Prospective 3023 buyer. Rear A/C question.

[aggieband 83]

I am looking at a 1996 TM model 3023. I can buy it for $1500. It only has one sofa on the sink side of the camper. Queen bed in back & double bed in front. My concern is the roof A/C is located above the Queen bed in the back of the camper. Will the front of camper be kept cool enough? I live in Texas, 30 minutes from the coast. It gets miserable hot & humid during July-September.

How hard would it be to build a "U-shaped" sofa? This would provide more seating than the current 1 sofa.

Is the asking price fair for a 20 year old camper?

Currently have an 18' Jayco Pop Up. The 30' TrailManor 3023 would be a considerable step up in size. Just concerned about the cooling & lack of seating.

[Bill]

Since no one has replied, I'll throw in a couple thoughts.

First, I have no idea if $1500 is a fair price. Assuming all the appliances work, it doesn't sound out of line. The only serious worry is whether there is wood rot in the shells. (The "shells" are the big boxes that go up and down.) In the early days (until about 2002), the upper shells were framed with wood. If a leak developed in the roof, water would get into the walls, and the wood framing would rot. Replacing the framing is a major job that few people have undertaken (like maybe 2 that I know of?). You can get an idea about the presence or absence of rot by looking at the bottom edge of the side walls of the shells. You will see a line of wood screws all along the length of the edge. Unscrew every other screw, or every 3rd screw, or whatever, and look at the threads. Are the threaded parts of the screws rusted? Are there crumbs of black rotted wood in the threads? Or are they clean? Are the screws tight, or do they just kind of fall out?

In my opinion, it wouldn't be hard to build a simple sofa. After all, it is just a plywood box that sits on the floor, and is screwed to the floor in a few places. Maybe screwed to the wall in a few places. Add a few cushions, and voila! Easy to say, since I haven't done it. Of course if you want fancy stuff like having it pull out into a bed, that is tougher. Depends on how good a carpenter you are, I guess.

As for the air conditioner, the first question is "Does it work?" If it works, you will probably find the amount of cooling to be adequate. If distribution of the cold air turns out to be poor, a small box fan on a kitchen counter will cure it. If you really get desperate - and I don't think you will - you could add a conventional household air conditioner as part of the new sofa you are going to build. Cut a hole in the sidewall of the trailer, and vent the unit out the hole. This is not as surprising as it sounds. For several years, TM did exactly this. They mounted the air conditioner on the floor of a kitchen cabinet on the curb side of the trailer, and vented it out through a grille in the side wall. There are some posts here on the forum concerning how to do this.

Again, it depends on how good a carpenter you are, and how much effort you want to put into it.

Good luck.

Bill

[Larryjb]

Bill,

On the topic of looking for rot, is your method the only way to be reasonably certain that it is rot free? I'm not sure that a vendor would be willing to let me unscrew parts of his trailer to look for rot. I ask this because there is a similar vintage 2619 in my area (Canada!).

Larry

[Bill]

Larry -

Both of my TMs (2002 and 2006) had aluminum frames, so looking for wood rot has not been something I've had to do. My thought was simply that it seems the simplest way to check. After all, you are going to remove a common 1-inch wood screw, look at it, and put it back. Then repeat for several more screws. I can't imagine that this would upset the owner.

Just in case I wasn't clear on where these screws are, I attached a picture. The red arrows indicate a line of screws driven upward into the underside of the bottom edge of the wall. You don't have to remove all of them -just enough to convince yourself that all is well.

Bill

[Larryjb]

Thanks Bill,

If I were looking at a 3023, I'd be taking a seriously good look at it. The one near me is a 2619, and for $5000. I think I'm going to pass, but for those of you in the US, TM's seem quite rare up here because they generally have to be imported. This would have make an easy purchase, if it is in good shape.

I'm not sure what Aggieband's thoughts are. If it was always in a drier climate, the chance of rot is less than it is up here in Vancouver Canada.

Aggie, did you look at the 3023?

Larry