The selling price had been set for a quick sale, and that's what happened. Dad was glad to get rid of it, he was sure he was going to get stuck with it, because there are a lot of similar motorhomes for sale on the used market.
A lady bought it, after having someone inspect it for her. The guy who came to inspect it said it was very neat, and was impressed by Dad's work on the Travco. The lady phoned back the following day just to tell how happy she was about her purchase, how good it ran, etc. It sure was a good deal for her, there was nothing to do on this motorhome, everything was in top shape, all you had to do is turn the key and drive off.
On the Travco, we are starting to see some interesting developpements.
First, the bathroom: the toilet, with its new fiberglass-reinforced base, has been reinstalled. Same for the repaired black water tank. Everything seems to be working fine. Note the new floor, and also the nice decorative painting made by Mom.
The black water tank was held up by two metal straps, one was badly rusted, so Dad replaced it with a heavy-duty nylon strap:
The famous hydraulic-operated retractable door step is now installed. All that's left do to is some electrical wiring (Dad didn't have an appropriate toggle switch yet). And this thing works beautifully! On the picture you can see the two small hydraulic actuators:
Also the water tank, now real clean after a good bleach soaking, is back in it's compartment. This allowed Dad to test the plumbing system. Everything works just fine (sink, toilet, shower, ect.) and there are no leaks.
Dad also checked the LP gas piping and appliances (heater, stove), everything works fine.
It might look unusual to check for basic things like plumbing and heating, one month after the motorhome purchase. In fact, very few of these systems have been checked before the purchase. After all, if something doesn't work, that's only one more thing to fix, and there is nothing that can't be fixed or replaced anyway. The seller said that just about everything was in working order, and so far he was honest.
So we tested a few more "untested" things. First, the air conditionning unit. It's a Coleman Mach III rooftop unit, that due to the cracked housing and missing vents, looks quite miserable. I plugged it in and turned it on and it worked right away, blowing a nice cool breeze. Now we need to get a new housing. Any source with a decent price appreciated, please leave a comment!
A another untested thing was the genset. It's an old and bulky 6000 watts Onan. The starting battery was missing, so we put one in and hit the Start button. After a few seconds of cranking the engine fired up, at everyone's surprise. Afterward the engine started up instantly. This old generator is far from silent, it is as noisy as an old snowblower and you can definitly feel the vibrations from inside the motorhome, but a tune-up and some soundproofing should quiet it out somewhat to a more acceptable level. At least, it works!
There is still a lot of work to do before this project will be over. Dad has already put a lot of time into this, but the Travco still doesn't look like it's about to go on a camping trip anytime soon. Yet they have campgroud reservations for the upcoming weekend... Looking at the Travco I wonder if it's going to be ready to hit the road. According to Dad, there is "still a lot of time ahead" (that's 4 days!) and it "looks worst that it actually is". Of course the entire restoration will not be completed for the next weekend (this is going to take at least the whole summer, plus a good part of next summer) but at least it has to be "usable" for it's first official camping trip next weekend.
So if everything goes well, my parent will go on their first camping trip with he Travco on friday June 22nd, to June 25th. They won't be alone, we are a group of 8 families, made up of relatives and friends (we got our 8 sites side by side). Destination is the Stoneham Campground, about 45 min north of Quebec City. I'm sure the Travco will get a lot of attention next weekend!
No comments:
Post a Comment