Cherry MS 2007 38RL3

[imouttahere]

Hello from Florida. The DW and I have decided to go full time in Dec. and are planning to purchase a cherry 2007 MS 38RL3 (cherry in the sense it only has 100 mi on it). It was towed to an RV park & two snowbirds used it 6 mo. out of the year - at the park. We went up to look at it last Fri. & decided to purchase it. I'm doing an inspection with someone on tue. The unit is immaculate and was well taken care of - waxed twice a year, tires covered, no leaks, etc. Lots of goodies - 12 cu. ft fridg, 5,000 watt propane onan gen., upgraded electronics pkg., 40" tv, Mor ride suspension, (but standard pin box), two 15k btu AC units, slide in the basement (I noticed some people took that out), two awnings, slide toppers, etc. It has 17.5" tires and I'm going to have it towed 100 mi. to store it until we sell the house & get a tv. Given those conditions, would you trust those tires for 100 mi.? I believe they have a date code of 0406. Since I've never owned an RV before, .... any suggestions? I have been doing months of reading on all the forums including this MS forum (which I just joined)... Just mainly concerned if the tires till get to where we want to store it. Thanks in advance.

gd, jd & mia -our 13 yr. old cockapoo

[Motor31]

I'd get new tires ASAP. Those have been sitting for years in one spot and they are more than 6 years old. That means they are very likely to have been set with the rubber drying out in contact with the ground and the sidewalls brittle. I would not assume they will make a 100 mile trip and the results of losing a tire can be very expensive should it pop on the road.

Second situation is the bearings on each wheel. I'd feel more comfortable having them changed out for the same reason, just sitting for years. The races may have become brinelled, indented, and the grease dry.

Make sure you grease each suspension point before it moves as well.

[imouttahere]

I'd get new tires ASAP. Those have been sitting for years in one spot and they are more than 6 years old. That means they are very likely to have been set with the rubber drying out in contact with the ground and the sidewalls brittle. I would not assume they will make a 100 mile trip and the results of losing a tire can be very expensive should it pop on the road.

Second situation is the bearings on each wheel. I'd feel more comfortable having them changed out for the same reason, just sitting for years. The races may have become brinelled, indented, and the grease dry.

Make sure you grease each suspension point before it moves as well.

Thanks for the reply Motor... I thought I recalled that you can't do anything with the sealed nevrlube (sp?) bearings on these units.... Don't they have a lifetime guarantee? But, I agree and hadn't really thought about the grease/suspension part. I'm leaning towards new tires also, and probably putting a TST monitoring system on them at the same time. We're taking the tires off & the brakes apart during the inspection so we'll see what everything looks like then. Want to make sure the tire jack is on the spring assembly not the axel when we do that.

gd

[wingnut60]

I bought my '05 in '07--had been sitting for 2 years after delivery from factory. NevRLube bearings lasted until this last March, when I arbitrarily replaced them before heading for AK--they were worn, but would they have lasted?? Probably not.
In my opinion, you should be able to tow it 100 miles--check tire air pressure for max rating, then go for it.
Joe

[Cheif 2]

The main concern I would have is that of the brakes. Being that the unit has been sitting for so long the calipers have not moved on their slide pins and they may be hung up enough not to work properly. If possible I would have the caliper pins lubed which will require removing each of the wheels to get to them. You also will be able to get a much better look at the tires that way and while the wheels are off I would lube the suspension. The issue I found with the bearings on my 2007 was that they were not properly torqued at the factory, so that would be another matter I would address before towing it. Did the prior owner have the recall with the paint issue on the rotor hubs addressed? Make certain you retourque the wheels to the proper specs also. Good luck with your purchase. We love ours.

[imouttahere]

Thanks everyone for your input. We did remove all the wheels, lubed the supension, looked at the calipers and sanded a little rust off the disks, but other than that everything looked fine. Even the tires looked in good shape - no cracking or drying out, etc. Pressure was a little low but they were all the same pressure so I'd bet the dealer aired them up based on an E rated tire that most 5th wheels have instead of the 17.5" rating. I'll put a TPMS on them when we tow it down here so we can see if there are any problems along the way. Again, thanks, you've all been very helpful.
gd

[BlueSkyRanch]

Hello from Florida. The DW and I have decided to go full time in Dec. and are planning to purchase a cherry 2007 MS 38RL3 (cherry in the sense it only has 100 mi on it). It was towed to an RV park & two snowbirds used it 6 mo. out of the year - at the park. We went up to look at it last Fri. & decided to purchase it. I'm doing an inspection with someone on tue. The unit is immaculate and was well taken care of - waxed twice a year, tires covered, no leaks, etc. Lots of goodies - 12 cu. ft fridg, 5,000 watt propane onan gen., upgraded electronics pkg., 40" tv, Mor ride suspension, (but standard pin box), two 15k btu AC units, slide in the basement (I noticed some people took that out), two awnings, slide toppers, etc. It has 17.5" tires and I'm going to have it towed 100 mi. to store it until we sell the house & get a tv. Given those conditions, would you trust those tires for 100 mi.? I believe they have a date code of 0406. Since I've never owned an RV before, .... any suggestions? I have been doing months of reading on all the forums including this MS forum (which I just joined)... Just mainly concerned if the tires till get to where we want to store it. Thanks in advance.

gd, jd & mia -our 13 yr. old cockapoo


I would agree with Mike. Tire manufacturers have changed their message over the last few years from replacing them every 6 yrs to some saying 8-9 yrs. the potential issue with your MS is that it's been sitting for all this time. That will cause the tires to fail sooner then later. I would replace them and consider filling them with nitrogen. They will run cooler and leak air less.