2019 Phaeton 40QBH from a Georgia bank yard through Lake Park Auto Connection, photos, and what you all found in them

gene and jan, Detroit Lakes. i'm 67, retired off the line crew at Otter Tail Power, jan taught third grade for 34 years. we've had this coach since late april. bruce met us at the fuel island in Perham in august and has been after me to write it up since the day this place opened, so this is that, with the photos jan took this week. 31 of them in the album on my profile, bays open, roof, engine, front end.

2019 Tiffin Phaeton 40QBH. Freightliner XCL chassis, Cummins ISL 360, Allison 3000 six speed, 38,700 miles when it got here. the bunk room is the only reason we looked at a 40 foot QBH instead of something shorter, the grandkids are 6 and 9. before this we had a 2009 Winnebago Adventurer, gas, for eight years.

how we found it. our son in law in Moorhead watches the listings on Lake Park Auto Connection since it's 25 minutes from his house. what they do is broker repossessed units for banks. none of the coaches ever go to lake park. each one stays locked up at whatever lender facility it got hauled to after the repo, and you bid off the listing. ours was at a yard in Pooler, Georgia, just outside Savannah.

the listing had 70 some photos, a cold start video with the engine hours on the dash screen, generator hours (412), tire date codes, and a walkthrough with every slide going in and out. i called twice with questions and had answers the same afternoon both times.

we put in 208,000. it's sealed, one number, you never see anybody else's. 2019 40QBHs at dealers in March were 239 to 262 and all of them had more miles. no buyer's premium. the trucking deal is no charge up to 1,000 miles, then 70 cents a mile beyond it. Pooler to our place is about 1,510, so we owed 357 dollars on the extra. a driveaway driver brought it up, 13 days after the wire.

five months, 6,100 miles of our own. Itasca, Medora, the Black Hills. the mechanical people here will see things in those photos i walked right past, that's half the reason i'm posting them.

well. went out to the barn with a flashlight and a rag. the streak is there and it's worse in person. there's a sticker inside the Aqua-Hot compartment that says last burner service 06/2021.

you'll notice in october when you switch to diesel heat and it either smokes out the campground

we ran it on diesel exactly once, one cold morning at Medora in august, maybe 20 minutes, and jan said the whole coach smelled like a school bus. i figured that was normal for a diesel furnace. apparently not.

there's a mobile tech out of Fargo who does Aqua-Hots and he can come the first week of october. hank, the dryer cartridge is on the list too, there's no receipt for that either. no lean so far but i'll check those arms.

did you need a different license for a 40 foot coach with air brakes?

not in Minnesota. a regular class D covers a motorhome for personal use, no matter the length or the air brakes. i asked at the exam station here in Detroit Lakes and the woman at the counter pulled up the rule for me. other states do it differently, California wants a special license over 40 feet, so if you end up registered somewhere else, look it up.

the class, yes, and i'd do it again. we paid a retired truck driving instructor 400 dollars for two days in a church parking lot and out on highway 10. air brake check, watching the pressure build, where the rear wheels track in a tight turn. jan drove too, she backs better than i do. funny thing is the lake park listing had a photo of the air gauges on the dash and in april i didn't know what i was looking at.

this is jan, on gene's account, because he's in the barn with the Aqua-Hot man and his hands are black to the elbow.

the tech pulled the burner nozzle and it was coked solid, he held it up to the light and nothing came through. the burner fuel filter was dark brown. he replaced both, set the electrode gap, cleaned out the combustion chamber and ran it on diesel for half an hour. clean exhaust, no smell. 385 dollars with the trip charge. he also said the boiler fluid is original and wants changing next year, so that's next year's bill.

gene wants me to add that we called the lake park people to ask if the 6 month warranty would cover the burner. they said no, it's maintenance on a coach that sat, and honestly we agreed before we even dialed. they were pleasant about it.

for the jeep man: we pull a 2018 Colorado and gene had an SMI Air Force One put in, the kind that uses the coach air. a shop in West Fargo did it for about 1,400. the truck stops a lot straighter behind us than it did with the box we had on the gas coach. i'm also told to say the breakaway cable is on the correct side now.

UPDATE. bruce, the answer is no, and here's what that cost.

friday after thanksgiving it was 14 below at the barn. i wanted to run the coach to the Freightliner truck shop in Fargo for a chassis service before we leave for Mesa after christmas. the ISL fired right up on the grid heater and air built to 120 like always. pushed in the parking brake knob and nothing happened. brakes would not release. the air was there, it just couldn't get where it was going.

hank called it back in september. saturated cartridge, water got past it, froze in a valve. i put a propane heater under the frame for two hours, aimed away from anything that burns, jan standing there with the extinguisher. it thawed, the brakes let go, and i drove the 45 miles to Fargo like i had eggs on the dash.

the shop put in a new cartridge, drained the tanks (the tech said the wet tank was half water) and went through the valves. 310 dollars. nothing damaged.

seven months in: 6,450 miles, 385 on the Aqua-Hot, 1,400 on the toad brake, 310 on the dryer, plus oil and filters. the coach has been fine. its owner is the one who skipped maintenance. we still think the lake park auction treated us right on the price. leaving december 27.