Importing an expedition camper from Europe

Looking for some input and advice. I may have found my dream expedition camper in Europe. At least on paper, it looks good. It's a 1990 with reasonable mileage. It's a Renault double cab, 4x4 with a nice camper on it. Price seems reasonable as well.

First question: Anyone here have first hand info on importing a vehicle? I "think" it would meet the exemption because of age, but want to check into things before I invest too much into this.

Second question: anyone have experience with the Renault heavy trucks? Parts/repair availability in the US and elsewhere in the world?

Thanks
 

UpperCrust

Building and Learning
I imported a 1990 Mercedes last summer with zero problems. I have a short write-up if you want to know a little more.

If the truck is registered as an RV then it should only cost 3.5% to import, if it is still registered as a truck it might be 25%.

Also depending on what state you will be registering it in, make sure you know what documents you need before you buy the truck.
 

LukeH

Adventurer
The Renaults from that era all have MAN engines, with Bosch injection systems. The gearboxes are ZF, the TC also; and I'm pretty certain the axles are Rockwell Europa (italian)
None of those brands need any introducing.
What's more Renault Trucks, Volvo trucks and MACK are all one entity now, so theoretically your MACK dealer can order parts for that truck. Whether he wants to is another matter.

Two things put me off those trucks:
The headroom inside the cab is silly low! All the owners who have taken them off on rally support raise the roof because they're sick of banging their heads on every bump.
170hp from 6 litres is a bit weak. I'm sure you can find a diesel doctor in the US who can sort that out though.

Otherwise they're very very reliable, easy to drive and pretty talented off road.
There's a forum in France with quite an active section on these trucks. It's in french, beware of google translate sometimes it completely inverses the sense of the sentence. Through the forum I'm aware of at least 5 currently out on RTW trips. These guys have done very well buying a truck that had already gone RTW before them: https://vimeo.com/camdav/videos Travelling with kids is great, it's travelling for the kids!
If you need any help from a guy in France who speaks perfect french let me know.

Now for the juicy bits:
Model?
Where did you find it?
How much?
Pictures, all important!

Oh and my experience is that prices in France are higher than in Germany for the same product; where is it coming from?
 
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LukeH

Adventurer
I imported a 1990 Mercedes last summer with zero problems. I have a short write-up if you want to know a little more.

If the truck is registered as an RV then it should only cost 3.5% to import, if it is still registered as a truck it might be 25%.

Also depending on what state you will be registering it in, make sure you know what documents you need before you buy the truck.

Great write up! Will be referring to that again soon. Thanks!
 
Thanks for the input. I'm headed over to try and make the purchase now. We might end up keeping it in Europe for a while to travel there and then bring it over later...........if we can actually get it.
 

pugslyyy

Expedition Vehicle Engineer Guy
Looking for some input and advice. I may have found my dream expedition camper in Europe. At least on paper, it looks good. It's a 1990 with reasonable mileage. It's a Renault double cab, 4x4 with a nice camper on it. Price seems reasonable as well.

First question: Anyone here have first hand info on importing a vehicle? I "think" it would meet the exemption because of age, but want to check into things before I invest too much into this.

Second question: anyone have experience with the Renault heavy trucks? Parts/repair availability in the US and elsewhere in the world?

Thanks

It will on the Federal level but California can be a bit more tricky. Depending on your investment in this vehicle you might end up deciding to register / own it through a different state (South Dakota is popular).
 

LukeH

Adventurer
Thanks for the input. I'm headed over to try and make the purchase now. We might end up keeping it in Europe for a while to travel there and then bring it over later...........if we can actually get it.

Now you're just being cruel! :)
Come on, us frustrated office travellers want to SEE!
Where are you going to be? I'm in the French Riviera near Cannes. Maybe I know the truck/owner through the french forum. Get in touch.
 

LukeH

Adventurer
Is it the one on Mobile.de?

Ex-french fire services. The rear passengers have to sit back to back; very boring for them. Sore necks and obligation to swap sides every few hours.
And you WILL bang your heads.

But yes, that one has the reliable MAN engine, they really last ages and bits are still avaiable in scrapyards all over France.
 
Sorry for the lack of response. We've been trying for the last month to actually complete the deal. There was another buyer involved and they went back and forth for a while, but he finally came through to complete the deal this week. This is the truck, but the deal didn't work out. We're looking at a few others right now on mobile.de (there's a nice Man Kat and the Magirus), but we're also considering shipping our truck over.
image.jpg
 
It seemed like a really good deal at €30,000. Definitely needed some work, but even after investing some in it, it would have been a good rig.

The Magirus that's posted in the for sale section of this is also a really nice rig and we're seriously considering it, but I don't know much about those trucks.

We've got friends in a France, so we might end up spending time there as well.

Thanks
 

UpperCrust

Building and Learning
There are a lot of cool rigs for sale on mobile.de. Makes me want to buy a few and resell them in the states.
 

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