Looking for advice, Thinking of buying need advice.....
Looking for advice, Thinking of buying need advice.....
emcvay |
Apr 5 2017, 08:50 AM
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#1
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Group: Members Posts: 66 Joined: 5-April 17 From: Washington Member No.: 9,497 Favorite Truck Camper(s): Arctic Fox Type and Brand of Truck(s) Owned: Ford F350 Crew cab long box 6.4l 4x4 Type of Tiedowns used: Torklift Truck and Camper Setup: 2010 F350 PS CC LB SRW with AF990 |
Hi All,
First off, thanks for running and maintaining the site! I know how tough that can be (I have a dart forum myself) and appreciate that you've done this as I was looking for a place where I could get some advice and found your site OK, here's the details: I run a portable sawmill business (side business mostly in the spring, summer and fall) and am tired of driving back and forth to my cabin or to a hotel when on a remote job. I've decided I need to get a slide in camper so I can camp out onsite, enjoy the evenings (instead of driving) and save money on fuel not to mention time. I can drive as much as 70 miles each way on a job over a week....so even getting something like 8MPG with a camper and mill in tow would be better than getting 15mpg and driving 140 miles a day.... So after trading in my F150 for a long box F350 crew cab (2010 in great shape with only 32k miles) I went in search of a lighter 8 or 9 foot camper...... Found this 1995 Angler on CL for $1k....owner said it had some 'condensation damage'..... This is the damaged spot. I can put my hand through it without trying. You can clearly see the damage here. One other spot had some minor (what I'd think of as minor in comparison to this major damage) water damage. Owner said she sealed the roof every year and I looked at the roof and it appeared to be sealed without cracks etc....my guess is a leaking window above the seat. I wonder if it can be repaired by cutting out the bad spot and fixing in new plywood? Is it even worth it? |
RV_Tech |
Apr 6 2017, 02:01 PM
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#2
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Group: Members Posts: 201 Joined: 27-July 12 Member No.: 6,199 Favorite Truck Camper(s): Hallmark, Northstar, Outfitter Type and Brand of Truck(s) Owned: F-350 SRW 6.2 Supercab Type of Tiedowns used: Happijack front, Torklift rear Truck and Camper Setup: Hallmark Ute XL No modes to truck Torklift Fast Guns Fast guns had to be cut down to absolute minimum (14 1/2") to use with Happijac front tie down and Hallmark camper. |
Couple of thoughts. First, how long are you willing to keep this camper and how much are you willing to put into it? Then how handy are you?
Damage like this is completely repairable and I have redone entire walls so you can never tell it was damaged. If you want to do a complete repair, you need to start by opening up the wall so you know how much the wall joists are still intact. Once you know that, you can make a judgement as to how to proceed. I am doubtful this damage is from a simple window leak, but maybe. What you will discover when you open the wall is that is not much holding these things together. Sometimes you are lucky and you can nail down the leak and scab on a new partial wall joist. Then search to find matching wall board and you can do the entire wall or patch it. That Angler has a rubber roof and I can tell you Fleetwood did a crap job on their rubber roofs in that they normally carried the rubber over just enough to get it behind the aluminum trim that goes over the rubber. Folks are great at rollering crap all over rubber roofs but never resealing the edging (as in unscrew, remove, new tacky tape, and new stainless screws). The screws rust, water gets in, and runs down inside the walls. Leaks are almost always on the trim perimeters, not on the roof proper. Or more simply put, most folks expend energy doing what doesn't need to be done and ignoring the stuff that causes the problem. Steve |
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