Camper Restoration with George and Dave

I've been doing some work on the camper and retrospectively one of the things I'm thinking about is in the timing where you're shopping for a camper, it would be good to know more about what to look for and what to avoid. And I've mentioned a couple times, I'm not an expert in this field so I'm very happy to have access to an expert. Dave is here from the RV Club and he knows what he's talking about. So Dave, you've got some tips for us on when people are shopping. Five things to look for, avoid, what, give us that buyer's advice, please.

Yeah well, whether you're looking to buy a used RV to renovate it or just to buy it and use it, you know you really want to do your homework. And like you said, you've got five categories. To me, the number one issue would be to look at the structural integrity, get up on the roof, make sure that they conditioned it once a year, sealed it, roof to sidewall leaks, that's a big major issue when you start getting into the water leaks into the floor and the walls. So where we're going with this is make sure the bones are good. So that again, we are saying whether you're looking to do a rehab or you just wanna get out there and use it, that's critical that this thing doesn't start to cave in around you when you're going.

Yeah, and a classic example, we did a video inspection on a 26 foot Jayco that somebody had purchased. And it sat for a long period of time and had a little bit of a sagging roof and they didn't think it was a big deal. And once we got in and tore the air conditioner off it, the entire roof was ruined. And that was a major, major, they elected not to do it. So, you know, like you say, you don't know what you don't know, you don't know until you start getting in and checking some of this as well.

So structure number one, and then give us what your second in the hierarchy should be. I would say budget would be number two. You know, what type of money do you want to put in to not only the unit itself, but you know how far are you going to go into it? Are you going to completely gut the whole thing put all new stuff, put Corian. So, you got to really have what your budget's gonna be.

And so you know what to buy first of all and you know how far you can go. I think what's interesting here is we're buying the unit. So that lump sum is gonna go out the door. In this case, the work is being done in a heated building which is being paid for. So that's an aspect of the budget, but then too as they inspect it, people got to look at the cabinets are okay, they're not okay.

The beds are okay, they're not okay. And then start piecing those together as part of their buying decision, 'cause I think what we've talked about is you don't wanna try to turn a $3,000 used camper into a $20,000, or you'd rather not turn it into a $20,000 camper by spending 17 grand in repair. Well, and that's, you know, this is a very popular activity. People are going out and buying older vintage campers. There's a vintage trailer club out there that has just literally beautiful things.

Airstream was kind of the first one, you know, the Airstream was the classic, the astronauts decompressed in them. And so you see all these celebrities and people buying them and putting 40, 50, $60,000 into renovating them. And they're still only worth half that or whatever. So you have to decide, are you doing it to camp? Are you doing it because you enjoy it or, you know what's your return on investment?

So how much you're gonna spend versus, you know on the backside, that's important. And the labor of love aspect, I think is important. It's like remodeling a house. You know, you kinda gotta be doing this 'cause you like doing it and you want the end product to be yours, which is a cool aspect of this. All right, so we've got structure, budget, number three?

Furnishings, you know, what do you want to put inside? Do you want to go in and put the top of the line queen sized bed or king size bed, cabinetry, you can get, like we talked about, maybe IKEA cabinets or you can go all the way up into some hardwood customized. So it's interesting. These three really marry together because the structure is gonna be, is it worth the repairs? Then the budget is gonna control what we choose to do.

And then with those furnishings, it's cool because somebody could look at the inside and say, "Well, this isn't bad. Let's go camping." And somebody else could look at the inside and be like . So, as part of their buying decision, again there's some homework involved here. People got to do some research and say, "Well, okay. If I choose to take the cabinets out and replace them and I can't build them, I need to go buy them.

What's that gonna cost?" But painting the cabinet, you know, there are lots of options around that. All right. So structure, budget, furnishings. Four would be? I would say boondocking is the next consideration.

Simply, are you gonna be getting off the grid, going places where you don't have electrical hookups, you don't have the water and dump stations. You know, you're gonna have to rely on those furnishings on the unit itself. So, I'm gonna look for more battery capacity. I'm gonna look at how can I add solar panels and other stuff for boondocking, connectivity, wifi, television. And as it pertains to the trailer, then a lot of this could be, we're back to some of the structure stuff again, like, so yes I want to do boondocking.

So part of my buying decision maybe is then am I willing to open up a wall where I can put the stuff on the roof? I can run wires inside. I can make this new tech invisible inside the camper. And then that's, you know, looking at it. Do I want to do that?

Do I need to turn the walls open? Yep. So part of that structure that then affects do I or do I not want this particular camper to turn into a boondocker? Well in the wiring, and you know, you brought that up too, the wiring and the electrical system. Some of these smaller campers will have a 15 amp service.

I can't put a lot of stuff in with just a 15 amp control panel. You know, I gotta have 30. Can I upgrade it? What's the wiring, you know, rated at? Do I have to do a complete then?

You know, remodel with everything in it. So again, that keeps adding the price. It keeps adding the project, the time, you know, so that is important. Okay, so now we've added boondocking, and number five? Number five, is I'd say is you need to look at how you're gonna use it.

You know, how long are you going? How many people are you taking? You made the comment that this was supposed to sleep five comfortably, but it sleeps two pretty much. So the more people you take, you're gonna take pets. You know, the more room you'll need, the more storage you'll need, the more stuff you're gonna take.

So, that's something that I think is, you know, if I'm gonna go for a weekend trip, I don't need as much stuff. I don't need as much room. I'm not gonna be in it. If I'm gonna go for two, three weeks at a time, I'm gonna have a whole different set of situations. So I think what a lot of is, all five of these things really boil down to, a lot of this boils down to homework and people have to go into this purchase prepared with background information about if then this, if then this, if then this.

So they can add up the budget numbers. Yep. They can look at the structure and is it gonna tolerate the solar panels and everything else, is it gonna, so don't impulse buy a trailer, I guess is part of where I'm going with that. No, no. Well, and don't fall in love with the floor plan either.

That's a big thing I tell people when they're looking to buy, is too often they'll stick their head in and they go like this and they get a floor plan in their mind that they want. And they don't even think about how that works. It's the eye appeal to it, you know? And I'm amazed at how, you know if you were to go and buy a home, and I do this in my seminar, how many people have bought a home? How long did it take her to pick carpet?

How long did it take her to, you know, pick all this stuff out? And you spend a lot of time researching in the home and they walk into a camper and they go, "Yeah." And, you know, take that same kind of dedication. And like you said, homework, in there and start looking at that on how you use it with those five things and I think you're gonna find something that works a lot better for you. A great idea is to watch like videos of people who do this kind of work . Hey, you know where to find us.

And if you want to do cabinetry, I know a great woodworker. So we've got five great buying advice points. How about like there's this one thing in your significant experience with RVs and campers that like if I'm gonna give a buyer one piece of advice it would be, don't forget to... You know, if you're doing a trailer you're carrying capacity, what you're gonna pull with it, you know, you not only need to know the weight for what you can put in here, but what's your towing capacity? What an easy mistake that would be to make, to overbuy.

Yep. And then not be able to use it. Exactly, especially now when you have all these, you know, smaller SUVs you know, the eco boosts and certain things that there's only so much towing capacity, and you fall in love with this massive, you know, 8,000 pound vehicle. And then you're gonna put another 2,000. It's now a mother-in-law's suite at your house.

Yeah. And so then you look to put it behind that little Prius and it's not gonna do it. So, that's something that you need to specifically with the trailer like this, what am I going to tow, use to tow with it? And what capacity do I have? Because you can, you know, and I see it all the time, you go down the road and there's these, you know the big V.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Tongue weight coming in and they can't stop. And it's like-- Or start. Yeah, yeah. And they're going up a hill 25 miles an hour and people honking at them.

So, you definitely wanna know what you're pulling with it. This is very good. Well Dave, I sure appreciate your time. You're welcome, thank you. Traveled up in order to do this for us and great buying advice.

Wonderful stuff to keep in mind when you're out shopping for the camper that you potentially want to rehab. This is gonna to be fun.