I am new to the forum but have been using it a lot recently while starting to get into things on the new RV, we at least new to us.
This 1990 Fleetwood Southwind is our first RV. We had previously purchased a 1995 Snap-on truck that we converted to a lounge essentially. It was pretty awesome but we needed a little more space so we picked up the RV.
Just to give a little background, I am one of the owners of Club Loose. We run grassroots drifting events at Englishtown Raceway in NJ. My partner and I started into our RV type of vehicle lifestyle after struggling a lot with the amount of stuff we had to bring to the track to run the events and all of the rushing around we would have to do the day of the event to make things happen. So we had the idea to get a pickup truck which would handle hauling around the larger amounts of stuff we had to bring but it still wouldn't help with the amount of time we spend rushing around like idiots.
So we just happen to have a friend whose Snap-on guy had just upgraded to a much newer and nicer truck. He was getting rid of his old truck for a pretty decent price. It was a GM chassis, non-turbo diesel with 130k miles on it. Had a liftgate for loading things and a ton of space. So we stripped it all out and turned into into a lounge. Added a computer and TV, built in a bar, added a futon and a built in foldout bed, mounted a bunch of cabinets, added a roof mount air conditioner and made it pretty awesome. But we outgrew it after a year and a half of using it. It helped make our lives so much easier at the track that when we would have to travel far to run other events without it, it was almost painful at times. If anyone is interested a lot of the build pictures and info are in this thread here:
Nap-On Build thread
So at the end of the 2011 season, we started looking for something a little bigger. And one of our drivers told us about a friend that was trying to get rid of an older RV. So we went a looked at it and it was pretty much perfect for us. Well within our budget, low miles, and needed some work but nothing we couldn't handle. So that's how we ended up with the Southwind.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/wpid-IMAG0117.jpg)
This is what it looked like when we picked her up. It sat around a for a few years so it's dirty and needs some upkeep but it should look a lot better once it gets all cleaned up.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/wpid-IMAG0122.jpg)
Here we are in my driveway in the little space we have starting to dig into it. This thing barely fits in my driveway with all the other car I have. It's also too wide to get into the storage on both sides without pulling it up to the end of the driveway. But this is what we have to work with, so this is where it will stay. I can still almost fit all of my other cars in the driveway without spilling out onto the sidewalk.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/wpid-IMAG0526.jpg)
One of the first things we started looking at. Ditched the old TV that was in there and found out that an old 19" dell monitor fit perfectly in there. So we're probably going to mount that and wire it in as a backup camera and maybe into the computer. By the way, that's me on the right and the other owner of Club Loose on the left.
One of the first things we had to address with this so that we could work in it was this thing did not have a power converter when we got it. It had died at some point and the previous owner never replaced it. So we ordered up a 75A converter and wired it in. Based on what we knew about our Snap-on truck and what I thought we knew about the wiring in this thing, I assumed that the power converter would charge the main and aux batteries for the truck. But it wasn't when we first hooked it up. All of the lights worked with no problem, but the batteries were still totally dead and the chassis wasn't getting any power.
We ended up replacing the batteries last weekend and it seems like the main and aux disconnect relays were stuck off because there wasn't enough power to trigger them to turn on. So none of the charge from the power converter was getting to the batteries so they could be charged. But with the new batteries, the relays started working and now it appears that the converter is charging the batteries like it should be. So now everything appears to be working like it should. We just need to figure out why the it seems like the starter for the generator is getting no hardly any power, the generator barely turns over.
When we started digging into this thing, we found out that the roof was leaking a good amount, probably for a while, and it was damaging the walls and part of the floor. So we've been spending a lot of time pulling up the carpet and pulling the damaged wood off of the walls so that we could get it all fixed up before it gets too cold here.
The last 2 weekends have been pretty productive. We pulled a bunch more of the crap out and are getting ready to fix the floor and redo the walls. Resealed the roof so we don't get any more water in there and did a bunch of other stuff.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG01491.jpg)
Got the gas going and fired up the stove. Heat inside works pretty awesome too. It gets hot in there quick.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0155.jpg]/img]Got one of the floor boards up after pulling off everything on top of it. We had to pull one of the benches for the kitchen table and that thing sucked to get up. They used to build these things like dickheads. But getting this floorboard up, made us realize things really aren't as bad as we thought. We don't have to replace the whole board just the part with the damage. So it will be easier and cheaper and should go a lot quicker. http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0156.jpg)
Here's a little of the water damage that we're dealing with on the walls. It kind of sucks but it's not that bad. The walls in this thing are thin so we're pulling off the paneling to the insulation and replacing it with something that looks a lot sweeter. I mean it sucks that we have to do it, but it's a good excuse to replace the old, ugly wallpaper.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0161.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0161.jpg[/url])
This corner of the roof was the worst. The caulk/sealing stuff was cracking and letting water get through. So we spent last Saturday scraping off the bad parts and prepping it to be sealed.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG01621.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG01621.jpg[/url])
Can jammers were needed for motivation.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0163.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0163.jpg[/url])
Here is the roof all sealed up. There's still a couple spots that we need to use the caulk stuff on but that's just extra insurance on leaking. For everything else, we used this Eternabond tape. Everyone on the RV forums says this is the good stuff to use. It's supposed to chemically bond with the rubber roof and seal everything up pretty nicely. It should also last longer than the caulk and is easier to fix if it gets ripped. It rained yesterday/today and everything inside is dry, so it seems like it's doing what it is supposed to.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0512.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0512.jpg[/url])
Matt pulled out the carpet in the closet and threw in some new flooring. It came out pretty awesome.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0513.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0513.jpg[/url])
Picked up a new sink at Home depot on Sunday and get it mostly positioned. This thing is way better than the old crappy sink that was in there.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0514.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0514.jpg[/url])
We also picked up a new medicine cabinet for the bathroom since the old one was gross.
Also spent some time looking into why the AC won't work. Seems like the breaker is busted. The main breaker is a 2-pole breaker with a 30A and a 20A side. The 30A powers pretty much all of the 12V stuff. The 20A side powers the AC. The 20A side seems like it is either just broken or internally shorted. It doesn't trip like it would if there was a short downstream, but when you tap it, it trips. Also, even when on, there is no voltage coming out of the pole on the 20A side. The 30A side is fine. So we're going to replace the breaker and hopefully the AC will start working again. Now the only concern is if where we normally plug in can handle the AC with other stuff turned on.
Matt also took the engine cover home and cleaned it up and painted it with bedliner paint type stuff. No pictures of that yet.
Most of the rest of the stuff in the front is stripped and ready for more work this weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to make some more progress on the subfloor so we can put in our new Pergo flooring and start working on getting the new wall paneling in place.
We are still trying to figure out what we should do about replacing the ceiling. Most of the glue has given up holding up the foam/vinyl covering that was on there. We have been thinking about doing PVC ceiling tiles. It shouldn't be too expensive and should be pretty easy to put up and nice and light. So that's probably the way we are going to go. We just need to get something ordered.
Since I can't embed pictures in here and they are already hosted, you can visit the live blog to check things out.
So there's still a lot to do, but we're making pretty good progress. Any thoughts, ideas or advice anyone has to offer would be great. I know a lot of you have done a lot of the same stuff that we are doing or planning on doing and I have found a ton of good info on here, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Tim
[SIZE=1][i]Edit: Link moved to signature line.[/i][/SIZE]
This 1990 Fleetwood Southwind is our first RV. We had previously purchased a 1995 Snap-on truck that we converted to a lounge essentially. It was pretty awesome but we needed a little more space so we picked up the RV.
Just to give a little background, I am one of the owners of Club Loose. We run grassroots drifting events at Englishtown Raceway in NJ. My partner and I started into our RV type of vehicle lifestyle after struggling a lot with the amount of stuff we had to bring to the track to run the events and all of the rushing around we would have to do the day of the event to make things happen. So we had the idea to get a pickup truck which would handle hauling around the larger amounts of stuff we had to bring but it still wouldn't help with the amount of time we spend rushing around like idiots.
So we just happen to have a friend whose Snap-on guy had just upgraded to a much newer and nicer truck. He was getting rid of his old truck for a pretty decent price. It was a GM chassis, non-turbo diesel with 130k miles on it. Had a liftgate for loading things and a ton of space. So we stripped it all out and turned into into a lounge. Added a computer and TV, built in a bar, added a futon and a built in foldout bed, mounted a bunch of cabinets, added a roof mount air conditioner and made it pretty awesome. But we outgrew it after a year and a half of using it. It helped make our lives so much easier at the track that when we would have to travel far to run other events without it, it was almost painful at times. If anyone is interested a lot of the build pictures and info are in this thread here:
Nap-On Build thread
So at the end of the 2011 season, we started looking for something a little bigger. And one of our drivers told us about a friend that was trying to get rid of an older RV. So we went a looked at it and it was pretty much perfect for us. Well within our budget, low miles, and needed some work but nothing we couldn't handle. So that's how we ended up with the Southwind.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/wpid-IMAG0117.jpg)
This is what it looked like when we picked her up. It sat around a for a few years so it's dirty and needs some upkeep but it should look a lot better once it gets all cleaned up.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/wpid-IMAG0122.jpg)
Here we are in my driveway in the little space we have starting to dig into it. This thing barely fits in my driveway with all the other car I have. It's also too wide to get into the storage on both sides without pulling it up to the end of the driveway. But this is what we have to work with, so this is where it will stay. I can still almost fit all of my other cars in the driveway without spilling out onto the sidewalk.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/wpid-IMAG0526.jpg)
One of the first things we started looking at. Ditched the old TV that was in there and found out that an old 19" dell monitor fit perfectly in there. So we're probably going to mount that and wire it in as a backup camera and maybe into the computer. By the way, that's me on the right and the other owner of Club Loose on the left.
One of the first things we had to address with this so that we could work in it was this thing did not have a power converter when we got it. It had died at some point and the previous owner never replaced it. So we ordered up a 75A converter and wired it in. Based on what we knew about our Snap-on truck and what I thought we knew about the wiring in this thing, I assumed that the power converter would charge the main and aux batteries for the truck. But it wasn't when we first hooked it up. All of the lights worked with no problem, but the batteries were still totally dead and the chassis wasn't getting any power.
We ended up replacing the batteries last weekend and it seems like the main and aux disconnect relays were stuck off because there wasn't enough power to trigger them to turn on. So none of the charge from the power converter was getting to the batteries so they could be charged. But with the new batteries, the relays started working and now it appears that the converter is charging the batteries like it should be. So now everything appears to be working like it should. We just need to figure out why the it seems like the starter for the generator is getting no hardly any power, the generator barely turns over.
When we started digging into this thing, we found out that the roof was leaking a good amount, probably for a while, and it was damaging the walls and part of the floor. So we've been spending a lot of time pulling up the carpet and pulling the damaged wood off of the walls so that we could get it all fixed up before it gets too cold here.
The last 2 weekends have been pretty productive. We pulled a bunch more of the crap out and are getting ready to fix the floor and redo the walls. Resealed the roof so we don't get any more water in there and did a bunch of other stuff.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG01491.jpg)
Got the gas going and fired up the stove. Heat inside works pretty awesome too. It gets hot in there quick.
(http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0155.jpg]/img]Got one of the floor boards up after pulling off everything on top of it. We had to pull one of the benches for the kitchen table and that thing sucked to get up. They used to build these things like dickheads. But getting this floorboard up, made us realize things really aren't as bad as we thought. We don't have to replace the whole board just the part with the damage. So it will be easier and cheaper and should go a lot quicker. http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0156.jpg)
Here's a little of the water damage that we're dealing with on the walls. It kind of sucks but it's not that bad. The walls in this thing are thin so we're pulling off the paneling to the insulation and replacing it with something that looks a lot sweeter. I mean it sucks that we have to do it, but it's a good excuse to replace the old, ugly wallpaper.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0161.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0161.jpg[/url])
This corner of the roof was the worst. The caulk/sealing stuff was cracking and letting water get through. So we spent last Saturday scraping off the bad parts and prepping it to be sealed.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG01621.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG01621.jpg[/url])
Can jammers were needed for motivation.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0163.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0163.jpg[/url])
Here is the roof all sealed up. There's still a couple spots that we need to use the caulk stuff on but that's just extra insurance on leaking. For everything else, we used this Eternabond tape. Everyone on the RV forums says this is the good stuff to use. It's supposed to chemically bond with the rubber roof and seal everything up pretty nicely. It should also last longer than the caulk and is easier to fix if it gets ripped. It rained yesterday/today and everything inside is dry, so it seems like it's doing what it is supposed to.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0512.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0512.jpg[/url])
Matt pulled out the carpet in the closet and threw in some new flooring. It came out pretty awesome.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0513.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0513.jpg[/url])
Picked up a new sink at Home depot on Sunday and get it mostly positioned. This thing is way better than the old crappy sink that was in there.
([url=http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0514.jpg]http://www.loosemoves.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/wpid-IMAG0514.jpg[/url])
We also picked up a new medicine cabinet for the bathroom since the old one was gross.
Also spent some time looking into why the AC won't work. Seems like the breaker is busted. The main breaker is a 2-pole breaker with a 30A and a 20A side. The 30A powers pretty much all of the 12V stuff. The 20A side powers the AC. The 20A side seems like it is either just broken or internally shorted. It doesn't trip like it would if there was a short downstream, but when you tap it, it trips. Also, even when on, there is no voltage coming out of the pole on the 20A side. The 30A side is fine. So we're going to replace the breaker and hopefully the AC will start working again. Now the only concern is if where we normally plug in can handle the AC with other stuff turned on.
Matt also took the engine cover home and cleaned it up and painted it with bedliner paint type stuff. No pictures of that yet.
Most of the rest of the stuff in the front is stripped and ready for more work this weekend. Hopefully we'll be able to make some more progress on the subfloor so we can put in our new Pergo flooring and start working on getting the new wall paneling in place.
We are still trying to figure out what we should do about replacing the ceiling. Most of the glue has given up holding up the foam/vinyl covering that was on there. We have been thinking about doing PVC ceiling tiles. It shouldn't be too expensive and should be pretty easy to put up and nice and light. So that's probably the way we are going to go. We just need to get something ordered.
Since I can't embed pictures in here and they are already hosted, you can visit the live blog to check things out.
So there's still a lot to do, but we're making pretty good progress. Any thoughts, ideas or advice anyone has to offer would be great. I know a lot of you have done a lot of the same stuff that we are doing or planning on doing and I have found a ton of good info on here, so any help would be greatly appreciated.
Tim
[SIZE=1][i]Edit: Link moved to signature line.[/i][/SIZE]
