Finally, I found a camper at a great price that couldn’t be passed up. When trying to find the perfect camper for me and my family there were many things that we wanted and needed in it. For example, we wanted a bunk house that had its own door or room. We were also looking at fifth wheel campers. Before I started looking, I made a list of all the necessities that we needed in a camper. I also made a list of the wants I wanted in a camper. Do you ever make lists when trying to decide something?
Finding What I Want!
Going camper shopping is sometimes not the easiest thing to do. Especially if you do not have some specifics of what you are looking for. For me, making an excel sheet with columns of things I want and need in a camper. After creating my list, I went through manufactures websites and added campers to my list that fit the criteria of my columns. This helped me narrow it down a little but still left me with a huge list of random campers. I then marked the campers in red that I was not interested in due to looks, layout, price, size or weight. My list was getting smaller but still had over 20 campers on it. How do you narrow down your list?
Go Get Out There And Try Before You Buy!
When shopping for anything, go out and see this stuff in person. Especially campers go through them, open and try everything. We narrowed our list dramatically doing this. Pictures can always be deceiving; everything looks bigger and roomier in the pictures until you are physically in it. When buying new or used check and try everything. This is the only way to find flaws and know what you like or will work for you. For example, get in the shower and pretend to take a shower. You will be surprised how small some of these showers really are, especially when you get in it and try to rinse off your body. Would you ever buy something expensive or big without physically seeing it?
Know Your Budget!
When shopping for a new or used camper know your budget. I knew that if I financed something I wanted payments less than two hundred a month. When I was debating on buy a new or used unit one of the dealers told me that the interest rate is at thirteen percent. I didn’t even need to go any further looking at new units, so I moved onto looking at used units. Has a budget forced you into doing something else because it was out of your price range?
Where To Buy?
When looking for a new or used campers there are many places to find and buy from. RVTrader.com is a great site as long as you filters when searching and know what you are looking for. Going to different dealers and looking campers up on their website is a great way to help find what you are looking for and know what features some campers will have. Some dealers do an excellent job at being very descriptive with the campers they sell. Also, when going to some dealers they are more than willing to let you go through multiple units. It’s like you get your own personal RV show. Facebook has many great resources when trying to find the right camper for you especially a used one. Some dealer sales personnel will post campers on marketplace or in groups. I highly recommend joining some local or state camper for sale groups to find a camper that is right for you. I personally found my perfect camper on a Michigan camper for sale group. Have you ever bought anything from Facebook group or marketplace?
What I Found And Bought.
The camper I bought is a 2005 Jayco Jay Flight 30.5BHS. It’s older but never really used. The camper was only used for one week out of the year for the last twenty years. It was bought only for 4H. The camper has never been to a campground. The furniture and everything is like brand new. The pinstriping and lettering on the outside of the camper is a little faded. All the lights were updated to LED to save on power since the camper mainly ran off a generator. It’s small enough to get into almost every campground, or boondocking spot yet big enough to have plenty of room inside especially for a rainy day. The price was too good to pass up, so I am way under my budget which gives me extra money to upgrade some stuff and make the camper mine.
Do you have any camping plans next year? If so, where do you plan on going?
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