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Campers
- Thread starter johnbryanpeters
- Start date
Other trick is to find the title, google it, and click that link. Search results don’t get hit with the paywall, I believe.
I looked at a Bonanza Travel trailer. It is gutted. However it has all the panels and parts to rebuild it. Needs to have a bathroom fabricated as the current plastic one delaminated in the cold. I do not know what that entails or the cost. No title and hasn't been inspected since 1998. I am thinking Money pit. It is free. Just need to remove it from its current location to a new one by April 1.
Run. Run while you can.
Thanks...
^^ that is some serious redneck engineering right there
If I were a cop, I would pull that thing over just to check if the owners were high.
Go Figure. From the Truck Camper FB Page someone ran into those folks. They are an older retired couple that live full time in that rig in Florida..
With some struggle, removed the refrigerator from the R-Pod.
There's a perimeter gasket between the rear of the refrigerator body and the cabinetry framework that's intended to keep carbon monoxide from propane combustion from making its way into the living area. The factory installation by Forest River was completely incompetent, with big air gaps all around the perimeter.
Now that I have the beast out I need to figure out how to set up gasketing which will actually work. Foam's a no-go due to issues with accessability, maintainability, and flammability.
There's a perimeter gasket between the rear of the refrigerator body and the cabinetry framework that's intended to keep carbon monoxide from propane combustion from making its way into the living area. The factory installation by Forest River was completely incompetent, with big air gaps all around the perimeter.
Now that I have the beast out I need to figure out how to set up gasketing which will actually work. Foam's a no-go due to issues with accessability, maintainability, and flammability.
So, repair guy thinks that flipping the axles will create about 12" of additional clearance...I think that might be more than I am looking for. Anyone else do this?
We're looking into that for our little rig but haven't done it yet. Some of the places we went in Montana made us consider the need for extra ground clearance.
I kind of inherited a Camper. It was in the process of being restored. Being for free I couldn't resist or escape being pulled into the cluster fuck. I found a victim. Moved it there. Paid for the Gas and all related expenses. Got it all hooked up and secure. I want nothing to do with this POS....
Grrr...
The base problem, it turns out, is that the back frame as installed by the factory is 3/4" too small vertically.
In discovering this I used up about $35 worth of the expensive gasketing that I now need to tear out again, not reusable, and I will need to get into some really ugly teardown of other crap the factory installed. I am not pleased.
Are there any campers out there that are actually designed and engineered well?
No. Design is short on many levels, notably load capacity - simply having mostly full holding tanks will typically make an RV overweight. Materials are questionable and construction quality is abysmal, lots of staples, which often split framework that they're driven into or miss their target entirely, crudely cut openings for wiring and plumbing pass-throughs, wiring stretched taut, loose connections, yada-ya.
I have not followed people babbling about the premium priced Airstream, but I have stuck my head under the covers in one or two and it's the same crap.
@Adventurous: Care to start up a company that makes non-crap RVs, Tim?
Increasing load capacity will increase base weight. Both will require a tow vehicle with a larger rating. Higher quality materials built to a higher standard will probably also increase weight and certainly cost. How many people out there would be interested in spending an additional $10-$60K on truck and trailer for a mobile shed?
Thats what I noticed on most trailers. So far except for the sink faucet stripping and a drawer support that needed to be redone, plus replace two skylight covers (UV brittleness with age) and one exhaust vent fan that ran most of the time for 9 years. my 10 year old Lance slide in camper has had zero issues with structure, plumbing or appliances.
Heh, JBP is right, even the few Airstreams I stepped in were just the same old shit clad in aluminum. It seems to be an American issue, the market here for the most part demands large and cheap, the number of sub-20' trailers on lots PALES in comparison to the number of granite equipped 5th wheel toy haulers sitting on the lots.
There are a few quality trailers out there, just not in this country or in a price range that implores people to buy the non-disposable item; of course, most of them tend to be tear-drops or some variant. That was the conclusion I came to and why I chose to go down the road I did.
Check out the BruderX trailer. Most of the cool stuff tends to come from Australia where there's little support for wheeled McMansions towed in the left lane at 85 mph by disel dually pickup trucks
https://bruderx.com/
looks hawt, how many freedombux is thatHeh, JBP is right, even the few Airstreams I stepped in were just the same old shit clad in aluminum. It seems to be an American issue, the market here for the most part demands large and cheap, the number of sub-20' trailers on lots PALES in comparison to the number of granite equipped 5th wheel toy haulers sitting on the lots.
There are a few quality trailers out there, just not in this country or in a price range that implores people to buy the non-disposable item; of course, most of them tend to be tear-drops or some variant. That was the conclusion I came to and why I chose to go down the road I did.
Check out the BruderX trailer. Most of the cool stuff tends to come from Australia where there's little support for wheeled McMansions towed in the left lane at 85 mph by disel dually pickup trucks
https://bruderx.com/
Just look at the typical American RV camper (human not the vehicle) Fat Lazy, whose idea of camping is a parking lot with little grass strips separating them from the other RVers with full hookups, perhaps next to a lake full of powerboats so they can enjoy nature while swilling bad beer and watching TV on the outside television. The RVs are built for that market....Heh, JBP is right, even the few Airstreams I stepped in were just the same old shit clad in aluminum. It seems to be an American issue, the market here for the most part demands large and cheap, the number of sub-20' trailers on lots PALES in comparison to the number of granite equipped 5th wheel toy haulers sitting on the lots.
There are a few quality trailers out there, just not in this country or in a price range that implores people to buy the non-disposable item; of course, most of them tend to be tear-drops or some variant. That was the conclusion I came to and why I chose to go down the road I did.
Check out the BruderX trailer. Most of the cool stuff tends to come from Australia where there's little support for wheeled McMansions towed in the left lane at 85 mph by disel dually pickup trucks
https://bruderx.com/
$68,000. Plus $3,000 shipping. Cheaper than an Earthroamer though!
Yup. Witnessed a guy in a Class A motorhome this past summer towing a double decker 30' trailer that was carrying a RZR and another vehicle. LIke, jeez, how much shit do you need to bring along?!?
pretty sure that this is the most stuff we have taken with us on a trip in the RV. Two Kayaks and two Mt Bikes on our trip from CA to Yellowstone and back
Ripped out a shitload of framing and paneling. I am finally at a point at which I seem to have something I can build on. Forest River seems to have used an entire cartridge of black RTV caulking to fill some one inch gaps they left because they could not be bothered to cut a panel to fit. 
sooooooo, what I am reading is to avoid campers?
No, but be aware of what you can get into - I am compulsive about design and maintenance, aerospace engineering disease...
mmmmmmmm, that looks nice, wonder how many dollarydoos that would run
Wife and I play a couple of road trip games, first one is "bus or motorhome", when they're so damn large as they're heading towards you it's not always possible to tell straight away.
Second is you've got to try and spot one towing a Jeep (90% of the time they're towing a Jeep), then towing a watercraft of some kind behind that too.
SFW?
yeah, looked at that site last week, no angrygrams came in
I spent some time on modmyrv.com and saw the idea to remove the crap dinette and replace it with a loveseat or other better seat options. Since it will likely be the wife and I alone, we don't need extra sleeping spaces and the dinettes are all crap.
I am still torn on the good used vs needs work since the cost savings doesn't seem to be worth the effort. If I had a shop, then doing a restore or renovation would be WAY easier.
I am still torn on the good used vs needs work since the cost savings doesn't seem to be worth the effort. If I had a shop, then doing a restore or renovation would be WAY easier.