'95 Coleman Fleetwood Avalon

[Gregor53227]

I was given a pop up by a friend that no longer needed it for his hunting trips. My neighbor saw me back up the pup and came over to check it out. And was impressed with it. But after starting to clean it out, and air it out I noticed a bit of soft wood above the door. Yikes the dreaded Coleman roof rot, no biggie the same neighbor is also bored during the winter months and is going to help me rebuild the roof. I will be posting a lot of pictures of the rebuild.

We are going with tigerply plywood, and epoxy infuse the wood. A trick he figured out building wood strip canoes. ( Those were beautiful, and when done sold for big money). I am hoping this will help out others with the same problem.

But the real question, will exposed lift rails cause water to enter the pop up camper? I see on the newer pups the canvas goes over the rails shielding it from water. Mine is exposed to the world and rain. It is planned for rain tomorrow and I have it setup in my driveway to monitor if there is any leaks. the picture was before I towed it home.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Congrats on your purchase and good luck with the renovation.

I don't know specifically about the lift rails but logically, anything directly exposed to the weather increases the leak exposure.

 

[Gregor53227]

Thanks, the pop up is as big as I can go in my driveway. I fell in love with the Airstreams TT like the classic 30. But there is no way I could afford the upkeep, storage and while my 2500 could pull it. I fear it would be like the time I tried to pull a 28 fully loaded Race Trailer. It hated me.

If the rails do allow water entry I think I figured out a solution.

I am going to get thick mil plastic and some stick on velco and make a removable wrap/sleeve and see if that works. If it does I will them have it made in waterproof canvas.

 

[Gregor53227]

Well the lifts are letting water into the inside of the pup. The floors are damp in the corners where the lifts are. So after I rebuild the roof I get to do floors. The rear right one is the worse and looks like it has been a issue for a while. I have a 4" soft spot on the floor in the corner. But with the current dampness I will not be able to dry out wood enough to determine if my sleeve mod worked till I correct the damage and rot.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Sorry to hear that - Seems like free always comes with a price...

 

[Gregor53227]

Well i figured out the price of materials, beer for the neighbor and a chance to help out this forum by documenting the roof and floor replacement. The cost isn't that bad. I got the camper for free, and while the work seems like a lot I will have a camper I could easily get 3k for it if I sell it after the repairs. I saw one sell last week in the same shape for 4K. I want a RV and due to storage and space issues, this is as big as I can go.

Sometimes the adventure never leaves your driveway. I built this in my garage from almost scratch.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Nice job!

I buy all my toys cheap and build value into them.

 

[Kirk]

Well i figured out the price of materials, beer for the neighbor and a chance to help out this forum by documenting the roof and floor replacement.

That sounds a lot like the way that we got started, probably before you were born. I bought my first RV a 1964 Bethny TP topper in 1972. Between getting help and helping others, my RV history does cover a lot of beer!

 

[Gregor53227]

Well we have 10 days to get it ready. My wife bought a ton of items. Mostly cooking and some cleaning products like beach, awning cleaner and simple green. I bought new bearings, battery, the kill switch, wheels, tail lights, and a full LED conversion kit. so everything will be LED. The only thing I wanted to replace was the power converter to one that will charge the house battery. But I don't have the time.

So I will need to pick up a generator of some sort. I have a 115 AH battery and if I run the pump, fan, and all the lights I am looking at 12 hours before the battery is dead. Seeing the pump can push 3GAL per min I highly doubt we would have enough water. LOL.

My son and I have been building and repairing other things. One of the Bows were kinked and damaged, so after digging at our local big box store we found O'Cedar aluminum broom handles were the same diameter and grafted in a repair. Bow is fixed. Since we will be cooking in the camper I also bought a LP/CO detector. Our pump handle on the faucet broke, I think the internal rubber parts cracked. So I bought a Shurflo pump, filter, accumulator and 25 feet of FDA food grade hose to re-plumb the system.

We tested the electrical system and it checked out. But we are going to add a blade style fuse block. This will fuse all the 12V items, and create a distribution block for the detector and the pump.

The next step is building some type of Gray water tank on the cheap. I was thinking a 5-GAL bucket with a quick disconnect on the bottom side of the bucket a bleeder valve on top. And buy a few cheap buckets to transfer as needed. And if I keep the top of the bucket lower then sink it should drain till I can get a black/gray water tote and a stinky slinky.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Sounds like some creative solutions to make the camper "yours."

Before you buy a generator do a power budget. I think you might be over estimating your daily consumption. I would expect a pop up as you describe to consume about 40 amps a day, especially if you convert to LED lighting.

100W solar panel would likely keep up with that in the summer.

 

[Papa Glenn]

Agree with Ex-Calif, 100W solar should be plenty to keep your batteries charged. And no need for a “stinky slinky” for gray water. Short garden hose from drain fitting to tote tank is all you need. 5 gallon bucket works fine as well. Just get one with a lid and cut a hole in the top to drop the hose in (or find a lid with a pour spout with lid). We did that for 7 years before investing in real tote tanks.

 

[Gregor53227]

I got confused, don't need a black tank. But the wife would like a portable toilet. One of the main stops and places we go use Porta Jon's and after a weekend they get a bit brutal.

I will have to tear out the floor and replace it, the wood around the lift is very soft. And was debating in installing a fresh water tank under the floor. But it's also nice to have a the fresh water jugs in the back of the bed of the truck freeing up space in the camper. And swapping them out as needed. Plus keeping the trailer light.

 

[Gregor53227]

New on board water on demand system, fused all 12v power connections, added a gas detector, but not the gas after my wife's awesome chili.

 

[Gregor53227]

What I didn't get to was the weather radio, and sound system.

 

[Ex-Calif]

Nice tidy work.

 

[Gregor53227]

A few weeks ago we did the first camping with the pop up. On the way up we My kid found a UNO deck in the storage from the last owner, which my kid crushed us in 3 games.

1) We grossly overrated the amount of water we would need, out of 15 gallons we only used 5.
2) A 115 ah battery held up all weekend. Furnace was only on for 1 night, but pulls a lot of amps.
3) A gray water tote would be nice.
4) No room for food prep.
5) A cassette toilet would be nice for a private loo.
6) Hide the UNO deck

 

[Ex-Calif]

A few weeks ago we did the first camping with the pop up. On the way up we My kid found a UNO deck in the storage from the last owner, which my kid crushed us in 3 games.

1) We grossly overrated the amount of water we would need, out of 15 gallons we only used 5.
2) A 115 ah battery held up all weekend. Furnace was only on for 1 night, but pulls a lot of amps.
3) A gray water tote would be nice.
4) No room for food prep.
5) A cassette toilet would be nice for a private loo.
6) Hide the UNO deck

Sounds like fun. In regards to food you probably should be prepping similar to tent camping. Most everything prepped in tupperware (or ziplocs) ready to cook or BBQ.

Hang in there on UNO, you'll get better...

 

[Boat Bum]

You gotta try attack Uno.

 

[PaulBates]

1) We grossly overrated the amount of water we would need, out of 15 gallons we only used 5.

We got a hard sided pop-up this summer.
Our agreed to approach to camping is that 'less is more", keep it simple.

While it has a decent sized water & hot tank for it's size, we've found it easier to have a big bottle of water, mostly for morning coffee. Water just adds to towing weight with not much payback.
It does have an outdoor shower that sounds nice for summer; we'll cross that bridge when we get to it next summer.

 

[PaulBates]

5) A cassette toilet would be nice for a private loo.

We have the camco ... Does not smell, easy to clean and store. It can also be poured into a pit toilet, with no spills, to avoid a long dump station line.

We do have a rule: #1 only, at night