Should we even be looking at Old Birds?

[Ryan Wright]

> I dont mind tinkering and working on a lot of projects. Our current
> coach is a 1989 Class C, I had to rebuild the entire cab over on that.

You'll be fine. A lot of the work on an old coach is fixing house
systems. If you can do basic household repairs (and it looks like you
can), you'll be able to maintain these. Don't be tempted to cut
corners and buy a cheap coach. Get something that has been well
maintained and doesn't need any repairs at the time of purchase. It
will cost you a bit more but will save you a lot of headaches later.
In my experience, a vehicle that has a lot of little things wrong has
been generally neglected and will have more ongoing maintenance
issues. If an owner can't be bothered to fix the musical horn, how do
I know he could be bothered to change fluids & filters, or to do
something about that slight over-temp issue?

> But I'm by no means a mechanic. I do consider myself to be very
> mechanically inclined though.

Yeah - you'll be fine. If you consider yourself mechanically inclined,
don't even worry about it. If you can and are willing to change oil
and fuel filters, the rest will come naturally. Always have some money
set aside for the inevitable - you ARE going to have things break that
you can't or don't want to fix. I've spent a couple grand having my
transmission looked at, several hundred dollars having my alternator
replaced, and another grand having my compressor replaced. I could
have taken care of the alternator and compressor myself, but really
didn't feel like doing it.

> My question is, should I steer away from these old birds?

Not at all! The fact is, you can buy a brand new vehicle and things
are still going to fail. Sure, you'll have a warranty for a brief
period, but that will soon go away and you'll be in the same boat. The
old birds are built like tanks. This is nothing like owning an old
version of any other coach. These are built to last and if you buy a
coach that doesn't have anything wrong with it, I don't believe your
maintenance will be any more intense whether you buy an 80's or a 90's
or a 2000's, of this or any other brand.

Maintenance is maintenance, you'll always have it. It's been quite
tolerable on my coach.

> Is the majority of the work something that an average person could do given
> patience and research/reading?

I think it is. If you're currently doing basic repairs on your house,
changing your car's own oil, filters, belts, etc, and if you can
generally troubleshoot basic automotive problems, then you'll be just
fine and I say, go for it!

-Ryan
'86 PT-40 8V92