Too many owners?

[daveperce]

We are in the process of buying a 27' MH, first reg in 1996. We will be the 8th registered owners of this MH, the previous owner having kept it for the last four years. HPI is clear. Being new to this lifestyle, is it expected that a MH would change hands so regularly or is it just the length of the MH just prove too much for some people once they had purchased it? A bit vague, I appreciate but any comments welcome.

[Guest JudgeMental]

I would not be particularly bothered by that if nothing wrong with van!

 

The mechanical side can be inspected for a reasonable cost...More importantly I would insist on a professional damp check to save what could be potentially a world of grief.

 

If they are not prepared to allow any checks then I would not bother with it......

[Brian Kirby]

It might help if you said what it is.  Size does put some people off, 27 feet is about 8 metres, so it is a biggish van.  Does it have a MAM of 3.5 tonnes?  If so, I'd suspect previous owners may have found it has an inadequate payload.  Does it have a single rear axle?  If so, it will have a long rear overhang, and may be a bit of a pig to manoeuvre, and rather prone to grounding on ramps etc.  It will also, if 3.5 tonne MAM, be very prone to overloading the rear axle.  What is the engine?  If it much less than a 130HP turbocharged diesel, you may find you're being overtaken by snails on hills!  Has it power assisted steering?  If not, you'd better book the body-building courses now!  :-)

[neilmac]

If the owner you are buying from is the one who has had it 4 years then I wouldn't be too concerned about how many it had before.

 

Check the items already mentioned as you would buying any van.

[nowtelse2do]

Hello Dave. Welcome to the forum, as the judge said your main check is to find out if it is damp free. He also says that he would not bother about how many owners it had had but I think you are right to ask the question of the number of owners.

If the first owner bought it on credit then that would have been 3yrs or over I would think. You say the last owner had it for 4yrs so that means it had 5 owners in a period of 7yrs at least, IMO that would seem the M/H may have been unsuitable for them or that there may have been a problem with it. If it was not bought on credit with the first owner I would think that one or more of the other owners would have had credit at some stage of it's life.

You don't say what the M/H is or what its mileage is, can you enlighten us. Some would disagree, but I would think that 18' to 22' would be the average length of M/H's so 27' may have been a tad to much for some people. Also is it a private sale or a dealer, no come back on a private sale in most cases

Dave 

[daveperce]

Many thanks for all your commentsI am arranging a damp check etc as we speak. The MH is a TAG axle Autotrail so I guess could be a bit too much for some folks but I'll get it checked out anyway. As an aside, the shower in the rear bedroom has been replaced by a large wardrobe and we would like to put the shower back in. Can anyone reccommend a reliable workshop to get this done? As far as I am aware all the plumbing, waste etcis still in place under the floor. Many thanks

[rolandrat]

If you want the shower putting back in then consider booking it in at the Autotrail factory workshop where it will be done properly. They will have all the relevant parts at hand and the workmanship will be first class.