Fleetwood Elkhorn

joerg68 wrote:
Your pictures a not very detailed and do not show many areas of interest as far as the telltale signs of rot go.

What I do see:
The cabover window seal looks odd. Maybe was taped over at one time, or resealed very unprofessionally, or both. These windows are a known area for leaks, and so are the marker lights. Doubly so on sheetmetal siding as these are more difficult to seal properly.
The passenger side front corner of the cabover also looks odd, the edge should be rounded smoothly like the driver side edge. Another indicator for a potential leak, damage, or substandard repair.
Any water entering the cabover will pool in the cabover floor framing or run down the camper front wall, eventually compromising the structure that the front jacks mount to. If the jack mounts are "wobbly" with the camper resting on them, or already show signs of damage control (large amounts of sealant, aluminum diamondplate patches, etc.), you are likely looking at a major project.

Open all doors and hatches and look for water stains in the lower edges. Feel around with your fingers. It is difficult to describe what to look for until you have repaired your first rot damage...

Usually, you can not smell rot, and it is often impossible to see, because most visible surfaces are covered with a very thin layer of plastic / vinyl.

What is with the furniture door lying on the dinette seat? Is there a split in the table?

I wish you luck!

Thanks for taking this time to spell this all out, great points.

The seller did mention needing to reseal the cabover window. He also mentioned a slight leak at one point, but no rot to his knowledge. I will be doing everything I can to try and see if there's substantial soft spots or mold/rot to deal with.

Not really sure what the deal is with the cabinets and table. Seller mentioned some projects that didn't get finished, so there could be some work to do there. He also stated that all appliances worked as expected, stove/oven, heater, electric jacks, etc.

Best case is there is minimal rot and this thing just needs some elbow grease. For <1k ($600 to be exact) I can definitely give that a shot if the frame is sound.

Worst case I burn a day and tank of gas to go look at this thing and see that it's not worth it. But I could use a road trip.

KD4UPL wrote:
I owned a 2003 Fleetwood Elkhorn 11x from 2009 to 2018. Mine had fiberglass sides, a dry bath, and, of course, was bigger. Overall I was pleased with it.
Mine had an aluminum frame according to the decals. I don't know where it was as the only framing I ever encountered was wood.
The lower edge of the front wall rotted out on mine. I fixed it with some new wood and a big piece of 3" aluminum angle on the exterior.
Also, my side entrance step well had some rot. I fixed that with new wood. The refrigerator didn't want to stay lit but a new circuit board from Dinosaur electronics fixed that.
We used the camper starting with just the wife and I. Then we had 2 kids and used it a lot. We sold it after the third child was born because it just wasn't big enough. Otherwise, I might still be using it. We had it to around 20 states I think over those 9 years.
My Fleetwood only had room for one battery; I always wished I could have added one as we camped with no hook ups quite often.
We camped in it off the truck plenty of times with no trouble.
When I was researching the brand prior to buying mine I found lots of bad reviews about rot but also lots of great reviews. With closer study it seemed like the people complain had fairly new campers and the happy owners had owned them for many years. I decided that meant that if it was going to leak it would happen early on. Since the one I bought was already 6 years old I figured it was probably solid.

Excellent to know, thank you!

Your pictures a not very detailed and do not show many areas of interest as far as the telltale signs of rot go.

What I do see:
The cabover window seal looks odd. Maybe was taped over at one time, or resealed very unprofessionally, or both. These windows are a known area for leaks, and so are the marker lights. Doubly so on sheetmetal siding as these are more difficult to seal properly.
The passenger side front corner of the cabover also looks odd, the edge should be rounded smoothly like the driver side edge. Another indicator for a potential leak, damage, or substandard repair.
Any water entering the cabover will pool in the cabover floor framing or run down the camper front wall, eventually compromising the structure that the front jacks mount to. If the jack mounts are "wobbly" with the camper resting on them, or already show signs of damage control (large amounts of sealant, aluminum diamondplate patches, etc.), you are likely looking at a major project.

Open all doors and hatches and look for water stains in the lower edges. Feel around with your fingers. It is difficult to describe what to look for until you have repaired your first rot damage...

Usually, you can not smell rot, and it is often impossible to see, because most visible surfaces are covered with a very thin layer of plastic / vinyl.

What is with the furniture door lying on the dinette seat? Is there a split in the table?

I wish you luck!

I owned a 2003 Fleetwood Elkhorn 11x from 2009 to 2018. Mine had fiberglass sides, a dry bath, and, of course, was bigger. Overall I was pleased with it.
Mine had an aluminum frame according to the decals. I don't know where it was as the only framing I ever encountered was wood.
The lower edge of the front wall rotted out on mine. I fixed it with some new wood and a big piece of 3" aluminum angle on the exterior.
Also, my side entrance step well had some rot. I fixed that with new wood. The refrigerator didn't want to stay lit but a new circuit board from Dinosaur electronics fixed that.
We used the camper starting with just the wife and I. Then we had 2 kids and used it a lot. We sold it after the third child was born because it just wasn't big enough. Otherwise, I might still be using it. We had it to around 20 states I think over those 9 years.
My Fleetwood only had room for one battery; I always wished I could have added one as we camped with no hook ups quite often.
We camped in it off the truck plenty of times with no trouble.
When I was researching the brand prior to buying mine I found lots of bad reviews about rot but also lots of great reviews. With closer study it seemed like the people complain had fairly new campers and the happy owners had owned them for many years. I decided that meant that if it was going to leak it would happen early on. Since the one I bought was already 6 years old I figured it was probably solid.

Truthfully, I cant really say anything very definitive except to be sure to check thoroughly for leaks and maintenance of caulk.

3 tons