1973 Argosy 24' (w/ dinette)

[ready2move]

Hello everyone,

My wife and I just purchased a 1973 Argosy 24' that appears to be in overall excellent shape. Other than a dented banana wrap near the rear street side, the body is flawless and the interior is about 98% original and in great shape. Still, we have a lot of work to do...

We're planning to fix/update a number of things with the goal of adapting it for use as my office for work (mostly consulting by telephone/email) and escaping extremes of heat/cold 2-4 months each year. Because the interior is in such great shape, we intend to make only those modifications necessary to repair and adapt it to our intended use--i.e., we will not be gutting it and doing the kind of amazing bottom to top renovations we've seen demonstrated here. We're also planning to paint at least the bottom half of the exterior (can't recall if the molding in the middle of the body is called a "belt line" or "rub rail").

We'll be posting more pics and many, many questions soon...

[saburkha]

Very nice find! Looks like its in great shape.

[ready2move]

Thanks, Saburkha! My first question...

The aluminum-framed drawers/bins under the twin beds are not secured by any kind of latch or other device to keep them from coming out while in motion. One has already suffered some slight cosmetic damage.

What is the best way to keep these in place while moving? We thought about those child-proofing latches, but wonder if there is a better idea that has been tested.

[Argonaut20]

No doors on the openings where the bins slide in under the bed? My memory may be faulty, but The bins on the Airstream and Argosy units I have owned from the 70's had plastic trays secured with doors in the framework under the bed. No aluminum framing on the trays.

[TG Twinkie]

My '74 Argosy has doors on the compartments under the beds (twin). The door latches left a lot to be desired. I would always have one or two doors fall open when under way. I installed slide bolts to secure the doors. No more open doors due to travel.
Maybe the PO got tired of fighting the doors and removed them. There should be signs of a piano hinge being removed. The doors hinge on the bottom and fold out and down.
I will be upgrading the cabinetry later this year and plan to remove the doors. If you really want the doors and they are the right size. Keep in touch with me. I have removed the original latches from the back side of the doors, but other than that, they are fully functional.

[GeocamperAS]

Here are 2 pic's of my 1974 28'
I think ready2move is talking about the door being an aluminum frame.
If 1973 door is the same as the 1974 door, your latch may be broken.
Take a look at my pic's.
I did a complete renovation and made new cabinets. Therefore have no need for my old latches if you need some.

[ready2move]

Thanks for the replies and kind offers of help!

It looks like AS tried to correct the problem by adding hinged doors and latches in 1974. To clarify, my '73 has plastic bins that are attached to aluminum-framed/woodgrain-laminate drawer fronts. There are no hinges or latches... basically, they are just rectangular drawer fronts (cosmetically similar to tiger's hinged doors) that are attached to the plastic bins.

I'm running a fever and am feeling pretty rotten today, so I won't be going out to take pics. But, I'll try to post some soon. Thanks again everyone.

Steve

[ready2move]

Feeling a little better after taking some meds, so here are some pics of the drawers: