The outside of the her was in fair shape when we first looked at her on the side of the road in Prescott Valley. When we saw the insides and how that all of the upholstery had just been redone and everything seemed to be in working order, we wanted it. We went home and looked up on the Internet what the going rate for that year and condition of Roadtrek was and then called to let the owner know we'd accept the asking price. He gave us $500 off the $14,500 asking price to get the front brakes done.
And, that's where it all started. The front brakes were just the beginning. She needed new rotors and bearings too. I think that it came to $1,200. They said the back brakes were fine and that's another story.
The first thing that we figured out that didn't quite work as we thought was the refrigerator. After researching the cost of a new one, we found a guy in Mesa, AZ (http://campfridge.com/) that did an awesome job of rebuilding ours for $300. It works better than new. Now, if we could just figure out how to replace the upholstery on the door.
Our first trip south to Tombstone let us know that we had a seeping leak in the black water tank. We emptied the tanks and left before we caused too much of a mess. That ordeal was outlined in a previous post (http://seemedgoodatthetime.blogspot.com/2015/08/getting-ready-is-part-of-trip-too.html) in the hopes that someone could benefit from my experience with the rebuilding process.
On the way back from somewhere out in the desert, our air conditioner stopped working. I figured it had to be the compressor, since that seemed to be the only component that hadn't been already replaced. This is something that I noted when we were looking it over to buy it. Well, they had replaced all the other pieces. The problem was exposed when the mechanic removed the compressor to find that every--every--connection had been cross-threaded destroying every component in the system. The replacement of the entire air conditioning system cost us $1,800.
On our Fall trip up into Utah let us know that the brakes still needed something more done to them. Also, did all these vans roll like ours? The mechanic, whom we were becoming fast friends with, found that other mechanic didn't install the front brakes correctly and didn't bother to adjust the rear brakes. We had to have to the front rotor turned, the bearings properly seated, the rear brakes adjusted (something like 12 turns to get the pads to even touch the drums), and purging of the brake fluid. I had noticed that the brake fluid hadn't been flushed when I got it back from the first mechanic, which is what made me look for another mechanic to begin with. I ordered heavy-duty roll bars for both the front and rear, which would be installed in later trips to the mechanic. At least she could be stopped now.
On the way down to Tombstone for the 2nd time in November to get married, the engine was making so much noise that I called the mechanic on the way down. The exhaust manifold gaskets on both sides failed at the same time, so she sounded like a race car. Not only were the exhaust gaskets gone, the carburetor gasket was also leaking. It was not only leaking, it was the wrong gasket.
With all the work done on the van over the last year, I figure we paid out another $12,000. This may be adjusted once I get to look over all the receipts. But I will say that she drives really, really nice now!
Some upgrades we've added to get her ready for our journey includes:
- upgraded converter
- power conditioner
- 160W solar panel
- battery monitor
- additional 12V outlets to allow for crock-pot cooking in the kitchen area and gadget charging
- cellular amplifier
- wifi amplifier
