Short story we ended up trading our 2008 Coachman 21QB for a 2014 Forester 3011DS.
Long story: A new RV was not really the plan…it just worked out that way We did a lot of driving over the Christmas holidays. While we are driving, we call it our “planning sessions”. We loved traveling in 2013 in our Coachman 21QB RV, but the more I thought about a 3 month trip out west in our little Coachman the more I wondered how we were going to do it. Our 21QB had a nice bed, a dinette, bathroom with shower, a sink, stove, fridge and almost 3 inches of counter space…there was the problem !!!! On May 1, 2013 Wayne and I adopted a whole food, plant based eating plan. This means I prepare most of our meals because eating out is challenging. I love to cook but I need space. So we determined during our “planning session” that maybe we should look at RV’s. Maybe we could find one that would better fit our kitchen needs and give more comfortable seating for relaxing. The Greensboro RV show was in early January and seemed like a good place to start looking for brands and models with a design we liked. Our thought was to look at the 2014 RV’s to see what we would like to get in several years when they were used. I fell in LOVE with the models with the LARGE counter space. That model also had the TV directly in front of the couch so you did not have to look sideways to watch TV. We took several day trips to various RV dealers looking at used RV’s both Class A and Class C. We also read LOTS of reviews on quality and drivability. The Coachman drives great which made it hard to consider something that did not handle as well.
At one dealership the salesman showed us the used units and said I have a deal on something I think you will love…he was right I loved it and it was a good deal…it was also new, but he was offering great financing and would give us top dollar for the Coachman. So we gave him a deposit and the plan was to go to FL the following weekend and get the Coachman to bring back for a trade the following weekend. We did this on Saturday.
Driving back from Virginia where the dealership was we were having another “planning session”. Wayne said I wish it had leveling jacks. We agreed that getting a new RV it should have ALL the features we wanted. Monday morning Wayne called the dealer. After checking the dealer said the RV would have to go back to the factory and it would be an extra $3000. We told him we no longer wanted it.
While we were waiting for the dealer to respond on Monday I had been on the internet searching for an RV with leveling jacks and the layout we wanted for a similar price. I could not believe it when I found one for a little less money with the leveling jacks in Jacksonville, FL !!! Tuesday morning I called the dealership in Florida. I verified with the salesman, yes they still had the RV and yes it had leveling jacks. I told him if we could work a deal we wanted it. He explained the dealership was being sold on Friday at midnight and we would have to close the deal before then to get this price. I told him about the Coachman and if he could give me what the other dealership had offered then we had a deal. Only issue was it was in Rotonda West and we could not get it back by midnight, but if someone wanted to ride down with us they could drive it back. He talked to his boss and we made a deal assuming we approved the new RV when we saw it.
We were at the RV dealer on Friday morning at 8:30 to test drive the new RV. It drove great and looked just like the pictures we had seen on their webpage. We signed papers and were driving to Rotonda before noon with our salesman in the back seat of the car! It takes about 5 hours to drive to Rotonda from Jacksonville and we had to stop for lunch. We got to Rotonda, emptied out the Coachman after retrieving it from the storage lot and the salesman drove away.
Sunday on the way back to NC we stopped in Jacksonville and picked up the new RV. We are the proud owners of a Forest River 2014 Forester 3011DS with leveling jacks !!!!
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