5 Things an RV Salesman Won’t Tell You

Today I am revealing five things that an RV salesperson won't tell you. This list is in no particular order because I think all five of these things have equal importance. Let's dive in... 

What do all RV’s have in common?

It doesn’t matter if it’s a Fleetwood, Coachman, Thor, Alpine, Montana, Tiffin, Prevost, or any other brand—what all RVs have in common is every single one will eventually end up in the service department for repairs. 

It’s true. It doesn't matter what brand you buy. It doesn't matter what price level of RV you’re buying, your RV is going to break down on you. That’s also true whether it’s new or used, too.

There really are no exceptions. Here’s why. Every time you hit a bump in the road it's like your whole house is going through an earthquake during a hurricane. 

A lot of times customers say to me, “Well, I just want an RV that's not gonna give me any problems.”  Unfortunately, that's not the reality of any RV.

The one example that I like to give to everybody is when I was at the Tampa RV show, talking to the Featherlight manufacturer…

For those of you who don't watch Andrew Steel’s awesome YouTube channel, Featherlight is the manufacturer of Prevost motorhomes. They can cost $2 million or more. Even they will spend time in the service department because with all RVs, it's not if something goes wrong, it's when something goes wrong. 

Speaking of Andrew Steele, make sure you guys check out his channel. If you like to tour big, expensive $500k to $2 million motor homes, check out my good friend Andrew’s channel.  

Sister Products

Many times you'll hear a salesperson say, “Oh man, I would not buy that Wildwood. I would buy this Salem Cruise Light.”

Or if you're looking at fifth wheels…“Hey guys, I would not buy a Big Horn. I'd buy this Big Country”.

Or “I would never buy a Jayco Precept”. You're gonna want an Entegra motorhome.” 

The reality is that all of these are called sister products. Salem is made by Forest River and so is Wildwood. They have the same look, the same floor plans, the same price point, and they're made on the same assembly line.  

Heartland does the same thing with their Big Horn and their Big Country. 

Some manufacturers do the same thing, but just a little differently. For example, Jayco owns Entegra. So Jayco sells the Precept and Entegra sells the Vision XL. Both of them are 34Gs. And they both have the same options and everything. In that situation, the manufacturers are a little different, but you get the same warranty and features.

Now with that said, sometimes sister products do look a little different. 

For example, a Keystone Passport is going to have a completely different look from a Keystone Bullet, but the core principles are still there. That’s why they’re called sister products. 

Let me tell you a funny story about sister products. The RV industry is a lot like the fashion industry. So when I first came into the RV industry, there was this fifth wheel called the Heartland Oakmont and it was selling horribly. People weren't buying it. People didn't like it.

Are you guys ready for this? The manufacturers gave us significant rebates to move all the Oakmont off the dealership lot. At the time their top seller was called the Big Horn.

Once all the dealerships across the country got rid of the Heartland Oakmont inventory, Heartland peeled the sticker off, kept all the floor plans exactly the same, and rebranded to call it the Big Horn Traveler because the Big Horn was such a popular seller. 

After they rebranded it to the Big Horn Traveler it became one of their best selling fifth wheels on the market.

The final point to make about sister products is that not all RVs are the same. There's the Solitude and the Solitude S class. There's the Big Horn and the Big Horn Traveler. And the Montana and the Montana High Country.

If you have a Montana High Country, that's a great unit, but it’s not at the quality level of a Montana. The sister product of the Montana High Country is the Avalanche and the sister product of the Montana is the Alpine—all owned by Keystone. Sometimes when it's a very popular brand, they will just do a play on words, such as Montana and Montana High Country. 

And when it's not a super popular brand (AKA Alpine) they will have the lower brand be a similar-themed name like Avalanche, Alpine Mountain, etc. 

This is not to say that any of those units aren't good units at all, but there are differences between the Montana High Country/Avalanche and the regular Montana/Alpine. 

You’re Going to Die

This point really hits home and, honestly, isn’t a fun one to share. You're gonna die, okay? I say that very bluntly because I don’t want you to miss out on today worrying about tomorrow. 

Everybody asks me, “when is the best time to buy an RV? Should I buy the show?” They say, “I'm gonna wait six months till the market gets better.”

I hear every excuse in the book. When's the best time to buy an RV? Listen, guys, there is no best time to buy an RV. That’s why I say the best time to buy an RV is today because tomorrow is never promised. 

Now, listen, I know this is coming from an RV salesperson. My goal is to try to sell an RV, so I want you to take that into context.

But I want to give you two real life examples. One's gonna be personal. And one is going to be an excerpt from someone we don’t know in one of our Facebook groups.

I want you guys to think of these two situations…

My dad had one of the crummiest jobs in the whole world. He was a transmission mechanic for Metro in Washington DC.

Week in and week out, he built transmissions for the buses. I would absolutely hate that job. But he did that job for 30 years and he didn't make very good money. I mean, he made money for us to grow up, but we did not have extra things.

And he retired from Metro and then six months later…he passed away. I tell everybody that story because he worked his whole life and he sacrificed a lot of joys that he wanted. He worked his butt off for 30 years and didn’t get to enjoy a single year of retirement. 

Now, I also have this message from Facebook, from somebody who had a similar type of story. 

Here’s what they said:

“My wife and I started following Alliance over a year ago and have enjoyed the Alliance story and progress that they have made. We were extremely impressed by the customer service and the units and the staff at Alliance and the people on site have provided us with information needed, provided us with the information needed to decide that Alliance was the way to go. Unfortunately, due to recent changes in our lives, this will no longer be happening. Thank you all for letting us be a part of the group. Happy adventures to all in honors of my wife.” 

Seeing this post really, really hits me hard. We went back to see how long they were a part of the Facebook group and it was over a year. 

We see this a lot in the RV industry where people spend six months, a year, two years, three years researching, trying to find the right RV, making all these plans. But they're not going out there camping.

Now, listen, I know a lot of you are gonna say you gotta do your research. You gotta make sure that you don't buy the wrong RV. This is a very expensive purchase. And I get that, trust me, I get that. 

But at the same time, don't miss out on tomorrow while you’re worrying about today. You know, the fact of the matter is, just go camping, go out and make memories. 

Like I said before, there isn't a perfect RV out there. I've seen more RVs than every single one of you guys put together. It's what I do for a living. And in part of what makes my channel beautiful is it doesn't matter how expensive the RV is, I can find you three things that I don't like about every single RV. 

So I get it. It's a lot of money and you're planning for retirement. But at the same time, maybe don’t buy a new RV. Maybe buy a used one instead. Or maybe don’t buy a travel trailer instead of a motor home.

The important thing is to find something and go make memories. You know, the one thing that I like to tell everybody is RVs are horrible investments. Ask any accountant. They’ll tell you the same thing. 

However, the one thing that you're paying for is the memories. The ability to go camping, visit nature, and spend time with your family that you will never be able to spend again. And that's something that you can look at it in different ways, but I feel like it's a powerful statement. 

RV life isn't for everyone

Again, this is coming from a guy who's trying to sell an RV.

The one thing you gotta remember is when you are in an RV, even the biggest fifth wheels, when you are with your partner, your spouse, and your children, you are in close quarters and you better love each other. 

I've seen couples that have decided to get an RV and it has caused them to get a divorce. On the flip side, there are other RVers like my friends John and Mercedes from the RV Odd Couple, who were on the brink of divorce and the RV experience has actually brought them back together. Now they're closer than ever. So there are two sides to that situation. 

Just know that the way RVs are constructed, the walls are super thin and you are parked right next to your neighbor. If you’re inside screaming, “Hey, screw you!…No, screw you!” and then you go outside to have a beer with your neighbor—they heard the whole argument.

When you're in an RV, you have no privacy anymore. You’re in very close quarters and everybody can hear everything. 

RVs are NOT made to be lived in

This might be the biggest thing that an RV salesperson won't tell you…RVs are not made to be lived in.

Whoa, hang on a second. What did I just say? 

It’s true. RV stands for recreational vehicle. You're supposed to be using this recreationally. You are not supposed to be living in it full-time.

With that said, a ton of people live in them. People live in fifth wheels and motor homes and travel trailers. There are a few people that live in teardrops, class Bs (#vanlife), and even popups. 

I’m not saying don't live in it. And I'm not saying that people don't live in it. I think there are like 300,000 people living in their RVs. Which is awesome! And listen, when Andrea's kids are outside of the house, we're gonna live in an RV. 

With that said, RVs are not designed to be lived in. Now I know a couple of people are gonna say, “well, hey, the DRVs are designed to be lived in.” But that's a $200,000 fifth wheel.

Still, as I said earlier, these are homes on wheels. And every time you are driving your home, you're going through an earthquake during a hurricane. 

Not only that, RVs are not built like homes. They don’t have a foundation like homes and they do not have the build quality of homes. If you want an RV that has the quality of a home, it's gonna cost you three or four hundred thousand for a towable.

Don't even get me started on the higher-end motor homes. Going back to the first thing RV salespeople won’t tell you, even with the highest-end units there will always be issues. 

The one thing I want to tell everybody is yes, go out and live in an RV. You know, houses are so expensive now and getting more expensive. Now everybody's selling their house and buying an RV for 50, 60, 70, or a hundred thousand dollars and then traveling the world and living life to the fullest.

Just know you have to plan your trips, but know that your trips will never go as planned. 

Know that you will always somehow and some way end up in a service department and know that if you are full-timing, you might have to stay with your friends for a week or two, or maybe even a month. You might have to stay at an Extended Stay hotel for a week or two or maybe a month. 

When you decide to full time in an RV, there are so many awesome features and benefits, but on the flip side, it's not all rainbows and butterflies.

There are gonna be issues that you run into and there are gonna be times that you're gonna be homeless because your RVs in the service department and the manufacturers are taking weeks to get parts for your slide out.

I'm not saying that to scare everybody. What I'm saying is to be aware, set your expectations, and know that RVs aren’t always going to be fun and easy.

A successful RV trip is a trip where you only have one or two or three issues. So you want to be handy or be friendly. So either knows how to fix stuff yourself or be friendly at campgrounds and meet people who know how to fix stuff for you. 

Wrapping up

So those are the five things that an RV salesperson will never tell you. Again, I'm not saying this to scare you. I'm saying this to set the right expectation.

RVs are not cheap. What I like to tell everybody is RVs are not fast, but they're fun. They're not cheap, but they're convenient. It's an awesome lifestyle. It's a great way to travel and see this country. And it's a great way to meet new people along the roads. 

I've sold probably over a thousand RVs in my lifetime. And what I can tell you is there's probably only a handful of customers that I didn't like and that didn't like me. And it doesn't mean we're bad people. We just didn't see eye to eye.

The point of that is that 99.9% of RVers are awesome people. It is a great community. I'm so glad that I fell into it.

It’s going to be the best decision for most of you guys to make, but just know that there are both pros and cons to the lifestyle. But that's also what makes this RV Life an adventure.

A lot of times people say in RV life that it's not about the destination, it's about the journey. Well, I think it's it's all in one, the destination, the journey, getting there, and the Memories that you're gonna make is what makes the RV life so awesome.