Perpetual Ruminations

Update on The Pull Behind

My wife and I looked at a pull-behind camper today that my wife's coworker wants to sell. She and her husband purchased it to fix up (minor repairs) for their own use, but shortly after purchasing it, he became sick and passed on. It's been sitting for almost a year since then, parked in their back yard under some pine trees.

At first it was, "Take a look and make an offer." But she also said that her grandchildren had been playing in it and it was a mess inside. She was going to clean it out before we came to look at it. She added, "There is some water damage now, so I'll sell it for five hundred dollars. Everything worked when we purchased it, but the kids have stuff all over and there's a bit of water damage."

A couple of days ago my wife talked to her about looking at it today, her day off. Her coworker was going to clean out so we could look at it this afternoon. We arrived a little after two, since she said between two and three would work best for her. I dropped my wife off in front so she could let the woman know we were there, then I drove around back and looked over the outside. It's in rougher shape than it was last fall when we first looked at it and inquired about it.

My wife came out and said the lady didn't get it cleaned out, she wasn't feeling well but we could go in and look around. There was toys, bikes, and other stuff everywhere with barely room to get inside the door. I managed to work my way in a bit further and saw the water damage. There were spots on the ceiling where water had leaked in through the roof, not an easy fix. My wife moved a bit of stuff around so we could look in the bedroom. "I can see light! There's a hole in the ceiling."

We traded places so I could see better. Half the bedroom ceiling had fallen in and a hole the size of a softball! There were also signs of water damage down the wall. The floor was covered in parts of the ceiling and junk, so I couldn't tell if the floor was damaged, but there's little doubt about it with a hole in the ceiling.

We closed it up, but before we left I climbed up the ladder on the back to look at the roof. I climbed just high enough to look, the ladder was wobbly, likely the back wall was also damaged and rotted. The roof had been re-coated sometime in the past, and patched some time after that. But, a lot of the patches were lifting and peeling all over the roof, it's shot.

We were kind of disappointed after seeing the extent of the damage, we had hoped it was superficial from what she had told us. I don't think she has been inside since her husband passed, except just inside the door. I feel bad for her, but there's no way I'm taking on that mess even if she gave it to us for free. I seriously doubt it can be repaired and I'd be afraid to try and tow it down the highway.