1997 Airstream sat for 18 years

[MikeNMarina]

Long story - We're new to the forum:

Last year, We bought a 1997 Chevy P30 Airstream Cutter Gas 34',  480LE transmission for $15,000.  We know about the transmission because he has already been rebuilt.  We bought this unit in 2015 with 5000 original miles on it and it had sat for 18 years.  We drove it across the country and into my son's driveway where it died.  My son and a friend pulled the transmission which was full of shavings and had local transmission shop rebuild it.  Then they replaced it. They also replaced the coach water pump which cracked enroute.  Also replaced a sensor and connector for air intake manifold. 

During the drive east, the heavy CRT TV shook right out of the housing in the dash.  My son removed it, made a door out of oak plywood with hinges and mounted a small flat screen/dvd TV.  We can store cords, cables, DVDs in the old housing area now. 

A few months later, We drove from SC to IL where dash AC kept kicking out whenever we climbed or put stress on engine. We knew from prior experience that this was a leaking vacuum tube somewhere.  Now the ABS indicator came on and off.  Also once we got out of the dry climate of Arizona and into the humid southeast and midwest, the rooftop AC unit leaked condensation like a waterfall.  The generator quit (which we depended on since dash AC was iffy) and discovered a split fuel line.  And now the black tank was leaking. 

Was this 20 year old motor home a mistake? 

We made it home to AZ and found a family owned RV repair shop that seemed very honest and straight forward with us.  For $2300, the dash AC was charged and vacuum tube replaced.  External tank valve installed to save cost of disassembling entire tank hold area, New fuel line installed for generator, all old sealant removed from roof and new dicor sealant installed (8 hours), New bathroom sky dome installed to replace cracked dome, Chassis lubed, brakes were checked and steering axle wheel bearings packed.  Roof top AC diagnosed and found that the attached drain pan had cracked and beyond repair.  Since it was attached, the only thing to do is replace it which we put off until we head to humid country but the AC is like new and cools great. 

Now the question which I will ask on the forum:
We also were given an estimate for suspension work:
$2800 for suspension work that was deemed necessary before another big trip (this was contracted out by nearby Tractor-RV Suspension company.
Front brakes were at 70% life and rear brakes at 50%.  When should we plan on having this brake work done? 
Also diagnosed Bad rear spring eye bushings;
bad bell cranks; work steering linkage;
and blown out front air springs. 
And, by the way, the ABS indicator lights no longer come on. 

Where do we start?  Is $2800 for this work reasonable? 

I guess we are paying all at once for those maintenance issues that haven't been done for 20 years.  We priced a new coach and the cost was prohibitive and did not want to spend our small retirement income on RV payments. 

Will this be a money pit, or will these repairs kind of be like a new starting point where we'll know what has been done?  I figure we have about $22,000 in it now plus another $3,500 (suspension and AC) needed.  Which will be about $26,000 of our retirement dollars in it.  Hoping that the expensive repairs will be fewer and further between until we get some real miles on it.  We currently have 10,000 miles on it.  We know there will always be maintenance issues...but certainly hoping not $7K-$8K a year.  We'll never be able to sell it now for the money we have in it.  We really would like to use it!

Any advice will be welcome. 

 

[SeilerBird]

Cheap old RVs are never a bargain and always a money pit. $15k may not sound cheap to you but new ones start at around $100k. You might want to invest a few hundred dollars in an independent RV inspector to find out how much more will need to be invested. 

 

[billwild]

You haven't even mentioned the tires or the batteries. Bet they are ready for replacement as well. Hope that old fridge still works well. Just saying.


Bill

 

[Just For Fun]

"Will this be a money pit..."

I believe that it already is. :-[

 

[wae]

They say that the definition of a boat is a hole in the water into which you throw money and I don't think RVs are that much different!

When mechanical things sit, they wear a little differently.  Seals dry up, rubber rots, mice chew, and with no one checking on it and exercising it regularly, things that are deteriorating go unnoticed and entropy is allowed to run amuck.  There's no hard-and-fast number, but I like to see about 3k-5k a year minimum put on a vehicle unless we're talking about things that have been prepped properly for storage and kept in regulated temperatures and out of UV.  A slightly higher milage unit from the same general timeframe could have been for similar money, but that doesn't really help you now.  Do you cut bait or do you stay the course?

If you are capable of doing the work yourself, you can save some money and if you enjoy it, it can be a nice hobby to have.  The downside is that since we're talking about a medium duty truck, there are some things that are very difficult for a backyard mechanic to do, especially when it comes to things that require the vehicle to be lifted.  You can probably get away with using the leveling jacks to do things like brakes, but those jacks aren't designed with a physical lock - loss of hydraulic pressure or forward movement of the coach could cause the jack to collapse or retract.

Parts-wise, there's probably about 750-800 worth of parts for the brakes, suspension, and steering.  To do the work, you'd probably need about $500-$600 worth of tools (I'm thinking heavy duty floor jack, heavy duty jack stands, electric impact, impact sockets, hand wrenches, etc).  A/C can be a bit more tricky, but these units are typically completely self-contained, so swapping it out with a new or used unit wouldn't be terribly difficult, but they are expensive.  There might be a way to repair what's already there -- fiberglass? epoxy?  truck bed liner? -- but I'm not sure what the failure mode currently is.  Given the price for a new roof air, I'd be very willing to try to fix what's already there first.  It's not like you're going to break it!

It's a good point made about tires and batteries.  A set of tires will set you back a couple thousand and they're only good for about 7-10 years, even with no milage.  Between the coach and house batteries, you're looking at a minimum of $450, but batteries tend to be good until they aren't, so just be ready for it.

I firmly believe that an older coach only makes financial sense if you enjoy being a plumbercarpenterelectricianmechanichvactechappliancerepairmanroofer.  If you plan to farm out all those things to a shop, the thing will eat you alive and you'll quickly have more in to it than you could ever sell it for.  That having been said, if you really like that coach and you plan to keep it for a long time, then it could make sense to put the money in to it so that you have it.  If you can do the labor yourself, the cost will drop, and you'll know that what you've had to fix is done and good for the foreseeable future.  If you don't have a huge attachment to THAT coach, then it might make sense to sell it for whatever you can get for it and roll that plus the money you were going to spend anyway into a different rig.

 

[Bill N]

"Will this be a money pit..."

I believe that it already is. :-[

Amen.

 

[scottydl]

Was this 20 year old motor home a mistake? 

Not necessarily, but you have certainly learned the results of 18 years of non-use!  A large majority of what you've mentioned repairing are maintenance items... rubber & plastic parts that dry out and get brittle when not used, engine (and other system) fluids that lose their lubricating abilities and cause internal failures.  There's no other reason I can think of why a transmission with only 5000 miles would need rebuilding. 

This is why we often/always tell folks here that older RV's with low mileage are potentially risky... unlike a car with low mileage, where that is usually a selling point.  I'd rather have a 20yo motorhome with 80,000 miles that was used and maintained regularly.  Most of that stuff you mentioned would probably already be done by the previous owner(s), or would at least be a lot cheaper as a preventative maintenance items... rather than a "must fix now" item when you break down.  And I agree 100% on the tires.  If they have not been replaced in the last ~7 years (regardless of tread remaining or how they look on the outside), it is just a matter of time until one of them explodes at highway speeds.

I think you should have paid a LOT less than $15,000 for it at the outset, but that ship has obviously sailed.  I'm sure the seller was happy. 

Yeah RV's are money pits anyway, and they all need constant tinkering.  Most of us participate in this lifestyle because we really enjoy it.  As you've learned, a trouble-free experience isn't all that realistic.  At this point, you've put so much into the rig that a couple more thousand in suspension work doesn't seem completely out of the ballpark.  DO get another quote or two from some other places though.  Truck shops that work on big rigs should be capable and comfortable with large motorhomes, and they'll be cheaper than an RV dealership service center.

 

[NY_Dutch]

As Scotty said, the problem isn't that you bought a 20 year old RV, it's that you bought a 20 year old RV that sat for 18 of those years. Never a good thing for any vehicle. Is it worth investing even more money in it? Not if it were mine. I would be cutting my losses at this point, and getting what I could out of it. Charge the loss off to a learning experience...

 

[scottydl]

As Scotty said, the problem isn't that you bought a 20 year old RV, it's that you bought a 20 year old RV that sat for 18 of those years. Never a good thing for any vehicle. Is it worth investing even more money in it? Not if it were mine. I would be cutting my losses at this point, and getting what I could out of it. Charge the loss off to a learning experience...

What I'm considering (for putting more money into the rig) is how much the owner ALREADY put in... around $22k.  They have a few more thousand to go, as far as what's known.  If they cut & sell, the rig is probably worth about half what they paid for it.  Actually NADA has it valued around $12,000 Low Retail, but with the known suspension + tires (assuming) that's a few more thousand minimum.

For that few thousand, they have a lot of upgrades done on their rig and that should limit the amount of major spending they'd have to do later.  If they sell, they'll take a bigger financial loss and have nothing to show for it.

Back to the OP, you need to read the DOT codes on the sidewall of your tires to see how old they are.  I would spend the money to replace tires BEFORE the suspension work.  Tires are much more of a safety issue, and one that explodes at high speed can cause all kinds of damage to the underbody and storage tanks of your rig.