This may not look like much...

"Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo" (rustyvandura) 06/18/2019 at 09:03 • Filed to: None

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This is the door latch on my Coleman tent trailer. The tab broke off — Coleman having spared every  expense in the trailer’s construction -- for the door handle and I riveted on this new tab, which will probably last forever. PS: pop rivets are cool.

Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 09:06

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Pop rivets are most certainly cool. I was saying this to myself last night as a i riveted some metal mesh over our dryer outlet as the flap wasn’t doing it’s job.

Nibby > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 09:06

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shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 09:19

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Good work!

It never ceases to amaze me how poorly built campers are. They're comically bad.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 06/18/2019 at 09:26

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This is the only vehicle I every purchased new off a dealership lot and I have had to work intentively at preserving it. The aluminum on the roof is dissolving, literally, from the inside. Not sure what I’ll do about that long term. Coleman warranteed the roof for life, but if I want to have it replaced, I have to pay to the replacement roof shipped across the country first.

So for now, I just reapply aluminum tape each year when I take the trailer out of storage. (I keep it covered with a tarp...)

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 09:26

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This reminds me of when the pot metal latch broke on the door of our Southwind. One of these:

It snapped about an inch away from the spindle. I cut a piece of aluminum, ground it to fit the recess, and installed it with two allen-drive domehead machine screws.

Something like this:

I even cleaned up the end of the break. It looks professional enough that most people coming in and out don’t realize it was broken and isn’t supposed to look like that.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Neil drives a beetle and a fancy beetle 06/18/2019 at 09:50

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Button head rivets are even cooler, but require you to buy a special bit for an air chisel/hammer and require holding something against the back of the rivet to smoosh it out.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 10:11

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Boats are very much like this, too.  They’re not as poorly built, but a boat will always need something done from the second you take delivery of it.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 10:41

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Yeah, there are very good reasons that campers and RVs depreciate faster than a cup of coffee.

Maybe take it on a cross country road trip, and drop it off at the factory ?

HammerheadFistpunch > shop-teacher 06/18/2019 at 10:46

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it’s so true. i thought really hard about getting into the trailer biz. my angle? built trailers that aren’t made of cardboard. not hardcore like you can easily find... just not trash

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 06/18/2019 at 10:59

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I think boats are highly less useful though.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > HammerheadFistpunch 06/18/2019 at 11:02

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But would people buy them? I made much mods to mine that made it much more practical. Including stripping out the idiotic rudimentary water tank.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 06/18/2019 at 11:03

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I had thought of that. I’ve already pulled it across the country and back twice. All that bouncing on the roads did not do it very many favors, but it’s still hanging in there. Seriously though, that thing falls apart sitting there unused.

HammerheadFistpunch > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 11:14

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I figure if you can charge 12 grand for trash, I could charge 18 and still make it not trash.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 11:19

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I know. I’m now selling my second camper that I bought used. I simultaneously  can’t wait to get that piece of crap out of my driveway, and can't wait to get another one.

shop-teacher > HammerheadFistpunch 06/18/2019 at 11:20

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I would buy one. I'm contemplating buying an aluminum cargo trailer, and converting it for my next camper.

ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 06/18/2019 at 11:29

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Unless you’re trying to float, move across, eat, fish or  sleep on the water, then boats are highly useful.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > HammerheadFistpunch 06/18/2019 at 21:37

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I hear you. I bought trash, then sort of untrashed it a bit. Has served us well, though, Pacific to Atlantic and back twice, and much other usages in between. Currently and most often as a guest room in the driveway. But the aluminum on the roof is dissolving from the inside and so far, patching with aluminum tape is working fine, but probably not forever...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com 06/18/2019 at 21:38

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Houseboats...

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 06/18/2019 at 21:41

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I’ve worked diligently at keeping mine in decent shape. Made some mods, made some repairs. And so on.