The New Money Pit!

This is our not so new but new to us 1982 Travelcraft GMC class C RV. We inherited this from my FIL. His wife passed away on Christmas Eve. He has decided that he was not going to use this any more so he passed it on down to us. Which is a good thing he is 86 and I don't think anyone wants him out in the sticks driving something this behemoth. While I am grateful for receiving this I am beginning to wonder if it is going to be a gift or a nightmare. From the outside it looks to be in real good condition especially when you consider it is 27 years old. When we first received it we found out that it has been black tagged for about the last 8 years. In other words it has been sitting in my FIL backyard doing nothing for that long. We were really shocked when the thing started up. Never mind that it sputtered and complained. It was like waking up an ole giant. We topped the tires off with air. They were a little low after 8 years. Then DH drove the thing home (very slowly just encase there was a major malfunction). After telling our insurance about it they figured up what our cost would be. I went there to give them the deposit and once again I was amazed. I was expecting to write a check for $100-$200. When they told me it was only going to be $29 I was completely shocked (then our monthly amount is about $16). This was going to turn out to be a great adventure. Why hadn't we done this before. When I went to get the tag/title I was amazed the thing is so old that the tag was only $22.50. When we got home we started exploring our new friend.



These lights are probably one of the main features I told my DH that we needed to save if at all possible. Cann't you just see a disco ball and John Travolta doing there thing!


Once we were inside we knew we had our work cut out for us. Our aging dinosaur had been sealed up for about eight years and this was like a time capsule. We had a LOT of purging to do before we could even start making any repairs. It was a little entertaining. We even found an old rotary phone inside one of the cabinets. It was funny teaching my kiddos how that worked. Then you have to stop and think. Why on earth would there be a rotary phone in an RV. It's not like it could receive cell service. In fact if my memory serves me correctly. Back in the early 80's it was a big deal just to have a pager. Even the old suit case type mobile phones weren't about yet. Touch tone phones were just becoming popular. In the following pic you can see just the top of the piles of junk we had to remove. Sorry it is so dark but is was the best we could do at the time.


Then we started with some of the repairs. This before pic is one of my favorites. I call it the fish bowl head light. The cool thing was we were able to replace both headlights for about $20. I hope the rest of the repairs go this well.


Now our luck is changing. Remember I said it has some leaks. Well in this first pick that is mold so now we will be having to do some big repairs. At least it is just wood and insulation. Not to costly just time consuming. The others are pretty much just water damage but since we are already in the area these will get repaired as well.





This is going to be an adventure. I hope we will be able to get it going before to long. So that we can get some use out of it before school starts.

Well there it is in all of its glory.