Getting the rig up to snuff!

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JasonJ400

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Aug 16, 2018
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33
So I bought and drove a 1978 Holiday Rambler that was sitting in the woods out to Oshkosh and lived in it for a week in primitive camping and I was quite cozy and drove it back to Pa and she made the 2,000 mile trip even though people were taking odds against it (even me LOL)! Then once I got my stuff unpacked my Girl Friend went in and wrinkled her nose and rolled up her sleeves and started ripping the thing apart. LOL. The nice thing is, she is really excited about taking the Rambler out on the road with the puppy dog and that was my hope. The Amazon boxes have been rolling in at a steady pace!  I fixed the slide out couch bed and made some PVC stanchions for it and she got a new roll up gel foam mattress for it with a water proof washable cover. She bought a bunch of foldable bin organizer to maximize the use of storage space, first aid kit and other supplies. I vacuumed and steam cleaned the floor carpets (yes the entire thing is carpeted from top to bottom! LOL). She washed and cleaned all the curtains and the kitchen area and it turned out great as did the bathroom. She got a new wide angle ferrnell lens for the rear window because the old one had moss and mold on it. She has been buying and stocking the kitchen with flatware, cookware and paper products so we don't need to pack and unpack very much stuff. I have been busy working on all the systems and scrapped and resealed all the seams on the roof, silicone up all the exterior seams and windows, put an inline filter between the water tank and the pump, removed the old over cab mattress with ants and mold and hunted down rain leaks and I have been watching RV videos on youtube. I have a 3,400 W inverter genset on order but the price was too good to be true so we will see if it makes it's way from China or not.  Our local Wal-mart is just across the street from a fairly large RV campground and I was pleased to find an entire RV section isle today and picked up some leveling lego blocks, a water regulator, and a small water transfer pump so I can maybe catch rain water fill up the water tank if we are boon docking.
I'm still on the hunt for a 1,000 W inverter than can run the 700 W microwave on the house battery but I did get the burners and oven in the kitchen working. I still need to check out the cabin heater and hot water heater yet.
I looked around at prices for camping out near by (Poconos)  Labor Day weekend and all the prices were jacked up and or booked so we will go out in the back yard and try a boon dock with our home backup generator and see how it goes. If it's too uncomfortable I'll run some hookups to it.  We can adjust and re-fit as needed based on how that goes and be ready for some nice September /Fall trips to the shore or where ever maybe. No hotels, long drives, wet tents or finding sitters for the dog. Pretty cool idea, just need to put it into practice!
Ramble On!
JG 
 
IMO any RV that is "up to snuff" is a RV being repaired constantly and/or not being used enough.
(My now 22 year old, 150,000 mile, motorhome is much like a small child....every time I take it out it needs something).
 
Yes, Dog and GF are both keepers! The weekend boon dock shake down went very well. The only thing we had to "buy" from the camp store (the house) were Q-tips.  We did 3 generator runs for about 2 hours each in the AM and evening on my house backup open frame generator I hauled out . The dog was having the time of his life and the GF was really having fun cooking in the little kitchen but the knobs for the burners are very sensitive and it was her first time cooking on a gas range. I am happy to report I am undefeated in checkers, Space Invaders and Asteroids ( I brought the Atari and a TV and played it the evening it rained.).
I have since framed the fridge and the Microwave into the old fridge space and still have lots of room so I'll be adding shelves and storage in that space. Both appliances can be removed with screws in a few minutes.  I made a home made drop down bolt to keep the fridge door secure in transit too. I also picked up a used 2200 - 1700i Generac inverter generator for less than 1/2 price of new and it runs the roof AC with no problems but not the AC and the Fridge with the compressors both on (I did not think it would) . I put a power strip in the fridge cabinet space so I can turn the microwave and fridge on and off easily if I need to run the AC. The AC took it down from 77 to 71 in under 10 minutes when I was testing the generator so that was great.  We are taking the Rambler out on the road to a near by camp ground next weekend for a grill jam music event they are having and we are looking forward to it. I'm going to pick up the canopy for it today or tomorrow and see if I can fix it, no big deal if I can't but even if I can just cut it down it would be nice to have.
Everything I bought for it so far (including the motor home) has come off FB Market Place or at auction except for the $35 microwave new from Walmart and most everything we spent $ on can be taken out and reused or resold for about what we paid for it if not more.
The GF and dog love the thing so much we ate our dinner in it twice this week. LOL. Only issue is I found a random Cd in the front console and put it in the dash player and now I can't get it to eject.....  :mad:
 

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