Pros and cons of buying older low mileage diesels

[bpaikman]

We used to have a diesel pusher and we enjoyed it so much, and since we travel the mountains a lot, and plan to be out of the road for weeks at a time we would like another diesel however I’m not liking the newer models. Has anyone ever bought a lower mileage 10-year-old pusher let’s say ...35,000 miles... I prefer the older models layout. Also they’re a lot cheaper.
Apologize to anyone that read my original post, I do voice to text because I have no good keyboard on this iPad. Before I post, I check it over, and it have it correct ...but evidently right before I hit post it decides it needs to make some changes! so there was a lot of garbled nonsense in the previous post, sorry.
We bought a old pusher when I was seven years old and sold it when it was 12 years old and it was still running great. We had minor repairs, But I kept hearing from my friends with new Rvs that they had more frequent issues. Not always covered by warranty. The only major expense we had was an air filter clean out system at about 60,000 miles

 

[Jim]

I have a 2009 Tiffin Phaeton 40 QTH . 18,500 miles when I bought it a year ago but I've added another 5k in the last year. Paid 96K but had to put on new tires, so add another 3K for that. But I'm enjoying it big-time.

 

[MapNerd]

People do it all the time. With proper due diligence, you can certainly have your cake and eat it too.

 

[bpaikman]

I have a 2009 Tiffin Phaeton 40 QTH . 18,500 miles when I bought it a year ago but I've added another 5k in the last year. Paid 96K but had to put on new tires, so add another 3K for that. But I'm enjoying it big-time.

Yes we bought a seven year old Winnebago with about 25,000 miles on it and we added another 60,000 in the next few years. But I am thinking of buying one that’s 10 years old this time, because I don’t like the floorplans of the later models... Some waste space on huge dinettes, yet have cramped bathrooms. We want a 35 footer, but I don’t like it that’s a new models combine the shower, toilet, and sink all in one tiny room. Older models manage to keep that split and don’t have giant horseshoe dinettes.

 

[BGMAC]

I am not necessarily afraid of buying an older RV that has been sitting around, but there are a few things to consider and the biggest thing is humidity and condensation inside the engine. If the motorhome is in a dry climate I don't think it would be much of an issue. If it were on the coast I would think about it. When an engine is not run for sometime condensation will get on internal engine components and could cause rusting and pitting. example would be the cam. If the cam lobes are rusted they would wear out the lifters and the came itself. Same with Rod & cam bearings.

Another thing to consider is a dry start. If an engine has not run in some time all the oil is drained off all the bearing surfaces. The first few moments of starting the engine would be on metal to metal until oil flow has started. A pre-oiler helps prevent that. I have used additives to help oil adhere to metal to help prevent that as well in my aircraft engine as they tend to sit for a time before use.

 

[bpaikman]

I am not necessarily afraid of buying an older RV that has been sitting around, but there are a few things to consider and the biggest thing is humidity and condensation inside the engine. If the motorhome is in a dry climate I don't think it would be much of an issue. If it were on the coast I would think about it. When an engine is not run for sometime condensation will get on internal engine components and could cause rusting and pitting. example would be the cam. If the cam lobes are rusted they would wear out the lifters and the came itself. Same with Rod & cam bearings.

Another thing to consider is a dry start. If an engine has not run in some time all the oil is drained off all the bearing surfaces. The first few moments of starting the engine would be on metal to metal until oil flow has started. A pre-oiler helps prevent that. I have used additives to help oil adhere to metal to help prevent that as well in my aircraft engine as they tend to sit for a time before use.

Some reason I missed your reply for a long time and I’m just seeing it now and May 2021. I really appreciate the insights - so I will keep it in mind. We were lucky with our motorhome that we bought I think it came from a coastal area and it had a lot of rust in one of the compartments but we never had any problems associated with that the engine was really great. It was delivered from SC to Tx, so that probably helped. Thanks again.