1994 Dutchmen - any other vintage owners out there?

[Wildcat]

Husband and I picked up a 1994 Dutchmen Class C at the end of August.

We have been working on it getting it back into shape:

New tires
Caulked the roof
Replaced cracked/missing exterior lights
Fixed spongy step
Fixed ripped awning
Fixed smash in cab-over area
Fixed cab-over area water leak
Added tile board in kitchen/stove area
Added tile to bathroom sink backsplash
Removed gold trim and frosted glass on the mirrored cabinet doors
Painted all gold trim to black
Added outside tv hookup & satellite cable hookup
Replaced refrigerator vent cover (previous owner ripped it off in McDonalds drive-thru )
Fixed water heater (replaced wiring harness)
Fixed generator (replaced solenoid & starter)
Fixed refrigerator (replaced electric heating element) then discovered it was under recall and then since they didn't have enough parts manufactured to fix it, we received a new refrigerator!
Replaced water pump
Remodeling shower surround in progress

Still lots we want to do, but a little at a time when you are doing it yourself.

Since the weather here has gotten cold, we are going to spend some time checking out this site and others on the internet.
Any other "vintage" owners out there and what have you done to your rig?

Lynette

[pocketchik]

We have a 1993 Dutchmen C class that we picked up in June. While driving it to its home campground we had a tire blow and take out the holding tank under the toilet. Have you had to replace any toilet parts and do you know what size the holding tank is? Since we have a bathhouse near our site it really hasn't been an issue but now that it is cold we want the indoor toilet to work! We caulked all the seals above the cab all over but still seem to have water getting in through the wood (we knew this when we bought it... only thing wrong with the whole RV).. Any tips?? We are planning on using it through next summer then selling to upgrade. (we got it for a STEAL... only has 32k miles on the engine).

[wahoonc]

If you are caulking things... have you removed ALL of the old caulk first? And what are you using? If someone has used silicone in the past, other stuff won't stick until ALL of the old silicone is completely cleaned off. One of the reasons I don't like using silicone.

I have a couple of vintage campers, but no vintage Dutchmen.

Aaron

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by pocketchik

We have a 1993 Dutchmen C class that we picked up in June. While driving it to its home campground we had a tire blow and take out the holding tank under the toilet. Have you had to replace any toilet parts and do you know what size the holding tank is? Since we have a bathhouse near our site it really hasn't been an issue but now that it is cold we want the indoor toilet to work! We caulked all the seals above the cab all over but still seem to have water getting in through the wood (we knew this when we bought it... only thing wrong with the whole RV).. Any tips?? We are planning on using it through next summer then selling to upgrade. (we got it for a STEAL... only has 32k miles on the engine).

We haven't had to replace any toilet parts YET. Husband said we have a small leak that will need taken care of in the spring so we will be removing the toilet then and fixing.

In the cab over area, we had to remove the window and a lot of wood to replace the rot. I say "we" like I helped - well, I was there cheering the husband on and handing him tools since I had just had hysterectomy surgery the day before. We also had to remove the window and then remove the glass from the window frame to put a new seal in there. Went to one dealer and they said we would have to order a new window assembly. We went to "our" dealer that we purchased our first 2 campers through and asked about the seal. He went in the back room and brought out a box of it, measured how much we would need, off we went. I guess when it comes to older RV's, it pays to shop around for parts.

I'll try to upload some pics of the tear out if I can.

[Wildcat]

Originally Posted by wahoonc

If you are caulking things... have you removed ALL of the old caulk first? And what are you using? If someone has used silicone in the past, other stuff won't stick until ALL of the old silicone is completely cleaned off. One of the reasons I don't like using silicone.

I have a couple of vintage campers, but no vintage Dutchmen.

Aaron

Yes Aaron,

We removed the old caulking and cleaned the spots really good before installing new caulking. What we used on the roof was some self-leveling stuff that our dealer recommended. My husband said it went on awesome and looked great when it dried. All I was concerned with was if it stopped the leaks......and it did!

Thanks for checking about removing the old caulking first. I know some that don't and then regret it later.

[Wildcat]

Here is when we started tearing out the rotted wood in the cab over bunk. Wood was so rotten that most came out by grabbing by hand. Previous owner said there was no water damage, just the damage that was done by hitting a tree with the corner of cab over area. We knew better because we could smell the musty smell, but for the price we were willing to do some work.



You can see the square tubing that was bent when the tree was hit. Can't tell from here, but there was a gaping 5"x5" hole on the side also.



As you can see, we had to tear out the bunk base and all - down to the outside skin. When we looked under the first piece of bunk base, there was water sitting there!


Replaced some metal/aluminum supports, added a couple extra, replaced some wood and put it all back together again. We even had to tear out the headliner in the driver section because it was moldy. Still have to work on replacing that in the spring.


Here she is the day we brought her home. You can see the dent in the cab over area above the passenger side, along with the duct tape on the side that they used to cover the hole.

The previous owner also felt the best way to "fix" the awning that had ripped away from the RV was to screw it to the RV siding! Needless to say, we have a bit of water damage to the inside wall to fix there too.

We love to tinker so Harvey the RV will be our fun project to work on in between weekend trips.


Happy camping!!!