[blackboat]

Thank you all; haven't been ignoring you, just been searching & reading, trying to get in the position where I can better understand and discuss this thing.

A little more background, if I may. In an effort to quit being such a workaholic, I returned to competitive shooting after a 20 year lapse (specifically, rimfire benchrest). Been enjoying myself immensly, but skyrocketing fuel and ammo costs have had me searching for ways to make it more affordable. One problem is that my wife works nights, and I just can't leave early enough after she gets home to make some matches, unless I go Friday, take the kid, get a hotel. Too, we've developed a habit of vacationing on Jekyll and other islands, and rent houses a couple of times a year.

Some quick math indicated that a camper would be cheaper, as well as letting me get to more matches and let me and the wife have more opportunity to get away. Sounded good.

You know the rest of the story up to this point. Our general conclusion at this point is dance with the devil we know, to mix the metaphors. With new air, fridge and toilet, no signs of tanks leaking, we can probably iron major systems out OK. The axle thing blows, but that's the one biggie so far, and not immediate.

We don't think dumping this one and buying something else for the money we're willing to spend will have any better results, or at best it's a 50/50 shot. From reading on here, I'm becoming convinced than any older AS is going to exhibit some of these problems to a greater or lesser degree, and all other brands of campers we've looked at have all older appliances, which with our luck will exhibit catastrophic failure in a house of cards fashion.

I can't say I'm terribly impressed with a lot of AS engineering at this point. I understand the monocoque construction (now), and while I don't have a problem with trying to achieve lighter weight, it's the execution of it that kills me. The suckers are designed to work and leak, and depending on the floor as the main shell support....words "perimeter frame" ring a bell....not to an ME at AS. Effective sealing and flanging methods, oh well. Holding costs down - c'mon, at what these sell for new, someone could put out the effort and maintain profitability. OK, OK, rant over, I know I'm not the first, but had to personally throw my 2 cents in and vent some frustration. I won't ever do it again, but had to just once. Thought I was getting a Cadillac, just didn't understand it was a '76 Seville (another horror story, fortunately of my folks not me). OK, I just did it again, sorry, now I'm really, truly done. Let's deal with what it is and fix it.

In case I haven't been clear. WE"RE KEEPING IT. The major disappointment has been not being able to go as quick as I wanted, and the embarassment of buying it based on reputation and not enough hard research. My bad, and despite my less than endearing comments on AS construction, all the blame is mine. I did the deal, nobody forced me, just taking me a bit to get reoriented and develop a plan.

So if anyone's still listening, here's the rough plan, MK I:

1) Get it shod and get it home. Doable, still deciding who's going to supply the Marathons, but should happen Fri or Sat. One good stroke; found the Reese spring bars for the hitch under the bed in the stateroom. Cool, there's $150 we don't have to send to Reese (sidenote: spoke with Amanda at Reese, she was helpful, helped me figure out what I had, and there didn't seem to be any problem getting bars for the older hitch/1985.)

2) Given that the bathroom has to come out, I've decided to take the lower furniture and cabinets out starting forward and working aft to the bath. The gaucho has ills and doesn't fit our plans so it's going anyway. Anyone want? This will allow a full inspection of the floor; once any ills are fixed in the structure, then I can peacefully continue with the rest.

3) Obviously, repair the floor in the rear and any othe areas (and frame, etc)

4) Put bath back in (wish I could find some of that magic tub spray in black). At this point, once running gear is good enough, scarily it'll be ready to go to matches. One army cot as furniture, and away we go.

5) Refinish and reinstall woodwork. Since it'll be mostly out, I'm debating on whether to oil the interior (can be done at the home shop; wife and daughter can work on days), or get it all prepped and run it up to the main shop and spray it one weekend.

I think having the interior out will make it a lot easier to chase down wires and check a lot of things. Naturally, there'll be road wiring and brake work and all sorts of little things going on as we attempt what I know is a simplified list, and we'll probably do the axles this winter.

Probably will eventually redo some, or all, of the interior, but throwing the original back in will give us a chance to use it and decide how to go from there.

Dennis and Ron, thank you for your comments on the specifics. Ron, it was your photos that originally sent me to check on this stuff. I'll be in touch someday, but didn't want to call and whine about what an idiot I am. Getting better now.

Janet, we have been looking at this as an enjoyable project, but more with an eye to interior work. The mechanical and structural ills brought me up hard to say the least, but at this point we're resigned to our fate and will make the best of it.

I think in the end we'll have what we want, and I don't think we'll be in it too bad money-wise. I don't think the work is that hard, it's just I guess I was hoping that it all wasn't so, or the genie would pop out of the bottle, or..well, you get the point. Lest I sound too upbeat, I have done major yacht refits, house remodeling, curently design and build pipe organs, and maintain my own personal shops for about everything else. Downer is that I'm in the middle of a large lathe rebuild of a machine I need on line, was caught trying to get 3 new competitive rifles barreled and stocked, and in my spare time the dog needs a fence. And they expect me to show up at work. Not complaining, just have a lot going on and it's going to take some reordering of things to fit it in. Need the camper to shoot, so the guns slack off a bit while we ramp up on the camper, etc.

To conclude, we're going to give it a shot, and I'll report back as we go and see how far off my guesses are now.

Time to read some more, I think I'm going to need some rivets soon so...


Rob