What to Check Before You Buy a Used Travel Trailer
Most people walk into a used travel trailer and start opening cabinets. That is the last thing that matters.
Everything that will cost you real money on a used trailer is on the outside of it, and almost all of it comes back to whether water has been getting in. Cabinets, curtains, the color of the countertop: all of that is cosmetic and cheap to change. The roof, the floor, and the walls are not.
Here is the order to walk a trailer in, ours or anybody else’s.
1. Start on the roof
Get up there if the seller will let you and it is safe to do it. If you cannot get up, get a ladder to the edge and at least look across it.
You are looking at sealant, not at the roof membrane itself. Every vent, every skylight, every seam, every screw head, and the front and rear caps where the roof meets the walls. New sealant is smooth and flexible. Old sealant is chalky, cracked, pulled away at the edges, or patched with three colors of caulk by three different people.
A roof that has been kept up looks boring. That is the goal.
If the seller will not let you look at the roof, that tells you something on its own.
2. Then the floor
Walk the whole floor in your socks and put weight on your heels.
The spots that go first are the ones under something: just inside the entry door, around the toilet and the shower pan, under the sinks, along the front of the bed, and at the edge of every slide. If a spot flexes, gives, or sounds different when you step on it, stop and press on it with your hand.
Soft floor means water has been sitting on it long enough to get through the top layer and into the wood. That is not a weekend fix.
3. Then the walls and the ceiling
Stand at one end and look down the length of the sidewall with the light coming across it, not straight at it. A wall that has taken water waves. Bubbles, ripples, or a section that bulges is delamination, which means the outer skin has come unglued from what is behind it.
Inside, look up at the ceiling corners and along the top of every window and every cabinet run. Water leaves a line. Brown staining, a wrinkle in the ceiling panel, or wallpaper that has lifted at a seam all say the same thing.
Then press on the walls near the front and rear caps with the flat of your hand. Firm is good. Spongy is not.
4. Trust your nose
Get in the trailer before the seller has had a chance to air it out, and just stand there.
Musty means wet. It is the one thing a seller cannot cover, and it is the tell that comes before anything you can see. If a trailer smells like a basement, the wood behind the wall already knows why.
There is a whole page on this: signs of water damage in a used RV.
5. Tires, axles, and brakes
Look at the date code on the sidewall of every tire, including the spare. RV tires age out long before they wear out, and a tire that looks fine with plenty of tread can still be too old to tow on.
Then get down and look at the axles from the side. A trailer that has been overloaded or has had a spring go will sit with one wheel out of line with the other, or with the tire wearing on one edge only. Pull a wheel if the seller will let you and look at the brake shoes and the magnets.
Once you know what the trailer weighs, make sure your truck can actually pull it. The numbers are in the tow guide.
6. Run every system
Nothing on a trailer gets fixed by looking at it. Turn it all on.
- Plug it in and check that the converter is charging and the outlets are live
- Run it on battery alone and see what still works
- Light the water heater and the furnace and let them cycle
- Run the air conditioning long enough to feel it get cold, not just hear it start
- Ask the seller to turn the fridge on well before you get there, because a fridge that was just switched on tells you nothing
- Fill the fresh tank and run every faucet, then look under every sink and in the pass-through for a drip
- Run the slide all the way out and all the way back in, and watch the seal along the top as it moves
- Put the awning out and back
A system that does not run during the walk-through is a system you are buying broken.
7. The paperwork
Get the VIN off the trailer itself, not off the ad. Make sure the name on the title matches the person selling it, and make sure there is no lien listed that has not been released. In Texas a travel trailer has a title, and if the seller cannot produce it, you do not have a deal yet no matter how good the trailer is.
8. If you cannot do all this yourself
Almost nobody can, and that is fine.
Pay a shop that works on RVs to look at it before money changes hands. RepairAnyRV, our sister shop, is at the same Princeton address as our lot. Call them and ask about having a trailer looked at before you buy it.
9. Or start with a trailer that has already been through this
Every unit on our lot is inspected before it lists: roof and seals, floors, slides, appliances, plumbing and electrical. What we find goes in the listing. That is the point of buying from a dealer instead of a driveway.
See what is on the lot, or if you want somebody in your corner while you shop anywhere at all, that is what the RV Buyer Coach is.
Short answers
What is the most important thing to check on a used travel trailer?
Water. Check the roof sealant, then the floor for soft spots, then the walls for waves and staining. Everything else on a trailer is a repair you can price. Water is a slow rot that takes the whole unit with it, and by the time you can see it from inside, it has usually been going on for a long time.
How old is too old for a used travel trailer?
Age matters far less than how it was stored. A twenty year old trailer that lived under cover with its sealant kept up can be a better buy than a ten year old one that sat out in the weather. Look at the roof and the floor first and let the model year be the last thing you consider.
Should I pay for an inspection before buying from a private seller?
Yes. A private sale is as-is, so an inspection is the only protection you get. Have the roof, the floor, the walls, and the running systems checked by a shop that works on RVs specifically, and do it before you hand anything over.
More like these on the RV questions page.
Come look at one.
2745 FM 1377, Princeton, TX 75407. Monday to Friday, 9 to 2, and by appointment any other time.