how do you pay for your vintage rv addiction

[legomybago]

How do I fund my vintage RV hobby? BARELY, that's how. If I had a lot of money, I'd have too many cool vintage things around, so I better keep the funds coming in slowly. Like already mentioned, I do small projects when I can, their will always be something to fix or improve. At 6 mpg, gas alone hurts.

[ClydesdaleKevin]

divorced the wife , sold the house, and moved into the old beatup chieftain so the kids cant come home to stay and made sure that whenever they do come to visit i have something for them to do on the Winnebago. Maybe a little drastic but Damn effective

LOL!!! 

Kev

[Oz]

divorced the wife , sold the house, and moved into the old beatup chieftain so the kids cant come home to stay and made sure that whenever they do come to visit i have something for them to do on the Winnebago. Maybe a little drastic but Damn effective

[mytoolman]

Apparently most of the COST is the damage I sustain is to my MENTAL HEALTH...I recently put one of the unobtainable jam nuts for those rear brakes I have been working to get back together for more than a month now somewhere where I havent been successful in finding it...Delays dealing with a broken crossover wheel cylinder brake line took forever to get done...I hurt my back....again....that had me down for 2 weeks....then I finally feel strong enough and put together the passenger rear. That FELT GREAT I put that side together!!!. A few days later I went to do the driverside.  In my mind I had left the outer jam nut for the driver wheel ON the axle tube for that driver side just to have it in a safe easy to find place. I had the inner and the retaining ring for that other side off and had been carrying those with me because I had one tab broken off of one of the retaining rings and needed them with me to show people who I needed to help me solve this problem  an example of the good one and how it fit together with the inner nut that has a dimple on the nut....so I didnt put THOSE on the axle....To keep things neat I had put the tires and wheels up against the bare axle tube that I thought had the nut on it so each time I happened to just walk past I didnt see past the wheels and never gave that nut any thought....I put the wheels there to make it not look like the thing is just taken apart and parts are laying around....I finally go to do the work on that driver's side and the nut isnt there. The wheels were still where I left them NO ONE was going to take the effort to move those from under the fender there...they are heavy and dirty and kind of unmanageable ...And really why would anyone want to go there to do that anyway....This rig is at a storage place where I was supposed to do this work and get it done QUICKLY...They are short staffed and my rig is out of the way out of sight really so there hasnt been any repercussions from NOT having it done within a few days other than to my time budgeted No repercussions mostly through dumb luck..I hate not doing what I planned and said I would do..obviously I was hallucinating when I thought I put that nut back on the axle for safe keeping....now my mind is telling me I left it in one of the cabinets or drawers in the RV. Or that I put it in the box with the inner seal...it wasnt there...(Ive completely emptied the RV opened every box of parts etc it into the parking lot now to look for that nut... Then my mind says that maybe I took it with me when I went to the hardware store 4 weeks ago when I was looking to fix that retainer ring also and maybe I left it there somehow(I went there yesterday to look through there lost and found--nope not there)...or that it was in one of the tool bags I carry to do this work...Ive since emptied every one of them in search...I cant tell you how consumed I am with trying to find this thing....and yes our stuff is EXPENSIVE to deal with money wise/time wise etc but for the most part it keeps me creative and my mind working in a GOOD WAY so I its worth the money you have to pay its like paying to go to the movies or to a theater show its kind of like doing that....I am not so happy with my hobby/obsession when I am overly disappointed by people not wanting to help....I have just started thinking about how to remedy the terrible attitude people can have with the weird stuff we deal with... just trying to find someone to pay to perform something I am looking to accomplish that is a thing out of the ordinary is an episode in futility sometimes...you know like maybe making a new jam nut to replace this one that I now have spent a week looking for?  I have seen how people didnt want to talk to me about the crossover wheel cylinder brake line I needed because they thought it wasnt worth much to them in financial gain. I ended up getting killed to do those lines...I spent more than $1500 to get that accomplished a couple of hundred in parts I bought to try and build them myself that went into a scrap pile. The actually $200 to have the guy who made them for me do that. And 2 weeks worth of time driving around town and even a two hour round trip to get info..... how much is that worth?...I just pulled the $1500 out of the either but if you actually do the math it may be even more.......Next time I have to deal with someone in a specialty like a machinist or fabricator or carpenter or.... I have a plan. I have decided to introduce myself and say I am working on a project that has special considerations. Out of respect for you will you tell me what your hourly rate is to do your work? The tell me whatever...I say great I would like to buy 10 minutes of your time right now. That translates to X $'s correct? Further for that I want to communicate with you in my style its the only one I know how to do so I can expect since I am paying you that you wont be annoyed with my style and you will look at what I want to do and advise/guide me is that ok/fair? I ran that past a guy yesterday that I should have thought of each time I needed something but hadnt seen him for years and God just happened to put me in his neighborhood yesterday so I obviously thought of him THEN when I was right around his corner....I showed Max what i wanted and told him the troubles I have had trying to get things made...and told him I  nervious to even show him he is so busy...He is such a nice guy...and very uniquely talented he makes parts and redesigns things for Maserati Ferrarri and Lamborgini MOSTLY he has business from ALL around the world...he can probably make anything...He saw me walk in and said hey there Toolman how are you...mind you I have seen him over the years a hand full of times just because I like him and rivire his skill and niche business  he has never bought anything from me...has come to the tool truck once when I first met him...but he is so interesting not just for what he can do but what he knows besides the skill set he has...I know he finds me that way also so he gets a mind stimulation/ break when I ask him something unrealated to building something.. so I just go to see him once in a while just because...he told me to go look one more time for the jam nut. If in a few days if I dont find it..that he would make it for me but it will take a bunch of time to figure out if I dont also bring him the axle tube... he can determine the thread pitch MUCH easier with the axle tube..he can do it without it but the math etc will take time and he wouldnt have to take as much time if he had that axle tube and everything else...when I told him I was trying to find folks to do out of the box stuff without success and had come up with my Ill pay you to talk to me idea...he said its such a shame we cant have compassion for each other anymore...its so rare...i left with my hope that humanity will still feature and that I will be sure to say thank you when I see it because quite frankly I havent been in the presence of much lately... If anyone knows where I can find a jam nut for a Dana 70 *HD* 14,000 lb rear end that has the Dodge M400 RM500 Chassis from a 1973 RV around it I would greatly appreciate that. I have been told that the differential is DANA MOSTLY but The Hub, The Drum, The axle tube, the inner Axle spline nut, the retainer ring and my missing jam nut  and the bearings and seal there are all DODGE choices. I havent been successful getting part numbers for any of these parts except the bearings where the Timken number is evident or the inner seal where the National Number is evident. The unmarked for part number jam nut and the inner nut are 8 sided. The nut I need measures 2-57/64" for its OD (a 2-7/8 8 fluted socket is used to remove it and the inner nut.) The ID is 2" for the nut. The thickness of the nut is 1/4". I don't know what the thread pitch is....If It somehow turns out there are several in that size available but they have different thread pitches...I will buy them ALL to solve my problem...       

[Oz]

Wow, buying them all!  That stinks, but what else can you do when there's just no way to find out which one is right?!
Hm?