Like I mentioned several times over the last several months, I have been looking for a newer RV. I have a budget of around $58K which comes after months of thought about what I would be doing for the rest of my limited life. I know those of you under 50 probably can’t image it yet, but there will come a time when you realize you don’t have that many years left. I’m thinking that I probably have 10 years left of which I perhaps could travel in an RV for 8 years. Now this is all guess work of course, but hell, seems reasonable.
So because I also want to leave some of my limited funds to my kids, I didn’t want to completely decimate my retirement funds, so that budget figure was a target. I’d been saving so I had around $24K in my savings account and only had to withdraw $34K from my IRA funds to reach the $58K target. I’d been looking for a newer RV casually for 3-4 years, and seriously for over a year and I’ll tell ya, it’s boring as hell. Hours spent online researching. I pretty much knew what I wanted…when I saw it. My limited criterion was my newer rig would be diesel pusher, with 1 or 2 slides for extra room. Reasonable miles, a genset, a patio awning with the metal cover when closed, slides, and a half way decent bathroom. I was convinced I’d find that somewhere, sometime, but it was turning out to be tough. And I didn’t really want to have to fly somewhere to inspect something I’d found online.
And then, I came up here to Mesa, Arizona to look at the Coachmen Country Coach that I found on Craigslist and mentioned in my last posting. It didn’t work out, and as I traveled the 3 miles from where that coach was to my pre-selected RV park to spend the night, I was struck by the number and size of the RV dealers near to where the RV park was. I went ahead and paid for a week here at the park because it seemed like a great idea to browse around to at least get a feel of what type RV was available in my price range. I did have a list of preferred brands.
The day after I arrived and settled in, rode my bike east on the street and just a block away, visited the lot of a consignment dealer that just happened to have on display a couple of the brands I was interested in. I toured 3-4 RVs in my price range and was thinking how great it was that my first try at visiting a consignment dealer and they had some RVs I’d be comfortable living in. One of them was a ’02 Winnebago Journey. I was immediately struck by how it fit exactly what I was looking for. But it was a little old. I was looking for a ’06 or so. But it was really nice looking. Only had 70,000 miles too. Didn’t look like it had much use or abuse at all. But, I didn’t put any money down on it. I went home and over the next few hours, did my research. Soon discovered that that particular Journey had a good reputation, that it was their top of the line model, had a well respected Freightliner custom chassis, and on and on.
So the next day, I rode over there with my checkbook in hand, and arrived just as they were selling it to a younger couple. The husband had visited the day before, and brought his wife this time for her approval. Damnit. Sold. But, I hung in there, 3 days later that deal fell through. And after a road trip, a roof inspection, extending and retracting the slides a few times, and a few more walk throughs, I paid cash for my 2nd, and probably my last, RV.
And here it is while being prepped for delivery.
Lookie there, even has the basement cabinets that move out with the slide.
The genset. You can see a bit of jungle rot going on but I’ll deal with that eventually. It runs well though.
More basement storage. Doesn’t have the basement pull out slides but that’s ok with me. 
Propane tank…all nice and white. My Bounder’s tank originally looked bad enough that one time a propane guy refused to fill it. After that happened I cleaned it up and painted it. Shouldn’t have to do that to this one.
And the ladder to the roof. The roof is a single piece of molded plexiglass or something. The kind of roofing material that all the cool kids have. No more white chalk streaks down the side of my RV like on the Bounder with it’s EPDM rubber roof.
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Here’s the inside with the slide extended. When the slide is closed, there’s just about as much room in it as there was in the Bounder, maybe more. So I could live in it with both slides closed if needed. Really high quality appointments in here. One of the things that sold me on the rig.
It does have a Norcold 2-door refer, but the model number isn’t in the recall group (whew). Those were mostly the 12XX models and the N841 , this one is a N842 and the Norcold (aka: Nevercold) recall list doesn’t include it. I’ll have to watch carefully because Norcold keeps adding models and expanding the recall.
Past the refer and pull out pantries, is the large bathroom and vanity. Plenty of counter space (one of the things on my wish list). Triple mirrored vanity, with a corner medicine cabinet. With attractive beveled mirrors throughout the rig. The shower is on the left, door to the commode on the right. Oh, yeah, and attached to the wall dining table with extra leaf, along with nice comfy stand alone chairs. (Extra chairs in the bedroom closet for company). Fancy. Well made too. Kitchen has plenty of drawer space, cherrywood cabinets, a MW/Convection oven that by the looks of it was never used by the first owners, an ample refer. As I mentioned, the refer is the Norcold brand. The brand I’d been trying to avoid because of all the fires and deaths associated with it’s poor design. There is still, in 2016, a class action lawsuit ongoing over the multiple fires and deaths. In fact it almost made me back away from this RV, but the rig had so much going for it, I decided I’d just live with it for a year and then buy a residential refer to replace it.
And a look towards the front. That’s a nice 31″ Vizio smart TV above the dash. It is a replacement for the old tube type that use to be there. I’m going to remodel that area so I can open up that cabinet space behind the TV and use it for storage. The couch covering is fabric, and it turns into a bed by pressing the electric switch that when operated makes into either wide lounge seating with foot rests or a queen sized bed. Seems an unnecessary expense to me but someone somewhere wanted it to be electric I suppose. The Bounder, and most other RVs, just have a pull out couch. This one does seem to be a tad heavier with richer appointments than those models. Higher quality perhaps?
On the right in the below picture, just past the kitchen counter, is a fabric covered cushy rotating, rocking, lazyboy type chair that I’ve already found to be very comfy during a nap. In front of that is a small collapsible travel table, cherrywood. The captain’s and co-pilot’s chairs are real leather in excellent condition, rotate, swivel, and the captain’s chair has all those fancy electric adjustments. Heavy screened exit storm door in front of the co-pilots chair along with an air operated step cover. 
And the bedroom. Real cherry wood cabinet faces (throughout the RV), and vinyl on the facia. Nice mirrors all over the place. Plenty of closet space. Lots of drawers. Attractive wall paper. That closet portion slides in when driving but I can open the top portions for coats or clean shirts even when it’s retracted.
The bathroom/shower is really nice…especially compared to the Bounder…
Gold (appearing) fixtures throughout.
And a private bathroom with a China toilet just off the washroom. The optional washer dryer would go in here in the cabinet on the left if it had one. I use all that space for storage now.
A couple of days later, the dealer had finished the prep, the money had been transferred to their account, and I spent 3/4 of the day on their lot transferring as much of my crap from the old Bounder to this. Then I moved my new RV back to the RV park, and they let me park the Bounder next to it. And I spent the next few days transferring all the rest of my crap. Soooo much stuff.
And here I am parked at the first RV park in my new2me RV. I’ve already bought a bunch of new stuff for my new toy.
It’s soooo roomy! I just love it. And it’s only 36 feet long! Just like my old Bounder so there will not be much problem parking it as I’ve already gone through the learning stage. The only thing I really need to look out for is height (it’s taller than the Bounder), and opening or closing the slides. Oh, and because of the slides, I need to park in places that have nice flat sites. No more parking at weird angles. Not if I want to extend the slides that is. 
And this rig is a 50 Amp unit. So although it’s designed with electrical efficiency in mind, I’ll tend to stay in parks with 50 Amp service from now on. I’m looking forward to testing it on a 30 amp service though. Just to test how things go.
It has a high efficiency central air/heating unit under the bedroom floor that either uses the overhead vents or floor registers as selected. Nice and quiet while I’m here at the computer, but could keep me awake if I need to run it and sleep in the bedroom at the same time. Luckily, those times are rare because I can just move to cooler, or warmer climes as necessary. And of course, if it’s cool at night, I can just set out a couple heaters and won’t need to run the floor furnace. AC is a different story, and in the case of a very warm night, I’ll just move out to the living room and sleep on the bed out there since it’s nice and quiet there, even with the AC running. Here in Mesa now though, it’s hot during the day, and just cool (not cold) at night so not a problem. No need to run the floor furnace/AC while I’m in bed.
So that’s it. My ’02 Winnebago Journey DL. I’ve been living in it for several weeks now and I’m really liking it. The kitchen needed some adjustments, like where I’d put my stuff, had to shuffle it around a couple times, but it’s starting to be what I want. Getting use to it. There’s a Big Lots store nearby so I was able to get a bunch of storage and clothes hanging aids to make living easier in the RV. Still some things to add but, there’s plenty of time. Tomorrow, I’ll be breaking camp and heading off towards the west. Still waiting on the Title for the new owner of my Bounder so I won’t be leaving the Phoenix area, but at least I’ll get to drive it a bit and try out a different RV park.
See you next time and thanks for reading!
Always enjoy your posts! Congrats on your new-to-me coach. Just wish the wife and I had taken a little more time when we bought our first (and only) motorhome. However, my wife refused to take the trip home the way we traveled to Arizona in a 33 foot camper. The crosswinds and speeding semi’s almost spelled our doom a couple of times. Anyway, we ended up buying a brand new at the time, a 2003 37-foot Bounder DP. Two slides, power jacks, power patio awning, etc. We have really enjoyed having the “Big Boy” as my wife calls it. Had some growing pains, but all-in-all, it’s been great and fits our needs. I have often wondered if I should have looked at a pre-owned that was bigger, better, and the same money. Don’t think it’s going to happen at this stage of my life. I figure another 8-10 years of motoring.
Welcome to the world of diesel power. Hope you enjoy it.
Thanks, Van!
I was in a hurry when I bought my first diesel pusher…as it turns out, also a 37′ Bounder. But mine was a ’94 and I bought it in ’04. Saved a bunch of money over buying new, but also had to dribble out quite a bit of money over the 12 years I owned it, for optional equipment, maintenance, tires, brakes, paint, repairs, etc. The usual. My New2mE RV will probably do the same thing to me except I don’t plan on driving as far or as often as I did before. Getting ready to settle down a little. We’ll see on that though.
Happy to hear you guys are enjoying your Big Boy. And hope you’re getting lots of use from it. Maybe we’ll run into each other someday on the road!
I’ve been reading your blog for some time now so congratulations on the new rig! It is beautiful inside and out. We too looked at a Winnebago Journey back in 2010 but it was a gasser. We opted instead for a fifth wheel and have been really happy. The Journey’s are well appointed and will give you many years of satisfaction.
Thanks, Renee. It just happened to have everything in a newer RV that I’ve been looking for, and practically right next door too! I’d have to agree about the Journey’s appointments. Very attractive and comfortable way to live.
Happy for you I think you made a wise choice, and you didn’t have to sell the store to buy it. Are you planning to stay on the west coast most of the time?
Thanks, Paul. I do wish it was a little younger because yesterday I felt like I needed to hedge the year on the rig when I moved to a remote RV park here in Tonopah miles outside Phoenix. Probably didn’t need to, but just force of habit. It looks so nice, I doubt any RV Pk is going to be all that strict about me staying there with the age over their 10 year rule. Even so, there are plenty of other RV parks in the world.
I have been thinking of making another trip over there to the east coast in my new rig. I didn’t tour much the last trip. Ended up zipping through some of the southern seaboard states and maybe spent a day or three at RV parks, but didn’t really do any touristy stuff. Then I was trapped in Florida because of the bad winter weather they had over there last year so probably won’t go east again for a couple years.
I was born in Seattle and grew up in the Northwest so the West is my home. And there’s all these open spaces over here so you can really see the sunrise or sunset. Plus the RV parks don’t charge as much, either.
Nice looking unit. Keep us posted on your new adventures!
It is nice looking, isn’t it? Now that I’m pretty much caught up with my postings, they tend to be fairly current with IRL stuff. I’m only around 2 months behind right now. And I’ve already had a couple new adventures in the Journey. I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve posted! Thanks for reading!
Jim,
Just getting ready for my inaugural 2016 trip in my HR DP. Just traveling with the one dog at this time, later my DW will travel with me. I have spent too much on the MH and only have 12 more items on my to do list. Only one is a show stopper. (need to service the engine cooling system). I plan on making one lap around the USA this year, stopping at the Burning Man festival in August. Have you ever been? Looks like the place for old Hippie’s like me.
Burning Man…for nearly 20 years, I tried to make it down there but it never worked out. Two years ago, I was in California and worked hard trying to find tickets but was met with nothing but a flood of crooks and criminals on Craigslist. I know all the tricks so didn’t lose anything. But while I was so engrossed with going that year, I did hours of study, and I’m afraid it’s really not the kind of hippy haven these days that I was looking forward to. I was 5 years too late. It’s gone commercial I’m afraid. Sure, it still has nudes wandering around, and a free love tent, but I’m past that stage of my life. But it does have weird and wonderful art, and that’s what I always wanted to see. And guess what? This year there’s an infestation of some kind of nasty biting bug. They are saying the wind piles them up alongside the buildings there’s so many. And that they haven’t found a bug repellent that works yet. So there’s that.
I bought my unit after looking for about 6 months, my DW wanted a slide, I wanted a DP with a diesel Genset. The unit had a water leak since new on the drivers side that rotted the floor from the wall to the steering column. I found the original problem and fixed it along with putting in new flooring thruout. This unit had a new engine (3200 miles) and air ride suspension that is very nice on long trips. I have only been to FL on long trips and several short trips. Can’t wait to visit the west coast.
Would like to meet you sometime, I seem to know you based on reading your blog.
Paul
Hey, I’d love meeting up with you someday on the West Coast. Keep me posted about your itinerary and I’ll try to intersect with you.
Nice looking rig. Sounds like you got a good deal on it. Your blog has given me a several new places I intend to visit once I hit the road. What’s the 10 year rule in RV parks you mentioned?
I wish I could say I got a great deal on it…I paid $49,000. But that’s $4,000 over what it’s valued at for insurance purposes. It’s NADA value, today April 2nd, 2016, is $40K low, and $49K average. So I paid the average. I did negotiate the price down from $52K. I was so excited about finally finding what I wanted at a price I was willing to pay, I didn’t fight and argue with the dealer about taking care of some obvious deficiencies. I told them twice the chassis batteries were dead…they tried to say they just needed charging. BS, when a battery settles at 10.8V, it’s ruined. They didn’t change them out. (These batteries aren’t serviceable either…sealed). The house batteries are newer but really cheap and underpowered for this rig…again I didn’t argue. They wouldn’t grease the zerk on the water pump, and one of the tires is a 2006. All things I could have argued about if I’d not been so happy with the style and general condition of the rig…and the fact they had had another buyer that almost bought it before I had a chance to.
Even so, after living in the rig for 2 months and driving it 3-4oo miles, I’m happy with it, and the price I paid. Just far too many good things I like about it for me to get all remorseful about the price I paid.
The 10 year rule is usually applied by newer RV parks in order to keep out, ‘undesirables’ with junker rigs. You’ll find this mainly at parks that call themselves Resorts, or are under new ownership and they’re trying to upscale the park. Nothing wrong with that, it just means that we who have bought older RVs to save money, must sometimes lie about the age of our RV in order to get a place to park for the night. Or we’ll be tricky and arrive after the office is closed and use the nighttime sign up (don’t recall ever going to a RV park that didn’t have a nighttime sign up).
When I bought my Bounder, it was already 10 years old, and the paint was faded and vinyl both faded & badly cracked. Before I had her painted, I tried to park a little off and out of sight of the office windows if I expected the park to ask it’s age. I was turned away from perhaps two RV parks over the next 6 years of travel in the US because I tended to avoid parks calling themselves ‘Resort’. Never turned away in Mexico or Canada. Then I had it painted, and though it looked much better, it was still obvious from the style it was an old timer. But after the paint job, I did go ahead and park right in front of offices. Over all those years, after the paint job, I was only turned away once. And that was at a park near Portland, Oregon in an area that has a shortage of RV parks. Had to spend a couple nights at the Walmart because all the parks were full.
My new2me Journey is very attractive. Nothing wrong with the vinyl or paint. I was told the original owners always kept it covered and out of the sun so it really looks newer than it’s actual 14 years of age. But still, I’ll be saying it’s newer than it is at parks that ask it’s age.
I’m still running the original Beaver factory Interstate batteries in our rig. They are nearly 10 years old. The 2 sealed 12v. chassis starting batteries and the 4 6v. maintenance-requiring deep cycle house ones are just starting to show weakness. My pricing research last fall and this winter turned up Costco as probably the best deal for new ones. They’ve gone from Kirkland branding to all Interstate, and the prices are as good as it gets. The Kirklands were probably reliable Johnson Controls-made like Interstates are.
I have to laugh at myself on these batteries…when I first toured this RV, I found from the power center display in the RV’s hallway that the batteries were ruined. Reading 10.8V at rest. Sales guy tells me they just need recharging, I tell him that’s BS, they need to be replaced. Later, when I visit it while they’re prep’ing the rig for me, again I tell the tech the batteries need replacing. I didn’t follow up on it a couple days later, when I toured the rig, moved a bunch of my stuff into it then drove away. Wasn’t thinking about batteries. A week after that, when I finally get around to noticing that the bad set is still there, and the house set is a pair of cheapo, small 12V car batteries (newer though), the dealership has closed and their lot is empty. Typical.
But I am so happy with the RV in general, I’m not going to get all stressed by bad batteries that if I’d just payed more attention, could have gotten new ones as part of the deal. I’ll limp along with them for a year or two. And I do plan on getting new ones at Costco, maybe sooner than later.
Your rig is bigger than our apartment. Looks really nice!
Gosh, I just discovered your blog. Love your gift for storytelling, and I will be adding it to my read list. Congrats on the new rig–seems like a really good deal. Now I’ve got to go back and catch up with your posts, as I’m sure there is a lot to learn there. We recently became fulltimers; feel free to visit our blog at http://mills-travels.blogspot.com.
Thanks for the kind words, Mike. Hope you enjoy my blog.
My new too me rig is very comfortable and I’m really enjoying the extra room. Especially in the bathroom. My old Bounder was really a tight fit.
Fulltiming is a blast, and with the right attitude, I love it out here on the road. Traveling when the mood strikes you, avoiding poor weather and excess heat, visiting all the great spots this country (and maybe Canada and Mexico) has to offer. That’s the things that make it a grand adventure.
I’m going to visit your blog right now…