Considering building camper from scratch...
Looking for opinions on building a new camper from the ground up, to bolt down to a flat bed. 99% of my camping is boondocking and involves going off road in the southwest desert, I haven't so much as...
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urbex wrote:
All of my appliances are still good/usable, as is the entry door, windows, sinks, furniture, cabinets, and holding tanks. Anything plastic such as roof vents or outside hatch covers, I'd just as soon install new to avoid age related plastic brittleness, along with rubber trim and any pipes/hoses etc. For what little plumbing there is in a TC, I see no reason to try to reuse any of the old stuff.
You are on the right track here, outside plastic gets UV damaged and can be replaced relatively cheaply. The only appliance issues I had were a faulty gas valve on the HW heater and I also replaced the converter with a Progressive Dynamics unit for a better charging profile.
A word of advice...the average life span of an RV fridge is 15 years, and they DO NOT fit though the entrance door. The only way to get a new fridge in my Lance is to remove the slideout. If you are investing in a rebuild, you should strongly consider replacing the fridge as part of the construction, or rebuilding with a new cooling unit.
I only went filon on the exterior to match the walls that we weren't replacing. I laminated it to 1/4" luann so it's more puncture-resistant than aluminum siding, but could be made stronger if you used something like sheet aluminum. Good sealing around the seams is more important than what you use for siding.
