The next morning we pulled the bed and plywood- it wasn’t good. The owner had focused his repairs on fixing the inside rather than tackling the source. As I like to say- you have to treat it like a boat, if water is getting in- you can’t fix inside until you’ve taken care of the outside and sealed it up. Coincidentally, you know what they say- when it rains, it pours. Yep- Homer decided it was a great time to turn on the wet-works. 🌧️ I watched as water worked it’s way down the roof from the skylight over the bed. 💧 I quickly parked it on an incline as the seller had said he stored it with no issue. She was obviously taking on more water than I had originally been concerned about- and I didn’t know if my small Lexel job was going to protect our investment through the oncoming seasons. 😬💦
I made some calls, and found out that there wasn’t any shop space readily available. I did find a shrink wrap business in town that was super helpful (Thanks Homer Boat Yard!) and discussed the details. Our goal was to still be able to access the motorhome throughout the winter so we could work on it- even better if it would be possible to drive it. I drove the Ohana out to his shop to look it over, and it looked do-able. I let him know that before we shrink-wrapped it I wanted to find a welder to fix the support arm over the passenger side door- so Laura could at least properly use the door. That’s when he told me that he actually had a welder that ran his business right behind his shop! Super cool!
A few minutes later I met Brad Phelps with BP welding. He was about to head out for a job- but took the time to take a look at it. We both agreed that an aluminum support across the top of the original braces would be a good idea that would span the whole width of the camper bed. The braces were already in the best place to grab a substantial holding point to the frame of the truck. We talked about what to get for the job- but coincidentally he was leaving for hunting the next day, for two weeks.
Brad had me pull her in back by his shop, then we jacked up the camper and quick welded the brace into place for now. He only charged me a little bit- and I was short at the moment on cash so he was kind enough to just have accepted what I had on me. We talked and made a plan to touch base when he got back to get the job done. He was a super kind and really smart guy- and I want to say here- Thank You For The Kindness!
So with that we decided to hold off on the shrink wrap, because it would be in the way of installing the planned brace. I decided I would just have to buy a big tarp in the time being.
After I went and got quotes on aluminum, I went by the hardware store to buy some supplies to start cleaning up the mold. There I ran into RJ- and she happened to already have a tarp and bungees I could use! During this time I had messaged the seller- where he told me he was not aware of any issue and it might have been the Black Killz he had painted it with. Shortly after- I had the Ohana home, parked on an incline, (even though the rain had finally let up) and went to work.
Yep, you see that right- Black mold in the middle and white all over the place…
When I was out and about that morning I had picked up my supplies, so it was time to suit up and start hydrogen peroxiding the bed area.
The plywood up in the nose was toast. 😧 It also explained something- why the camper had sagged so badly. What we found was the whole nose was constructed of 1 1/4″ plywood- and it was completely water logged! 🤯 As I removed it- IT WAS HEAVY! There had been an extreme amount of unnecessary weight sitting up in the furthest points of the nose. Hence- extreme sag. I pulled the window trimming- and as I did so the one on the drivers side tried to fall out- I re-inserted the screws in that window and went out to put a heavy bead of Lexel around the windows and let them sit. So I began the process of tearing out all of the plywood that was beyond the point of salvageable…
As I worked I continued to clean with Hydrogen Peroxide I removed the paneling that was covering up the original repair job. When the Peroxide hit the once hidden area- it fizzed like mad; application after application. Where he had originally done the repair he had stuffed the gaps around the job with pipe insulation. I would definitely be using spray foam to insulate it once I figured out how I was going to fix this disaster. And I didn’t even know what I was getting into yet…
I scraped, scrubbed, and evaluated the situation for hours upon hours that day and on into the next.
We decided we wanted to create a new firm support platform for the bed. Since we were going to build a “U” shape so we could fit in that removable cushion over the cab access- as to build an opening that the cushion would solidly snug into. The second thing that this platform would do would be to overhang out the front where the 1 1/4″ plywood was removed. After it was mounted in I would spray foam around it when I re-built the nose.
So I removed the previously installed brackets to prepare for the next step.
We were confused, the seller had told me there wasn’t a problem, and I had been dumb enough not to go prying into the walls or looking under the plywood for the bed! I had thought about doing it before we signed the paperwork- but after having read through his blog and talking the RV over with him I had decided to trust him without checking. I had assumed that he would have not let it get to this point, and I had assumed he would have pointed it out if it was an issue. Even more foolishly- when I signed the Alaska Bill Of Sale Agreement that my loan had required I had signed off that I had done my due diligence and inspections and accepted the vehicle as is. In other words- there wasn’t anything I could do.
Either way we wanted to make this work- so I was going to have to fix it. We just felt duped having paid the full price he was asking when he definitely left some major details out. 😨
So at this point I want to make something really clear- the purpose of this is NOT be badmouthing the previous owner. He should have let us know about it, and I should have checked. From what I understand of his story- this was his baby. He put a ton of work into it, but I think he was more savvy in the mechanical department than in the camper care / maintenance part of things.
This RV was his life, and he lived in it for (at least) a good 5 years straight. Then he bought land and built a house- and life shifted away from this being his main focus. I theorize that at that point it became more of a Toy than his ToyHome anymore. Maintenance slipped, and this girl had needed help for awhile. I’m guessing this issue started at least a year or two before.
To put things quite frankly, I am super happy we bought her when we did. Whether he had looked the other way with a knowledgeable or a completely blind eye; If the camper had to survive another fall, winter, and spring in the degrading condition it was in- this unicorn’s camper would have been headed for the scrapyard. 🌧️+🌨️ = ❌🦄
So with that said, as we go through the process of re-building her; there may be a few of “What were they thinking?” moments. It is not intended to be putting down what methods were used prior, we have to show a true point A to B from our point of view. In fact- as we delve further in to things The Ithaca has much heavier moments of “slapping the hand to the forehead” issues going on with it. 😖🤦🏽♂️
As they say “hindsight” is 20×20 vision- Or as we used to say when I worked on the North Slope building scaffolding, “No rather how you build it, the next scaffolder in charge of your job will walk up and say, “That’s not how I would have done it””. 🤔
With that being said- we like the seller, and firmly understand that we have something special here. What we bought Our Ohana for is nothing, monetarily speaking 💰, close to what he had invested in it.
This girl rolled into our driveway looking like something out of a Mad Max movie, she had lived a relatively rough life. Comparatively, we intend to do with her is give her a life of comfort from here on out. Though there have been moments of shock and dismay, due to discovering a completely different situation than we had originally understood, we are out to make this girl ✨shine✨ again!
Geoff Murphy 3/24/2020
Good job! Love ❤️ it.