Bought a 2007 FunFinder Shadow Crusier X-210

[RipVan]

My wife and I developed an interest in owning a travel trailer last Summer after renting one for a trip to the East Coast with our granddaughter. Lots of folks in our area have a camper of one kind or another but they seem to like to keep them. Our search last Fall was not productive (tho I admit it was a bit half-hearted) and interest dwindled. A few weeks back, while out garage-sale shopping, my wife saw a travel trailer for sale at one of the sales. When I got home from work, she told me about it and we went to check it out. It pretty much met all of the requirements of what we wanted. The guy wanted $6 Gs for it. While that was affordable for us, it was more than I wanted to pay. Back home, a quick check on the prices on-line led me to believe it was a decent price. I should probably say that this rig looked to be in excellent condition in general and certainly for it's age! No major exterior damage (to my untrained eye). There was some road grime /storage dirt accumulation but again nothing that a wash wouldn't remedy. The interior was spotless. Minimal wear and tear. It was clean but it didn't look like they detailed things or buffed things up to detract from obvious problem areas. Again, to my untrained eye, this camper looked really nice. We offered $5000 but the seller wouldn't move. We went home. About a week later we noticed that it was still parked in their driveway but the FOR SALE sign was gone. We had decided that since it had ALL of the features that we wanted AND was still affordable RE: our budget, we would give him $6000 if it was still available. We were kicking ourselves for not acting sooner. Just to be sure, I called and asked. It was still available. On "general principles" I offered $5500 and he took it! We now owned a FunFinder. We were pretty happy and excited about our new toy. Once home with it, I more thoroughly assessed the condition and stuff that was included in the sale. The guy gave us everything that he had acquired for camping with this rig except for the TV, (I'll bet it tumbled off the shelf and broke). Maybe they just didn't enjoy camping. My opinion of the overall condition improved with every minute of inspection. The interior appeared new, it even smelled "new". I think (maybe not) that this is where I made a big mistake. I sought out AND joined this forum! Within a half hour I was second guessing my purchase. There's an awful lot of "doom & gloom" posted here. What I'm truly hoping is that FunFinder owners that aren't having issues are having so much fun with their TTs that they don't have time to post. To be sure, I've already picked up a few tidbits that will be helpful. What might be nice is for the forum administrators to have a section for the whiners to complain. That way, those of us that either don't have problems (or don't want to know) won't be bummed out. Just a thought. In my situation, the die has already been cast. It's mine and certainly out of warranty. Issues that have yet to crop up OR yet to be discovered, will all be my responsibility. I plan to try my best to NOT be one of the "whiners" and to take advantage of those with previous experience finding remedies to problems. So, hopefully, joining this forum WAS NOT A MISTAKE. I'll just have to figure out how to avoid the "whinathons". BTW (I have to know), did I pay a fair price for my 2007 FF Shadow Cruiser X 210? Thanks for reading all the way to the end. RipVan

 

[Jeepin-family]

I Get It

I get where you are coming from RipVan. We are getting ready to be new FF owners. We have spent almost a year searching for a travel trailer that had the exact looks/amenities we wanted. The FF was one of the few on the market that fit our needs. We have a deposit on a new 2013 214WSD. Some of the posts on this forum have sort of deflated our excitement and caused some apprehension as to whether we made the right decision. We are scheduled to pick it up one week from today. While this forum has provided some very useful information, some people are using it, IMO, inappropriately. I used to belong to a horse club. Its member forum was the same way. There was always a small group of members who used the forum to do nothing but whine and complain which was outside the scope of its purpose. Most ppl on here seem like great folks and I look forward to interacting with them and learning from them. Best of luck to you with your new rig. Seems like you got a great deal, especially if it came with all the gear.

 

[RipVan]

I'm hopin' that the Jeepin-family gets one of the TTs that doesn't require negative comments. The benefit of a new purchase, of course, is the warranty provided by the manufacturer. Those new models seem a bit on the spendy side to me. Since you've spent some time reading the reports on this and perhaps other forums, you should definitely apply some of that info and do a VERY thorough inspection before driving off the sales lot. I'll be looking forward to reading some positive reports on the adventures of the jeepin-family and their new FumFinder! RipVan

 

[Jeepin-family]

FF Delivery Day

I hear that. Our pre-delivery inspection at the dealer will be over 2-hours. The dealer is going to show us everything. The FF will be hooked up to power and the tanks filled with water. We will get to make sure all electrical components are working properly and will run the water in the sinks/shower etc. to make sure that there are no leaks. I told him about some of the things that had been posted on this site and asked him to address those issues. He explained their inspection and handling process for new inventory to my satisfaction, but we are still going to "eyeball" it for ourselves.

 

[Dillinger-63]

Ripvan, You story sounds very similar to ours. Our 2007 189FBS was at a very reputable dealership that has been in the RV business for over 30 years. The reports we received from our friends that bought from them is "they will check out your TT and stand behind what they sell." They have rigs up to the 350K mark. We looked at our FF, but decided the price was a bit more than we wanted to pay, even though it looked brand new for a 2007. We checked around other dealers, looked on eBay and waited.

Then I found this site and began reading some of the horror stories from a few and thought, "Nope, no FF for me" But then I began reading similar stories on the Jayco site, Rockwood site, Airstream site (yep. one guy asked the question, "Do all Airstream floors rot and do they leak?" and there were quite a few owners dealing with leaks and rotting floors.

After a month we went back to our dealership to see if they had taken anything else in trade and they had, but nothing that caught our eye like our FF did. I told the salesman about this website and the issues some had and he was right up front in telling us two things. 1. All brands have issues 2. With the age of our TT, those issues are usually worked out, if not the TT has had 4 or 5 owners. We are the confirmed second owner of our FF. Even with that I asked them to check over, and I mean really check over this FF and they did. From a barrage of water flowing over it looking for leaks, to crawling all over this thing, underneath and the roof. They even offered me a 30 day warranty. Well, we struck a deal and we are pleased as can be. I think we got a good deal, but more important than that, this is the TT we wanted, with the options we wanted due to there just being two of us and a small Boston Terrier, and it is what our truck can pull without any issues.

As others have said, if the same amount of people posted about the non-issues they have had, as those that do about issues that have had we would read about many more happy owners than those that are not. I've also realized that there are some people in this world that are never happy about anything and they would complain if you hung them with a brand spanking new rope.