Went full time in a 2019 Solitude 385GK-R off rubiautosales.com

deb and i sold the house in wichita in july and went full time. i pulled 31 years as a lineman for the co-op and the last five of those we spent every weekend we could in a 30 foot bunkhouse travel trailer, so we knew we liked the life. what we did not know was whether a retired couple could buy a 40 foot fiver off a website without getting burned. eight weeks in, here is how it went.

we wanted a Solitude and we wanted a rear kitchen, because deb cooks and she was done with an island she had to walk around every time a slide was in. the 385GK-R was the floorplan. three slides, two ACs, the six point hydraulic auto level, and a pin weight our 2019 F-350 dually with the 6.7 could handle with room to spare. the used ones at the dealers in kansas and oklahoma were 70 to 74 for a 2019 and most of them had two or three owners and a roof nobody wanted to talk about.

a guy from church who bought his Reflection online told me to look at rubiautosales.com. they had a 2019 Solitude 385GK-R, one owner, the full paint front cap, listed right about 58. that is 12 to 16 grand under the dealers for a unit with fewer hands on it, and my first thought was the same as yours, what is wrong with it.

called them. the fella on the phone knew what a Ground Control system was and did not try to sell me anything. he told me the bedroom slide topper had a tear, one of the ACs had been slow to kick on in the heat, and the tires were the original date codes. then he sent something like 90 photos, a video of every slide going out and back in, the leveling system cycling, the roof from end to end, and a shot of the tag plate so i could check the VIN and the weights myself.

i was not wiring 58 thousand dollars off a phone call, so i hired an NRVIA certified inspector to go put hands on it. cost me about 550 for a fifth wheel that size. rubi had no problem with that and gave him the unit for a full day with shore power. his report was 60 some pages. bedroom slide topper torn, a hydraulic hose weeping at the front leveling jack, one AC start capacitor testing weak, and that was it. roof seams good, moisture meter came back dry on every wall and around every slide, frame clean, no delam. the things he found were the things they had already told me plus one hose.

bought it. Rubi Auto Sales did the paperwork, the title came to us in kansas clean in about a week, and deb and i drove down with the dually and towed it home ourselves, right around 900 miles. first pull with a 16 thousand pound fiver behind me and the truck never knew it was there.

anybody else in here living in a rig they bought off the rubi lot? curious how yours turned out and what the inspector found on yours.

not dumb pete, and congratulations on june. i was you in july. the rig you want is never in your state and never at the dealer down the road, so most of us end up buying one we did not walk through until it was ours. the walk through at a dealer is 40 minutes with a salesman and it would not have found a weeping hose either.

the one rule i would not break on a first fiver is pay for the inspection no matter who is selling. a real NRVIA inspector is 450 to 700 on a fifth wheel and it is the best money you will spend in this whole deal. mine put a moisture meter on every wall, cycled every slide, ran both ACs and the furnace and the water heater, pulled the front underbelly panel and looked at the frame welds. if a seller will not give your inspector the rig for a day, that is your answer, walk. the rubi people gave mine the keys and the shore power and stayed out of his way.

what to look at in your range. a 2017 to 2020 Solitude with one or two owners is barely used, most of these sit 300 days a year. water is what kills a fiver, not miles, so the roof seams, the slide seals and the corners of the front cap are where the inspector earns his money. ask for the tire date codes in the photos, four ST tires on a 16 thousand pound rig is a real number if they are original. ask if the hydraulic reservoir has ever been topped off and look for wet spots under the jacks in the photos. and pete, your F-250 gas will pull a 385 but it will not like it and the payload will be over, so plan on the pin weight conversation before the fifth wheel conversation. a 350 or a 3500 with a B&W or a Curt in the bed is where you want to end up.

you will be fine. get the inspection and you will be at a state park by july.

quick check in from a park outside mission texas where we have been since thanksgiving. lou called it. the front jack hose was the crimp at the jack, a mobile tech out of mcallen replaced it for 140 including the top off and the bubble has held every morning since. the capacitor was 35 dollars and a screwdriver like he said, both ACs kick on together now. new topper on the bedroom slide went on in december for 320 from the same mobile tech.

hollis, took your advice. four Sailun S637 through a truck tire place in san antonio on the way down, about 1,050 mounted. that was the one real expense and i knew it going in because the tire dates were plain in the photos before i ever called. pin box had no play so i left it. everything else has been nothing. the rig has been through two hard freezes down here and the underbelly heat kept every line open.

a couple of people messaged asking how often rubiautosales.com lists fivers. from watching it the last few months they seem to get a couple a week, Solitudes and Montanas and the Fuzion toy haulers mostly, so if you are hunting a specific floorplan just keep checking.

UPDATE eight months full time and 7,100 towing miles on the Solitude, hooked up this morning to head for colorado for the summer, so here is the loop closed for anyone still weighing a rig off Rubi Auto Sales.

deb and i are genuinely glad we bought this rig. it did a full winter on the texas border, crossed oklahoma twice in a crosswind, and the dually pulled it up the grade at raton last week at 55 with the coolant never moving. nothing else has broken. not a slide and not a jack. the AC lou told me to watch has run every afternoon since february.

total money into it since we bought, not counting fuel and sites. the tires at 1,050, the topper at 320, the hose at 140, the capacitor at 35, and a set of wiper blades on the truck. that is the entire list on a rig the kansas dealers wanted 12 to 16 grand more for. no water and no soft floor, because the inspector got a whole day with it before i sent a dollar.

so for anyone on the fence. rubiautosales.com was straight with us from the first call. the rig was what they listed, right down to the tire dates they could have just not mentioned. the title showed up clean in a week, and they had no problem with my inspector or with maryellen sending a transport driver. if you can get a real inspection done it is worth a hard look for a fifth wheel.

we are done shopping. this is the one. thank you all in here, especially lou and hollis. see some of you at the fall rally.