new to the Forum, picking up a 1984 Itasca 22rc this weekend. hope I am not making a big mistake.

[Merlin TC]

Hi ya'll I am Merlin, new to this forum, but was on some old forums in the past. Classic winnebagos and some others I don't remember since that was back around 2005.
Ok so first off I am 61, in the past I had a 75 winnebago that I did a part rebuild on.
Anyway my wife and I want to travel some and after looking at many used R.V.s and not wanting to go in debt. until we die. I convinced her we should find an older R.V. and fix up.

While at a salvage yard this week looking at a 1990 Chevy coachman catalina class C that sadly the inside was history. low and behold sitting behind it and to it's right behind another larger motorhome was a lonely little 22' Itasca Sunflyer. I was told by the salvage yard owner that it had been driven in a little over a year ago from liilington n.c. to the yard in Staley n.c. about a 70 mile drive.

The salvage yard owner said I could get it for 4 grand. the interior is partly torn out ,but the Exterior looks pretty solid. I went back today and heard it run and it had 40 p.s.i. at idle and went up to 60 when i gave it some gas. it has a Chevy 454 with duel exhughst. 79,509 miles. tires look good on it. but everything else is unknown.

I am thinking if it drove 70 miles with out issue, I should have a good base to work with roof looks good on top.

The seats and bench seats at the dinette are in pretty good shape. anyone else here have or had a 1984 Itasca sunflyer 22rc?

Hoping to fix it up to travel to Florida for the winter to see how we like RV camping in a smaller R.V.

I like the smaller size. in the past we had a 34 foot Winniebago Alante. and it was just to big and got 7 m.p.g.

Part of my plan is to set up our 3,000 watt solar inverter and panels and battery bank in it so we can offgrid boondock.

We will be picking this beast up Saturday morning.

 

[Jackiemac]

Hi and welcome. Looks like an interesting project. Hope it works out and you get some responses here.

Let us know how get on.

 

[LarsMac]

Itasca made some pretty good units.
It looks nice on the outside. That's a good start. Good luck with it.
Hope you're not going to rely on the tires because they "Look good."

 

[Merlin TC]

Hi and welcome. Looks like an interesting project. Hope it works out and you get some responses here.

Let us know how get on.

It will be an interesting project for sure, former owner had started ripping out some bad ceiling and wall area and gave up, so thats going to be fun to fix. roof looks like it had been resealed pretty well after it was leaking. but will keep an eye on it. will post photos as I go along working on it.

 

[Merlin TC]

Itasca made some pretty good units.
It looks nice on the outside. That's a good start. Good luck with it.
Hope you're not going to rely on the tires because they "Look good."

yeah, once I get it home, I will be able to check things over better and will probably get new tires. these look pretty new with like new tread. it was drive 70 miles about a year ago to where it is now. thankfully I only have to drive 17 miles to get it home and non over 45 m.p.h. Honestly I was surprised how well it ran today and that was on old gas. once i get it home I plan to do full service to it, replace trans filter, do and oil chnage and full tune up. check the brake and just pretty much go over the whole rig. will be interesting to see how much of the other items like fridge, heater and generator work. as they say let the fun begin.

 

[Rene T]

Welcome to the forum.
You say the tires look good. You can’t rely on them just because they look good on the outside. You have to look at the manufactures date. Typically they need to be replaced when they are 7/8 years old. Even less if they have sat for a long time without rolling.
It is a 40 year old rv with 80,000 miles on it so I would think that the tires tires on it now may be the 3rd set so I would think that they may be at least 15 years old or more. You need to check the dates on all of them including the spare if there is one.

 

[Merlin TC]

Welcome to the forum.
You say the tires look good. You can’t rely on them just because they look good on the outside. You have to look at the manufactures date. Typically they need to be replaced when they are 7/8 years old. Even less if they have sat for a long time without rolling.
It is a 40 year old rv with 80,000 miles on it so I would think that the tires tires on it now may be the 3rd set so I would think that they may be at least 15 years old or more. You need to check the dates on all of them including the spare if there is one.

where are the dates located? I know the tires where good enough to drive 70 miles about a year ago. , but if i know where on the tire the date would be, I could check it out. if they are to old, we would be getting new ones before taking off on a trip, but I would think they should make the 17 mile drive home with out a problem.

 

[Rene T]

You look for a DOT number. Usually it will be embossed in the sidewall of the tire. Look for an oval. In the oval will be 4 numbers. The first 2 numbers will be the week they were manufactured and the second two numbers wil be the year. So a number of 4221 would be the 42nd week of 2021. Please let us know what you find.
There is no way of knowing if they’ll all make the 17 mile trip home. Maybe maybe not. The dates will tell you a lot. Good luck.

 

[SMR]

Welcome to the forum

 

[LarsMac]

Finding the tire date code

 

[TheBar]

If you have mechanical knowledge you'll probably be fine. A 1984 likely has no electrical failure points like a computer or sensors. As long as you have gas and spark it will run. I would buy a fuel filter and bring wrenches to change it if needed on the way home. Dregs in an old gas tank is one of the most common problems. Did they say why it ended up in the salvage yard?

 

[Merlin TC]

You look for a DOT number. Usually it will be embossed in the sidewall of the tire. Look for an oval. In the oval will be 4 numbers. The first 2 numbers will be the week they were manufactured and the second two numbers wil be the year. So a number of 4221 would be the 42nd week of 2021. Please let us know what you find.
There is no way of knowing if they’ll all make the 17 mile trip home. Maybe maybe not. The dates will tell you a lot. Good luck.

Ok thanks, I will let you know what I find. we may just get it towed home instead of driving it home. might be safer.

 

[Merlin TC]

If you have mechanical knowledge you'll probably be fine. A 1984 likely has no electrical failure points like a computer or sensors. As long as you have gas and spark it will run. I would buy a fuel filter and bring wrenches to change it if needed on the way home. Dregs in an old gas tank is one of the most common problems. Did they say why it ended up in the salvage yard?

a lady had it that tried to repair some water damage by her self and decided it was more then she could handle. the inside is partly torn apart. as for mechanical knowlage, I have always had cars and stuff I worked on my self. even restored a 1968 homebuilt helicopter awhile back. presently installing a fuel injected BMW engine into a Hovercraft I have. hovercraft is still work in progress. also back in 2005 I pretty much rebuilt the inside of a 75 winnie that was a lot worse off than this one. but that one i did not plan to travel out of the state with like this one. once I get it home I will be able to then make a master plan of what all needs to be done to it. wife wants to travel back to Florida some at our own pace, I think an old slow motorhome, will give her plenty of slow paced adventures. I have always wanted to just cruise up A1A and see the sights along the way. at 61, I think I better get started. time passes us by pretty fast. we had this big beast back in 2013 that we drove to Florida and back with, but honestly it was just too big and only got 7 m.p.g. I think the little 22 footer will be fun, we will see.

 

[Rene T]

Ok thanks, I will let you know what I find. we may just get it towed home instead of driving it home. might be safer.

You sound very me mechanically inclined so I would drive it home. I would just have someone follow me in case something breaks. Just take it slow and easy and stay off the super highway . Keep it under 35.
Towing wouldn’t be cheap unless you have AAA.

 

[Merlin TC]

You sound very me mechanically inclined so I would drive it home. I would just have someone follow me in case something breaks. Just take it slow and easy and stay off the super highway . Keep it under 35.
Towing wouldn’t be cheap unless you have AAA.

yeah now that I know how to see how old the tires are, I want to see them again and check. would be nice if they where still good for awhile, who ever had it took care of it, it even has dual exgusht on itwith new mufflers.

 

[Jackiemac]

yeah now that I know how to see how old the tires are, I want to see them again and check. would be nice if they where still good for awhile, who ever had it took care of it, it even has dual exgusht on itwith new mufflers.

Make sure they are at the right inflation if you decide to do that...

 

[Merlin TC]

Make sure they are at the right inflation if you decide to do that...

we may just get it towed home. depends what the wife wants to do. I am a smart man I let my wife handle all the business deals.

 

[Laura & Charles]

Also note: tire date codes are usually only on one side… you may have to do some crawling around. (And don’t count on all tires having the same date)

 

[Jayflight1]

we may just get it towed home. depends what the wife wants to do. I am a smart man I let my wife handle all the business deals.

Normally a wife brings some of us back to Earth when we tell her that we want to take on any project that will cost more than her weekly allowances for shoes. But by the look of your past projects, you do not seem to be afraid of what others would leave at the entrance of a landfill. It just takes me longer to do half as much though. So don't procrastinate and take too many smoke breaks. We ain't as fast as we used to be.

 

[Merlin TC]

Normally a wife brings some of us back to Earth when we tell her that we want to take on any project that will cost more than her weekly allowances for shoes. But by the look of your past projects, you do not seem to be afraid of what others would leave at the entrance of a landfill. It just takes me longer to do half as much though. So don't procrastinate and take too many smoke breaks. We ain't as fast as we used to be.

I don't smoke..lol so no breaks for me. surprisingly I must have made a good argument about fixing up a classic verses going in debt for years for a new one. I have seen to many youtube videos og these Triton V-10's that and F-53 frames that all the motorhomes seem to be built on being crap, that I sure did not want any of those, plus i am not a ford man. only have had 2 fords, one caught on fire on the way home with it. other was always working on it. I have always loved restoring classics, so hoping this will be a fun project. most the work looks like it will be cosmetic. once i get it home I will start a restore thread and post pics of the progress. hope to have it on the road in a month, we will see.