New member with a 78 Itasca 27RT

[Alaskan Itasca]

Well I just found this sight but I just obtained (last October) a new to me 78 Itasca in ok shape. It's not perfect but it's not a total pile either, and has it's share of issues to address. The biggest is the roof. IT leaks some, but at least it only drips out in one place. Once spring gets here I'll get up there and and try to figure out where it's leaking. IT snowed before I got it covered so I have a trapped layer of ice under the tarp that is melting and finding a way inside. I'm using the RV as an office right now (which means I'm heating it when I'm in it) since my In-laws are visiting for a few months and staying in the extra room also known as the office...

anyway it seems to be a decent rig, my 5 year old son and I "camp out" in it in the driveway about once a month. I'm amazed I can even keep it warm but I can do it even when it's -16 outside.

SOme known issues so far: roof leaks, power center is kludged together and the fuse panel is burned out and all the wiring is now wired directly without fuses, Stereo is dead, several of the cabinet latches no longer work, I broke the bathroom vent accidently while shoveling the snow off the roof (we had over a 108 inches this year so far) but I have it tarped now so I don't have to worry about that for another month or so. The seats up front don't seem to slide back or  forth so I need to look into that since I'd like to have more leg room while driving. (I've only driven it about 8 miles since I bought it). There are also no coach batteries, it does look like I have room for two batteries on the tray. The generator has supposedly been rebuilt, but the po did not label all the wires before they pulled it out and gave up on trying to reconect it. He instead went and got a 3.5 KW craftsman generator and it came with the RV. It's far too noisy to use around people though. The fridge was replaced with a small household one, I'd rather have the 2 way since I don't always camp where there is power. THe microwave is from 1990 and takes about 8 minutes to make a cup of water luke warm. The blinds are long gone and the replacement household blinds need to be replaced.

It has a good running Chevy 454 engine, all new (2 year old) tires, Laminate flooring, and the interior was redone at some point in the past 10 years or so, and some of it needs to be redone again. IT's lacking in storage space but has more the 78 Class C Midas we had before this one. I'm still trying to figure out how this can sleep 6 like the manual states it looks like a cozy 4 to me. I think the pull down bed has been removed which may account for the other 2. Can I still get one of those pull downs somewhere?

The outside is a litlle hammered, some of the compartment  doors are bent and one of the awning mounts will need to be reaatached since it has been pulled out from the sheet metal. ...I also need a replacement cover for the engine since the plastic one that was there is long gone.

I guess I like a project, I've been working on some stuff this winter, I have a LED LCD tv mounted in the back, and have been cleaning the nooks and crannies of 30 years of funk. I'm hoping to take it out for a shake down cruise in April if the snow has melted enogh to pull it out of the driveway.

anyway enough rambling, I have a few photos.

[brians69d24]

Welcome to the group and nice looking rig! The people on here are great and can help with most any question.

One of your statements concerned me: "the fuse panel is burned out and wired directly".  Please tell me that everything is still fused? The reason the fuse panel is burned out could indicate an electrical problem and if the fuses are bypassed...well, you could have a fire on your hands!

brian

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Holy deja vu, Batman!  If it had orange and yellow stripes it would be a dead ringer for Excalibur, our last rig, which was a 77 C27AL Itasca...which now belongs to our group leader, Mark.

Awesome rigs...we had a great time with ours and while storage was a major issue, it could have been MUCH worse...like our RV before that, a little 25 foot Futura that we named the Ark.

Anyhow, welcome to the group!  You find this to be the best Vintage RV group on the planet!

Kev

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Oh yeah, since we didn't have kids, we redid the back bedroom in our 77 Itasca, and built in drawers where your table is, making it into one big platform, which does indeed fit a queen size mattress.  We also brought out the master closet wall and eliminated the little shelf...it made a big difference and added a lot more storage space.

And yes, they did come with a pull down bunk, which we removed from ours since I kept hitting my head on it whenever entering the rig.

Replace the power center and put in fuses...you don't want to loose your rv to fire! 

That front door for the engine is going to be hard to find....mine was shabby and I was going to replace it and simply couldn't find one in all the years I had it.

Wiring in the genny is easy, and there are manuals here that will help you, and fixing your fuse wiring will be just as easy with all the wiring diagrams available here.

Don't let your roof leak go on past spring...it can cause expensive damage requiring a whole roof replacement...and the same with your roof vent...water can come in and not only damage the roof, but the walls and floors too.

So your 2 priorities should be fixing that wiring so you don't have any fires, and fixing your roof leaks.

The rest you can take your time with and just fix it up a little at a time.

Welcome to the group!

Kev

[LJ-TJ]

 >GRIN< First let me welcome you to the group. That's a pretty snazzy rig you got there. The grin is because the way you describe your rig brings back fond memories of our first rig a 1975 Brave. While I didn't appreciate it at the time it was a great adventure learning about the rig and restoring it. This groups mantra is "the only stupid question is the one you don't ask." 5year old! You guys are about to depart on one great exciting adventure and have a ball. If I might be so bold, I'd like to suggest that you take on one project at a time and on completion treat your selves and go camping in the rig. Then take on the next project. Remember one project at a time and to completion. Now a note on the serious side. "SOme known issues so far: roof leaks, power center is kludged together and the fuse panel is burned out and all the wiring is now wired directly without fuses, Stereo is dead" I say this to get you attention not spoil your fun or scare the shoot out of you.  Once again a Big Welcome to the group. We look forward to you sharing your adventure with us.

[Alaskan Itasca]

The wiring part I want to fix for sure. Someone on another forum suggested I pick up a fuse board at radio shack and replace the burned out one rather than replace the thing. I'm not super great at wiring and I'm not exactly sure what every wire in the box does.



I've limited the roof leak to the frozen ice I couldn't shovel off the roof and tarped the roof. The leak I have now is from the ice melting and pooling under the tarp on the flat roof. It didn't leak in the rain earlier in the fall which was interesting.

My windshield wipers also don't work. I haven't had a chance to figure out where the motor is so I can trouble shoot that problem.

[Alaskan Itasca]

Oh yeah, since we didn't have kids, we redid the back bedroom in our 77 Itasca, and built in drawers where your table is, making it into one big platform, which does indeed fit a queen size mattress.  We also brought out the master closet wall and eliminated the little shelf...it made a big difference and added a lot more storage space.

And yes, they did come with a pull down bunk, which we removed from ours since I kept hitting my head on it whenever entering the rig.

Replace the power center and put in fuses...you don't want to loose your rv to fire! 

That front door for the engine is going to be hard to find....mine was shabby and I was going to replace it and simply couldn't find one in all the years I had it.


The rest you can take your time with and just fix it up a little at a time.

Welcome to the group!

Kev

From what I can tell from the sales brochure there should be a sink in that counter with the mirror. When I was chasing wires(I still don't know what the seemingly non working switch on that counter cabinet goes to) I opened up that cabinet and all the plumbing for a sink is hidden in there, but the table surface matches the surface of the closet so I'm guessing it never actually had the sink which is ok with me that it isn't there.

Are those pull down beds still around.? Im sure shipping one to The end of the earth would be spendy. I'm going to miss the sleeping space of the class c 78 Midas we had before this and my son isn't too keen on sharing the dinette bed with his little sister.

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Here is a thread about upgrading the converter and distribution panel:
http://www.classicwinnebagos.com/forum/index.php?topic=5326.0
As shown in that link, the pin wiring diagram for those plugs is printed on the rear of the converter section

I have links to the Progressive Dynamics documentation here:
http://dave78chieftain.zxq.net/ConverterInfo.html#1970PD
Unfortunantly, PD does not really sell much in the way of repair parts any longer for these older units.

You will have to decide on whether to repair or upgrade.

Dave

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Hey Alaskan,

Ours used to have that sink, but a previous owner had removed it and patched the counter top, badly.  That was where we were planning on installing a Splendide washer/dryer, since the plumbing and wiring were all there, and the cabinet was the right size.  We never got around to it before buying our current RV.

I'm sure you can find a pull down bunk at an RV salvage yard...they were very common in the 70s and pretty universal in fit.  I removed 2 over the years...one in our first RV that I took down and replaced once I finished the walls, and one in our 77 Itasca which I just didn't like since I kept hitting my head on it.  They were pretty much identical to each other, and the RVs were way different in brand and year (72 Futura, 77 Itasca).

Since you live in Alaska I'm not sure how many RV salvage yards you'll have around your area though.

If you find one, installation is easy, and there are a lot of posts here about it, complete with pictures.

Have fun fixing up your rig!  Little by little, and before ya know it, you'll only have cosmetics and maintenance to deal with.

Kev

[Alaskan Itasca]

 Unfortunatly Salvage yards in general are hard to come by here unless you own a suburu....I don't think I've ever seen an RV in a salvage yard up here, I guess I need to start looking harder.

I kind of wish that plubming wasn't there it consumes what could have been a usefull cabinet.

I like the idea of having a modern charging sytem, being up here at the end of the world I tend to camp in places where I use my batteries and generator. Is tere a best power center/converter to use or will just about anything work?

I fired up the motor this evening and despite not being started since  October it fired right up without too much effort. I really want to go camping somewhere.....

I took a picture of the front....



It's supposed to be 38 Tomorrow I'm ready for the feet of snow to go away.....To bad winter isn't over until the end of march....

[ClydesdaleKevin]

In your coach battery compartment go with 2 6 volt golf cart batteries.  Trojans are the best, but Interstates are a lot cheaper and almost as good.  We switched our converter out for a Powermax Boondocker 100 amp unit.  It will fully charge our battery bank...4 golf cart batteries...from around 60% to 100% of charge in about 2.5 hours of generator run time.  Its a three stage charger, so its also good for your batteries.

Solar wouldn't do you a heck of a lot of good in Alaska unless you went with a huge amount of panels and wattage, so don't even bother...especially with your dark season up there...lol.

You can always cut the plumbing away under the cabinet to just the bare minimum and cap it off, to get more cabinet space. 

Have fun in the frozen North!

Kev in Warm And Sunny Arizona...lol!

[DaveVA78Chieftain]

Not sure if you can say there is a better power distribution panel.  I got mine used off of EBAY and made sure it had the following:

A/C:
  At least 6 breakers (dbl slot) [new units seldom come with breakers and you have to buy them seperately so used typically has them]
  Receptical on rear of unit which allows you to plug in converter
  Many of todays units allow them to be configured for either 30 or 50 amp service.  Mine is like that so if I wanted to I could upgrade to 50 amp service.
Note:  NO the AC ground leads and Nuetral leads are not connected in the RV.  There are seperate ground and nuetral buss bars in the RV panel (not connected together).  This is a sub panel.  Ground and Nuetral leads are only connected in shore power source boxes (not in RV) .  Only place that is not true is in the generator.
The only other time you might install a seperate ground is when, like in my stupid old rental home, the garage where I plug into, is only feed by hot/nuetral lines (old 2 wire house).  I have a seperate ground in garage (seperate from main house panel) becasue there is no ground lead to garage from house (shades of the 50's). 
 
D/C:
  Have at least 10 or 12 circuits.  Each circuit is rated for up to 20 amps but fuse selection is based on circuit needs.
  Use mini fuses not old style glass fuses
  Either use one where each circuit has a fault light or install mini smart fuses that light up if blown.  You can also get resettable circuit breakers to replace mini-fuses but they may be to tall to allow the distribution box cover to be be installed.   Convience is the key here.  No need to chase your tail looking for a problem when camping.  Gets very very frustrating!  Old wiring does tend to be troublesome at times.

You will have to do a custom install of the new box as they are not a plug and fit replacement.  More of a simple woodworking issue.  Please note that the combined distro panel / converter versions most likely will not fit in the old PD space so you have to have seperate disto panel and converter installation.  Most newer mothomes are seperate.  On todays coaches, Winnebago typically mounts the converter to the floor under the stove then uses marine style pushbutton circuit breakers.  Technology does move on.

Converter:
Original converter was a single stage 6 amp model.  Modern converters are 3 stage which is what you want.
Several mfg's make good converters.  I used a Progressive Dynamics PD-9260.  Kevin used a 100 amp Boondocker
Both are 3 stage.  The PD model does have a desulfation mode that the Boondocker does not.  Boondocker has a 14.8VDC bulk mode cutoff where the PD series is 14.6VDC.  Both voltages are OK but the boondocker may charge a little faster because the 14.8VDC level means it will stay in bulk mode longer.  They both have identical asorbtion and float mode levels.  Converter size selection is diretly related to battery bank size.  Kevin has 3 sets of 6 volt batteries (675AH).  He can use the larger 100 amp converter capacity.  I have 4 12vdc (400AH) batteries so I only need a 60 amp unit.  However, modern converter control software will manage the charge rate (amperage level) to ensure no battery damage occurs during all charging modes.

Do a search for some of Kevins threads as we had a big discussion about converter selection.  Both him and Redneck are happy with the boondocker converter.  Kevin however has been really able to watch his in operation over the last month or so as he has been in the desert boondocking.

You will have to do a custom install of the converter to as unlike the original PD they are not an intregral part of the distribution panel.  Modern day modular design.

Dave

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Alaskan...seriously listen to Dave...he is the expert in this field and most of what I learned...or relearned...I learned from him.

Kev

[Alaskan Itasca]

I went to my local RV store and priced out a new converter/power center, and I think I'm going to let them install the thing for me, I forget which exact model they had in stock (I left the catalog in the house). I'll pay a little more for it than ordering it online but they know their stuff there and I like to support our local store so they'll be there when I need parts in the future. The lady that owns the the store knew which toilet I had in my RV just from the description of it I gave her. Then I found out they don't make parts for it anymore, So rather than find new old parts online I just think I'll replace it with a modern one. I'm gaining a list of things to work on....I'm dreading the windshield wiper motor repair, I hope it's wires and not the motor....

I took a few photos today I'm sick of the snow....we got 2 more inches yesterday. we are now at 126 inches for the season so far, the record is 132.8, the 2nd place record is 128.8 inches of snow....our normal average is around 75 inches...

The Iditarod started Saturday, so I took a few pictures,

Here is John Baker last years winner and currently in second place.


my daughter doing what she does best running endlessly in a random direction

now for the current RV and snow pictures for those of you that wonder what that stuff looks like. You guys are more than welcome to come get some of my snow....

earlier this winter the snowplow had bermed in the rv up tho the windows, I called a friend with a plow truck and he unburied the RV for me.

The plowed path to the door, I'm sitting in the RV right now since it is my office while my in-laws are here, they just rented a house up here so they can stay longer and give us a hand with the kids, so I'll have my in the house office back soon.

random snow pictures around the yard, Everyone around here has an RV, and most of them are even older ones...


The back garage is buried too...


I've had to snow blow a path for the dog, He's a 12 year old Jack Russel Terrier, he can only jump 5 feet in the air now a days so he's grateful for the path.

And last my temporary office....

[ClydesdaleKevin]

Wow!  Look at all that snow! 

You are lucky with your toilet and have lots of options.  What you should have in there is an old Galaxy Starlite, or something similar.  They have offset closet bolts, which on a lot of rigs, like ours, means you can only replace it with a Bravura toilet, since it has the same odd bolt angle. 

Ours has a Starlite, and our old Itasca, an almost twin to yours, also had the same type of toilet.  But as I said, you are in luck!  Your toilet flange actually screws into your black tank, without glue!  You can turn it to bring the closet bolts to a normal standard configuration, which means you can get any toilet they make for an RV, and it will work.  (On our Holiday Rambler, its glued in, so if I ever wanted a different style toilet from a Bravura, I would have to drop the black tank and CUT the flange off, and glue in another one....stupid design).  Okay, so to turn your flange is you want a different toilet than a Bravura:  Remove your toilet from the flange...leave the closet bolts in place...unscrew the big phillips screws that hold the flange to the wooden floor in your bathroom...take a piece of wood about a foot long and place it over the closet bolts....and turn it in the direction you want the bolts to face...it will take a little oomph, but it will turn!...when its where you want it, screw it back down to the floor!  You might want to use new screws, since your old ones are probably rusty as all get out...stainless is ideal.

A Bravura is a decent toilet, but a china bowl keeps it SO much cleaner, and Bravuras have plastic bowls.

Kev

[Alaskan Itasca]

I do have the galaxy in there. That is good to know on the bolts. The rv store told me about the bolt issue. I'll have to see about the china bowls and how much more expensive they are than the plastic ones. The bravura looked like a decent toilet though. I kind of like the pad on the on top of the old toilet, too bad they don't make those any more....

[Arberg0]

looks like our local plow driver has family up your end ours does the same thing buries everthing in sight thats why we cant park in the street from november till april in case you are wondering i live in sunny buffalo the snow cap of new york state but this year very little snow looks like you have it all


arberg0