Should it stay or should it go? (MA rebuild help)

[rwiegand]

A terrible first post, I know. I've been reading for a while and have seen a few of the amazingly ambitious rebuild threads. I'd appreciate your collective wisdom.

I have a 2001 Lance 735 that has been neglected and has developed rot in several areas. A few years ago I had welded corner supports made up to stabilize wobbly jack mounting points, so that the jacks lift the whole corner and aren't hanging on screws in rotten wood.

This weekend I got into bed, heard a horrible ripping noise, and realized I could see daylight (well, street light light) out the lower seam where the bed support meets the sidewall. It seemed like things weren't going to go any further, so I put off investigation until daylight. I didn't fall out onto the street, and it was on my side not DW's side, so no immediate crisis.

The wood that I can reach at the bottom of the nose is completely rotten. I can only imagine how much more rot there is in the areas I can't easily get to. (This model has aluminum skin.) All of the gaskets around the windows appear to be failing, though they are not overtly leaking to places I have access to. There is no evidence of leakage on the inside-- no discoloration or bubbling.

The interior of the camper is in great shape, all of the mechanicals are in good order, and it meets my needs reasonably well. So the questions are, is this kind of repair remotely financially reasonable, if so, is there someone in New England you'd recommend to do it? I paid about $6K for the camper 5-6 years ago, added AC for ~$500. If repair places have shop rates of $100+/hr it's hard for me to imagine that even a band-aid repair won't take several thousand dollars. Please tell me I'm wrong, I'd like to get another couple of years out of this camper. I'm guessing as the skin gets peeled back there's going to be a horror show.

[Jeepers92]

I'm in the middle of a rework. I was fortunate to have an alminum frame to keep the basic shape. Aluminum siding is your friend when doing repairs. I think its doable with some skills, but takes some time.

[rwiegand]

I kind of suspected that DIY was going to be the answer. Problem is with a very full time job plus doing all of the interior trim on our house plus having committed to building a screen porch this summer, the spare hours are few and far between. (Plus having to work on it outside in whatever the weather brings) I know I can do this kind of work, I just hate dealing with sticky goo, staples, and stuff that really doesn't fit together very well. I'd really need to restrain the urge to put the frame back together with mortise and tenon joints.

I'll give NE RV a call. My to-do list is so long that I'm ready to start trading money for time on some of my projects.

Thanks!

[Irish2012]

New England RV Collision center in Brockton. http://nervcollision.com

Good people and they will give you advice even if your doing it yourself. Ask for Rich

[Joe417]

Sounds like your TC is very re-buildable, having no internal damage and aluminum siding.

Hopefully someone has a suggestion that's in you area.

If you don't do this type of work yourself your local RV dealers may have suggestions for someone who does restoration / re-build work.

An RV dealer may even assess the damage and make you a package price although they may delay the process until the winter month when they have less work.

Have you thought about teaching yourself a new skill?

[romore]

X2 We had a similar problem with an older fifth wheel we picked up cheap enough to make repairing it myself worthwhile. I carefully removed the trim and aluminum skin until I reached clean wood. Use a thin putty knife to clean the sealer out of the lap seams before trying to separate the panels and try not to damage the lip or you will have a fight reinstalling them. Once the rotten wood was removed I was able to reconstruct it with a table saw and basic hand tools although a miter saw would have sped things up. A few dry weekends, about 500 bucks for materials and tool rental and we have a serviceable trailer that we really enjoy.

[F350mule]

Rebuild it yourself, not that difficult. The BIG problem with these older Lances is how they put the windows in. No sealer whatsoever just foam tape under the flanges and caulk around the edges. Remove the windows and edge moulding and use a wide blade screwdriver to pop the staples from the siding. From there you can see and replace the damaged wood it's stapled together as well. And yes I've done this to two that I've owned.
You really are better off doing this yourself, dealers will want your firstborn as well,lol. You won't get much for trade in or if you try and sell it so it's much better if you do it yourself and get a few more years out of it