Here's Terry!!!

[T1 Terry]

Q/How come the prev owners let the MH get so run down??

They were in the hospitality business, sold their cafe/restaurant and decided to go travelling. They were working 14 to 16 hrs a day in places they stopped at, planning to save up and put the motorhome in for a full restoration .... then one of the parents got crook and they came home to look after them in their final years ..... so, rather than hold on to it, they sold it and will put the money towards the next one when they get to hit the road again.

When we were negotiating to buy it, he was in the midst of changing jobs, from running the kitchen at functions, to delivering drinks in a truck up and down the coast and across the mountains ..... he said the hrs, pay and work was so much easier than back of house in hospitality, he has no idea why he stuck with it for so long .... he thought that was all he knew and nothing else would pay as well ..... bit the same when I was working as a mechanic, even with my own business I didn't make near the money I made as a contract industrial fitter, not even close to what I was making as a hydraulic fitter building the cranes or as a maintenance fitter with the pipe painting mob .... as far as an on going well paying job, T 1 Lithium topped the whole lot .... even though I never got paid by T1 Lithium .... the money was in the cash jobs on the side No one has ever handed me $150hr and shook my hand for doing it so quick and cheap and it actually worked ..... I sure miss that part

T1 Terry

[Busman]

That post is a bit indiscreet T1, have think about it.

[Dot]

Terry, but how did the prev owners get from one place to another if the MH was not going very well? did they notice the motor was buggered? the genny was stuffed etc, did they just not notice anything was wrong??? Would think they would of noticed things going weird? normally people stop and get things fixed.

[Greynomad]

Agree, Dottie,
We did when we discovered that GIRT had cracked a front wishbone.
The possibilities if we had ignored it were too terrible to contemplate!

[T1 Terry]

Terry, but how did the prev owners get from one place to another if the MH was not going very well? did they notice the motor was buggered? the genny was stuffed etc, did they just not notice anything was wrong??? Would think they would of noticed things going weird? normally people stop and get things fixed.

I'm thinking they probably stayed in powered sites because they worked different shifts and wouldn't want a genie running all hrs of the day or night. As far as the engine goes, I really don't know, he said, when we were test driving it, it liked to rev, didn't run that well down low in the revs.
He did show me starting the generator, but he turned it off as soon as it was running .... I thought it might have been because we were in a caravan park. He knew the batteries were stuffed and he told us that right from the outset.
There is ever chance he tried to hide everything that was wrong with it, I guess I'll never know, it was always running when we arrived, but that could have been the flat house batteries, virtually nothing inside worked without the 12v battery power, so the engine running provided that.
Being a mechanic, I just knew there was something wrong engine wise, at least I wasn't blinded by the NSW Blue Slip inspection believing all the suspension etc would have been checked over thoroughly, I checked that while the front wheels were in the air when parked up in our friends driveway.

We only paid $83,000 for a 2002 A Class Winnie, I'm happy with the deal we got, problems and all, I will sort the generator problem so it's ready to sell, I just don't like them ......

T1 Terry

[jon_d]

With those generators,

there are usually 3 relays on them. One kills everything if the circuit doesn't detect AC. Best to simply replace all 3 relays and then see what happens.

[T1 Terry]

With those generators,

there are usually 3 relays on them. One kills everything if the circuit doesn't detect AC. Best to simply replace all 3 relays and then see what happens.

Thank Jon, I'll keep that in mind once I get around to sorting that problem ..... need to sort the batteries and solar first, we are plugged into the carpenter's place next door at the moment, only his boys were there today, I'll catch him in the morning and sort out the arrangement ... probably be a mth or so before these batteries arrive, so we will be still dependant on the grid till then .....

T1 Terry

[Greynomad]

T1,
GIRT’s genny was built-in. A 5.5kVa Onan.
Is yours the same?
Gunna be difficult disentangling the wiring if you have the same remote start button on your power panel.
Removing that button will leave a hole that you’ll have to fill with something.
Removing the genny will also affect the resale value… if you’re considering an upgrade later. Might be easier to leave it in place and just ignore it.

[Dot]

If there is a hole anywhere he will go Dutch and plug it with his dyke plugger ? finger or thumb?? Good idea Ray about keeping the genny for resale. Genny like those elect cars either love them or hate them but both have good points Isn't there any power left at the shed site? Can you get a temp power connection? hard to be without power and water.

[T1 Terry]

If there is a hole anywhere he will go Dutch and plug it with his dyke plugger ? finger or thumb?? Good idea Ray about keeping the genny for resale. Genny like those elect cars either love them or hate them but both have good points Isn't there any power left at the shed site? Can you get a temp power connection? hard to be without power and water.

We are going to look into getting a builders powerbox set up, the initial cost and the on going costs need to be considered. I'm happy to go off grid, when the other MG4 arrives and I get that back on the road, it has the ability to be a source of power as well, V2L it's called, Vehicle to Load, it can also be a storage device for solar power during the day, so with that added in, I doubt we will be reliant on the grid again

T1 Terry