Chinook RV

The Roadtrek I kept in Florida burned to the ground last week
I plan on importing from Europe my beloved 2000 Concourse 37000 original miles,
Freight costs shoul be 2500 $
Did anybody do something similar ??

Isn't someone here do auto import? Maybe you can talk to each other and see if there is any gotchas or way to save on the cost.

Have you consider selling to a Frenchman, and get a rig in Florida?

Oh, sorry to hear about the Roadtrek. Anything that you want to share so that we can learn from what happened?

What a bummer about your Roadtrek. Something burning in storage is one of my fears.

This is super tangential, but I do know that for importing from the US to Canada, once a motorized vehicle is 15 years old it is much more doable. I only know this because when I was looking for my first camper van, there was hot competition in the "just turned 15 years old" range from Canadians wanting the newest one they could possibly import (or at least reasonably easily).

I don't know if the US has such caveats. I also think it's probably a lot easier when the vehicle was originally built in the country you are bringing it to, which would be the case here. You aren't trying to certify something that was built for a non-US market.

The Roadtrek 190 popular was a 2003 Chevy based in as new condition.
I forgot to turn off the refrigerator when fueling up.....I heard a "bang" & smoke came out of the high vent...At this stage I could have easily extinguished the fire if I had thought of removing the lower vent ...No...I tried to open the fixed metal upper vent....a complete brain fart and after that loss of time it was too late. I had moved it to a safe area away from the pumps. Without complementary coverage...the loss is total a real nightmare for me.
My" as new " 38000 miles Chinook will serve me well in the US & when I decide to sell , it will be easyer than in Europe where I will still have a Bigfoot slide in camper & older Class c Great West Van (only 3 made) I am a bit of a rv hoarder....lol you can see them on youtube under Swisscamper.

What a terrible thing to happen. Sorry you had to go through that. I'm sure it was a helpless feeling.

FWIW I shipped a car back from Scottsdale AZ to my home 40 miles north of Seattle and it cost me $1900 (which seemed a bit expensive). That was with insurance and in a covered semi. To me $2500 sounds cheap especially coming over the pond.

Ugh, what an awful feeling. I can totally understand trying to get in the upper door in the heat of the moment. I've never understood the (many) people who fuel in gas stations with the propane refrigerator on. Gaaah.

In case you no longer favor them, I took mine out of the Chinook years ago and put in a compressor refrigerator. I have no fear of propane in general (other than a healthy respect), but that fridge design gave me the willies. I have a Vitrifrigo, but there are other brands. As an additional plus I gained space in the hallway.

Glad you still have a "stable" of other cool RV's to keep you going I would SO be an RV hoarder if I had a place to keep them all.

YIKES! Glad you are okay!

I forgot to turn off the refrigerator when fueling up

Note to self. Don't ever forget to turn the propane off when fueling.