LakeMead Boater
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2014
- Messages
- 1,025
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Been waiting for this day for a long time! I was lucky enough to grow up doing motorhome trips with my family. We went everywhere in the western US and even up to Canada one summer.
Fast forward to about 5 years ago and we had our first son. My wife and I borrowed my parent’s coach and went to Wine Country RV in Paso and Flying Flags in Buellton. He was only 6 months old at the time, but I couldn’t wait to keep doing more trips.
This year, my wife and I decided to pull the trigger. Problem is, the motorhomes I had been able to borrow set the bar high and exceeded my budget by about 5x lol.
I went back and forth on gas vs diesel. I have at least 40k miles behind the wheel of diesels and feel more confident compared to a gas coach. I still thought I could make a gas coach work. I found a 2004 Pace Arrow in Lake Elsinore with 3 slides. Went down to look at it and was blown away on how clean the interior was. I was a little pressed for time and explained to the seller that I wanted to come back on Saturday to look at it with my dad as well (as he has 30 years experience with motorhomes). My wife really liked the interior and I could live with the exterior. The seller and I agreed to a refundable deposit pending anything major wasn’t wrong. Go down Saturday, look at it and find quite a few more issues… During the test drive, the dash moved up and down about 6 inches which wasn’t right. Worse yet, the overheads AC’s both went out. Come to find out, the seller owned it for 2 years and never serviced anything (gen, engine, tires, etc) and had no idea about anything. I told him let me think on it and I’ll chat the next day. Next day, I said I was going to pass and I’d like my deposit back. He’s since gone radio silent and still no deposit back. People can suck and I’ll deal with him later.
The silver lining in the Pace Arrow falling through is that I knew with 100% certainty, I wanted a diesel.
Fast forward a few weeks, I had been eyeing a Safari Zanzibar on RVT that had been for sale. We have some friends who have them and love them. They’re an entry level diesel, but it checked some of the boxes we needed. This one had an updated interior and 2 slides. We wanted something at least 36’ long and we needed a place for a pack n play for naps and sleep for my youngest. Bummer with this one is that it was in Arizona and we’re in S. CA with limited free time. I spoke with the seller multiple times, they sent me a lot of pics, and even FaceTimed a walk through of the interior and exterior. It looked like it’d fit the bill and we struck a deal.
My dad and I flew out of OC at 6:45 to Phoenix. The seller and his wife picked us up at the airport and took us to the coach. Initial walk through was the same as the FaceTime and pics. The one thing that wasn’t elaborated enough on was the paint mismatch around the water heater (which had been replaced) and I was disappointed with that. Took it for a test drive and it was mechanically great with a ton of power. Also the interior was really clean for a 23 year old coach. Decided to look past the issues in the back driver side corner because it wouldn’t be a huge expense to fix and most everything else on the coach was good (I also had a deposit down in new rear tires to get installed and would need to find a flight home which would have equaled more than half the cost of the paint fix).
We struck a deal, went next door to the title and tag shop to have it registered, title transferred and I had rear tires installed while we did that. Arizona is amazing on how easy it is to transfer title and we were in and out in 25 minutes.
Finally about 12:45, they finished the rear tires and messed up the vanity ring on the driver side wheel. Somewhat frustrating because it looks horrible without those rings, but I had planned on installing Alcoa’s or similar right away.
Stopped and filled up and started driving home about 1:45 and got home around 7:15.
The coach drives way better than anticipated and has more power than anticipated. Definitely forgot all the little nuances while driving it home. Needless to say, I can’t wait to start making memories with the family in this!
Quick stats- it’s a 2000 Safari Zanzibar with a 330 Cat. 39’ long with 2 slides. 69k miles.
Fast forward to about 5 years ago and we had our first son. My wife and I borrowed my parent’s coach and went to Wine Country RV in Paso and Flying Flags in Buellton. He was only 6 months old at the time, but I couldn’t wait to keep doing more trips.
This year, my wife and I decided to pull the trigger. Problem is, the motorhomes I had been able to borrow set the bar high and exceeded my budget by about 5x lol.
I went back and forth on gas vs diesel. I have at least 40k miles behind the wheel of diesels and feel more confident compared to a gas coach. I still thought I could make a gas coach work. I found a 2004 Pace Arrow in Lake Elsinore with 3 slides. Went down to look at it and was blown away on how clean the interior was. I was a little pressed for time and explained to the seller that I wanted to come back on Saturday to look at it with my dad as well (as he has 30 years experience with motorhomes). My wife really liked the interior and I could live with the exterior. The seller and I agreed to a refundable deposit pending anything major wasn’t wrong. Go down Saturday, look at it and find quite a few more issues… During the test drive, the dash moved up and down about 6 inches which wasn’t right. Worse yet, the overheads AC’s both went out. Come to find out, the seller owned it for 2 years and never serviced anything (gen, engine, tires, etc) and had no idea about anything. I told him let me think on it and I’ll chat the next day. Next day, I said I was going to pass and I’d like my deposit back. He’s since gone radio silent and still no deposit back. People can suck and I’ll deal with him later.
The silver lining in the Pace Arrow falling through is that I knew with 100% certainty, I wanted a diesel.
Fast forward a few weeks, I had been eyeing a Safari Zanzibar on RVT that had been for sale. We have some friends who have them and love them. They’re an entry level diesel, but it checked some of the boxes we needed. This one had an updated interior and 2 slides. We wanted something at least 36’ long and we needed a place for a pack n play for naps and sleep for my youngest. Bummer with this one is that it was in Arizona and we’re in S. CA with limited free time. I spoke with the seller multiple times, they sent me a lot of pics, and even FaceTimed a walk through of the interior and exterior. It looked like it’d fit the bill and we struck a deal.
My dad and I flew out of OC at 6:45 to Phoenix. The seller and his wife picked us up at the airport and took us to the coach. Initial walk through was the same as the FaceTime and pics. The one thing that wasn’t elaborated enough on was the paint mismatch around the water heater (which had been replaced) and I was disappointed with that. Took it for a test drive and it was mechanically great with a ton of power. Also the interior was really clean for a 23 year old coach. Decided to look past the issues in the back driver side corner because it wouldn’t be a huge expense to fix and most everything else on the coach was good (I also had a deposit down in new rear tires to get installed and would need to find a flight home which would have equaled more than half the cost of the paint fix).
We struck a deal, went next door to the title and tag shop to have it registered, title transferred and I had rear tires installed while we did that. Arizona is amazing on how easy it is to transfer title and we were in and out in 25 minutes.
Finally about 12:45, they finished the rear tires and messed up the vanity ring on the driver side wheel. Somewhat frustrating because it looks horrible without those rings, but I had planned on installing Alcoa’s or similar right away.
Stopped and filled up and started driving home about 1:45 and got home around 7:15.
The coach drives way better than anticipated and has more power than anticipated. Definitely forgot all the little nuances while driving it home. Needless to say, I can’t wait to start making memories with the family in this!
Quick stats- it’s a 2000 Safari Zanzibar with a 330 Cat. 39’ long with 2 slides. 69k miles.
