Millennials and zoomers are finally abandoning vanlife and the prices are dropping. I want to travel the country but even a local motel is $100 a night now. I'm an expert auto-electric tech and have remodeled houses to rent, and i now work from home in IT. Ive never dealt with water damage or the exquisitely cheapass materials RV's are made out of. Every single RV under $20k looks like this; water damage, siding buckled, some are already stripped down to just the structure. I'm already avoiding anything fibreglass and looking purely at aluminum/wood structures. What am I getting into trying to repair something like this?
>>2864853"Junkyard Digs"on utube. The guy's done three or four episodes, where he buys a cheap motorhome, repairs it (sort of) the drives it to some show or destination.
>>2864853All I can tell you is I did some handyman gigs in a motor home park a few years ago. I find out there was a motor home store near that sells siding and trim and all things RV.See if you have something like that and do a deep google for online RV repair forums or something. If you're an expert auto-electric tech I don't think you'll have much of a problem. I guess the real problems would be under the hood.
>>2864858mechanical shit is easy, bodywork is something almost no one understands especially from scratch. That buckle there; something moved. What was it, where is it supposed to be, and how do you reposition it? is the siding now fucked? does this stuff even have enough structural integrity to be repaired without being completely dismantled? I would love to find the hole of people doing this shit from scratch, but everything is 'i threw a bed in a box truck and lived in it for a year and it totally didnt suck' or 'yep just changed to synthetic oil and getting 6.05mpg sent from my iphone 5s using tapatalk' >>2864857he's a complete hackjob and after personally interacting with him i have him blocked everywhere.
>>2864860Well if you want to travel the country in it the mechanical is far more important than if the outside trim matches or not.Doofus.
>>2864862if i pull a chunk of rotting plywood out and the entire structure collapses on me then it doesnt matter how reliable the engine is, does it
>>2864866But you can still drive it to the motorhome store and get what you need.
>>2864869mechanically fixing the motorhome is not going to be a problem, that is why i specifically made the thread about fixing the "home" structure
>>2864853Given your skillset you might be happier doing your own "toy hauler" conversion of a used commercial vehicle so you can add exactly the quality of mods you prefer, or customizing a commercial trailer to get exactly what you want inside.Most people aren't good enough to be picky.BTW as a lifelong mechanic I would buy a trailer and keep the prime mover separate. That makes towing and recovery cheaper and if your drivetrain shits the bed or other systems need work you don't have to bring your home to a dealer. If you choose bumper pull one way to make those more hassle to steal is using a bolt-on channel style hitch like Bulldog sell. I pull two bolts when I park my trailers and the hitch goes with me.
>>2864880even if i need to strip it and put everything in a barn to rebuild the structure i'd like to have everything that's supposed to be in it for both the floorplan already being done and cost of not buying those things separate. if i didnt like it or when i finish, its easier to pass off things that are not obviously custom for that exact reason; people think its stock and they can go to xyz dealer for help. i understand your reasoning for truck and trailer but i believe apart from a catastrophic failure there's not much i couldnt fix on the roadside, 98-04 ish is mechanically simple but still has live data, overdrive, the goodies, regardless of brand. I also only have a half tonne truck and putting 5k behind it is not fun.
>>2864880ThisI'd go out on a limb and say that making an attempt to refurb an existing motorhome is just a money-sink, as they're already built from the cheapest lightest materials possible. I would look for a used trailer in order to frame out your own living space with actual construction materials and modern amenities. The auto electric tech skill set should take you a long way with designing a highly efficient solar-integrated setup, or something like that. Some old RV certainly won't have that
>>2864885>actual construction materialsThis is also helpful to prevent break ins and thievery on the road and camp sites. Regular motor home materials are flimsy can be pulled apart with bare hands.
>>2864853They're not abandoning it, they're simply finding better options second hand or improvising at a lower cost. I know because I am one of them.
>>2864853Get a small box van and tow a trailer instead. Uhaul box vans sell for like 5k and have records. They can tower a trailer, try to aim for a double axial. That say you always have one to stay in if the other needs work at a proper shop.
Anyone who isn't a retarded boomer with 200k burning a hole in their pocket wouldd know the way to actually get the highest quality setup is to buy an enclosed trailer and outfit it the way you want it out of good materials. Keeping your tow rig and your living space separate is much smarter because if one goes out its not irrevocably tied to the other. Engine goes out get another truck. Can't do that when its all combined. Motorhomes even the 200k ones are made like shit and not meant to be used more than 1 week a year 3 or 4 times in its life by rich boomers or you immediately find out how easily they fall apart.
>>2865231This. An RV is only meant to be driven to a camp site and back. You don't want to use an RV as your daily driver.
>>2865302I have a micro mini Winnebago and the trailer is built like a tank with two axials, but the living conditions inside are literally cardboard. That being said, they are place holders and sonce it doesn't have vehicle parts in the way it's super easy to work on.
>>2864853>i am an expert>please tell me how to do itHow about you use your expertise to show your in a decent thread and teach others? Have some balls
>>2864853Why are you avoiding fiberglass? Seems like they hold together better than aluminum regarding leaks. Just add possible repairs and a fresh gel coat to your budget.
>>2864853it's simple don't get one that leaks, it's a fucking never ending nightmare. they are cheap enough just keep searching until you find one that doesn't leak and smells clean and not musty inside. there are many specific RV products that are essentially self leveling roof sealant and you should redo all of it on your NON LEAKING rv as the first thing.in your pic related you're talking removing everything inside and reshaping the panels, which includes taking all botch job patch shit out. unless you're pulling the engine and appliances for something else that box isn't worth the time it would take to drive it home. shit, there isn't even an awning which is a must for van life and can be $1200 for a nice one - which also means the assholes selling this might have taken the genny or other valuable take offs which again just makes it not worth even hauling away.
>>2865231this is a retarded take. most problems you're going to solve by getting them fixed, not by just buying a new truck so you're no better off except now you have a trailer to get towed and find parking for etc too.there are reasons for trailer life but the possibly of your AC going out on the tow rig are not one of them.
>>2864882>even if i need to strip it and put everything in a barn to rebuild the structure i'd like to have everything that's supposed to be in it for both the floorplan already being done and cost of not buying those things separate.except those things are glued cardboard often as not with staples. it's not meant to come out and you're going to wind up with a pile of trash "boards" and pieces like drawer sliders that are so cheap you won't want to bother rebuilding the cabinet they were part of.
>>2864860>bodywork is something almost no one understands especially from scratchdon't project your retard on us retard
>>2864853>Every single RV under $20k looks like thisyou're looking wrong. you keep looking the same places in the same way and yeah you're going to keep getting the same result.
>>2865894I have seen plenty of perfectly livable RVs on Facebook for $3kish. Fancier 20ft travel trailers can be found closer to $7k if they're more recent.
>>2864853Almost none of the wood framed RVs and trailers you will find are worth the effort of restoration if they've leaked as much as picrel, and a huge percentage have.Not only are they built to be lightweight, it's done in the cheapest manner possible so that unlike boats and aircraft that are also lightweight but fixable, RV wood is pure shit...you might have a spot where a wooden part has deteriorated and come unfastened inside a wall and when you peel off the covering to get to it you learn that it was damaged when originally installed by a staple splitting its crappy grain structure, and just covered over. If you want something restorable you want a metal frame. Once you know that is solid adding the skin isn't hard and there's tons of sealants to do it better than the original factory job.Also, a lot of leaks in wood framed RVs open up from the flexing and twisting that wood frame construction allows so that's another reason to get a metal frame.
>>2865891You buy the rotten particle board and moldy foam RV then you dumb nigger. When the shop needs to work on the engine where are you living then? Dumb nigger.
