New to Avion

[Kep]

Hi,
New to the Avion camper world. I have owned a 1972 Airstream 31', 1994 Starcraft Star flyer 19' popup, 1996 Safari Trek 30' diesel pusher and that was the one that left a very bad taste. Have not gone back to RVing since. We loved our Airstream but found it to be way too close to the ground. We knew that with our penchant for out of the way destinations like Baja and similar the Airstream had to go. It was a rare factory sideways rear queen with a center bath/wardrobe and front couch/fold out bed with a side mounted table and folding chairs opposite the couch. We loved that floor plan and hated to sell it.

We are now building our off grid retirement home in AZ (not going all that smooth at the moment). While looking for an inexpensive RV we can live in part time. We stumbled across a 28' 1976 Avion La Grande. I at first skipped over it because we knew it was going to be too low to the ground. A few days later I looked at the photo again and it looked like it was at least 6" higher that any other Avion or similar unit we had seen so far. Further inquiry disclosed that it had been modified with a pair of 22 degree 5000# torsion axles with 6 bolt wheels, load range E M/S tires and larger brakes.

A quick call and we found out that the owner was a third generation owner. It had been in the family all its life. I was a bit concerned as to why sell it now? Turns out he has four children and can't use it for camping with the family. He had kept it for elk and deer hunting with his father who recently passed.

I inspected it and found a bit of damage to the floor near the battery charger in the under the seat storage. He had resealed the awning rail that holds the fabric to the RV, front window and rock guard hinge. Oddly he had used black truck spray in bed liner to coat the front rock guard. It seemed to stiffen it up while still being able to flex. I took my trusty flashlight and could not find any other floor damage. I saw some discolored (water damage?) wood at either side of the front door area but found he had used silver Par around the door, skin seams and rain shield lip as well as a newish door seal. He had all the hot and cold pipes replaced with modern PEX and even had bypass valves installed for the water heater already. All the appliances worked and he had replaced the PC board and fan for the heater. He even had all the receipts from all the way back when it was new. The fridge was new and was larger. He did a masterful job at fitting it so it looked and worked like factory. I was happy at this point so on Friday I cut him a check. I wish it wasn't the center twin bed rear bath version but you can't have it all now can you?

I found two used Fantastic fans (vents) at a local Airstream dealer who replaced them with two Max-Air fans for another customer and I will be getting those installed for less than half of the cost of new. I know moisture build up in these is an issue so I want to be able to properly vent it. Not only that while going down a dirt road you can reverse the fans (pressurize the RV) and keep the dust out of the RV

Seems the previous Avion owner had the awning fabric fail sending the awning on its way to the ground, thankfully this was while parked next to the garage. So since he saved all the hardware I will be getting new fabric so I can have the option to use an awning if we want.

I have no plans for a full restoration as I just plan to use it while our home is under construction and then likely start using our camp ground memberships again. TT, AOR, CC, Sunbelt etc. We basically inherited most of them with $99 a year frozen dues So why not use them? Our AOR is no Dues because they had an offer to pay $1000 and not pay dues again for life

I have been reading some here and already found many helpful posts and tutorials.

Thanks,
Ken and Deb

[Razorback]

Welcome, Ken and Deb! Thank you for joining us here!
I really enjoyed reading your introduction.... it’s a neat story! I am glad you have taken the time and are making the effort to keep an amazing trailer in good shape, useable, and road worthy.

Keep us posted on this adventure. I would also love to hear about your off-grid house project.

[Kep]

Thanks for the kind words.

Here is the home design information

https://www.formworksbuilding.com/

https://www.formworksbuilding.com/

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmEkkKH6

We are in the process of painting all the wood to protect it while we wait for cooler weather for shotcrete delivery. With the housing boom and boarder wall getting concrete is a real problem right now. We had no idea they would just flat out say no to delivering concrete for us.

[Razorback]

Very interesting.....

[Kep]

We have been doing this project for years. We are doing this without a bank loan so it takes time for a couple working stiffs get it done. We bought the 20 acre parcel in 1992. We rented a bulldozer and cut the driveway and house pad over two years of 2 week vacations dawn to dusk 14 days each year. Had a well Drilled, put in the solar system I designed and we built ourselves. Then started on the home. We are tired of traveling back and forth 35 miles one way in an 11mpg 3/4 ton truck to work on the house. Thus the reason for the Avion. Since we have power and water along with a composting toilet it seemed like a no brainer to get a travel trailer to us.

There are thousands of example home photos of this kind of home on their Facebook page. Their are thousands of these homes just in California. I thought I posted the link to their Facebook page but it seems that I posted their website twice instead. It was even a structure that was tested in the 60s for integrity in a nuclear blast.

So here is the other link.
https://www.facebook.com/pg/formworks.b ... e_internal


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[Razorback]

Please keep us posted....

I applaud you for your pay-as-you-go approach.