Mary is the much, much, much, much, much better 90% of the team that includes the idiot who's been filling up the RV Forum servers faster than they can be acquired (a 200 wpm typing speed acquired courtesy of careers slinging software code, intelligence reports, educational curricular material, and a bunch of other stuff is responsible). Yes, I'm The Other Recent Newcomer from Montana who's considering acquisition of the 1995 Damon Challenger 315.
We've both been around and living in RVs from pickup camper shells to Class As for decades, and I created a lightweight modular RV interior for a 7.5 x 8 x 24 (H x W x L) foot V-nose H&H vehicle trailer (with back ramp and roof deck plating for racetrack midway parties). We've camped in the back of our Grand Caravan and I started out in the Boy Scouts camping at Freezerees (think Jamborees in early January Nor'easter blizzards!) up through 10-day Rockies expeditions at Philmont Scout Ranch in Northeastern New Mexico.
I went through Naval Aviator Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) training, and deployed with SEALs (in South Korea, Iraq, and a bunch of other places that, if I told you about ... well, you know the rest of that story) during my Navy career. I've camped in all 50 states and dozens of countries (a bunch of which I lived in while stationed there). If I were dropped in The Middle of Nowhere anywhere on the planet, I'd frustrate the people/animals there so quickly that they'd hasten my movement to the furthest source of food and Internet access away from them elsewhere, so I would go bother someone else.
The 1995 Challenger we're considering buying will be the first Class A that we would own and full-time in this Summer, and my father-in-law (a former USAF aircraft/ground systems mechanic/welder) has a full farm equipment shop behind their house where he's kept a Bounder alive for decades. That will be used by them to hit the road with us sometime while we're out and about during the next few months.
We hope to contribute more than we initially consume here, and despite our experience, we are going to need lots of help with some of the niggling little things that only come with ownership of, and full-timing in, an ancient Class A. Indeed, I've already massively benefited from the vast knowledge of The Experts Here in evaluating the fitness of The Beast for full-time mobile service, considering its age and despite its low mileage.
We now return you to your forum (and, for those who have one, life), already in progress ...
"If you can't be informative, at least be entertaining." -- A Three-Star Admiral I Briefed
