Perpetual Ruminations

And So It Begins

Yesterday I bought an older (1996) HiLo fifth wheel camper that is in need of a lot of work. Why? Because the price was right. Do I have anything I can haul a 5th wheel trailer? No. But, they included a 5th wheel hitch and on Tuesday the 9th I will have it installed on my pickup. How much did all of this cost me? I got the camper and 5th wheel hitch for $300.00, and the installation is going to cost about 200.00. or so it's estimated.

I haven't checked out everything in the camper, since I don't have any LP gas right now, but the three-way refrigerator works on AC and 12 volts, the air conditioner works, the lift system works (there is a problem with it however). Everything so far works and I'll put in a bottle of gas soon and see if the water heater works as well as the stove, fridge, and furnace.

I forgot to take before pictures when I started working today, but I did remember and took some shortly after. The back of the camper sustained some water damage because the previous owner left the windows open. The added weight cause the back of the camper to sag about three inches lower and that is the problem with the lift system. It caused it to bind up and won't come down.

I used a hi-lift jack to raise it up to where it should be at and then blocked it up. Because of the water soaked wood, there's some swelling on both back corners, the door could barely be forced open, and the section behind the door has pulled away from the supports. In short, I  will likely need to rebuild the section behind the door and possibly the back wall. But, the paneling inside the camper doesn't show any water damage, so I'm hoping the frame is still solid.

Now that the top is aligned, the door works fine, there are no soft spots on the floor, and it looks like most of the damage is confined to the section of wall between the door and the back. Oh, and the storage box on the back needs to be rebuilt. It seems most of the water ran down the wall and into the storage box.

After aligning the  top today I set into the task of cleaning it out. I hauled five kitchen garbage bags of junk out of the camper and then vacuumed the floors, cupboards, and storage areas. What a mess! But not as bad as I anticipated.

The person who purchased it second hand used it for one season and then parked it in the yard and let the kids use it for a play house that fall. They left the windows open and the water damage started. It sat like that for two years. I looked for any signs of frozen and busted water lines, but they look intact and it seems it was at least winterized before it sat for two years. In fact, it looks pretty good despite they lack of attention.

I likely won't start working on the damage until next week, after we return from hauling a couple of rabbit hutches to our granddaughter. But I'll post about my progress and maybe add a few of the before pictures.

The plan right now is to fix the back section so it will raise and lower again before putting time and money into anything else. Until that's done, there isn't much reason to work on anything else. But, once I can raise and lower the top, I'll work on getting it ready to uses. Then, I'll start remodeling the inside a little at a time.