Here is a shot of the access door under tub removed while looking for water damage.

Here is a picture of the toilet removed. You can see how the floor is buckeled. It is very soft in this area.

This is a picture of opposite side by where the outside compartment hatch is. Floor is just totally gone in this area.
Here is a shot with the tub removed.
After pulling back the vinyl I found the same sawdust particle board that I had seen in front of the door. Will this ever end? Doesn't look like it.
Well, My work is cut out for me. It is actually a little worse than I thought but in a strange way it may be easier to replace larger sections of the flooring than small ones. The poly water lines also are troubling. Every time I touch them the crack at one of the joints. I feel I may just replace that too. I have begun to investigate pex tubing and the associated fittings. I'll return soon and show the next step in flooring removal.

Alright I'm finally back and able to post a few pictures so here we go. First off is the picture of the damage right inside of trailer door.


Next shows what it looks like with the vinyl pulled back to expose the damage.


Then a picture of the area with vinyl cut away and exposing even more of the water damaged flooring. The wood is basically sawdust at this point and was just scooped out.



Next begins the removal of the dinette so that I can get to a larger portion of the flooring.



After the dinette was removed I nearly stepped through the floor under where the table was. This is getting worse then I thought. And sure enough it was. Notice in the picture how the vinyl is curling up and then a shot that shows the damage underneath.


I had no idea that the damage was quite as extensive as I was finding when I first looked at the trailer. The biggest problem being the particle board flooring just turns to sawdust when wet. It soaks up water like a sponge and then just goes to mush. Even in spots where its not mush you can tell it is buckeled from the water seepage. I have a feeling I'm going to be replacing alot more flooring than I first bargained for. Stick around and hopefully tomorrow I will post the pictures of the bathroom floor and subsequent removal.

Wow! This picture thing has been frustrating. I have tried for 3 days to get pictures to post with no luck. I switched browsers tonight to Mozilla Firefox from Explorer and I was able to post on the first try. Not sure why but at least it seems to be working. I will try to get my pictures caught up for anyone interested in seeing them. Stay Tuned!

here we go again.

Gonna try to post a picture again. Not sure what is going wrong.

OK heck, I'm sorry I have fallen behind on posting my progress. Tonight I'm going to try and update with a few pictures. I still don't have the original film roll I took after first bringing the camper home but I do have some digital pictures I have taken since then. So first off here is a shot of the camper itself. Next is a shot of original damage to the floor in front of the entry door. A shot of the floor with toilet removed. And finally a shot of floor (or lack thereof) with tub removed. Hopefully this gives you a slight glimpse of what's to come. I'll be back tomorrow with some more pictures.

Sunday I began working on the camper. Initially my thought process was to clean up the outside a little bit so it wouldn't look like rundown trailer trash. I went to work with a grinder and a wire wheel attachment. I knocked off the rust and old paint from the bumper and hitch. I spent about two days getting it down to pretty much bare metal. I then sprayed it with white rustoleum. Here was my first mistake of which I'm sure will be many. I should have used the rusty metal primer, as the rust is already starting to creep through in a couple of spots. I thought (wrongly) that rustoleum was rustoleum. So it looks like I will redo this by spraying the primer and then coming back over it again with the white. I also completely washed and waxed the outside. I spent a few more evenings just cleaning up some spots and doing research on the net for floor repair and such. I have some pictures of this but unfortunately they are on film and have not been developed yet. My wife had let her Mother borrow our digital camera for her trip to Indy to see Lisa's brother. This past Sunday I began the process of checking out the floor damage. I will post on that tomorrow with some pictures.

I talk my brother into taking his truck with me to pick up the camper. My wife and youngest son Sam are going to follow us that way in the event of trouble we have a second vehicle. This may be overkill but I'm trying to be prepared. Also not knowing the state of the brake lights etc. I would prefer her behind us as opposed to a stranger. We have walkie talkies so we can stay in contact. I have tried to bring along as many tools as I can carry, along with bungee cords. tie wraps, portable air tank and hitch balls and drawbar.

We arrive in Clarksburg and I guide my brothers truck into position on the trailer. First things first. I hand Debbie three one hundred dollar bills and a fifty and she signs over the title. We are now the proud owners of a Coachmen Crestline camper. Ok back to business. I use an existing drawbar because I don't have a 2 5/16 ball. I brought a 2 in and a 1 7/8. Dennis had what I believe is a partial setup of a weight distribution hitch. Although the bars and chains were not there. (I will post some pictures of this if anyone can help on making it into a working system.) Well we hit the first roadblock. I slide the drawbar into my brother's hitch and it won't slide in far enough for the holes to line up. Crap! Ok we will just remove the ball and use my drawbar. Unfortunately I don't have a wrench big enough to get the nut off. Crap Again! I borrow two pipe wrenches from the neighbor and proceed to remove the ball. Alright now we're getting somewhere! Guess what? You're right the shank is too big for my drawbar. So it's off to Shelbyville we go. About a 10 minute drive to the Ace Hardware. I'm in luck they have a 2 5/16 ball with a 1 inch shaft. I buy it and we are back in business! We return to Clarksburg and get the camper loaded up. Hook up the safety chains, the wiring harness and check the brake lights. WooHoo! A-OK! I shoot a little air in the tires and we pull the old girl home. The trip home went very smooth. Trailer pulled very nice. Tires held(I had my fingers crossed and said a little prayer.) My wife followed behind and said everything looked good. I kept expecting something to come flying off as I asked over the radios many times; "How does it look?"

Well we pulled into the driveway and unhitched. My brother took off and I went back to inspection mode. Looking the camper over again. Trying to add up the time and money it was going to take to fix this thing up a little bit. Our neighbors who originally told us about it came over for the tour. At 17 1/2 feet it's not much of a tour! I think they liked it and were happy that we had gotten it. We were too and now it's on to the repairs!

I spent most of the day Monday thinking about the camper. Upon arriving home my wife and I make a descision. We will offer $350 for the camper and would consider going up a little but if she is firm with $500 we will walk on the deal. Our reasoning is 350 gives us a little room to begin immediate repairs, such as tires. We also believe it is a fair price considering the amount of work to be done. It's settled then, we make the offer.

I call Debbie and leave a message on her answering machine. The kind of long winded rambling message of a crazy person. I was wanting to make sure she wasn't insulted by my offer and that it was strictly based on the amount of work to be done. I actually ran out of time and had to call back to make sure I had left my phone number. It's true I am a crazy person.

I received a return call a couple of hours later and the verdict was in. She had talked to her ex and they were willing to sell for $350. She knew it needed work and that they were not going to be doing anything with it. I think she was a little happy that another family would get some enjoyment out of it also.

I set up to return the next Saturday and pick up the camper. In my world now known as The 350 Special! Stay tuned and I'll fill you in on the trip to pick it up.