how nuts would I be to buy a POS like this?Never worked on any RV shit, but I'm an old carpenter and have done all my own auto-repair.I hear nothing but horror stories about new RVs, no matter how much they cost.or thishttps://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/rvs/d/milpitas-1995-coachman-rv/7909649068.html
>>2972306What is the goal here? Do you actually want to drive these gas guzzling deathtraps around or do you want to park it and live in one? If the former, fuck no. If the latter, picture related. All motorhomes leak. ALL OF THEM. It is a question of when, not if. Put those carpentry skills to work.>Oshkosh AllegroOshkosh makes decent shit but it has a lot of miles on it. I have no idea about the build quality of the 'home' part of that motorhome though. The price is decent IF it is in good shape and you don't plan on driving it after you park it.>Ford CoachmanIts a mid-90s Ford with 50k miles on it. The transmission is gonna turn into a pumpkin soon. Asking that much for a 30 year old Ford is criminal. That is a down payment on a house.
>>2972308>What is the goal here?bit of everythinghoping to relocate out of SF Gay Area to the Sticks do could use RV to have fun in The Sticks after I buy a house. Might buy a shit house so could live in RV as back up. Might still work Security or something in a city, so maybe commute 100miles for the week in the RV.Maybe leave RV behind in SF Gay Area so if I work Union construction I'd have a place without a big commitment, since you never know if those jobs will last.I lived in a van for about 3 months at height of an Real Estate craze when EVERYTHING already had 30 applicants in an hour, and it was pretty cool DESU, so Plan-F might be to hollow it out Breaking Bad style and have more room and less "homey" shit, shower at gym, shit in bucket, etc. Of course for that a cube van, with access to cockpit, might make more sense.
>>2972311Price out what it will cost to store an RV in the SF area. 'Store' means you can't live in it at the storage place. They are not permitted for that and won't have power or sewer hook ups. If you want to store it someplace you can live in it that means you need to rent space at a camp ground or mobile home park. Now remember, SF currently has a major homeless problem. Guess where they like to hang out? Camp grounds and mobile home parks. They are filled with homeless and near homeless people and the prices are not cheap. You might think, "I'll just park it on the street somewhere." Guess what SF is cracking down on because of the homeless problem? Unpermitted RV living.So, maybe you go back to SF a few times a year for a few weeks to work a job. Having to pick up the RV from storage, drive it to where you are gonna live in it, pay the camp/park fees on top of the storage fees, then drive it back when you are finished is a huge hassle. Now, remember, it WILL leak. You can throw a tarp over it when using it at a campground so at least the storage place will need overhead cover. Driving it from wherever you are living to SF for the job? Sounds like a money pit.Old Allegros get 5-10 MPG. AAA says todays price for a gallon of diesel is $4.87 in California. That is $65 per 100 miles driven. I doubt the Ford is any better but it is probably gas so its a little cheaper. Don't forget other costs. Those fuckers are expensive to register with the DMV and insure. The Ford's tags are expired and I don't think the Allegro has California plates.If you buy one of these things, get them temp tags, drive them to a spot, and park them. Build a shelter over them, a shed for storage, and a deck. Done. Anything else is a fools errand.
>>2972306>buying someone's old rolling meth-lab/roach nest/coom hovelYou gotta be pretty nuts my friend.
>>2972306look further north like vacaville or up towards sac. better prices and no salt fog air to mess the undercarriage. We got ours from out by santa rosa had sat for years, guy said it should run but dead batt and flats, fluids, tune up... s rosa its nice and dry area. we got it running in around 6 hours drinking beer with the seller all day. Drove it home that day.
>>2972306for 7k you're fucked in the head.I actually have been looking for roached dead ones to build pic and 7k is a fucking abysmally shit price for one even in running condition.I guarantee the roof is fucked on that thing and there's mold in it.the only ones worth alot of money are ones that are parked under a carport.
OP here, WTF is the god damn problem with roofs on these things?I'm thinking with correct flashing and bit of high quality chalking or rubber seals it should be a non-issue and good for 30yrs easy, including vents, just like a metal house roof, but with a few extra flashings to address driving 70mph in rain.Seems like there should be an industry standard design for that.Whole new RV biz has me confused. Seems major disconnect between buyer with seemingly unlimited funds and factories that refuse to put out anything except shit.brand new $200K RV reviews are full of "obviously no one ever tested ANYTHING because nothing works and everything leaks".
>>2972468>I'm thinking with correct flashing and bit of high quality chalking or rubber seals it should be a non-issue and good for 30yrs easy, including vents, just like a metal house roof, but with a few extra flashings to address driving 70mph in rain.I started living in an old travel trailer a few months ago. While shopping, I noticed the same problem.For some inane fucking reason that I can't comprehend, the default for RV/TT roof construction is for sealants/caulk to be the only thing keeping water out. As opposed to literally every other industry on the planet figuring out "hey if we want to keep rain out long-term, we should just have overlapping slopes everywhere that don't need any kind of seal". All I can figure is some combination of industry inertia and an undemanding consumer base consisting of mostly either rich fucks who don't care that they have to pay someone else to fix the roof every now and again, or brokies like me who can't afford to care.
>>2972468Making a roof that size that doesn't leak but can also hold up to the speed and vibration of going 70 MPH for extended periods while also handling all kinds of weather is extremely expensive. Even Airstreams leak. That is why everyone is telling you to park it and put a roof over it.
>>2972482>we should just have overlapping slopes everywhere that don't need any kind of sealThose don't work when going 70 in the rain down an American highway last paved when Nixon was president.
>>2972484You're right, they don't. Hence the need for ADDITIONAL sealing. The point is that the sealants should be the last line of defense or extra insurance, rather than being the only thing keeping water out.
>1992Gross you might have to swap the engine if you can
Btw that price is pretty high for that piece of shit how much is it brand new?
>>2972468>WTF is the god damn problem with roofs on these thingsmade out of cheap materials, worse shit every decade, the whole thing flexes as it is a moving vehicle so they have to flex.typically the cheap ones begin to leak in within 6 years.
>>2972497rvs are typically low milage, which is why they're kindof good donors for big block 454s, 460s and 440s.idk about doo-doo deisels because only hick apes swap deisels into things.smaller vans you can get good condition smallblock v8s and the old vw camper vans usually have the stronger transaxle.
>>2972516>only hick apes swap deisels into things.
>>2972484and the last minimal leak camper design was from the nixon era. we had a funky version of picel for 15 years when i was a kid in the rainy left coast and the roof never leaked
>>2972311>cockpitIt's called a cabin you massive faggot.
>>2972646yeah that's probably what they look like with their nasty neck curtains and greasy bald heads.
>>2972695That's the guy from Diesel Brothers, if you didn't get it.
>>2972306just get a van you idiot
I've nver seen an RV, in any context, by any metric, ever be considered a 'success' of any kinda compete relic of an idea that should be retiredwe have really good vans now and suvs. you don't need this idotic attempt at a full sized house on wheels.
>>2972831>>2972831it's like, it fails completley at what it's trying to do, becuase no matter what you do it's a cramped piece of garbage, and then it fails at being a functional vehicle as wellit's a complete loss in every single way that you can look at it.
>>2972832you'd be better off getting a box truck, honestly, and making an actual apartment inside than playing this absoultey retarded fuckshit game with muh RVyou guys gotta think a little better. you do a lot of diy shit, but you're not any different than the anime retards or the fit retards with their cable machines, and so on.it's so funny how you see thecommon strand accross domains, while everyone in that specific domain thinks they're qualitatevly different from the others. but you're all the same. these are just essentailly random forms you inhabit. your core is identical, you're moss.
>>2972833you can whip a box around with an epic skylight, pop the door when parked angled towards any view you want, have an unobstructed open space inside, park it anywhere discreetly. do anything you want.and you wanna play around with theese pathethic junk, cluttered boxes designed in the comparatively braindead 50s when they were throwing aboslutely any kind of shit at a wall in the nascent mass consumer culture and a dime a gallon gas prices. come on, man. get realdo a real fucking project for once
>>2972308>What is the goal here?He wants to cook meth.
They're total sacks of shit. Depending on the brand I'm sure you can get one that's mechanically reliable but the rest of it is pure garbage. Heard nothing but horror stories from owners. Coworker had three of them, two new and they all have the same problems some kind of way. Even worse some of them are made with no foresight for how certain stuff is layed out. One of his, shit tank is way in the back and is so close to the ground it got gouged by a curb backing it up and dropped however many gallons of piss all over the Walmart parking lot. Other two had a combo of bad roofs and bad floors from the water damage. All your accessories and appliances are going to be pretty low quality and if they're decent odds are good the manufacturer has managed to fuck up access and plumbing if they ever need repairs.>>2972833Box truck could work especially if it has double doors on the back and not a roll up. Seen a couple site offices built out of 55ft trailers that had a wall and regular door set behind the trailer door. Would be a fair bit of work to insulate and they command a price as work vehicles but that'd be how I'd do it.
