Well after many years of lurking here off and on I might have a serious offer on my Eagle and if that happens I will be looking for a mid 90's Foretravel. Back in 07 we bought the Bus and it has served us well, but the time has come to to let it go and buy the coach we have admired for many years.
I have talked to Gary , John and Matt about their outfits and if all goes well we will be making a road trip some place in the coming weeks. This is only my second post on the board and hope to make many more.
Welcome and we hope you have great luck on the sale and a purchase of a FT!
Welcome and happy hunting.
You're not a Bus Nutt friend of Dave Metzger are ya???
Just kidding, welcome aboard I'm sure you will have a lot to add from your bus experiences. It's hard to beat the value of a 90's Foretravel.
Welcome aboard Andy & Eileen. You've already discovered the most informative and friendliest forum in the world wide web concerning Foretravels. You can certainly find the Foretravel you are looking for as your search leads to some of the best coaches & numerous Foretravels ever built. Patience and perceviarance is all it takes besides being decisive once you find what you're looking for.
Good luck with your Eagle prospective buyer. Hope you join the ranks of Foretravel ownership soon.
Andy, Glad to see you on the board. Enjoyed talking with you y'day. Good luck with the Eagle. ( that's selfish ain't it ?)
I am curious about your avatar, there is one other member with the same avatar and in the past there was another member with it. I assume it is a stock avatar ?
Gary B
Thanks all for the welcome, Gary it was nice talking to you . as far as the Avatar all the pictures I have are of the Eagle and with Gods blessing I can post a picture of our new to us Foretravel ;D
I am about a year or two behind ya Andy. I've dealt with my old Winnie Itasca for the last ten years and willl have to run it another year or more. I am aiming for a mid-90s U320 and hope to be in one as early as this time next year. I'm just a wannabe for now. Good luck in your search.
Lots of good old ones around. If it's not great you can make it so - just add some money. My advice is don't screw around forever trying to find the perfect rig and don't feel obligated to check off every item on the "before you buy a FT lists." You'll waste a lot of time doing so. Most on us on the forum aren't getting any younger... tick, tock...
jor
When you buy your Foretravel is all a matter of timing. When you are ready to buy...then buy, don't mess around, or you may lose the opportunity. You need to ensure that there are no major issues with the unit. That IS all. To ensure propriety, hire a professional to inspect the coach and give you a guestimate for the major repairs. Depending on where you live, there may be someone close by that someone from the forum can recommend.
There could be 6 to 10 items each a $1,000 (coach bucks) to take care of in extreme deferred maintenance cases (which really are very few units out there). The rest of the investment should be allocated to upgrades and customization. Tires are not cheap. Make sure these are not "time-out". Dash A/C and roof units are in working order. Refrigerator age is important as is the kind of use the previous owners had. These two items can set you back $10,000 alone.
I like to say that a Foretravel is very much worth maintaining and upgrading no matter the age if in reasonable condition and road worthy.
Yep, no way of being 100% sure of everything, and part of the price you pay for owning an experienced coach is ongoing maintenance and upgrades. Here's a tip...buy one from JOR, he's really thorough in his upgrade program and first class workmanship! (Sorry John, couldn't resist....!)
Seriously, first preference should be to find one for sale by a knowledgeable Foreforums member. Both our family Foretravels were bought from forum members. Make your wish list known in classifieds if you haven't already done so.
When I bought my 1990 FT, I tried to convince a co-worker to buy quality used instead of new. She replied that "that's good for you, you can fix things. I need someone to do it for me" (meaning warranty).
So she bought a new lower-end Country Coach. Then she proceeded to make trips to the factory over and over to get those things fixed. She would tell me that she was on "the second page of her current list" repeatedly. Altho she probably didn't have to pay, I wouldn't want such a coach and be the "beta tester" working all the kinks out by repeatedly returning to the factory instead of travelling happily where I wanted to go. So there can be a "reduced cost" in more than one way when you purchase an "experienced" coach.
As we are relatively new to our "Experienced" coach (March of this year) I am rapidly gaining experience myself and I wouldn't have it any other way. Quality Product - Quality People.
Well got an email from buyer :-( he's having trouble getting away and has some issues to deal with. so for now the sale is postponed. Bummer I guess it wasn't meant to be for now. i'm still praying that this is just a small srt back and will keepthe faith.
We sent you a reply regarding our foretravel for sale. Haven't heard from you. Do you have any interest? Art
The DW and I have been married for 39 years and over this time I have watched her parents, avid RVers, buy at least 10 coaches; every single one of them Winnebago/Itasca from the same dealer. (There may have been more... it's hard to keep track.)
For each motorhome he had to get Banks and Pacbrake installed, get a steering damper, TPMS, new Joey beds for the storage areas and also stomp out all the bugs. I cannot tell you how many times we talked to them while they were "camped" at the dealer's lot. For their first 3 or 4 motor homes the dealer was only 10 miles away but for the last bunch the dealer has been a 7-hour drive.
Many times I saw them drive up to our house in a motor home and said to my wife, "Is that the same RV they had last time?" It became part of our family legend.
Although they never said anything (and I never asked) I am pretty sure that the driving force for the purchases was the warrenty; the perceived benefit of trading the one they had now in before it had serious mechanical issues for a brand new "perfect" RV with all possible issues covered by the dealer/manufacturer. And the equally important: it's easier for them to do it than if I had to do it.
They traded off motor homes that had been customized to their satisfaction for a motor home that they had to customize again.
While watching this procession of coaches I decided that I could happily live with any of the motor homes they had so carefully upgraded and then traded in. Whoever bought them got a low-mileage RV that had been stored in a heated shop (which they made specially for a large RV) for a bargain price.
I am convinced that the dealership had salespeople who marked dates on their calendar for when they'd be back to buy their next coach. For all I knew they had an office pool....
Of course, finding that one almost-perfect coach like those is not easy. But Foretravels are hard to beat when it comes to longevity; just look at all of them on this forum that are still being used over 20 years from the day they rolled out of the factory in Nacodoches.
But the great new-to-me Foretravels are out there. You have to be patient, alert, and ready to pounce. :)
Craig