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After living in some
pretty cheesy motor
homes I'm shocked at how
nice this little moving
house is , it's got lots
of storage and even has
a bathtub you can sit in
comfortably ...plus the
last owner installed a
catalytic heater so we
don't have to deal with
the grossly inefficient
furnaces that are
installed in
trailers/motor homes.
The only problem here is
this is only 21 feet
long and we want
to carry all our cooking
,canning ,food
preservation stuff
,extra storage batteries
for our 450 watt Solar
system ,wind
generator and
my Graphic arts
equipment ,so we'll have
to tow a small 8-10 foot
utility trailer behind
us..... but the nice thing is
these motor homes are
set up for towing with
air bag shocks in the
rear and a strong hitch
so that will save us
money.
What wont save us money
is fuel ,which is going
up daily ...this little
motor home has a 440
engine in it so it only
gets around 6-7 miles to
the gallon ,but that
doesn't bother us
because we don't want to
drive much till we
figure out what's
happening not just for
our situation but also
what the economy and
climate is doing.
If something bad did
happen - I suppose I could always
whip up a wood gas
generator from my Mother
Earth News plans and run
our motor homes engine
off of that like the
folks over in
Sweden do
.You're not going to win
any races with a setup
like this ,nor is it an
answer to our
environmental problems,
but I figure since I'm
one of the few people
living on this planet
who walked many miles to
stores and carried home
lots of the stuff to do
our 2 bus conversions on
my back and still walk
everywhere or ride my
electric scooter I've
paid my dues and should
be a cut a bit of slack
here....
Why not just buy another
cheap School bus and
convert it ...for one thing no
campground here in the
Eugene area is keen on
letting school buses
stay. So that would mean
we would have to move around a
lot or stay in peoples
yards and that's not the
type of life we want.
Were not in a position
at all to retire so that
means it's important
that we live in a stable
location for work.
Another thing is a
school bus is big and
that would make it
difficult for us to take
it up some tiny
backwoods road to
boondock
long-term....this little
motor home & trailer
combo will allow us to
do that and we'll get
less negative looks and
flack for doing that
from a Forest Service
Cop then we would and
have in a School bus
home. That kind of thing
is important to couple
of Old Folks like us.
We were able to get a
very good deal from
Geico on insurance, so
Tomorrow we'll head out
to the DMV and
switch the title over to
us and register it
...once that's done
we'll work on the engine
stuff and do some
modifications on the
inside ... since we
already have a bunch of
super high quality stuff
left over from our Bus
conversion were going to pull the
old systems out and
replace it with our
stuff .....as we do this
we'll try to take
lots of pictures on how
we go about this and
post them here....
Here's a site with lots
of pictures of these
sought after and well
loved mini motor homes
....
The American Clipper
Owners Club
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May,31 2008 Update.... |
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We were able to sell a
few things and put the
cash we made down on a
new
Pace Outback utility
trailer...it's
a nice little trailer ,
that has around 2100 lbs
of capacity ...which is
just about right for
what we need to carry
along with us ...only
$800.00 more and we'll
bring it home and start
working on the shelving
& battery compartments
we'll install for our
solar system. |
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June 06 , 2008 Update
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Took our lovely little
motor home to the
mechanics for a
comprehensive tune up
and to fix a few things
yesterday ...keeping our
fingers crossed ,hoping
they don't find
something
catastrophically wrong
with the engine....
Also was able to sell
some more stuff and put
the money on the trailer
...only $395.00 to go
and then we'll bring it
home and start working
on it..... |
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June 27th 2008 Update |
Sorry about the lack of
updates , been super
busy working on a bunch
of stuff ....but there
has been some
interesting things going
on for us since the last
update.
One good thing is we
paid off the trailer and
had the truly nice &
decent people over at
Blaser Trailer Sales
(where we purchased our
trailer ) install ladder
racks ,which will hold
our crafts booth and 4
solar Panels ,tie downs
and a propane tank
holder setup . Then our
very nice landlord towed
it back to our apartment
,where I've been
collecting wood and such
for shelves we'll
install in the trailer.
The 'Bad' news is it
turns out our Motorhomes
Engine was in pitiful
shape, the last owner
did some very strange
things mechanically to
it . So after talking
with the mechanics , we
decided it would be
stupid to have them do
some quick fixes to it
...that might work out
for a short period ,but
eventually we'd break
down with totally
trashed engine ...
So we figured the best
thing to do was have
them Rebuild the engine
,replace the radiator
,water pump ,starter and
anything else that could
cause us catastrophic
trouble.
This is costing us an
unbelievable amount of
money ($4800.00) ,which
we really cant afford
.But it's either give up
on our plans or just
deal with it .
Since I mostly hate
living a stuck in one
place lifestyle and
other than the engine
problems the motor home
is in amazingly good
shape , I figure this
extra substantial chunk
of change is worth it
....at least I hope
so... |
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JULY
10th ,
2008
Update |
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Still waiting to hear from the mechanics about our motorhome ...but have been staying busy working on setting up our little trailer ....here's our Trailer Modification Page that shows what I've been doing .. |
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July 14, 2008 Update |
Last Tuesday I called
the mechanics to check
up on what's going on
with our motorhome
and found out they were
far from getting done ,
which was a
disappointment and also
pissed me off a bit
....but I kept my Cool
because I don't want
them to slap the engine
back together in a quick
haphazard way ,nor do I
want them to throw
everything in boxes and
tell me to find someone
else to do the job.
Years ago we knew
someone that had that
happen to him ...so ever
since then we get the
fact that whether we
like it or not mechanics
basically hold you
hostage , and the very
last thing you want to
do in any hostage
situation is piss off
the guys holding you in
bondage.....
Hopefully they'll get
done soon , I want to
get her home so I can
get to work on the
interior stuff....
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Got sick of
waiting for the
mechanics to
call and took
the city bus out
to their shop to
find out what's
going on....
turns out they
had to order a
new head and
according to
them they 'hope'
to have it done
in a week or
'so' ....
So... after
being told this
rebuild would
only take 2-3
weeks max to do
, it turned out
to be a 2 month
or most likely
more very
expensive
project
,...thoughtless
bastards .
I don't have
much hope to get
her back home in
a week like the
guy told me
because they
haven't even
ordered the new
water pump
,radiator
,starter and
other stuff I
told them I
wanted installed
....
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