Cash for junk RVs and campers

Campers are the vehicles people mean to deal with next spring. A travel trailer parked beside the garage in Lansing or on a slab behind a house in Thornton can sit for years, and once the roof leaks or the tires crack it’s not going anywhere under its own power. We buy motorhomes and towable campers in any condition and arrange the right tow for each one, free.

What we take

• Motorhomes, with their own engine and chassis, running or not.
• Travel trailers and fifth wheels.
• Pop-up campers.
• Truck campers on a pickup we are also buying. If the pickup is the thing that’s done, see junk trucks, vans and SUVs.

Papers: what Illinois titles

The Secretary of State’s title FAQ draws the lines clearly. Anything driven on the road, RVs included, gets a title and plates. Campers pulled behind a vehicle, from pop-ups to fifth wheels and trailers of every size, are both titled and registered. Slide-in campers attached to a truck are neither titled nor registered, so the paperwork that matters there is the truck’s. Source: Secretary of State title and registration FAQ.

So have the camper’s own title ready, plus two forms of ID, which Illinois requires a scrap buyer to record from a private seller (625 ILCS 5/5-401.3). If the title went missing years ago, tell us what you have; our page on selling without a title explains what we check.

Where campers sit, and what we need to know

RVs are long, tall and heavy, and they are usually parked wherever they fit. Before the pickup, tell us:

• Length and type. A 17-foot pop-up and a 35-foot motorhome are different jobs.
• How it’s resting. On its own tires, flat tires, blocks, or stabilizer jacks that are still down.
• The way in. Low branches, a narrow side yard, a soft lawn after rain, a carport roof or a fence gate.
• Storage lots. Settle any storage bill, tell the lot we are coming and give us its gate hours.
• The hitch. For a towable camper, whether the coupler and safety chains are intact.

Village rules make some campers more urgent than others. In Glenwood, section 102-438(c) of the code bars trailers from residential streets for more than 6 hours or during overnight restrictions, and in Lynwood, section 102-246 bans trailers on streets and alleys from 2:00 to 6:00 a.m. Our village-by-village inoperable vehicle guide covers how long a dead vehicle may sit on private property in each town.

What moves the offer

Weight and what’s left inside it drive the number. A motorhome carries an engine, transmission and a truck chassis, which a towable camper doesn’t, so the two are priced differently. Water damage, missing axles or a stripped interior lower the offer. Our article on what a junkyard pays explains how weight and completeness work. Payment is cash, Zelle or Cash App when the RV is loaded, and the offer doesn’t expire if you need time to clear it out.

We pick up campers across our area, from Glenwood and Thornton to Lansing. Got a work truck too? See box trucks and semis.