Model year for used motorhome


rjann

New Member
I bought a 2002 Chinook, but it turns out that the Ford is a 2001. A friend bought a 2005 class C that turned out to have a 2004 Ford. Is it common to sell used motorhomes based on the year model of the motor home instead of the vehicle?
It seems to me that the year model of both should be readily available at purchase. Any opinions or experiences about this?

Bob
 

Kali_Mist

New Member
RE: Model year for used motorhome

Very common, The reason most Distributors release the next year model mid summer like july , aug. So the Motorhome Manuf. ran out of previous year chassis before they developed the new year coach to add to the new chassi and so they add tghe old coach to the new chassi to keep them rolling until they learn how to build on the new chassi.
Some Manufact. will go out of the way like traveling to differenet countries where the new chassi is available and purchse it have it sent to the us so they can start on the new Coach part and have it readily available for marketing, and building on day the new chassi comes in.
So purchasing an new RV you will receive 2 titles, 1 from the chassi Manuf. 1 from the coach Manuf.
Youve touched on an issue that most folks dont think about, if you go to resell the unit you will only end up with the chassi title and when reselling it you go by that year on the title, so you may have purchased a 06 coach with an 05 chassi title, when reselling it and transfering the title its going to be a resell of an 05, unless you have the 06 coach title. save the coach title!
 

miket

New Member
Re: Model year for used motorhome

Massachusetts has seen the light, now registers by coach year, not the chassis year as was done in the past. When buying a MH, you need to aware of the chassis model year, as there may be a benefit to the newest chassis --
 

Kirk

Senior Member
Re: Model year for used motorhome

Actually, it is just a little different than stated. Motorhomes are nearly always sold by the year of the coach model. The reason that does not always match the year of the chassis is that most manufacturers buy their chassis from the chassis builder in large quantities to save money. Very often when the model year of the coach changes, there are still some chassis left from the last order of chassis that were received from the chassis manufacturer and which are the previous model year. Since the chassis warranty does not begin until the coach is sold to the final owner and registered, it really makes little difference in actual practice and if you should trade that motorhome in, it will be the coach year that is considered and not that of the chassis. There used to be times that there might be as much as a two year difference in the coach year and the chassis year of manufacture.

In a few very rare cases, the chassis year is actually newer than that of the coach. I own one of them. In 1998, Ford released the new 1999 Triton V-10 chassis as an early 1999 model in late March of 1998. My coach was one of the first built on that chassis and it was delivered in May of 1998 as a 98 coach but my chassis is a 99. Some states register the coach by chassis year, but most register it by the coach year. My title for my coach, from Texas, shows both the year of the coach and that of the chassis, as do a few other states.
 
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