New RV owner, bought a 28-year old motorhome for the summer and possibly beyond. Tips, ideas, suggestions?
# 1 PRIORITY reseal everything then start making plans,If you don’t know how to properly reseal a camper, there’s tons of great videos on how to do it. I don’t mean to sound like a jerk here but if you’re going to do it DO IT RIGHT or don’t do it at all, too many people half a$$ it and all it does is cause bigger problems and will only make it harder to do it correctly
It’s a 28yo house made with crappy materials bolted on a truck. What ya wanna know. Rule #1: with an rv water is not your friend. Keep it in the plastic.
Good news is, there’s a great community out there to learn from. Don’t get discouraged. Everything is fixable with time and money. Just depends on how much you wanna spend vs try to tackle yourself. But as previously mentioned, try to fix things properly. You (and whoever buys that nice rig from you down the road) won’t regret it!
Change the fluids. Transmission, engine, differential, radiator. It’s all old and don’t trust the last owner did any of it.
Make sure those tires are no older than 6 years even if they look good. A blown tire can be disastrous.
Along with all the usual maintenance of the cab, as others have suggested, water is your enemy. Seals should be resealed, and I can’t stress this enough, ESPECIALLY the cabover bunk window. I have a 96 class C that I live in, the cabover bunk window is horrible for condensation and has no weep holes, meaning even if it is sealed nicely, water still collects in the window sill.
Keeping things dry can be hard. A good dehumidifier or two, and keeping things organized is helpful in avoiding areas where moisture can build and create mold or other issues.
Having working appliances is nice too. They often need consistent regular maintenance, being simplified and shrunken versions of the same appliances you’d see in a house.
There’s plenty more folks can tell you but a big part of RV living has been learning things along the way, and getting more accustomed to routine maintenance, etc. I have lived full time in a travel trailer and motor home for a few years now. My class C will be my last full time rig and I was very lucky to find something this well maintained for its age. It had one owner, Glenn, who took very good care of everything, had all his receipts and manuals, and gave us extra parts and on call support for months after our purchase of his RV.
