What Earthroamer Won't Tell You!

[scout909]

We are in the market for a F-550 based vehicle. We recently visited Earthroamer to check out the 10 vehicles they were offering at the time. After inspection we asked for sales comparables for similar vehicles that have actually sold so we could get an idea of were the market was. We were told that this info is not available as it is "confidential."
My initial reaction was ok maybe that makes sense. But then I asked myself which industries hides sales comparables? Housing - No, Yachts - No, Cars definitely NO. In fact there are vast amounts of sales data in all these industries. So what is Earthroamer up to?
First, I can appreciate why they might keep new build sales confidential as each owner customizes their rig as the see fit and we can get an idea of what they are paying based upon the build sheet data on the Earthroamer web site.
But used vehicles are quit different. The price is what an "educated" buyer and seller agree to. So how do they educate themselves. Does Earthroamer provide sellers with sales comparable? How do they set the price? They must give some guidance as they are receiving a 12% sales commission. And if they do give this info to sellers then why not buyers?
Then there is the claims they make on their website....."several owners have sold their XV for more than they paid new" How what an excellent and very marketable claim. One would think they would want to reveal this data as it truly is very impressive....if true!
If I am mistaken and sales comparable are available for these vehicles then please correct me.
But if not I would like to use this platform to start our own.
Its simple, if you are a seller or buyer (or dealer) of an Earthroamer you have valuable info for the market. Sharing this info it would be greatly appreciated and valuable to all future sellers and buyers of these vehicle. What is the down side?
Let's start the list:
Model -
Year -
Sales price -
date of sale -
Any specs you care to share -

Let transparency prevail!

 

[FordGuy1]

Being in the business, I woud say that no dealer is going to give you this info. I do warranty work for EarthRoamer, and yes, I know several people who have made a very healthy profit selling there rig used. I also think that ship has sailed.

 

[BuckinghamBuilt]

Being in the business, I woud say that no dealer is going to give you this info. I do warranty work for EarthRoamer, and yes, I know several people who have made a very healthy profit selling there rig used. I also think that ship has sailed.

I have no data to back this up but I suspect that if a current owner were selling a slightly used EarthRoamer they could indeed sell if for more that new as some potential buyers weight paying the premium to have it now instead of waiting for theirs to built as a new unit.

 

[ThundahBeagle]

Being in the business, I woud say that no dealer is going to give you this info. I do warranty work for EarthRoamer, and yes, I know several people who have made a very healthy profit selling there rig used. I also think that ship has sailed.

Maybe not Earthroamer but you can get Invoice for any regular car truck or van. I think RV as well?

 

[FordGuy1]

Maybe not Earthroamer but you can get Invoice for any regular car truck or van. I think RV as well?

Getting a invoice from a company that hand builds vehicles, and does not sell through a dealer network is completely different than going to your local Ford store. If a RV dealer shows you the real invoice, I would be surprised, and the way MSRP and rebates are handled, I would not believe it one bit. I have had too many friends in the business, and RV sales make Car dealers look like Angeles.

 

[GR8ADV]

All in all, I like your idea.

Now let’s stop complaining and spreading our wise and never ending wisdom about the reasons of the why and why not and get on with creating a database of purchase and sales prices of earthroamers.

If you bought or sold one, let’s hear from you.

 

[scout909]

Thanks GR8ADV
And I do appreciate everyone's thoughts.
We're hoping to get good helpful data not speculation of what the industry does and does not do with used vehicle sales comps.
Cheers!

 

[lucilius]

I would probably take a look at the GXV Adventure Truck as well and consider the Ram 5500. The newer F550's appear to be having some rear axle/bearing drama.

 

[charlieaarons]

I would probably take a look at the GXV Adventure Truck as well and consider the Ram 5500. The newer F550's appear to be having some rear axle/bearing drama.

What about older ones? And what about the front axle bearings on both older and newer ones?
Considering the offset and size/weight differences between stock and SRW setups, plus constant high loads, I’ve thought about this as a possibility for years. But there’s little information about this issue, maybe it’s a non-problem.

 

[lucilius]

The older rigs are lighter, 6.0 or 6.4 Powerstroke-powered F550's vs newer 6.7 F550 (the new carbon fiber Lti is supposed to be lighter though no knowledge if just the camper body is lighter or they've made significant changes to the whole package to make it lighter). Perhaps older axles and bearings were mfd in a different factory/different spec/different design. Many of the older rigs are XV-LT models, not XV-LTS (S=stretch=longer camper body) that quickly became very popular. The LT's are a couple feet shorter and lighter which together should be easier on the axles+chassis. I've not read about a front axle bearing problem on an ER. The front ends aren't that heavy (~5000-6000lbs) compared to what the F550 was designed for while the rear axle load on these rigs easily becomes extreme and IMO asking a lot of the 335/80r20 MPT81, especially when being driven fast on asphalt. The newer F550's seem to have reported more issues, e.g. "Great White Roamer" in Costa Rica, though no specific shortfall beyond inadequate lubricant and/or inadequate tire/wheel maintenance is likely at the root of any failure and maybe this is impacted by weight + a longer camper and/or poor maintenance. There are plenty of happy ER owners with MPT81's and heavily loaded XV-LTS driving all over the place on/offroad without issues, I think there are 250+ rigs out there now, (and several owners on their 2nd, 3rd and I think even 4th ER, so they're clearly happy with the performance) and they tend to be the ones who treat it more like an airplane or military vehicle and constantly maintain, monitor and check their rigs and do plenty of preventative maintenance. The majority of these folks do their own maintenance though the ease of finding trained and equipped Ford mechanics throughout North America does make it simpler to get shop support for certain jobs. Another thing that isn't much prioritized or discussed [not as fun as showing off the luxury interior riding on a fat-tire SRW beadlock setup with air suspension on yotube] is just how closely folks track how much weight they are throwing on their truck for a trip, especially when they think little of loading a dirtbike, generator, fuel, etc. on a rack or in a hitch or other storage box, or a trailer on the back of an already lengthened chassis, then add the standard food/beer, fuel, and passengers. I would guess that the owners who don't tally their loads carefully would tend to be the ones who don't regularly do the old school checks: oil+coolant+trans fluid+ tire air pressure regularly & especially check tire press. upon a transition from offroad to driving fast on pavement, putting a hand on each hub&tire to check for excessive heat at stops, hand torque their own wheel lugnuts to the right spec, make sure their diff fluid is topped off, swap in a clean air filter after a few hundred miles of dust/dirt road, ensure proper maintenance schedules are followed, etc., etc., etc. It is another topic, and very subjective, but the other part of this challenge is that there isn't currently a purpose-built diesel 4x4 vehicle in the US that is designed to safely & comfortably carry/support/sustain 4-5 passengers, on&offroad in "all" terrain and weather conditions with decent range. We are all left to come up with what we can find on the market and/or modify and/or build ourselves. Moreover, various short-sighted forces at work seem to be combining and make finding decent vehicles like these more difficult every year. Oddly, the rest of the world does not seem to have problems with the big full-featured offroad rigs (or for that matter smaller diesel 4x4's, or diesel vehicles at all) where current gasoline and other options don't really cut it.
All that said, if on the market for new truck today, I would be sure to check out GXV's larger offerings and their Ram 5500 chassis/Cummins 6.7 trucks, especially since Unicat/etc and MB/MAN are not making anything newer than a quarter century old+ that California/USA will allow and truth be told, because mastering the parts&maintenance for one of these big old euro rigs seems to be quite a formidable ($$$+time) undertaking.

 

[FordGuy1]

ER has had front bearing failures. In fact, I believe that they have a replacement interval. I remember doing the bearings for a customer that had a bulletin from ER about five years ago.

 

[Bigly]

This isn't like buying a house where everything including the sale price is public. Just keep watching listings for used ERs and see what they are asking top give you some idea. What they are asking is usually not what they get but again that is private info and nobody is required to report it.

 

[Bob W]

I would probably take a look at the GXV Adventure Truck as well and consider the Ram 5500. The newer F550's appear to be having some rear axle/bearing drama.

Keep in mind the RAM 5500 and F550 share or have in the past the same rear axle... Dana S-111. We know of one RAM that had rear bearing failure at 60k. We replaced ours at 45k just to be sure, cheap insurance in our opinion.

 

[scout909]

This isn't like buying a house where everything including the sale price is public. Just keep watching listings for used ERs and see what they are asking top give you some idea. What they are asking is usually not what they get but again that is private info and nobody is required to report it.

Thanks Bigly
Yes asking price and actual sales price can be two very different things. That is the purpose of the post. Yes nobody is required to report. But would you not like to know if you were in the market for one?

 

[vintageracer]

Another "What's It Worth" post.

It's not Earthroamer's job to do your research.

Step up and be a Big Boy and figure it out for yourself!