Bend, OR in October for a new motorhome
My persistent search for a new motorhome has yielded results, despite Mrs Mile’s plan to delay this major purchase for at least a couple of years. I found this one on Craigslist after expanding my search area. It’s a 2010 Winnebago Chalet 24 JR, kind of an interesting model only produced in 2009 and 2010 (as far as I can tell). While the floorplan differs from a 2010 Winnebago View, it is virtually identical to a 2008 View. I have a theory that there were some (maybe a lot) of unsold Views after the 2008 market crash and some of those were rebadged as Chalets (which is a rental specific model line for Winnebago). Our Chalet spent the early part of it’s life as a rental, was then owned by a lady in Utah, and most recently belonged to a family in Bend, OR.
We have been interested in Winnebago Views and other Mercedes Sprinter chassis class C motorhomes for awhile now. They are known for their maneuverability, carlike ride (compared to some of the domestic van chassis class C motorhomes), excellent diesel fuel economy (12 to 18 MPG depending on how you drive and what you’re hauling), and overall reliability. The Winnebago View and Chalet specifically are also known for the build quality of the coach itself.
Our Chalet was listed at $45,000, about $10,000 less than I could find anything comparable locally. Mileage was shown as 80,000, which I’ve been told is nothing for a diesel. The ad of course showed the rig in it’s best light and highlighted recent upgrades/maintenance the previous owner had done. I reached out to the owner through text first and he responded quickly, always a good sign. I was starting to see some potential even with the challenges of purchasing a vehicle close to 500 miles away. Fortunately, I have an uncle that lives in Bend and he agreed to take a look at the Chalet a couple of days later. He and his wife got back to me afterwards with a very positive review of the rig’s condition. Now I just had to figure out how to finance it…
Financing options for a motorhome older than 10 years are limited. Our local credit union would have been my first choice, but they won’t finance on anything older than 10 years and don’t offer loan terms longer than 15 years. Our need to keep our monthly payments as low as possible had me looking for a 20 year loan term. I started with all the big financial names; Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc., with disappointing results. A web search for RV specific lenders yielded a bunch of companied I hadn’t heard of and one that I had, Good Sam. Turns out Good Sam offers 20 year loan terms on qualifying RV’s up to 15 years old. I completed the online credit application and was rewarded with an approval email a couple of days later.
The rest of the loan process was actually pretty frustrating. I won’t go into too many details, but it took close to a month from credit application to loan funding and communication with the lender was sporadic at best.
As our loan got closer to funding, we made plans to go pick up our new motorhome. We drove south from the Seattle, WA area to Bend, OR on a Thursday in October in our daughter’s little hatchback with a plan to rent a dolly and tow the car back home with the new RV. We arrived at our hotel in Bend midafternoon and waited for the previous owner to finish work for the day. We saw our Chalet for the first time around 6 that evening. First impressions weren’t great as we found a number of small repairs would be necessary throughout the coach. I’m not saying that it was misrepresented in the ad, but it was apparent that some of the flaws were glossed over. Part of our initial disappointment stemmed from the long wait we endured before actually seeing it with our own eyes. We had a lot of time to research the model and dream about it. Also, our last two RVs were close to new when we purchased them (2017 Minnie Winnie 31H followed by a 2019 Forest River Vibe 25RK) and this Chalet is 12 years old. After the initial shock subsided, we completed the transaction and headed back to the hotel, with me driving the hatchback and Mrs Mile driving the motorhome! The next morning we picked up the tow dolly and started the long drive back to Seattle.
Driving the 2010 Winnebago Chalet 24 JR wasn’t disappointing at all! We had walked through a couple of similar RVs closer to home, but hadn’t actually driven one until we picked ours up. The Mercedes Sprinter chassis drives so much nicer than a domestic van chassis. The cab is roomy and comfortable, the engine is smooth with plenty of power (even towing the hatchback), and it’s much more maneuverable than any motorhome I’ve ever driven. The last motorhome we owned was a 2017 Minnie Winnie 31H which came in at a massive 33 ft long and 8 1/2 ft wide. The Minnie Winnie was a nice rig with a lot of room, but it was far from maneuverable. The Chalet on the other hand is only 25 ft long and 7 1/2 ft wide. You really notice the difference and it was enough that Mrs Mile actually enjoyed driving the Chalet, even through traffic in Bend.
The drive home was long but mostly uneventful. The Chalet drove well and averaged 13.5 MPG while towing the hatchback. We are very happy with that number considering our last motorhome could only manage about 8.5 MPG (without towing anything). We started to notice and appreciate little thing about our new motorhome, the thoughtful design and use of space in particular. About 20 miles from home, I started to notice a ‘shudder’ when the automatic transmission would shift from 4th to 5th gear while accelerating. That had me pretty nervous and questioning if we had made a bad purchase.
After returning the tow dolly I parked the Chalet in it’s new home. A little online research found some information that helped me to be hopeful again. Apparently the most common cause of the transmission ‘shudder’ with a Mercedes Sprinter is contaminated transmission fluid. Not so bad, at 80,000 miles it may have still have the original fluid.
We hope to get our new RV out camping one more time before winter. I will definitely change the transmission fluid before that trip and maybe start on some of the other small repair it needs. Check back as there will definitely be more posts about this rig and our adventures with it.
