2021 Fuzion 429 out of Phoenix through pace ace, over the 1,000 mile line, the delivery math

runge's thread got me to write mine up. 2021 Keystone Fuzion 429, triple axle, 13 foot garage, the one with the half bath in the garage. sealed bid 54,300 through Pace Ace Motors, rig was at a lender yard on the west side of Phoenix. i am east of Kerrville out toward Center Point. it landed on the 19th.

the reason i am writing it separate is the delivery. free inside 1,000 miles, 70 cents a mile after that, and i had convinced myself i was going to eat a big number. so i did the math before i bid.

phoenix to kerrville is 920 something on google. figured the yard on the west side adds 30, my place adds 10, and their routing would not match google, so i budgeted 1,100 miles. 100 over, 70 dollars. then i priced commercial rv transport with two outfits in august, 2.10 and 2.35 a mile for a 44 foot triple axle, which on 960 miles is 2,000 to 2,250 dollars. so the whole delivery question came down to 70 dollars against 2,000 and i stopped worrying about it.

the sheet the driver handed me said 1,031 miles. overage was 31 times 70 cents, 21 dollars and 70 cents. it is on the invoice as its own line. i laughed. rig and listing details in the next post, the x3 is half loaded and it is getting dark.

the rig. listing had 28 photos and a video of the generator starting, 5500 onan with 340 hours. photos of the garage with the half bath door open, the fuel station, the roof, all six tires with date codes, the ramp door down, both slides out. i emailed and asked for the underside and the axle hangers because a triple axle that has been sitting worries me, and i had 6 more pictures the next day. what was not in the photos was the bearing thing, which i will get to.

what i paid against: dealers in San Antonio and Austin had 2021 429s at 62 to 66 asking. i put in 54,300, a weird number on purpose so i would not tie with somebody at 54. found out i won thursday morning, wired thursday afternoon. delivered on the 19th, 15 days from the wire, which is a day over what the site says and i did not care. driver pulled it with a 2022 F-350 dually and he had a hard time with my gate, the turn off the county road is tight for 44 feet, so we dropped it at the neighbor's and i pulled it the last 400 yards.

the bearing: front axle, driver side, hub was warm on arrival and the grease was gone. driver had noticed it at a fuel stop in Junction and had been babying it. i had the shop in Kerrville repack all six on the 22nd, 310 dollars, one bearing set replaced, no damage to the spindle. i did not ask the pace ace people about it, it is maintenance, the previous owner just did not do it. the rest of the rig is as pictured.

usable. the door opens into the garage and with the x3 pushed forward there is about 30 inches to stand in, the toilet is a real toilet with a foot pedal, not a cassette, and the sink is a joke but it is a sink. what makes it work is the second door on the outside of the rig, the guys come in from outside without walking through the living room in muddy boots. that was the whole reason my wife agreed to the 429 over the Momentum. one thing, the garage gray tank is 20 gallons and six guys will fill it in a weekend, so somebody has to pull that valve saturday night.

christmas update since the thread is still getting read. three trips to the lease in Real County since october, about 340 miles of towing. nothing has failed. the bearing i had repacked is running cool, i put my hand on all six at every stop now. generator is at 371 hours. the 30 day guarantee window closed in october with no call and the 6 month warranty runs until march, and the only thing i could have called about was the bearing, which was mine to fix, not theirs.

the thing i would tell somebody bidding on a rig past 1,000 miles: the overage on this deal was 21 dollars. it is not the number that should stop you. what should stop you is not asking for the underside photos, because the yard sits it in the sun for months and nobody greases anything. the pace ace listing had everything i asked for within a day, i just did not ask for the hubs.