Welp, we’re back in FL after our first ~4 month journey as full time nomads! It was SUPER full, lots of ups and downs, all of which would have made riveting blog material! But, uhhh… I failed to write about any of it. Blogging is off to a great start! Ha ha.. 😅
Moving on.
Long story short, We found THE RV. THE 5th wheel we were looking for. While we were in Pennsylvania, I spotted this baby in Tennessee on the RV Trader and jumped on it like an excited dog after a milk bone. After many repeat visits to the Hershey RV show, again, looking at new RVs just wasn’t fitting well. The prices were too far out of our budget for comfort. Meanwhile, we were keeping an eye out for an older RV that needed some renovations. I’m a handy guy and both my wife and I enjoy home renovations. So, if we came across one that had good bones and the right layout, we’d jump at it. We found JUST the RV we were looking for.
This 2016 Open Range Roamer 376FBH had EXACTLY the layout we were looking for. You might imagine, 2016 is older than we were hoping for, but here’s the thing; It’s been kept in a warehouse since 2017! Most of the RV, especially the outside, is basically show room condition. The inside, while dated, was also in good condition. The owners were asking $35K. I couldn’t have asked for a better deal, so after an inspection, I paid them what they wanted.
Next stop was to change out the, basically unused, 2016 factory Westlake tires for fresh rubber and repack the wheel bearings for the 12+ hour trip back to PA.
The above photo is shortly after arriving back in PA. The autumn leaves were spectacular on the drive. As you can see, on the ground to the right of the RV, I barely got it unhooked from the truck before my wife and kids started gutting the interior. Check out the video of the moment I caught them in the act below 😂😂😂.
Instead of a bunkhouse, one of the primary features of this layout is the forward den, which has a door to separate it from the kitchen area, 2 equally sized closets, a 1/2 bath, and a mini fridge. It’s basically mobile Shangri-La for a couple of kiddos.
After the dust settled, the couches vanished. The girls put up some wallpaper, pastel yellow on Eva’s side, and pink on Ana’s. They installed their twin mattresses and far too many stuffed animals. This was enough to get us through the rest of our summer/autumn season in the North. I plan on building bases for these twin mattresses that doubles as storage, because no RV can have too much storage, right?
Now that we’re back in FL for the winter, its time to get the fillet knives back out to gut the rest of this beast. There is a single biggest problem with this year range in the Open Range line of RVs, the floors. They are notorious for soft spots, and our RV is no exception. I noticed it right away during my inspection. To get through the season, I threw a piece of plywood over it, and a rug over that, which worked well to firm it up and avoid any further damage. Basically, the floors are made of a ~3 inch piece of Styrofoam sandwiched between a 2-ply and 1-ply piece of plywood on the top and bottom, respectively. What could go wrong? 🙄😒
Looking on the bright side, we wanted to change the floors anyways, especially the carpet which is holding onto the faint smell of cigarette smoke from it’s previous owner. 🚬🤢 Even after days of airing out and an ozone treatment that my wife wanted to try out, there’s a tinge that remains. But, I’m pretty confident that will be gone with the carpet. So, BYE BYE carpet! 👋
I’m incredibly thankful for the RV we found and bought. I don’t think there could have been a more optimal outcome. I tend to thank God for that kinda thing. 🙏 Thank you Lord.
Well, I think we’re “kinda sorta” caught up. I’ll attempt to keep the blog updated as I work through these renovations. For real, this time.