Lostcoast2014

I need to act faster - I called and it was sold.

jdemaris, thanks again for your great information - it is giving me a lot to think about. I just had the Minnie Winnie mentioned earlier checked out by a mechanic and it had a bad transmission oil leak so I passed on it. I am seeing a few other Ford/Chevy chassis mh's online in the same 21 ft size range and there is even a 1997 Four Winds on eBay in southern California that is getting my interest. My challenge is that I live in a very remote area and so checking out the nice looking/sounding rigs means driving 5-11 hours each way… There have been two really nice Toyota motorhomes on Craigslist that were sold before I could arrange to drive down to take a look at them. Oh well, the price for living in a beautiful wilderness..

I know - I said the same thing as you said to my f-i-l. I also know that the Toyota motorhomes are lovable things and sometimes people put up with all kinds of stuff for the things they love. To be fair to my wife's father I did find posts online about folks having head gasket trouble with the V6 and folks complaining about it being underpowered and getting poor gas mileage. The internet, right? - where you can find all sides of an argument, right or wrong. I respect my father-in-law's mechanical knowledge but it sounds like in this case he is incorrect...

Alright now I'm vacillating because I found what looks online like a very clean 1992 Toyota Winnebago Warrior, in southern Oregon. Not many miles, clean in and out. Trick is that the contact person is the daughter of the elderly parents who owned it and all she knows about the vehicle is that "It runs great! Come and see it!" This thing is priced such that I could contemplate actually keeping it rather than reselling after our cross-country move, like I would the Minnie Winnie, which is several thousand dollars more expensive. So I may drive to see it and if I like it will take it to a mechanic to have it looked into and over. Are there particular things I should have the mechanic check out? As mentioned before my father-in-law had nothing good to say about the Toyota V6 3.0. He said they were underpowered and not fuel efficient. Is this true? Are these engines still known for lasting a long time with proper care? Anyone out there have the '92 Warrior who can comment on what it has been / was like for you? With thanks, Kevin

Thanks everyone for your helpful input - I really appreciate it. My father-in-law who is very mechanically savvy expressed some concerns about the Toyota V6 engine so I have started to lean in the direction of one of the smaller Minnie Winnie's. I found a 21' Minnie in Oregon with low-ish miles that looks great and the owner has happily agreed to let me take it to a mechanic for a thorough check-out. He claims that it gets 11-12 mpg which is not too different than the Toyota V6. At 21 ft I would have the same ease of parking as I would with the Toyota, plus with the Minnie there would be more interior space. I do have a soft spot for the Toyomotorhomes, maybe because I have had such good experiences with Japanese cars (except Subarus), but I may decide to go with a Minnie Winnie this time around.

I like the sound of that!

I can see where getting a GM / Ford / Dodge C Class and towing a small UHaul trailer makes sense, though I don't need to be able to do 75mph and am fine with 55-60. Plus the thought of driving a vehicle cross country that is about or over 30 feet long feels pretty daunting..

Linda what does "a special service campaign" mean? Thanks for you great advice! Now if the service record looks good and the engine runs well on a test drive, is it really necessary to have a mechanic check it out as well? Newbie question, I know..

Linda what you found re: prices of non-Toyotas is what I have been finding as well. I am about to call about the '91 Toyota Odessey in North Sacramento. There is also a '92 Toyota Winnebago with only 60,000 miles in Stockton, about an hour away from the Odessey. I may drive out to see them both tomorrow (5 hrs drive from where I live). I would like to try to have a mobile mechanic check whatever vehicle I am most interested in to evaluate compression, suspension, etc.

One thing worth mentioning is that my wife and I will not be loading down the motorhome with heavy stuff. It will be used pretty much just to transport us from coastal California to North Carolina. We plan to take the southern route, which has less change of elevation. So in other words the rv will not be under a lot of strain. Shibs - you are suggesting moving cross country in a van with a dog and two cats? A motorhome feels necessary as we don't want to be transferring cats to a hotel room every night.

Lady and gentlemen, thanks very much for your prompt replies - I came to the right place! Jdemaris your suggestion of a GM or Ford Class C is good food for thought, and actually I started my search yesterday looking at some online - but the ones in my price range were made in the 80's like the Toyota RV's. I figured if I was going to buy a vehicle from the '80's or early '90's it should be run by a Toyota engine, but perhaps that is old prejudice and ignorance speaking on my part. On a related note, is it desirable to purchase an RV from a dealer if the dealer has a good reputation? Thanks again, everyone.

My wife and I are moving from California to North Carolina next month. We have a medium-sized dog and two cats and decided to rent a motorhome as the safest and sanest way to get everyone across the country. Well after looking at the exorbitant price of renting a motorhome and the terrible reviews that rv rental companies like CruiseAmerica get from its customers, I decided to look into buying a not-too large motorhome that we could then sell after reaching our new home in the East. After a day of looking at motorhomes online we decided that the ones with the Toyota engines and chassis were the most appealing and seemed to get the best reviews and gas mileage. We are wanting to spend $8000 or less for a motor home that will have good resale value when we sell it next spring. Are there particular models that are more appealing and that sell more readily than others? So far I have found a variety of Toyota RV's within a day's drive of me. The owners describe them as being in excellent condition, and most of them have well under 100,000 miles. They include a '84 Sunrader, a '84 New Horizon, a '86 Dolphin, a '87 and '88 Winnebago, a '89 Seabreeze, an '91 Odessey, and a '92 Winnebago Warrior. Is it worth going for the 4-cylinder engine for the better gas mileage over the V6 that I have read is not much more powerful and gets lower gas mileage? What would "the discerning buyer" purchase of the models I have listed above? Thanks for any input you care to offer. Kevin