1990 Tioga Arrow 26.5 Complete Overhaul

Hello!

My girlfriend and I have just started the adventure of a purchase and complete remodel of a slightly worn 1990 tioga arrow. We bought this motorhome in the beginning of April, and weve made a ton of progress(if you would consider it that). So far we've torn out all of the old furniture(dinette,kitchen,beds,rear seats,closet) next step will be carpet removal and hopefully the fridge as well. Our plan after complete and utter destruction is to have the roof redone, and then start from scratch designing the layout to suit us best.

We were talking today about how much I would like to have somewhere to document this journey and to be able to ask questions, so I did some internet digging and ended up here!

Being an extremely novice builder here are the problems I have ran into so far

The motorhome had an extremely weak battery which has since gone kaput so It will need replaced

-As of now the she doesn't run I am about 80% sure the battery is the problem, but I haven't changed it yet because I would like to understand the motorhome wiring before I do

There alot of what seems to be water damage to me in the paneling on the walls and ceiling
-Our plan from the very beginning was to remove and replace everything so that isn't a problem. Unfortunately today I was looking for the studs, and when I finally found them I was disappointing to find they were metal and slightly rusty.

-Originally I had assumed all the framing was going to be wood which I figure is much easier to work with

I've been nervous to attempt to take out any of the electrical or mechanical portions of the motorhome thus far


-I'm hoping to learn more about the electrics before I start tearing stuff out, so any knowledge on that end is much appreciated


I hope to continue to update this post as we move forward and run into more struggles!

If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to ask away

Hi and welcome! I can't offer much advice as I'm a newbie too, but I have a 2003 Tioga 24D that had some water damage and was completely gutted and remodeled by previous owners. Based on their work, my one suggestion would be to be careful of removing interior walls, as the previous owners removed the interior bathroom wall (that was where water damage was) without realizing that removal compromised the structural integrity of the floor support in that area. They laid a beautiful floor without proper support and I had to have the floor totally redone by getting stronger supports welded on the underside and then re-doing the subfloor and the wood floor planks again - major project that you don't want to have to do more than once! Good luck with your project, look forward to updates.

Definitely the kind of info I was hoping for thanks a ton. We will keep that in mind as the demo progresses

Swearblocked said:

I hope to continue to update this post as we move forward and run into more struggles!
If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to ask away

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Sounds like a wonderful project. I hope you are documenting as you progress with pictures and videos. You could start a YouTube channel (like ours) to show others what you are doing. Just a suggestion.

I've grabbed some pictures of the demolition current progress!

http://imgur.com/a/01KGe

wan-der-lust said:

Sounds like a wonderful project. I hope you are documenting as you progress with pictures and videos. You could start a YouTube channel (like ours) to show others what you are doing. Just a suggestion.

Click to expand...

We've been talking about doing a youtube, it could be fun. There may or may not be a few videos in the works  ;D

Looks great!  We were thinking of selling our 99 36 ft coachman classic.  It only has 15 miles on it and a great engine, I am actually thinking of renovating it to have it make sense to our family.  Thanks for doing yours first so I can follow along!

Also, the paintings in your imgur are stunning.

Is it weird that I get excited to see an rv gutted??? lol. You're off to a good start!! Just remember to have everything sealed up tight before reassembling the interior. Sites like Craigslist and offerup are your friends!! I've gotten a ton of free and/or inexpensive items for my remodel from there. Keep up the pics!!