In May we bought a Class B used RV from Dan Gamel RV. They were very friendly and seemed very helpful throughout every step of the process.
They offered the vehicle for sale on an "AS IS" basis, but also said they couldn't release it to us for a week in order to perform their exhaustive, complete checkup on the RV. They didn't want it to hit the road with any problems or safety issues, etc.
We came to pick it up a week later. While a new staff member walked us around a two hour inspection of the RV, we found that whatever their inspection was... It was not complete or even competent.
There was no water pressure in the hot/cold sink, internal shower or external shower. An inspection later that day revealed saw dust in the lines, the valve's turned off, the hot and cold water faucet handles reversed, and not hot water. After a couple of hours waiting for service guys to come out, these issues were resolved. But the point to note is that even when they claim it has revied a "thorough" inspection, that means almost nothing in terms of what you can count on.
Next issue is that every morning during the week after picking up the RV, the RV would not start. The battery seemed to be the problem. Although it has a generator and house battery to jump the starter battery with, those did not operate correctly. After a week of this problem, we took it to a Sears vehicle center and had the batteries front and rear tested. They were both dead batteries, barely able to hold any charge. They smelled strongly of sulphur... Rotten eggs... A sign of bad batteries.
We had Sears replace those two batteries, and from Sears we called Dan Gamer RV and talked with their service manager. We explained that we thought it was not "fair" for them to release this "inspected" RV with two dead batteries, and that they should cover the cost. After a short bit of hemming and hawing, they agreed to give us a store credit for the value of the replacement batteries.
My point is two fold: First, their inspection was incompetent... And incompetent regarding something very easy to check on the RV. It is impossible to believe they attempted to perform a competent inspection if the two batteries smelled like sulphur after a bit of use and were dead already with a load test. Second, their posture on my call was that we bought this as an "AS IS" vehicle and it ought to be "our problem." But they also agreed that having two bad batteries in such a short time seemed unfair and they fixed that.
The major lesson here is that they can lull you into buying an RV and taking delivery by claiming they know the vehicle and inspect it thoroughly, but then fail miserably to actually inspect even the simplest aspects.
On this same initial trip in one week, all of the tires need to have air pressure raised considerably. I don't believe they checked tire air pressure. I con't know what they did check.
There are other items like this we have found, but they all point to the same practical lesson in dealing with Dan Gamel: Do your own homework, ignore the fact that the vehicle "looks" in good shape, test things yourself or with an expert, don't rely on Dan Gamel's representations that they check out the vehicles before selling them. Good luck.
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