My Rexhall Aerbus

In order not to jinx it, I delayed announcing anything until I had possession, but now I can say I'm the proud owner of a "1996" Rexhall Aerbus Class A motorhome. It was built in August 1995 on a 1995 Ford F53 chassis, and there is a record of the previous owner's first trip in September 1995. I haven't found any indication of the Rexhall model number, but it is quite believable that it was sold as a 1996 model.

Rexhall is a small manufacturer of Class A motorhomes located in Lancaster, California. They now only sell factory direct, and are reportedly quite willing to do custom orders. Despite going through a Chapter 11 (reorganization) bankruptcy, and laying off many of their workers, they are still in business and making motorhomes. Bill Rex is still involved in the company. There are active Rexhall owner's clubs, with the main one being a chapter of FMCA. Rexhall uses single-piece fiberglass roofs and welded steel frames. They are known for doing innovations, some of which wind up being common ("wide" 102" body), some disappear (L-shaped couch and a convertible coffee table as the only table), and at least one that other manufacturers have tried to copy but been unable to make reliable. (two "full body" slides) Most Rexhall owners have good things to say about them.

The purchase was at Cue's RV Sales in El Monte, California, about 20 miles from where I now live. The salesman (Pabel Cue) unlocked the RVs I was interested in looking at, and let me go though them at my own pace while remaining available in the office for any questions I had. I spent about three hours Monday looking mainly at the Rexhall, with a quick look through a Fleetwood Flair, then I talked with Pabel about taking a test drive. Their policy is to discuss price and get a deposit before the test drive. So I got something to eat, went home and researched about Rexhalls. Tuesday I went back and spent another three or four hours looking at it before sitting down to discuss price. That went surprisingly well, with Pabel agreeing to fix my major issues and get me out the door for a price I could live with. I left the $500 deposit and agreed to come back Wednesday for a test drive. (With a small dealer, someone has to be available to cover the office during the test drive.) The test drive went well (I didn't hit anything) and I agreed to the purchase.

Not only did they fix the major issues I mentioned, including replacing all six tires (at least one was 15 years old) and leaving me with the newest as a spare, and go through all the major systems to make sure they work, but they found and fixed a number of minor issues I hadn't bothered to mention like missing light bulbs. It took a couple of days since they needed to fix the hydraulic levelers and some of the under-hood wiring. (The front drivers-side tire may have had a blowout taking the hydraulic lines and wiring. That explains the 2008 tire there, but not leaving the 1995 tire on the passenger side when a newer spare was available.) They replaced the porch light and the radio.

The bathroom has a double-door that can be opened all the way to make a bathroom/dressing room with the large closet across the hall, or one door can be closed to make a combined bedroom and bathroom. Unfortunately it's a tight squeeze for a large person to get in the shower without opening the bathroom door. (One person moved the shower door hinge for this reason.)

The bed is large 70"x75", and may have been marketed as a king size. The accordion-style bedroom door was removed by the previous owner. This is an area I plan on doing major remodeling, puting in a twin or full-size bed and adding a desk and more storage. The three windows and under-bed water tank limit what I can do, and the drivers-side window is an emergency exit so I shouldn't block it.

There is a two-legged table that goes into holes with carpeted fillers in front of the couch. Since there is only a 2" gap between the table leg and the couch, this table would be difficult to actually use. I've got a thread on the rv.net diy forum where this is being discussed. Unfortunately, I didn't remember to take any pictures of this, maybe tomorrow.

The kitchen is large for an RV this size, with some usable counter space and a fair amount of storage. There are two sets of deep narrow shelfs, one of which I may be able to covert to a roll-out pantry. The idea on the Rexhall tips site of adding a door on the stair side to make the under-sink storage more accessible sounds good.

The table between the passenger seat and the recliner doesn't close quite all the way. I may just leave it out all the time. The passenger seat reclines, and the other chair has a footrest. Both swivel and move forward and back. I wish the chair was mounted a couple inches closer to the wall, and could go back a little more into the stairwell.

Besides the furnace and the vent ducting, there is some unusable space under the couch. With a little protection to the furnace and ducts, I think the space behind the couch could be used for storing a table, but not the current one.

Removing the CRT TV is a fairly low priority project.