Last Changed 11/8/2006

One of the big issues in purchasing a Class 8 Conversion if financing.  It is difficult to finance a Class 8 Conversion truck.

When we first were looking at MDT, we quickly became aware of the advantage of buying a new MDT conversion like a SportChassis or a Mountain Master is that the dealers generally have lines of credit available for those purchases.  Those very same dealers would not finance a used MDT, even of their own brand.  So we were facing a very high cost and the 12% Federal Excise Tax, but we could get financing.

The whole problem deals with book value.  Lenders like to have a book value on items they finance.  The book value establishes the amount of risk the lender faces if you should default on the loan.  Mountain Master claims to have NADA used ratings but I cannot verify that.  If Mountain Master has NADA listings, then I would expect SportChassis to also have entries because they are a bigger operation.

Class 8 tractors have book value listings as commercial vehicles.  Once you start converting a Class 8 into a trailer hauler, the truck loses it's commercial value and loses it's book value.  In the case of Red Rover, we had to purchase the truck before the alterations could start.  The upper management of the dealer we were working with understood commercial trucks, but this RV usage is a new thing and they did not want an un-sellable (in their minds) truck on the lot.  The reality is that people stopped at the dealer to check out Red Rover.  So there is a market for these Conversions but it is not nicely printed in a book.

Without an established book value, most lenders will not consider lending you money for a Class 8 Conversion.  Most used MDT's also fall into this financing problem.

So what can you do if you need financing?

We went the route of using financing that was secured by another asset. In our case, a home line of credit.  This was okay by us because we will pay off the line of credit before we start full-timing.

The other financing option is to find a lender who understands the situation and is willing to risk the loan.  If you search the various RV web forums, you will find people who have found lenders.  You have to take these lenders with a grain of salt.  While they may have written a loan for one person, they may not want to deal with you.  Who knows what the background was between the lender and the borrower.

I believe that if there was a lender who generally made loans on Class 8 Conversions, we would all know it.  We cannot even find a consistency in the insurance for these trucks.  So if you need financing and do not have other assets to back a loan, the it is going to be shopping, shopping, shopping for a loan.