2020 Dutch Star 4369 off rubiautosales.com, first winter report

linda and i finally did it. after eleven years in a gas Class A that groaned up every grade between mesa and the colorado high country we sold it in august and went diesel. i am writing this from a site on the texas coast with the first winter mostly behind us, so this is a real report and not a day one honeymoon post.

we wanted a Dutch Star and we wanted the 4369 floor plan specifically, because linda wanted the bath and a half and i wanted the ISL 450 and the Allison 3000 on the Freightliner chassis, the combo everybody in here told me would pull the passes without drama. new was never on the table at our age. the used ones at the big dealers in arizona were running 255 to 270 with 60 or 70k on them and every one had some story.

a guy at our elks lodge who bought his Phaeton online told me to look at rubiautosales.com. they had a 2020 Dutch Star 4369, 48k miles, one owner, Oasis hydronic heat, the full body paint, listed at a number a solid 35 grand under the dealers. i figured there had to be a reason.

called them. i expected a salesman and got a guy who actually knew what a hydronic system was. he told me straight the bedroom slide topper had a tear in it, one of the Oasis burners had been throwing a code the last owner never chased, and the tires were the original 2020 date codes so i should budget for them. then he sent about 80 photos, a cold start video with the exhaust in frame, the generator hours, the basement bays, and the Silverleaf screen so i could see the engine hours matched the miles.

here is what got me over the line. i was not buying a quarter million dollar coach from a website on a phone call, so i hired an NRVIA certified inspector out of san antonio to go put hands on it and pull fluid samples. rubi had zero problem with that and let him have the coach for most of a day. his report was 90 pages. torn topper, the Oasis burner nozzle, tires aging out, a sticky bay latch, and a slow drip at the fresh tank fill. the engine and the Allison came back clean on the fluid analysis. that was the whole list.

bought it. rubi auto sales did the paperwork, the title came to us in arizona clean, and we flew out and drove it home ourselves. four months and 6,000 miles in.

anybody else in here running a coach they bought off the rubi lot? curious how yours turned out.

not dumb dale, and congratulations on march. buying sight unseen is honestly how most of us end up with a coach, because the one you want is never in your state. the dealer service department everybody wants is also the place that will charge you 185 an hour to change the nozzle hector just described, so do not put too much weight on it.

the rule i would not break on a first coach is do not skip the inspection, ever, no matter who is selling. a real NRVIA inspector with fluid samples is 900 to 1,200 dollars on a coach this size and it is the best money you will spend. mine found five things and none of them were the engine. if a seller will not let your inspector have the coach for a day, that is your answer, walk. the rubi people gave mine the keys and the shore power and left him alone.

what to look at in your range. a 2017 to 2019 Phaeton or Dutch Star with 40 to 70k is barely broken in. water is the killer on a coach, not miles, so your inspector will moisture meter every wall and the roof and around every slide. ask for the Silverleaf or the dash to show engine hours versus miles, they should make sense together. ask when the tires were replaced and look at the date codes yourself in the photos, because seven year old tires on a 40,000 pound coach are a real cost and a real safety thing. ask whether the coolant and the Allison fluid have ever been done. and get the generator hours, a low hour gen on a high mile coach means it lived in parks with hookups, which is fine, just know it.

you will be fine. get the inspection, budget for tires if they are old, and you will be pulling into your first site by april.

quick check in from the texas coast. hector was right, the Oasis code was the burner nozzle and the photocell, 30 dollars in parts and an hour on my back in the bay, and it has run every night since through a stretch in the 20s. new topper went on in november for about 400 with a mobile tech. reggie, it was the check valve on the fresh fill, not the hose, twenty dollar part like you said.

bit the bullet on tires before we left arizona, six Michelin XZAs through a truck tire shop in phoenix, about 4,100 mounted and balanced. that was the one real expense and i knew it going in because the rubi listing showed the date codes plain in the photos. everything else has been nothing. the coach pulled raton pass loaded with the toad on and never got hot.

a couple of people messaged asking how often rubiautosales.com lists diesel coaches. from watching it the last few months they seem to get a few a week, Tiffins and Newmars and Entegras mostly, so if you are hunting a specific floor plan just check the rubi listings often.

UPDATE seven months and 11,000 miles in, sitting in a site outside durango for the summer, so here is the loop closed for anyone still weighing the rubi listing.

linda and i are genuinely glad we bought this coach. it did a full winter on the coast, crossed west texas twice, and climbed wolf creek pass with the jeep on the back at 8 mph under the speed limit and 195 on the coolant. it has never once left us in a rest area or thrown a code i could not explain. the Oasis has been perfect since the nozzle.

total money into it since we bought, not counting fuel and campgrounds. the six tires at 4,100, the topper at 400, the nozzle and photocell at 30, the check valve at 20, both fuel filters and a coolant test at about 160, and a set of wiper blades. that is the entire list on a coach the arizona dealers wanted 35 grand more for. no water, no slide problems, no chassis surprises, because the inspector got a whole day with it before i wired a dollar.

so for anyone on the fence. rubiautosales.com was straight with us from the first phone call. the coach was what they listed, right down to the tire dates they could have just not mentioned. the title showed up clean and fast, and they had no problem with my inspector or with pamela sending a transport driver. if you can get a real inspection done it is worth a hard look for a diesel coach.

we are done buying coaches. this is the one. thank you all for the help in here, especially hector and reggie. see some of you in quartzsite next january.