swissarmyknife
Member
A little prelude before going into the mods because the ideas came up from the necessity of keeping cost down while maintaining some key aspects that our family needed. We had roughly a 35k budget to buy a 5th wheel that could accommodate our family of 6 (Mom,Dad, 2 teens and 2 toddlers). We had previously a Class-A 03 Winnie Adventurer which was OK but we ended up having to switch the dinette to sleeping quarters and back each day and that got really old with my teens who would rather sleep until 11am. So we ended up purchasing a 'project' 2012 Elkridge 36QBCK (bunk house with second 1/2 bath). Project, because it was in bad shape on the inside. The previous owner had dogs and the smell was so strong that another couple that were interested in the rig immediately walked away and said this thing should be burned down to the sales person as they walked off. We too were distgusted by the smell, but I saw the potential.
The bad:
The bunk house bedding was torn, the mattresses smelled like dog urine, the slideout fascia closest to the door was ripped off from the frame (the door seemed to have been caught behind it when they attempted to close the slideout. One cabinet door was ripped off the hinges and the door was partly split down the seam.
In the dinette area the cushions and carpet too smelled strongly of dog, the air return cover was badly mangled up from scratching, the microwave had rust damage and right under the microwave the cover strip was swollen up indicating clear water damage. The linoleum had some tears.
The main bath shower tub was cracked and in the mast bed room there was some more damage to cabinetry and again dog smell galore.
Outside all the weather strips (D-seals) were completely deteriorated. They were so bad in places that it became a gooey tar like substance.
The screen door which uses the same hinges as the main door was snapped off on two of the three hinges and basically prevented the screen to close properly.
The good:
With this laundry list of items to fix we gave the sales guy a very aggressive offer which was well below our budget. Three days later the sales guy called back and we took possession after I did a thorough functional walkthrough of the rig. Luckily all the appliances were in working condition and the big ticket items (furnace, water heater, refer, AC and landing gear/stabilizer) all checked out.
The mods:
Initially we thought that removing the dinette and pull out coutch and than use our carpet cleaner would do the trick in eliminating the dog odor. Well, lets just say that I was completely wrong. ;-) I ended up ripping out all the carpet in the bunk house, the dinette area and master bedroom, including the steps and small hallway. To our surprise we found the same linoleum also under the carpet which immediately let me fix the patch in the kitchen area that had rips in it. Found the same L-shaped piece and took an exacto knife and swapped out bad with good. In the master I removed the bed framing so that I could cut out the old stinky carpert around the slideout piston.
At Home Depot we found a carpet that was nearly identical in color but much heavier weight. We ended up ordering 19 yards which came to about 360 with tax. The transition from carpet to linoleum I finished off with brass colored aluminum stripping to prevent the carpet from frising out and the carpet on the dinette slideout we ended up giving to a carpet specialist to sow edging on. - BTW all the smells are completely gone.
The cracked shower tub was removed. Getting the glass side panels and door out of that small space was sure a workout, but in the end it looks really nice. The old tub was fiberglass reinforced which I found out once my arm started to hive from trying to disconnect the drain pipe from the bottom of the tub. The new tub is all plastic and uses Styrofoam pads. At the end it all came out nice and you can't tell it isn't the original tub.
In the bunk area I fixed the fascia that was pulled off from the frame and fixed up the cabinet door before I mounted it back on the cabinet.
The screen door had to come off all the way and I really dreaded to spend 400 on a new entrance door with screen door and the logo wouldn't match. So I went to the local hardware store and looked for brackets that might work and found some that were a perfect fit. I had to cut a small rectangular shape into the side of the door for the new hinge to have room, but I was able to hang the screen door and the pivot points are only 1/8 of an inch off so the main door and screen door still open and close with each other.
Todo:
I need to install latching brackets for the screen door because that was also busted. We are also building a full 8ft dinette that will allow up to 8 adults to comfortably eat. The dinette will be made out of 3/4 in high grade maple plywood and 2x2's for structure. I will finish off all the corners with 1/4 round. In another post I asked for some help to locate the brain for the 8 switch LCI controller that allows to control the slide outs, landing and stabalizer gears. Initially nothing would work at all but after finding the controller realized that the remote was not paired any longer. With the new found info and the ability to engage up to 8 devices (including polarity switching) I have decided to try to make a manual leveling system with new landing gears from Ultrafab with individual motors and their Twin II power rear stabilizer/leveling jacks. The basics are that the current remote function for landing gear will engage both front landing gear motors and the same will go for the rear stabilizer. For the left and right side I will use some simple relay trickery to make sure that the current really only goes to the left side motors or ride side motors, but I need to decide what functions on the remote I will call out for those two extra functions. Worst case I could buy a separate RF controller that could be used but knowing that two of the four functions already exist with the current remote is probably the best way to go.
Cost:
Well we paid about 7k below retail cost for this 5th wheel if it was in excellent condition. With all the mods and changes so far we have spend about 4k. I was really eyeballing the ground control 3.0 system but at 3k alone it just was not in the stars (the new landing gear, rear stabilizer and the needed wiring/hardware only came to 1200). The remainder of the budget will get bedding, a TV for the bunk house and some other entertainment equipment.
The bad:
The bunk house bedding was torn, the mattresses smelled like dog urine, the slideout fascia closest to the door was ripped off from the frame (the door seemed to have been caught behind it when they attempted to close the slideout. One cabinet door was ripped off the hinges and the door was partly split down the seam.
In the dinette area the cushions and carpet too smelled strongly of dog, the air return cover was badly mangled up from scratching, the microwave had rust damage and right under the microwave the cover strip was swollen up indicating clear water damage. The linoleum had some tears.
The main bath shower tub was cracked and in the mast bed room there was some more damage to cabinetry and again dog smell galore.
Outside all the weather strips (D-seals) were completely deteriorated. They were so bad in places that it became a gooey tar like substance.
The screen door which uses the same hinges as the main door was snapped off on two of the three hinges and basically prevented the screen to close properly.
The good:
With this laundry list of items to fix we gave the sales guy a very aggressive offer which was well below our budget. Three days later the sales guy called back and we took possession after I did a thorough functional walkthrough of the rig. Luckily all the appliances were in working condition and the big ticket items (furnace, water heater, refer, AC and landing gear/stabilizer) all checked out.
The mods:
Initially we thought that removing the dinette and pull out coutch and than use our carpet cleaner would do the trick in eliminating the dog odor. Well, lets just say that I was completely wrong. ;-) I ended up ripping out all the carpet in the bunk house, the dinette area and master bedroom, including the steps and small hallway. To our surprise we found the same linoleum also under the carpet which immediately let me fix the patch in the kitchen area that had rips in it. Found the same L-shaped piece and took an exacto knife and swapped out bad with good. In the master I removed the bed framing so that I could cut out the old stinky carpert around the slideout piston.
At Home Depot we found a carpet that was nearly identical in color but much heavier weight. We ended up ordering 19 yards which came to about 360 with tax. The transition from carpet to linoleum I finished off with brass colored aluminum stripping to prevent the carpet from frising out and the carpet on the dinette slideout we ended up giving to a carpet specialist to sow edging on. - BTW all the smells are completely gone.
The cracked shower tub was removed. Getting the glass side panels and door out of that small space was sure a workout, but in the end it looks really nice. The old tub was fiberglass reinforced which I found out once my arm started to hive from trying to disconnect the drain pipe from the bottom of the tub. The new tub is all plastic and uses Styrofoam pads. At the end it all came out nice and you can't tell it isn't the original tub.
In the bunk area I fixed the fascia that was pulled off from the frame and fixed up the cabinet door before I mounted it back on the cabinet.
The screen door had to come off all the way and I really dreaded to spend 400 on a new entrance door with screen door and the logo wouldn't match. So I went to the local hardware store and looked for brackets that might work and found some that were a perfect fit. I had to cut a small rectangular shape into the side of the door for the new hinge to have room, but I was able to hang the screen door and the pivot points are only 1/8 of an inch off so the main door and screen door still open and close with each other.
Todo:
I need to install latching brackets for the screen door because that was also busted. We are also building a full 8ft dinette that will allow up to 8 adults to comfortably eat. The dinette will be made out of 3/4 in high grade maple plywood and 2x2's for structure. I will finish off all the corners with 1/4 round. In another post I asked for some help to locate the brain for the 8 switch LCI controller that allows to control the slide outs, landing and stabalizer gears. Initially nothing would work at all but after finding the controller realized that the remote was not paired any longer. With the new found info and the ability to engage up to 8 devices (including polarity switching) I have decided to try to make a manual leveling system with new landing gears from Ultrafab with individual motors and their Twin II power rear stabilizer/leveling jacks. The basics are that the current remote function for landing gear will engage both front landing gear motors and the same will go for the rear stabilizer. For the left and right side I will use some simple relay trickery to make sure that the current really only goes to the left side motors or ride side motors, but I need to decide what functions on the remote I will call out for those two extra functions. Worst case I could buy a separate RF controller that could be used but knowing that two of the four functions already exist with the current remote is probably the best way to go.
Cost:
Well we paid about 7k below retail cost for this 5th wheel if it was in excellent condition. With all the mods and changes so far we have spend about 4k. I was really eyeballing the ground control 3.0 system but at 3k alone it just was not in the stars (the new landing gear, rear stabilizer and the needed wiring/hardware only came to 1200). The remainder of the budget will get bedding, a TV for the bunk house and some other entertainment equipment.