
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