2008 Cyclone 4012 Buying Advice

I am negotiating on a 2008 Cyclone 4012. It is at a car dealership who took it in on trade. They have it listed for around 35K but made me an offer of 29.5K. That seemed like a pretty fair price. That's below NADA's low retail. I accepted the offer with the contingency of having it inspected at an RV dealership/repair shop. Came back with several minor problems and one big problem. The big problem is a couple of spots of delamination between the two slides on the back side. Looks like the skylight in the bathroom was leaking. There are three spots, ranging from 6" to 12" across.

The guy at the RV repair shop says that repairing the small leak will stop the problem from getting worse. At the same time, he said he would only buy an RV with delamination problems at a steep discount. I've been reading as much as I can online about delamination, and I've seen a couple of places where people say it knocks 10K off the price.

I've also read advice ranging from, "Walk away from anything with delamitation" to "Once you seal it up it's no big deal."

Would love advice from anyone on this issue.

How big of a deal is this?

How much should it impact my offer, assuming I decide to counter with a lower price?

Hi Thadandrachelb,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. There's a lot of useful information here along with a great bunch of friendly and helpful people.

A couple of things:
- I've seen a number of comments that NADA estimates may be a bit high.
- The original ask of $35K looks pretty average compared to a search on Google for "2008 Cyclone 4012", so the offer of $29.5K may just be what you could expect for a unit with no obvious problems.
- You might ask the servicer or a collision shop how much it would cost to repair the delamination - I think a collision damage shop does work like this and cuts out the damaged section to do the repair. It's probably expensive.
- Water damage may not be limited to the sidewall delamination. You could have unseen problems elsewhere. That's probably why some people say $10K.

If you do buy the unit, I'd think you ought to get a lower price and set aside the money saved to use for repairs.

You'll no doubt get some other responses shortly (although we're having some server problems, so that may slow things down a bit).

Thadandrachelb said:

How much should it impact my offer, assuming I decide to counter with a lower price?

Click to expand...

Me, personally - I'd offer 8-10K. Only if I was prepared to put in another 10-15 K and be without the trailer for most if not all of a season.

Delam can be really serious and pricey. And water intrusion can lead to a mold problem, and in that case I wouldn't want it at all.

It definitely should reflect in your offer. Just remember it is a problem for you now and it will be a problem for the person you sell the coach to when you decide to sell. I just dealt with delam on my 40 pusher before I sold it. The purchasers i will admit were not concerned with the delam because the coach was in such nice condition. It really bothered me and I did price reduce the coach to account for the delam. Will it get worse? Very possibly. Once I determined the cause of the delam which was water intrusion through failed caulking I thought It would stop any further delam. It did get worse and was tested and no moisture was detected. This is a tough situation. It all comes down to price. Just remember after you have had your fun with this trailer it will be your time to sell it and now you are the salesman. If it's an issue to you it will be an issue to the next prospective buyer. Or maybe not if it's priced right. Good luck.

Hi FlGator,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and thanks for contributing to the discussion.

A word of caution: 2008/2009 was a transition year for the Cyclones. Does this 2008 have 15" or 16" wheels? If it has 15s this indicates that it has the 5200 lb axles . There were many problems associated with the 5200 lb axles on the Cyclones. If it has 16" wheels this indicates 6000 lb axles which are a huge plus.

If you are conscientious with regard to weights, some of the Cyclones of that production timeframe came with a 20,400 lb GVW sticker vice an 18,000 lb GVW. Something to look for.

If it has 20,400# GVW, you'll need to upgrade to 7,000# axles and springs. Be sure to look for flat springs as an indicator. Been there, done that.

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Thanks all for the advice. I've decided to pass on purchasing this unit. I think the delamination issue is not a major issue on this. However, it clearly affects the value and resale potential. I'm new to the RV buying business, so I just want to be super cautious. If I knew more about it, I'd be more willing to take a risk. I've also been reading more about the axle issue and the 15" versus 16" wheels. I think I'm going to narrow my search to 2009 makes to stay away from this issue. So, I've got a list of 2009 units in the southeast that I'm going to start looking at. (I'm in the Atlanta area.) Thanks again and wish my luck...