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Soooooo I found a 60's Winnebago slide in for under $1000 that looks like it would make for a nice reno project over the winter. I'm going to look at it later today and if it's not rotten out then I might just snag it! Figure I'll pretty much gut it, update insulation, put in new appliances, roof a/c, reseal everything, white bed liner paint job after roof redone and looks like there's enough room to put in a small toilet with shower. Also looks like putting in a manual slide out on the right side shouldn't be too big of a job so that's on the table too.
Wow, I didn't know Winnebago ever made slide-ins. That's cool!
If it were me, I'd mostly keep it with the factory look if possible.
Yeah it's for sure a neat unit and looks to be quite roomy as is and If I do a slide out on the right side it will have even more room! The windows are crap so I'd put in a few smaller pvc triple pane argon units or something like that and as neat as the Winnebago logos are I'd just paint over them to make things easier and less time consuming and most likely go with a white with light grey scheme......not sure though.
The price people are asking for 10-20 year old slide in units is absolutely mind boggling so I'm giving myself a budget of $6000 to purchase and reno an older unit so I just need to keep my eyes open and do online searching and find the right unit for me. So far I've only been looking in Canada and I'm going to start looking down south now and see if there's some good deals even considering cash difference.
That is an attractive unit. As you know, the windows are prone to leak. Years ago, I rebuilt a SOB unit about that vintage and found several areas of bad wood around the front overhead windows. I had a good dry place to work and was in no rush. At the end of the story, it was an interesting restoration with a nice finished product. Sounds like you plan for much more work than I did. I enjoyed it for years.
That is an attractive unit. As you know, the windows are prone to leak. Years ago, I rebuilt a SOB unit about that vintage and found several areas of bad wood around the front overhead windows. I had a good dry place to work and was in no rush. At the end of the story, it was an interesting restoration with a nice finished product. Sounds like you plan for much more work than I did. I enjoyed it for years.
Yeah it looks pretty neat on the outside and I like how roomy it is inside PLUS it's 6'5'' floor to ceiling on the main level and I'm told it's current dry weight is under 1000lbs so even if it's a bit long for my 6.75 bed I can just build with added weight towards the front of the unit. First thing I'd have to do is fab up and install the 4 lift jacks and for the interior I'd pretty much just gut it, replace any rotten wood and add enough insulation to handle the -40c winters here then vapour barrier and close off with some kind of particle board or similar product.
If I pick up this unit the plan is to rebuild it so all plumbing is inside the insulation where it can stay warm, add a bathroom, add a wood stove as well as a diesel heater and keep the furnace as a backup that way just the fridge runs on propane and I'd remove the outdated stove for more room and install a smaller 2 burner table top unit that I'll plumb into the propane tank system. A simple love seat and chair with dinette table will suit me just fine and next summer I'd 100% put in a good sized manual slide out.
Probably won't have time to go check it out till next weekend, but if It's not rotten out and I can get it for $600-$1000 I'm fairly certain I can do a full reno for under 5 grand and that's including a diy jack system, bathroom, new wiring, new windows, solar with inverter and new plumbing/water pump etc. I'd be building everything from scratch pretty much and shouldn't take much materials to get it to how I'd want it. As long as the shell is in decent shape I should be good to go
Hands down the best wood stove for a small camper is a Kimberly and they are almost $6000. That's why I didn't go with one. Maybe on the next build but building materials went up so much I had to sacrifice it.
Hands down the best wood stove for a small camper is a Kimberly and they are almost $6000. That's why I didn't go with one. Maybe on the next build but building materials went up so much I had to sacrifice it.
6 grand for a wood stove lol. I'm a welder/ fabricator so I'll just make my own and buy the exhaust. I already have several sheets of stainless and fireproof board is cheap so easily under 1 grand for a small wood stove I figure.
I'll be the dissenting vote here because I've been there and done that. I restored a leaky old Mitchell camper about 15 years ago that I had bought for $200. When it was finished, I had a dry, freshened-up camper that still had all of the limitations of a 1970's camper. The bed area was too small, there wasn't a real bathroom, the aluminum siding got dinged super easy and is impossible to fix, the fridge was too small, the windows were terrible in cold or rainy weather, etc...
But it was my first experience with a truck camper and I lived with it for quite a few years. It taught me that I did want a truck camper, just not that truck camper.
The situation was the same back then as it is now, people ask too much $ for a truck camper. But by being patient and searching for many months, I finally found a deal that I could live with, a brand new Palomino HS-8801 for $13k at a "low-profit high volume" dealer up in Iowa.
Yes, people ask too much for truck campers, new and used, but they all eventually sell. It's much easier to search for and haggle for that one modern camper that is reasonably priced, than it is to restore an old camper that will never live up to your expectations.
And what happened to the old Mitchell? It's now a storage shed in my backyard. We had super high winds a few years ago and it flipped onto its side, but I winched it back over and still use it for storage.
I'll be the dissenting vote here because I've been there and done that. I restored a leaky old Mitchell camper about 15 years ago that I had bought for $200. When it was finished, I had a dry, freshened-up camper that still had all of the limitations of a 1970's camper. The bed area was too small, there wasn't a real bathroom, the aluminum siding got dinged super easy and is impossible to fix, the fridge was too small, the windows were terrible in cold or rainy weather, etc...
But it was my first experience with a truck camper and I lived with it for quite a few years. It taught me that I did want a truck camper, just not that truck camper.
The situation was the same back then as it is now, people ask too much $ for a truck camper. But by being patient and searching for many months, I finally found a deal that I could live with, a brand new Palomino HS-8801 for $13k at a "low-profit high volume" dealer up in Iowa.
Yes, people ask too much for truck campers, new and used, but they all eventually sell. It's much easier to search for and haggle for that one modern camper that is reasonably priced, than it is to restore an old camper that will never live up to your expectations.
And what happened to the old Mitchell? It's now a storage shed in my backyard. We had super high winds a few years ago and it flipped onto its side, but I winched it back over and still use it for storage.
Well I'm planning on putting in new windows, a bathroom and basically going to put in everything to suit my needs and this Winnebago unit has AMPLE room so I can see your point of view to a degree, but your negative experience doesn't mean mine will be negative as well.
If a can buy and reno a unit for under 5k and get 3-4 years out of it that will be fine with me cause by then I'll be upgraded to a long bed dually and will want a much larger unit. Appreciate your reply though 🙂
Finally got to see it this evening and for it's age it's in pretty darn good shape. I'm 220lbs and could walk all over the roof so it's solid, but there's for sure a few areas that will need repair on the lower level. From front to back(not including cab over)it's 128'' in length so WAY too long for my short bed, but I had it weighed and it's currently only 1420lbs and FOR SURE this is a project I want to take on! I'm 99% sure I'm going to buy it and reno it over the winter and this way I have a reason to get me a long bed truck ha ha ha. I've seen quite a few nice looking 7.3 CCLB 4x4 truck in BC for 5-6 grand so might go that route or might price out how much to turn my truck into a long bed dually
Here's a few pics from this evening, let me know what you fellas think.
Wow, I didn't know Winnebago ever made slide-ins. That's cool!
If it were me, I'd mostly keep it with the factory look if possible.
Originally Posted by OBS460
That looks like a nice platform for a restomod buildout
Originally Posted by raytasch
That is an attractive unit. As you know, the windows are prone to leak. Years ago, I rebuilt a SOB unit about that vintage and found several areas of bad wood around the front overhead windows. I had a good dry place to work and was in no rush. At the end of the story, it was an interesting restoration with a nice finished product. Sounds like you plan for much more work than I did. I enjoyed it for years.
Ok....so I've decided to buy the camper and will end up getting a long bed 6.0 or 7.3 in the near future to marry it to, but in the meantime if i can get the total camper weight down to 1000lbs-1200lbs do you think I'd be a complete madman running it over the winter in my lifted short box with 4 feet hanging out the back? I see dually rigs with those massive slide ins sticking out a good 3-4 feet so it's not uncommon or anything and it's a huge camper for sure, but 1200lbs is pretty light for an F250 even if half that weight is slightly behind the rear axle. I dunno....try and find out I guess maybe lol 😆
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