Howdy,
New here and looking to buy a 2001 Foretravel U320 4010 WFTE...
Besides all the regular RV gremlins that occur with a 20 year old coach, it there anything specific I should look out for?
Has ISM 450 HP/Allison 4000 88K miles
Independent front suspension
1 Slide
Replaced 10K Gen with new 8K with 5 hrs on it. (couldn't track down a 10K when replacing)
Audit 8T8 systems monitor system doesn't work. (hopefully it's something easy I can track down, if not is there an aftermarket replacement that fits nicely in it's place?
It has the bulk head fix from the factory.
All air bags replace 2 years ago
Needs tires
This only has painted graphics, but the rest is gelcoat. little worried about 20 year old gel coat but in the pictures it looks fairly shiny, though I know you can't really tell from pictures.
Any advice would be appreciated...hoping to pull the trigger in the next week.
Thanks
You might want to get it weighed as the rear axle is right at 20K and when we weighed a number of coaches at a rally. We had every 40 foot single rear axle over 20K. It is rated higher but some of the toll roads have issues with it and thus in 2002 they went to tag axles.
Don't worry about the Audit system, replace it with a SeeLevel system. Display(s) can be mounted where they are useful. Remove the 20 yr old tube type display and replace it with a hi-res color display for your new cameras. Rear, sides, front your choice.
If the coach is empty the rear axle will not weigh more than 20K lbs. But watch axle loads when you start filling it up. Measure each corner independently to determine axle loads and side to side variations.
Our 2001 U320 36' is very similar. Paint looks good, gel coat looks good. For 10% or less of the cost of painting the coach you can have professionally detailed at someplace like Precision in Nacogdoches. Your coach will look like new.
You might want to consider a headlight conversion. It improves driving at night immensely. Get it done at Xtreme in Nacogdoches. While there consider an electric step conversion as well. One bad step coming out on the small fold down step and you will wish you had.
It is a great coach, a great model year.
Things that may be due for service or replacement include the fuel lines and shocks.
Roger
Sounds like a nice coach. I specifically sought out an 01 because I believe they're currently the best bang for your buck. All the room of a slide and nice bells and whistles without the premium that 03+ command.
Be aware that the slide bladder has a shelf life and is expensive to replace on an 01 because the slide has to be completely removed. Make sure that the body lines/graphics on the slide line up with the rest of the body.
I'm currently $5700 into my coach in the first year of ownership and most of that is basic maintenance and common repairs that are expected of a coach that has sat for a while.
Vey few OLDER Foretravels built with independent front suspension.
Advantage: approx 55 degree wheel cut versus approx 38 degree wheel cut for the beam axles. Easier in campgrounds and tight areas.
Disadvantge: Beam axle coaches have 2 outboard airbags, IFS I "beleive" has one inboard airbag at front, each side. Maybe more body roll in in curves and on hiways?
I'd also make a call to FOT parts and make sure all front end components are still available (or maybe someone with a 2000.2001 with IFS will comment).
I know there are some old threads here on the IFS coaches as I read them a few years ago when shopping for a Foretravel. ONly 2000 and 2001 in the olders FT have IFS if my memory is correct.
Search "IFS" without the quotes from the homepage of these forums. NOTE: I bumped 2 older IFS threads to bring them to top.