Classic Winnebagos & Vintage RVs

I usually buy and sell cars and trucks to make extra cash to pay for my obsession.

I tried putting on a dress and standing on a street corner.  Being the very large hairy dude that I am, it didn't work out very well for me.   W% W% W% W% W%

Kev

just standing on the wrong corner lol :)ThmbUp

 :)rotflmao :)rotflmao :)rotflmao :)rotflmao :)rotflmao

Kev

First, I own http://www.adventurepowersports.us (http://www.adventurepowersports.us)


Then, how I save money is that I make many of the parts I use.  I have a full machine shop so I fabricate many of my projects along with doing all my own work.


Time.  I have had my coach for 23 years.  I just pick on a couple of projects a year.  Spreads it out quite a bit.

Hey Guys, we just found a guy who can make and supply all our hard to find parts now. :)rotflmao :)rotflmao :)rotflmao :)rotflmao got his own machine shop. D:oH! :D

Quote from: iamcaper on March 19, 2019, 03:01 PM
I usually buy and sell cars and trucks to make extra cash to pay for my obsession.

if you have a retro rv[/l][/l]

You mean 'vintage rv', right? Retros are new, made to look 'vintage.'

Quote from: Aaarrghh on March 20, 2019, 11:08 AM
You mean 'vintage rv', right? Retros are new, made to look 'vintage.'

correct I am in a vintage rv lol   :)ThmbUp appologies

I pay for mine by not taking the family on vacations except in the RV.   Flights for 5, rental car for a week, meals (ok we still eat out mostly), but hotel rooms not rented!, add up fast every time we take a trip.

I do it the old fashioned way; I work a regular job as an IT Administrator, and then apply the Johnny Cash principle of "One piece at a time".

Welding and fabrication, carburetor rebuilding as side jobs as my body will allow.

Semi retired contractor, ( want to be full retired but still need to finish some projects of my own, like building our new shop/ small apartment for a base camp at my sons and a couple more projects on the Winnie to suit our liking) at 62 I have a couple more years until Social Security so I pick and choose the jobs that I do, my old worn out body won't do the things that it did when I was 30! my brain thinks I'm still 22 but my body screams WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! most of the time!  :D

Well I'm on a modest pension. So I have to learn every thing I can and rely of the gang here to teach me  how to fix everything on my 1975 Winnebago Brave. We usually find a Walmart or a Cracker Barrel  in the area we're traveling in to lay over night for free. We find the food in the States inexpensive so the only thing I have to pay for is fuel. That I cover by going to farm auctions and buying a broken down piece of farm equipment take it home fix it, clean it up and then sell it. There's more than one way to skin a cat. Don't ever let anybody tell you it can't be done. Just move them out of the way of someone who's doing it. Where there's a will you'll always find a way. :)ThmbUp

Beaverman, I hear you on the brain and body disagreement! After 4 spine surgeries, a knee replacement, a hip replacement, waiting on the other hip and two torn rotator cuffs I have finally gotten to the point where my brain has admitted defeat.


TJ, I can't go to farm auctions, I am dangerous to my own bank account!!!!!

Quote from: Rickf1985 on March 25, 2019, 03:29 PM
Beaverman, I hear you on the brain and body disagreement! After 4 spine surgeries, a knee replacement, a hip replacement, waiting on the other hip and two torn rotator cuffs I have finally gotten to the point where my brain has admitted defeat.


TJ, I can't go to farm auctions, I am dangerous to my own bank account!!!!!

Amen brother, getting old aint for sissies! ;)

Go to vintage camper rallies. There's where you meet guys that can do all sorts of stuff. I needed a rare part and met a man who had it in his junk pile, said come and take it. Problem solved!

Yes , I still work for a living , here's the stuff I work on ââ,¬Â¦..Cranes , pretty much mostly crawlers , a lot of older machines and the trucks/trailers that haul them .  Good times !!

Did that for a short bit between jobs when the fire chief at our volunteer company offered me a job for a temporary bit servicing some cranes on the waterfront. Interesting work and damn well better not be afraid of heights! That high up over water with no reference point can be a bit unnerving. My job was greasing all of the pulleys and I can tell you that the jib on a crane a couple hundred feet up moves a LOT in the wind! I don't know how those operators can land a load on spot the way they do.

It's hard work for an old guy .


Even though we are trained and equipped for it we ,  don't often work at heights , for maintenance , the crane is boomed down to grease the sheaves. I don't live near the water so I have not worked on any barge mounted equipment , I was wondering how  they can  boom down safely to lube the sheaves


These cranes are rentals , we load all the components and haul to site , It gets assembled and when they are done with it we show up with trucks , take  it apart and haul it all back to our yard.


Older equipment , when it becomes necessary gets overhauled  , Big parts in some of these ââ,¬Â¦..

For reference , to get an idea of scale , those chunks of wood , one has blue paint on it  , are 12" X 12"

These were mostly set up on the docks but the prevailing wind came from Pennsylvania towards NJ and this was in Philadelphia so the cranes would be pointed towards NJ to keep them from being cross to the wind. Also, This was the early 70's, OSHA was not a factor. N:(  We basically free climbed the booms and checked the pins as we went and tied off once at the top to do the maintenance on the wheels. I did this every day at dawn or in the evening if bad weather was predicted for the next day. the operators were gone for the day and I think the whole idea was to have the work done while the operators were not on the clock making big bucks to do nothing but lower a boom and wait a couple hours to raise it. That would be half a day wasted. The safety rules have changed now I am sure, as have the union rules. I didn't get into the gears and chains. That was what my buddy did as a full time job. He was being paid just a little more than I was. W% :D

Iââ,¬â,,¢m one of those Silly Rabbits who work hard entire life, saved like crazy and could afford a $150k motor homes but elected to buy used and redo as required ..... I have a lot of coin into my Classic 23ââ,¬â,,¢ Brave but still well under budget ..... Basically I saved for 35 years, lots of tent camping and someday will have one!

Quote from: Rickf1985 on March 30, 2019, 03:36 PM
These were mostly set up on the docks but the prevailing wind came from Pennsylvania towards NJ and this was in Philadelphia so the cranes would be pointed towards NJ to keep them from being cross to the wind. Also, This was the early 70's, OSHA was not a factor. N:(  We basically free climbed the booms and checked the pins as we went and tied off once at the top to do the maintenance on the wheels. I did this every day at dawn or in the evening if bad weather was predicted for the next day. the operators were gone for the day and I think the whole idea was to have the work done while the operators were not on the clock making big bucks to do nothing but lower a boom and wait a couple hours to raise it. That would be half a day wasted. The safety rules have changed now I am sure, as have the union rules. I didn't get into the gears and chains. That was what my buddy did as a full time job. He was being paid just a little more than I was. W% :D

Roofer 42 years, we covered everything!

Long time, no see. Glad to see you are still hanging around. :)ThmbUp

Quote from: Rickf1985 on April 18, 2019, 09:52 AM
Long time, no see. Glad to see you are still hanging around. :)ThmbUp

Oh yea, RV repairs took awhile - have a wonderful shop here in Mountain Home, Arkansas that did most of restore ..... Mountain Home Auto and RV and the Owner, Mike, knows his stuff inside and out from the coach to the brakes - should anyone read this post they are at


794 HWY 5 N Mountain Home, Arkansas 72653


Ask for Mike - 870-580-0952 - tell him guy with 1994 Brave sent ya!

Quote from: beaverman on March 25, 2019, 12:09 PM
Semi retired contractor, ( want to be full retired but still need to finish some projects of my own, like building our new shop/ small apartment for a base camp at my sons and a couple more projects on the Winnie to suit our liking) at 62 I have a couple more years until Social Security so I pick and choose the jobs that I do, my old worn out body won't do the things that it did when I was 30! my brain thinks I'm still 22 but my body screams WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING! most of the time!  :D

42 years in Roofing and 36 years as Contractor- Sold Biz in August 2016 and never went back into the Shop, bye bye all good to know ya!

How do I fund my vintage RV hobby? BARELY, that's how. If I had a lot of money, I'd have too many cool vintage things around, so I better keep the funds coming in slowly. Like already mentioned, I do small projects when I can, their will always be something to fix or improve. At 6 mpg, gas alone hurts.

Quote from: millwrightRVguy on August 18, 2020, 12:40 PM
divorced the wife , sold the house, and moved into the old beatup chieftain so the kids cant come home to stay and made sure that whenever they do come to visit i have something for them to do on the Winnebago. Maybe a little drastic but Damn effective

LOL!!! 

Kev

Quote from: millwrightRVguy on August 18, 2020, 12:40 PM
divorced the wife , sold the house, and moved into the old beatup chieftain so the kids cant come home to stay and made sure that whenever they do come to visit i have something for them to do on the Winnebago. Maybe a little drastic but Damn effective

:D :D :D :D :D :D

Apparently most of the COST is the damage I sustain is to my MENTAL HEALTH...I recently put one of the unobtainable jam nuts for those rear brakes I have been working to get back together for more than a month now somewhere where I havent been successful in finding it...Delays dealing with a broken crossover wheel cylinder brake line took forever to get done...I hurt my back....again....that had me down for 2 weeks....then I finally feel strong enough and put together the passenger rear. That FELT GREAT I put that side together!!!. A few days later I went to do the driverside.  In my mind I had left the outer jam nut for the driver wheel ON the axle tube for that driver side just to have it in a safe easy to find place. I had the inner and the retaining ring for that other side off and had been carrying those with me because I had one tab broken off of one of the retaining rings and needed them with me to show people who I needed to help me solve this problem  an example of the good one and how it fit together with the inner nut that has a dimple on the nut....so I didnt put THOSE on the axle....To keep things neat I had put the tires and wheels up against the bare axle tube that I thought had the nut on it so each time I happened to just walk past I didnt see past the wheels and never gave that nut any thought....I put the wheels there to make it not look like the thing is just taken apart and parts are laying around....I finally go to do the work on that driver's side and the nut isnt there. The wheels were still where I left them NO ONE was going to take the effort to move those from under the fender there...they are heavy and dirty and kind of unmanageable ...And really why would anyone want to go there to do that anyway....This rig is at a storage place where I was supposed to do this work and get it done QUICKLY...They are short staffed and my rig is out of the way out of sight really so there hasnt been any repercussions from NOT having it done within a few days other than to my time budgeted No repercussions mostly through dumb luck..I hate not doing what I planned and said I would do..obviously I was hallucinating when I thought I put that nut back on the axle for safe keeping....now my mind is telling me I left it in one of the cabinets or drawers in the RV. Or that I put it in the box with the inner seal...it wasnt there...(Ive completely emptied the RV opened every box of parts etc it into the parking lot now to look for that nut... Then my mind says that maybe I took it with me when I went to the hardware store 4 weeks ago when I was looking to fix that retainer ring also and maybe I left it there somehow(I went there yesterday to look through there lost and found--nope not there)...or that it was in one of the tool bags I carry to do this work...Ive since emptied every one of them in search...I cant tell you how consumed I am with trying to find this thing....and yes our stuff is EXPENSIVE to deal with money wise/time wise etc but for the most part it keeps me creative and my mind working in a GOOD WAY so I its worth the money you have to pay its like paying to go to the movies or to a theater show its kind of like doing that....I am not so happy with my hobby/obsession when I am overly disappointed by people not wanting to help....I have just started thinking about how to remedy the terrible attitude people can have with the weird stuff we deal with... just trying to find someone to pay to perform something I am looking to accomplish that is a thing out of the ordinary is an episode in futility sometimes...you know like maybe making a new jam nut to replace this one that I now have spent a week looking for?  I have seen how people didnt want to talk to me about the crossover wheel cylinder brake line I needed because they thought it wasnt worth much to them in financial gain. I ended up getting killed to do those lines...I spent more than $1500 to get that accomplished a couple of hundred in parts I bought to try and build them myself that went into a scrap pile. The actually $200 to have the guy who made them for me do that. And 2 weeks worth of time driving around town and even a two hour round trip to get info..... how much is that worth????...I just pulled the $1500 out of the either but if you actually do the math it may be even more.......Next time I have to deal with someone in a specialty like a machinist or fabricator or carpenter or.... I have a plan. I have decided to introduce myself and say I am working on a project that has special considerations. Out of respect for you will you tell me what your hourly rate is to do your work? The tell me whatever...I say great I would like to buy 10 minutes of your time right now. That translates to X $'s correct? Further for that I want to communicate with you in my style its the only one I know how to do so I can expect since I am paying you that you wont be annoyed with my style and you will look at what I want to do and advise/guide me is that ok/fair? I ran that past a guy yesterday that I should have thought of each time I needed something but hadnt seen him for years and God just happened to put me in his neighborhood yesterday so I obviously thought of him THEN when I was right around his corner....I showed Max what i wanted and told him the troubles I have had trying to get things made...and told him I  nervious to even show him he is so busy...He is such a nice guy...and very uniquely talented he makes parts and redesigns things for Maserati Ferrarri and Lamborgini MOSTLY he has business from ALL around the world...he can probably make anything...He saw me walk in and said hey there Toolman how are you...mind you I have seen him over the years a hand full of times just because I like him and rivire his skill and niche business  he has never bought anything from me...has come to the tool truck once when I first met him...but he is so interesting not just for what he can do but what he knows besides the skill set he has...I know he finds me that way also so he gets a mind stimulation/ break when I ask him something unrealated to building something.. so I just go to see him once in a while just because...he told me to go look one more time for the jam nut. If in a few days if I dont find it..that he would make it for me but it will take a bunch of time to figure out if I dont also bring him the axle tube... he can determine the thread pitch MUCH easier with the axle tube..he can do it without it but the math etc will take time and he wouldnt have to take as much time if he had that axle tube and everything else...when I told him I was trying to find folks to do out of the box stuff without success and had come up with my Ill pay you to talk to me idea...he said its such a shame we cant have compassion for each other anymore...its so rare...i left with my hope that humanity will still feature and that I will be sure to say thank you when I see it because quite frankly I havent been in the presence of much lately... If anyone knows where I can find a jam nut for a Dana 70 *HD* 14,000 lb rear end that has the Dodge M400 RM500 Chassis from a 1973 RV around it I would greatly appreciate that. I have been told that the differential is DANA MOSTLY but The Hub, The Drum, The axle tube, the inner Axle spline nut, the retainer ring and my missing jam nut  and the bearings and seal there are all DODGE choices. I havent been successful getting part numbers for any of these parts except the bearings where the Timken number is evident or the inner seal where the National Number is evident. The unmarked for part number jam nut and the inner nut are 8 sided. The nut I need measures 2-57/64" for its OD (a 2-7/8 8 fluted socket is used to remove it and the inner nut.) The ID is 2" for the nut. The thickness of the nut is 1/4". I don't know what the thread pitch is....If It somehow turns out there are several in that size available but they have different thread pitches...I will buy them ALL to solve my problem...       

Wow, buying them all!  That stinks, but what else can you do when there's just no way to find out which one is right?!
Hm? :(