GaryS1953
Michigan
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Hi All - So I've been keeping our 27 year old camper together with chewing gum and bailing wire, but we finally decided it wasn't going to last as long as we want to keep on camping, so we bought a new to us 2012 Shasta Revere BK. It's been stored inside every winter, and looks like new both inside and out, only one owner. We gave deposit today and are picking it up on Tuesday.
Now I'm trying to decide whether to remove things like the solar panels and charge controller from the old and put it on the new, or just buy new and install. These panels are only about 6 years old, but I think it would be a job getting them off as I bolted them down and then have used both dicor lap sealant and eternabond tape on the mounts. That roof is aluminum, and the new roof is Diflex (not exactly sure what that is, but I don't want to put holes in it). If I do use those panels how should I mount them on the new roof. I'm thinking of the mounts that just glue down to the roof, but I'm not sure how well they would hold in wind on the highway. Thoughts? My wife thinks I should leave the panels on the old camper so we could sell it for more, but I think it's probably only worth about $1500 to $2000 and the solar would make very little difference if any.
The other thing is I've replaced all the circuit boards for the furnace, fridge, and hot water heater with with Dinosaur boards, and the new one has the original factory ones. Should I swap them out? I installed a Progressive Dynamics Converter 2or 3 years ago. Again should I swap that out?
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
* This post was
edited 05/07/23 06:57pm by GaryS1953 *
Gary in Michigan
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midnightsadie
ohio
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I would go with new tech changes faster than the weather.
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schlep1967
Harrisburg, PA
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Joined: 12/08/2005
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At this point, with the market the way it is.... your 500 watts of Solar is worth more than your 27 year old trailer. Take what you want off of it and take it to the scrap yard.
That may sound rude. It is not intended to. If anybody is looking to buy a 27 year old trailer, the custom mods you have done, swapping circuit boards etc., would leave them totally confused and lost if they ever tried to repair anything.
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LouLawrence
Traveling the US fulltime since 2000.
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Take the panels and other equipment. You can remove the panel from the brackets and leave the brackets behind if you want to keep the roof weather tight. If you plan to junk it or sell it real cheap, take it all and Dicor the roof, screw the screws back in and Dicor over that. Whether tight again!
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Grit dog
Black Diamond, WA
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Sounds like you have the know how and ability to hi grade the good parts you added. And that’s the right choice imo. Sounds like the parts are worth what the camper is (roughly) and that you could use some/all on the new one. You can still sell a fully functional camper by swapping converters or whatever.
It’s just money and if you have the ability to save yourself some of that, it’s rarely the wrong choice.
Like selling vehicles with mods. Rarely if ever does it pay to leave expensive mods on if your can otherwise capitalize off of them.
Recent case in point, traded our old truck/camper for a much newer truck. Value wise the newer truck itself was the right deal in itself. But the guy had easy $10-15k in mods on it.
No one cared. And I have sold a couple of the parts on it I didn’t want for good money and would totally be money ahead if I sold it tomorrow, by stripping it back down to bone stock, throwing a cheap set of takeoff wheels on it and selling the (desirable) parts separately.
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Boon Docker
Mountain Foothills of Southern Alberta
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Swap out all the upgrades. They are worth more than what you could sell the trailer for.
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Boomerweps
Hills of PA
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Boon Docker wrote:Swap out all the upgrades. They are worth more than what you could sell the trailer for.
STRONGLY CONCUR!
However, I would carefully inspect and test the old solar panels for wear and tear. If flexible panels they could be near end of service and not worth reinstalling.
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GaryS1953
Michigan
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schlep1967 wrote:At this point, with the market the way it is.... your 500 watts of Solar is worth more than your 27 year old trailer. Take what you want off of it and take it to the scrap yard.
That may sound rude. It is not intended to. If anybody is looking to buy a 27 year old trailer, the custom mods you have done, swapping circuit boards etc., would leave them totally confused and lost if they ever tried to repair anything. That's kind of what I'm thinking. In fact I just finished removing the panels. Thanks for the advice
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GaryS1953
Michigan
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LouLawrence wrote:Take the panels and other equipment. You can remove the panel from the brackets and leave the brackets behind if you want to keep the roof weather tight. If you plan to junk it or sell it real cheap, take it all and Dicor the roof, screw the screws back in and Dicor over that. Whether tight again!
That's kind of what I'm thinking. In fact I just finished removing the panels. Thanks for the advice
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GaryS1953
Michigan
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Grit dog wrote:Sounds like you have the know how and ability to hi grade the good parts you added. And that’s the right choice imo. Sounds like the parts are worth what the camper is (roughly) and that you could use some/all on the new one. You can still sell a fully functional camper by swapping converters or whatever.
It’s just money and if you have the ability to save yourself some of that, it’s rarely the wrong choice.
Like selling vehicles with mods. Rarely if ever does it pay to leave expensive mods on if your can otherwise capitalize off of them.
Recent case in point, traded our old truck/camper for a much newer truck. Value wise the newer truck itself was the right deal in itself. But the guy had easy $10-15k in mods on it.
No one cared. And I have sold a couple of the parts on it I didn’t want for good money and would totally be money ahead if I sold it tomorrow, by stripping it back down to bone stock, throwing a cheap set of takeoff wheels on it and selling the (desirable) parts separately.
That's kind of what I'm thinking. In fact I just finished removing the panels. Thanks for the advice
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