Hello Everyone! Just bought a 1982 19’ Chevy Citation Cutaway C Class, I Welcome Your Wisdom!

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Clark’s Odyssey

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 19, 2021
Posts
78
Location
Alberta
Been reading on the forum for a bit, finally signed up. First time RV owners(wife and I and the dog) we have looked for a couple years but finally found something in our budget($5000cad) that was in good shape for its age.

We won’t be doing many cross country tours or anything and we are right in the heart of many good camping areas in Alberta and BC.

We found this 1982 Chevy Citation Cutaway 19’ G30 with 147,000kms(looks accurate from the records)in really good shape. It has practically all the records back to the original sales receipt, original owner had it from 1983 till 2011 and did most of the driving and almost all the paperwork is from him. 2 more owners from 2011 till us now. Even has all the manuals for everything, plus bill of sales from every owner. Carfax checked out everything to be ok as well.

I can do the minor stuff myself and willing to tackle mid level stuff as well. Engine seems fine for the age, Chevy 350 5.7 litre with a 4 barrel, bay is actually really clean aside from some minor grime. Could use a new belt and a cooling line is sweating a bit but everything starts up well the first 3 days so far. Transmission seems fine, the 4 speed shifts fine, no leaks. The whole underside has very little rust. Tires are only a few years old with great tread life and little weathering. I will probably buy 2 new batteries as the current 2 seem to be about 5 years old.

Roof was redone a few years back, metal fully across the top and very solid and seems to have been resealed pretty regularly. Some very minor water damage that was pointed out from about 7 years ago prior to the new roof, they just didn’t fully replace the interior surface. Seems fine. Windows all look good and sealed. Vents all look good. Flooring is all solid.

All appliances work great, plumbing seems fine but not fully tested yet. I will do all the fluids and filters to start baseline, though all fluids look in very good shape.

With some help from this community I hope to get a few solid years out of it. Reading everything I see the comments about the older ones being money pits but I really hope we got a good one!

Looking forward to any advice as we are still very much RV newbies and hope to learn as much as we can!

Oh and his name is now, Clark! 😁
 
I would replace all the tires no matter what the tread looks like. Weather checked tires do blow out and can do considerable damage to an RV.
I will be taking today to do an even more thorough look through everything. I’ll check the tires again but from what I can see they look only a few years old. In looking at other motor homes we seen some that were in very rough shape.

With that said, I will price some out, as you said bad things can happen and better safe than sorry.
 
Like Tom said you cannot go by looks. You HAVE to go by the manufactures date code. If you don’t know where to find that code, let us know.
Ok will do. Just finishing the morning coffee and trying to start a budget of things to be done and I’ll keep tires on it.
 
Like Tom said you cannot go by looks. You HAVE to go by the manufactures date code. If you don’t know where to find that code, let us know.
Found them yesterday on the tires, 5 years old. Tread is great and minor weathering.
My brother in law is a mechanic and gear head, says they are still good upon inspecting the motorhome yesterday.
I will budget for new ones but we should be good for another season for sure.
 
Has the converter-charger been replaced with a modern converter? Old converters are hard on batteries.
Looks like that is a no.
Check the previous owner's records to see if the converter was replaced. If not, a modern converter is relatively inexpensive and an easy DIY project.
Its got what looks like the original System Monitors Inc MRD 300 or 300D
 
Congrats, sounds like a great find. We had a 83, class C, chevy 350, 23' Jamboree. Great memories growing up with the kids, mostly used it in state. Sounds like you have a good mechanic for advise, enjoy and keep us updated on this new adventure.
 
Check the previous owner's records to see if the converter was replaced. If not, a modern converter is relatively inexpensive and an easy DIY project.
Ok so I just started reading about this, so converting the old converter to a smart converter is the best way to go and then I would not need to install an inverter as it is built in, am I understanding correctly?
 
Congrats, sounds like a great find. We had a 83, class C, chevy 350, 23' Jamboree. Great memories growing up with the kids, mostly used it in state. Sounds like you have a good mechanic for advise, enjoy and keep us updated on this new adventure.
Thanks, yeah we just need to learn RV systems now. 😂
 
Ok so I just started reading about this, so converting the old converter to a smart converter is the best way to go and then I would not need to install an inverter as it is built in, am I understanding correctly?
I seriously doubt that old of an RV has an inverter. An inverter changes DC (battery) electricity to AC power to run things that need AC to operate.

For sure, it has a converter-charger. When your RV is connected to an AC pedestal, the converter converts the AC power to DC current to run you interior lights, stove hood fan and other DC appliances. In addition, the converter also charges the batteries. If your rig has the original single stage converter charger, it will reduce the life of the batteries. It will also boil off a lot of battery water requiring more frequent checking of the battery water levels. Again, if you decide to replace the old converter, it's pretty straight forward. And, there are plenty of Youtube videos showing how to do. Just make sure your RV is not plugged in to the AC shoreline. Hope this helps. If not, feel free to keep asking questions.

FYI - Check BestConverter - Converters, Inverters, Electrical Supplies, Electronics You can put your current converter model in and they will recommend replacement models. Also, their prices are competitive.
 
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I seriously doubt that old of an RV has an inverter. An inverter changes DC (battery) electricity to AC power to run things that need AC to operate.

For sure, it has a converter-charger. When your RV is connected to an AC pedestal, the converter converts the AC power to DC current to run you interior lights, stove hood fan and other DC appliances. In addition, the converter also charges the batteries. If your rig has the original single stage converter charger, it will reduce the life of the batteries. It will also boil off a lot of battery water requiring more frequent checking of the battery water levels. Again, if you decide to replace the old converter, it's pretty straight forward. And, there are plenty of Youtube videos showing how to do. Just make sure your RV is not plugged in to the AC shoreline. Hope this helps. If not, feel free to keep asking questions.
I think I was misinterpreting that there was a smart converter that replaced the old converter but also did the job of an inverter.
Ideally then I should replace the old converter with a new one AND get an inverter hooked up, does that sound correct?
I just talked to my buddy who’s an electrician and he should be able to help me out.
He already has an idea to hook up a second house battery to go with the first and split the use between appliances once I found the correct inverter and replace the converter.
Who said money pit lol
 
I think I was misinterpreting that there was a smart converter that replaced the old converter but also did the job of an inverter.
Ideally then I should replace the old converter with a new one AND get an inverter hooked up, does that sound correct?
I just talked to my buddy who’s an electrician and he should be able to help me out.
He already has an idea to hook up a second house battery to go with the first and split the use between appliances once I found the correct inverter and replace the converter.
Who said money pit lol
I was going to put in an inverter in my TT, but, since I don't boondock, I decided it wasn't worth it for me. Please keep us informed as you add money to the pit. LOL
 

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