New to me Lance Legend 945

[Nero_C-Bass]

Good morning, I'm new here and wanted to share my new to me camper and talk about it a little. I am upgrading from my '94 Lance Squire 8000 to a' 96 Lance Legend 945. Old camper worked well, has been in the family since brand new, but with my family getting a little bigger, needed the extra space.



It needs a little love. Both skirts down at the rear where the waste dump and generator door have a little dry rot, then there's a little blow the fridge on the exterior where the front right tie down is. Last night, I pulled the fridge and was welcome with this mess.




I'll be pulling apart the right area near the fridge and rebuilding it. Rot doesn't look that bad. Then there's just miscellaneous things that need addressed, like screen door mesh replaced, stove knob, little bits here and there, but overall she's in great shape.

I've been searching online for the past few days, and that's how I found this forum. I see lots of people say, I should probably have a dually for hauling this big bird about, but I see many photos of these campers sitting on trucks similar to mine, with just single rear wheel. When I bought it, I bought it about 100 miles from home. I already have dual sway bars and air bags, the entire drive home it rode just like I had my Squire on board. I do need to run it by the scale, but I'm thinking I just need to get a slightly higher weight rated tire and I'll be good.

[notsobigjoe]

Nero C-Bass wrote:
@notsobigjoe, the two jacks on the left side are still installed, plus I have 6 stabilizers with 2x6's running the full length side to side. It's remarkably stable, but I'm still busting butt to get it done as fast as I can.

Spent an hour at Home Depot trying to devise what I need to fix er up. Only thing I could not find was 3/4 crown 1/2 staples like what it's originally put together with.

I take that back, ULINE sells them, but I can't justify an almost $500 tool for one project.

I did see here
https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27553842/print/true.cfm

Where someone was doing a very similar repair as to what I'm doing, minus the staples it looks well reinforced. So I am going to do something similar but utilize stamped braces and plenty of liquid nail.

Unless someone has a suggestion on where to get the proper joint staples 🙂

Good on the stabilizers. There's a ton of wooden rebuild info on this site as well as travel trailer site. When I was rebuilding my coachman I utilized this site as a guest, I wasn't a member until I got my Lance. Many years ago. Bedlam is correct, your going to have to put something beefy on those corners even if they originally didn't have it. Rebuilding is different than building but I'm sure you know that. As far as my rebuild, there were three tools I had to have. A chop saw, table saw and my very first screw gun/drill combo. All you post is sound thinking and you'll be great in the end. Try not to hurry even with winter right around the corner. Sorry I can't be of anymore help it was just to long ago. I'm surprised others are not adding some posts. Say that your putting it on a Toyota tundra, you'll get all the posts in the world... LOL
Good luck, Joe
Joe

[Nero_C-Bass]

@notsobigjoe, the two jacks on the left side are still installed, plus I have 6 stabilizers with 2x6's running the full length side to side. It's remarkably stable, but I'm still busting butt to get it done as fast as I can.

Spent an hour at Home Depot trying to devise what I need to fix er up. Only thing I could not find was 3/4 crown 1/2 staples like what it's originally put together with.

I take that back, ULINE sells them, but I can't justify an almost $500 tool for one project.

I did see here
https://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/27553842/print/true.cfm

Where someone was doing a very similar repair as to what I'm doing, minus the staples it looks well reinforced. So I am going to do something similar but utilize stamped braces and plenty of liquid nail.

Unless someone has a suggestion on where to get the proper joint staples 🙂

[TCBear]

She'll be a nice vintage camper once you address those few rot patches. Still has quite a few trips left in her, plenty more outdoor fun to come on the cheap. I respect that.

[Bedlam]

Maybe run angle iron/aluminum on the inside of your jack mounts and through-bolt the jacks on the corners?

[notsobigjoe]

Nero C-Bass wrote:
Oh yeah. She's rough around this edge. I took all the siding and doors off.

Nero, I hate to be an old fart with this but if all you have holding that thing up is stabilizer jacks and blocks of wood, I would rethink that.

[Nero_C-Bass]

Oh yeah. She's rough around this edge. I took all the siding and doors off.

[mkirsch]

Time will tell if you need more truck. That generation of trucks was a bit lighter than what you'd get now in a Super Duty, and the suspension is basically the same capacity. More weight carrying capacity.

The way it looks in your picture, you've got a long ways to go before it gets sketchy, and it sounds like you are savvy enough to realize trouble is coming before you get there. A reactive approach is perfectly acceptable here.

[Nero_C-Bass]

Spent the evening after work tearing the aluminum siding off on the right side. Area under fridge is only rotted out about 3 inches in, but sadly, runs from the jack all the way down just past the propane storage, so about 4ft. Going to end up replacing the whole beam going down the side.

It's all good. Turns out the siding was cake to pull, and it's fun so far.

[Nero_C-Bass]

Thank you. I've been an avid camper all my life, back when my grandparents owned the squire we used it a lot for summer boat trips and winter snowmobiling trips. When they decided it was time to move to a Monaco, I just had to buy it up, and I've had it for about 8 years. Definitely been a solid little thing.

[Grit_dog]

:E. What is that on the floor? A huge flat wasp/hornet nest?

[notsobigjoe]

Nice camper, I loved my lance 1181 from day one and it was a mess too. I've had it since 2009. You'll get lots of rebuild tips here but you'll also get some comments about the weight and your truck. I'll leave that to others. Welcome aboard and we all love truck camping in your 94 Lance squire all the way up to the host triple slide.
Cheers, Joe

[Nero_C-Bass]

Hmmm... Looks like photos work a little different here than other forums, I'll try fixing it in a little bit.

Edit, got the photos up.