Yes, she's old but she's a keeper
Ok so "old" is relative. I just bought a 1986 Fleetwood Bounder. She's 31.8 feet long, has the Chevy 454 gas engine (running strong but with a tick when accelerating but I'm hoping that's the oil because it sat for a while), someone has painted the walls but not the cabinets or cabinet doors. The A/C doesn't come on and we haven't hooked up the water yet. The stove/oven works and the refrigerator seems to be working fine as well. Didn't try the furnace yet. There doesn't seem to be any rust, I did climb on the top and couldn't find any soft spots and no apparent leaks from the top or leak stains on the ceiling inside. Someone has put wood flooring in the kitchen area and a really god awful poop brown indoor/outdoor carpet in the livingroom area. The dinette is still the original brown plaid cushions but the cushions are all there and I can recover those easily. The table top is under the bed and in fine shape. The bathroom is spotless. No cracks and I'm not sure anyone ever used it. It still looks brand new. The microwave is gone (but I don't use microwaves anyway) and about half of the overhead lights are missing the covers. The front dash is fine, no cracks but the fuel gauge and temperature gauge don't work. All signals and speedometer work fine. I can't figure out how to post pictures on a message so here is a link to a couple of pictures of her. https://www.facebook.com/pamela.pettyjohn/media_set?set=a.10202608057176533.1073741830.1050237933&type=3
Things that I want to do:
Install solar panels. I don't want them on the RV. I want them mobile so I can move them around or away from the RV. We have our own land way up in the mountains so it's safe for them to be a bit away from us.
All of the storage compartment doors on the outside including the generator door are disintegrating. Does anyone know if Fleetwood kept the measurements on those doors pretty standard? Can I use doors off a different year model if I can find them in the RV Salvage yard?
I have no use for a dinette that turns into a bed so I was going to tear the dinette completely out and put another kitchen counter/desk over there along that wall. Will pulling that dinette out compromise the structure of the RV at all?
I haven't tried the water but it won't surprise me if the water heater doesn't work. I've owned a few older used travel trailers and none of the water heaters worked on them. How will putting a new instant heat tankless water heater affect the drainage on the solar panels?
One of the exterior bottom corners has the metal trim coming away from the corner seam. Is this hard to repair?
Thanks for your help. I know this is a lot of questions.
Things that I want to do:
Install solar panels. I don't want them on the RV. I want them mobile so I can move them around or away from the RV. We have our own land way up in the mountains so it's safe for them to be a bit away from us.
All of the storage compartment doors on the outside including the generator door are disintegrating. Does anyone know if Fleetwood kept the measurements on those doors pretty standard? Can I use doors off a different year model if I can find them in the RV Salvage yard?
I have no use for a dinette that turns into a bed so I was going to tear the dinette completely out and put another kitchen counter/desk over there along that wall. Will pulling that dinette out compromise the structure of the RV at all?
I haven't tried the water but it won't surprise me if the water heater doesn't work. I've owned a few older used travel trailers and none of the water heaters worked on them. How will putting a new instant heat tankless water heater affect the drainage on the solar panels?
One of the exterior bottom corners has the metal trim coming away from the corner seam. Is this hard to repair?
Thanks for your help. I know this is a lot of questions.
