2004 National Seabreeze help while work in progress.
I am about to take ownership of this 2004 Seabreeze LX in a couple of weeks. My retired parents bought it a couple of years ago, and have decided a motorhome is more than they want to deal with. They are selling it to me, and it needs some TLC to get back to being a great coach.
I joined this forum some years ago when we purchased a pop-up camper. Since then, I’ve owned 2 new travel trailers, a 2008, and a 2010. I sold the 2010 in August of 2016 planning to move to a class A as the kids are now basically 18 and 20, and are nearly done camping with us. The point of telling you all this is that I’m not new to working on campers, but the motorhome is seemingly intimidating. That said, I am VERY capable of doing almost anything, I am just not well practiced in everything.
I used the motorhome last year for a 4 day trip with the family. On this trip, I learned that I really like the motorhome, but it hasn’t seen the TLC it needs. There are also a few issues that need attention before serious damage starts. I need to both learn some things, and get recommendations on what to do. So I’m asking if I can start a thread to go through my entire process, or start numerous threads for each issue? Yes, I’ve been reading the forums the last week gathering information, but old threads don’t answer new questions.
I will stop this thread immediately if it is considered against forum etiquette.
To start, almost all of the roof caulking is dried out and cracked. There have been a couple of instances of water inside. This past summer, the shower skylight leaked. I fixed it by scrapping the old caulking off the best I could (read “did a very decent job, but probably not correct”) and re-caulked with new stuff. There is also evidence that there is/was a leak by front passenger seat, from what I think is the seam where the rubber roof meets the fiberglass front. I’d like to redo everything on the roof, but the 3 other skylights seem in rough condition. The plastic shroud on the inside looks yellowed and aged. The screens are in poor condition, the bathroom fan is broken, and the Fantastic Fan one in the kitchen area runs, but the fan doesn’t spin. Is now the right time for me to replace all 3 skylights with new ones?
Other things on my list are:
1. The AC outlets on the bedroom slide don’t work.
2. There is a sort of green crusty **** that grows on the rear fiberglass cap.
3. There are some rust stains on the fiberglass and plastic lower facia.
4. The hydraulic levelers don’t like to retract easily in the rear.
5. I don’t own a towable vehicle, so I’m thinking some sort of scooter to haul without a trailer????
6. Do I want a Sewer Solution (seems very interesting).
7. I’d like to clean up or sand down and paint the lower compartments while they are still in decent condition.
8. The engine (Workhorse chassis with an Allison transmission) AC doesn’t work, do I fix it or just live with running the AC units of the generator while driving (no more than 2 to 4 hour trips).
I’m sure there will be more, but these are where I need to start. I’m in Wisconsin, so the motorhome is in a storage building until the weather allows me to start working on things.
Thanks!
I joined this forum some years ago when we purchased a pop-up camper. Since then, I’ve owned 2 new travel trailers, a 2008, and a 2010. I sold the 2010 in August of 2016 planning to move to a class A as the kids are now basically 18 and 20, and are nearly done camping with us. The point of telling you all this is that I’m not new to working on campers, but the motorhome is seemingly intimidating. That said, I am VERY capable of doing almost anything, I am just not well practiced in everything.
I used the motorhome last year for a 4 day trip with the family. On this trip, I learned that I really like the motorhome, but it hasn’t seen the TLC it needs. There are also a few issues that need attention before serious damage starts. I need to both learn some things, and get recommendations on what to do. So I’m asking if I can start a thread to go through my entire process, or start numerous threads for each issue? Yes, I’ve been reading the forums the last week gathering information, but old threads don’t answer new questions.
I will stop this thread immediately if it is considered against forum etiquette.
To start, almost all of the roof caulking is dried out and cracked. There have been a couple of instances of water inside. This past summer, the shower skylight leaked. I fixed it by scrapping the old caulking off the best I could (read “did a very decent job, but probably not correct”) and re-caulked with new stuff. There is also evidence that there is/was a leak by front passenger seat, from what I think is the seam where the rubber roof meets the fiberglass front. I’d like to redo everything on the roof, but the 3 other skylights seem in rough condition. The plastic shroud on the inside looks yellowed and aged. The screens are in poor condition, the bathroom fan is broken, and the Fantastic Fan one in the kitchen area runs, but the fan doesn’t spin. Is now the right time for me to replace all 3 skylights with new ones?
Other things on my list are:
1. The AC outlets on the bedroom slide don’t work.
2. There is a sort of green crusty **** that grows on the rear fiberglass cap.
3. There are some rust stains on the fiberglass and plastic lower facia.
4. The hydraulic levelers don’t like to retract easily in the rear.
5. I don’t own a towable vehicle, so I’m thinking some sort of scooter to haul without a trailer????
6. Do I want a Sewer Solution (seems very interesting).
7. I’d like to clean up or sand down and paint the lower compartments while they are still in decent condition.
8. The engine (Workhorse chassis with an Allison transmission) AC doesn’t work, do I fix it or just live with running the AC units of the generator while driving (no more than 2 to 4 hour trips).
I’m sure there will be more, but these are where I need to start. I’m in Wisconsin, so the motorhome is in a storage building until the weather allows me to start working on things.
Thanks!
