Workin

As aforementioned in the previous post, work has re-begun on our 1988 Fleetwood Bounder motor home!  Since we are planning to take our first RV trip next week, there are a goodly amount of projects needing to get done to get the rig ship shape.  Here is what we have been working on as of late:

Curtains and dinette seat covers are almost finished thanks to mom-in-law!  The seat covers are secured with velcro and look super good when stretched tight.

Katie has been painting the bedroom a nice minty/aqua blue color.

I removed the entire A/C unit and cleaned everything.  It was quite a project.  The guy who sold us the RV told us that there was a leak around the A/C during downpours.  He was right, the aluminum roofing around where the AC unit seals had corroded leaving small holes.  After removing the unit, I swept the debris away then used a wire brush to rough up the aluminum.  Then I cleaned the underside of the unit and used leftover roof sealant to solve the leak issue.  Cleaning the indoor side of things was awful, since the leak had caused mildew stuff in the baffles and filters.  I'm glad I took care of the whole thing before we had to live with that thing.  Here is a look at the spot where the outside part of the unit was.

















Yesterday, there was a severe deluge and I could detect no leaks afterwards!!

Another project that has been a pain is the engine belt situation.  The great belt dilema.  Changing belts on most rear wheel drive vehicles is fairly easy, especially ones with spring tentioners.  The Bounder is very different, in many ways.  Ways that make engine work less enjoyable.  The main problem is accessibility.  The engine is completely surrounded by frame and steering components.  The other factor is that this set up has 9838 different belts.  There is a serpentine belt for the alternator, a v belt for the AC pump,  two parallel v belts for the power steering, and a v belt that runs up into a mysterious realm of the engine compartment that has remained unexplored by humans for at least a decade.  Most of these belts are either old, or loose, or in the case of the serpentine belt, shredded into oblivion.

As long as the weather permits, these issues will be solved on Friday.

Chchchchanges

Jeepers, it has been a aeons since our last post!  Much has happened in those aeons, and I'm here to bring everyone back up to speed.  Since our last post we discovered that Katie will have to have her wisdom teeth out, so there went our budget for our great road trip adventure that we had been scheming about.  After that we received word that due to our friend's home owner's association's rules we would not be permitted to even park our RV on their property.  Since we were planning to live there in Camden whilst finishing school, it was a major setback.  Things were looking pretty grim for the ol' Bounder.  We questioned whether or not we should just try to sell the thing before having to resort back to conventional (expensive) housing.  We decided to investigate possible contingency plans, and put the renovation process on hold.

Thankfully, we slowly began to see some hope for our quest, starting with the help of our good friend Keith.  He proposed to our school board to allow us to temporarily stay in our RV on campus.  Katie and I both had our doubts, but MACU came through for us, graciously permitting us to park on campus for a semester at least!  We will have to pay for utilities and parking, however it is still a good deal since we are so close to class and homework resources.  This is especially good news since we used school money to purchase the rig.

Another ray of hope came when we ran into our friends Kim and Erin from the OBX.  Mrs. Kim shared some life experience wisdom with us, recommending that we keep the RV if at all we can since we would probably regret selling it later in life.  This was very poignant advice for Katie and I because we have a marriage where we try to live our dreams (within reason of course), even though it sounds cliche.  I'm already living the dream, waking up to her pretty mug every morning.  Anyways, we decided to heed Mrs. Kim's advice and keep the rig.

Furthermore, we have just confirmed our reservation at a KOA campsite ("kampsite" I am annoyed when people change the letters just to be "cute") in New Bern, North Carolina to celebrate our first year of marriage!  This will be our first excursion in the Bounder so far.  I got really excited and bought a bunch of stuff to make the trip better, like a new sewer hose (Rhino Flex-seems really nice), a new faucet, a new smoke alarm, and some sweet Walmart camping chairs.

This last few weeks, we have been working diligently on finishing our renovation projects:
-New carpet and vinyl is done. (decided to leave the cab as-is)
-New curtains are almost done.
-Trim is down
-Electric water heater conversion is successful
-Exhaust leak has been found and repaired.**  Thanks to Jonathan for the parts!
-Generator problem has been isolated
-Engine belts still need to be tensioned/replaced
-AC and furnace still need to be cleaned and checked out
-Mom-in-law is working on new covers for the dinette seats

In conclusion, we are stoked once more.  Hopefully, we will be posting more updates soon.

Since every blog post needs pictures, here is a before and after of the exhaust leak.  Note that this is on the inlet side of the muffler, also that there is no catalytic converter on this vintage motorhome.  "What does that mean?" you say? It was LOUD.

I used aluminium foil as a sort of gasket and clamped a piece of flexible pipe over the hole.  Works nice.

Keep Your Head Up

    Happy New Year ladies and gents! I know it's been a new year for about 4 days now, but Dave nor I have been able to update since. The new year brings about change whether it's a law, something personal, a mindset or one's surroundings. It is a chance to take what we've learned from the year before and apply it to this new year full of hope and unforeseen experiences. The Bagel shop where I work is prepared for business to be slow until the beginning of February because of resolutions dealing with weight loss. My boss gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, which is about 3-4 weeks of good legitimate weight loss attempts, then business should resume as usual. This might be a bit discouraging, but that's how it goes for a bunch of us.
   
    Dave and I have been working on the Bounder for about two months now, on and off. The most recent times were during Christmas break we worked on it and on New year's eve we worked on it. Now, I have to be honest here, I'm tired of working on it. I want things to be done and not to have to pull staples out of the floor boards and watch Dave get aggravated at the staples, carpet, vinyl or at me. He hasn't been getting aggravated at me or those things very often, but any amount of aggravation is not fun for anyone. I might be tired of it, but I am not doing as much work as Dave. I am just impatient and tired of working on the floor and tired of floor related things. I want to move on already. So this attitude makes me impatient so that makes Dave aggravated and then no one is having fun doing anything! Especially after a 8 hour day of having your hands bleed from blisters and cleaning 23 years of poop from the toilet and toilet hole. It's just not glamorous. But we know that after all is said and done we will be proud of our new home and of each other for sticking it out. There will be accomplishment in this new year, whether we like it or not.

    I think that's where some of us stop the resolutions and want for change. It might get too hard, or just plain aggravating. But at the end of the year when we look back and think of how things could be if we had stuck to exercise, not smoking, treating people a different way, drinking only water, keeping a clean house, deciding to be happier, reading the Bible everyday, only then is it when we realize that hard things are worth the effort.

    I might be wishing and dreaming that the Bounder would magically fix itself up so Dave and I could just take it easy, but nothing would get done. No matter what, this is a project that will be seen through until the end.

    We should keep our heads up and motivation high. You are the determining factor in how good of a year this will be.

Bounder on The Brain

     When we first bought the Bounder we were super excited about the possibilities of it. "We could live in it!" was the first thought, obviously. Like any other house or apartment you might be thinking about living in, we started imagining where things would go and how we would make it our own. At first that wasn't so easy since the day we bought it was filled to the brim with ECU Pirates paraphernalia and all we could see was purple and gold, distracting us from being able to think of how we could make it better.

 anywhoo

     As we thought about living in it more and more, we wanted to fix everything. The roof, the walls, replace the sconces, replace the curtains, put new carpet down, re-upholster everything, make the walls look better, etc, etc. We've decided to stick with a good bit of those things to conquer, but we've tried to do the things we can without getting in over our head. 

    Just riding in the road whale {pretty clever, eh?} makes me feel free. It's sits up so high and like Dave tried to explain in the most recent post, you can feel everything. We bounce a lot while going down the road and it's awesome. The wind shield is huge! The hugeness of it makes me feel like I can see everything. It's kind of like when you go from a regular tv to a wide screen tv, everything is in view and you can see the whole movie. Except in this case it's the landscape you can see without that pesky blind spot getting in the way. So good.

   We've had the Bounder on our brain a lot lately, thus a blog is born. We didn't and don't want to get loaded down by it though and we don't want our friends and family to get tired of hearing about it. Dave explained it best the other night while we were driving in the car.

Be prepared. This is about to get biblical.

    He said that we thought about the Bounder a bunch and that before having an RV he wouldn't have ever been up in Barnes and Noble peepin' the Trailer Life magazine. Not only because it'd be a pretty random thing to look for, but because of the title of the magazine alone. Trailer Life. It has a certain ring to it, ya know? Anyway, he compared that to knowing God. There's probably a slim chance that he'd be reading the Bible if someone didn't take the time to get him acquainted with God and help him to know how to go about having a legitimate relationship with God. The Bible and God aren't very popular subjects in some circles and it's pretty easy to see how Trailer Life could get a joke or two. If we just chunk a Trailer Life magazine at someone walking past us, they aren't very likely to be interested in it's contents, much like the Bible. I clearly understand the difference between the Bible and Trailer Life, but it is kind of the same idea. Throwing tracts or scripture in someone's face and letting them hash it out for themselves isn't the most effective way to help people understand what's so good about God. 

    Dave is good at metaphors. At least I think so. 

    You should check out Trailer Life though, it's cool. The Bible is legit too. 

Class A

Quite a few people that have rested their gaze upon the glory of the striking magnificence that is the sight of our aging motorhome have been completely surprised that we can drive it about.  Of course we can!  I'll fill you in on the basics of motorhoming.

Recreational vehicles come in several different styles or categories.  They include:

-Class A Motorhomes -- Basically these are shaped like big rectangles.  More specifically, they are constructed on bare frames that are used to make things like bread trucks, busses, UPS trucks and the like.

-Class B Motorhomes -- These are like conversion vans.  They are built on van chassis.

-Class C Motorhomes -- These are built on heavy duty truck frames. They look like U-haul trucks.

-Truck Bed Campers
-5th Wheel Trailers
-Toy Haulers                  } All the rest are just pulled about by big pickup trucks and are clearly less cool.
-Trailers
-Park Model Trailers
-Pop-up Trailers

Our Bounder is a Class A!!  Sounds pretty awesome because it is.  Since the home is built on a bare chassis, the living space and the driving space are not separated.  Class A RV's are also self contained, meaning that they have all the necessary tanks and batteries, etc to operate without hooking up.  This is called Boondocking in RV lingo (camping without hooking up to say electricity, water, etc.).  I am stoked at the potential to boondock in some great wilderness with an awesome view.

Another thing that makes the Class A my favorite is that they drive like you are driving around a house.  This is thanks to the fact that you drive in the living space, so as you look around you can see your sink and stove and curtains and bedroom along for the ride.  Remarkably, though, its quite easy to drive!  Power steering and an automatic transmission make it just like driving anything else really.  Yes, it is slow and lumbering and long, but that just makes it fun.  Katie and I both agreed that it seems scary at first, until you realize that it is not that hard.  Backing up is tricky, but not impossible as long as you know how to use mirrors.

The best part though, is going over a bridge whilst sitting in the front.  Its similar to sitting on a swing set except the swing doesn't go back and forth it just goes up and down.  That probably doesn't make any sense.  Just come along for a ride, I'll show you.

Real speak.  If you have any questions about anything, even if it sounds as dumb as that last statement, just let me know.

Motorhome Improvements pt. 2

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!  I got a new laptop for Christmas!  This post is brought to you in part by all those who contributed to the Get Dave A Macbook For Christmas Fund.  Thank you!

So as I concluded my last post, I headed out to the Bounder and rolled up my sleeves.  Here is a look at what went down. Note: these were taken with my BlackBerry and without flash they look kinda lame.

 The Kitchen floor had already been pulled up, so we started there and worked back towards the cab.  It was a messy process as the carpet was full of dust and dirt, which slingshots into your face as you pop the staples up.  Fun fun!

Here is a closer look at those blasted staples.  They are 1 inch long staples, common to mobile home construction.  Katie and I both got nasty blisters from pulling the 8000 little suckers up.  Even though they drove us crazy, I was glad that they didn't use glue to put the carpet down.

Katie put herself to work cleaning the walls of the coach whilst I fought the staple war.   We were both surprised/disgusted at the amount of dust that was removed from the walls.  She did good, and I'm glad that its cleaner.

Tadaa.  Here's a look at the new carpet and vinyl!  So far, the living room, kitchen, and dining rooms are the only rooms with floors finished.  We put down the carpet with staples and the vinyl with some glue that was graciously donated by our siblings.  I've started installing quarter round trim as a baseboard, which really makes it look sharp.  My favorite bit is the transition strip.

A closer look at the transition.  We chose a berber carpet that looks nice and is durable.  Hopefully, it will last the rest of the life of the motorhome.  You can see in this picture a new socket set that we had to purchase.  I'll tell you why:

So to rip up the carpet in the bathroom, we need to pull up the toilet.  The toilet installed in our motorhome is made by Thetford and seems to be an industry standard.  Anyways, to remove the toilet one must use a super long extension with a 1/2" deep socket to reach the mounting bolt which is only accessible via a tiny hole in the back.  No big deal, right?  Well dad-in-law had a set of deep sockets, but just happened to be missing the 1/2" socket.  So we searched and looked and asked brother-in-law, but to no avail.  Katie and I ended up running to Walmart to see if we could pick up a cheap set, but somehow Walmart was out of only deep SAE sockets.  BAH!  We were able to find a 1/2" deep socket, but it was just included in a big box set so we bought it for $25.  Oh well, at least I have more tools.

We haven't done any more work since Christmas, but we did take it for a drive to Roper and back.  The thing runs like a champion.  It is so fun to drive and share with other people.  K bye.

Motorhome Improvements Pt 1

As you may have well guessed, a super cheap vintage motor home usually comes with some things that need a little love and elbow grease.  I have actually been pleasantly surprised at how much is still in good shape, however.  We don't really know much about the history of our Bounder, but we do know that it was at one time smashed by a tree during a hurricane.  It apparently took out much of the bedroom as we noticed a different and newer wall and ceiling material. Whoever did the repairs seems to have done a pretty good job, so that was cool.

Apparently, the hurricane damage must have "totaled" so we have what is known as a "salvage title".  These terms don't really mean much to me since I am the product of my grandfathers and father.  We fix stuff and make it work.  It is in our nature, and I am proud of the men in my family who have taught me how to be handy.

So here is a little rundown of the things that Katie and I first decided to fix or upgrade on the Bounder:
-CLEAN EVERYTHING
-New coat of elastic roof paint
-New carpet and vinyl flooring
-New window coverings
-Fix rear window latches
-Fix screen doors
-Install switches on various 12 volt applications
-Replace light bulbs and lamp shades
-Get appliances running clean and smooth

Dang that sounds like a lot!  Its not really that bad though, since we will be living in the comfort of out apartment (which is really not that much bigger than the RV) until July.  In the meantime we just take trips down to Jamesville where we visit the in-laws and do some fixin.  We have made a couple of those aforementioned trips and here's what has gone down:

The first thing we wanted to fix was the roof.  The seller told us that it was due for a new coat of elastic roof paint and that there were a couple of minor leaks that we should be able to patch up.  So I went to Lowes and picked up the best and most expensive roof coating that they carry.  I did some quick math and realized that it would take an enormous amount, so I went ahead and got a 5 gallon bucket.  Katie loves to paint so I got her set up and let her do her thing.  She did a great job, and as you can see it looks way better.

The 88' Bounder is the only motorhome to have a flat roof.  That was a terrible idea.  Oh well, at least we got her all painted up.  I also went over and caulked up some seams where the vents and AC come through.

Katie found herself a nice little project-the futon.  The futon's cushions were all limp and really saggy.  Not fun.  So we picked up some upholstery from Ollie's and whipped out the staple gun.  She was able to get the old foam out and tediously stuffed the new, thicker foams in.  After slapping some staples in it, we had a revived and much more comfortable futon.  Good job babe!  (sorry I don't have a picture of that but trust me its better)

Just this past week, Katie and I were able to pick out the exact carpet and vinyl we want to redo the floors with.  We ended up getting them from Lowes, even though it was a little cheaper at Ollies.  The Bounder comes with carpet all around.  Even in the bathroom.  Our Bounder even came with dog-scented (and haired) carpet.  woot!  Even after much vacuuming the smell remained.  So I bought an 8'x12' roll of carpet and a 8'x 12' roll of fake wood vinyl and some trim stuff to make it look legit.

One of my greatest worries about the floor projects was that I would find rotten floor or wall to wall carpet.  *wall to wall carpet is where they build a motorhome's floor then carpet it, THEN build cabinets and walls ON TOP OF THE CARPET!  This construction technique is stupid but it happens from time to time.  PTL that this Bounder had its carpet installed with staples and not under anything!  So far it has come up with little to no fuss!  Currently, I am about 45% finished with pulling the old carpet.  In fact, I am about to go pull up the rest right now!  I'll try to remember to take some photographs of our progress.