1973 jayco, To rebuild or not

[NHPopup]

I was given a 1973 Jayco camper by my sister. The wife and I have had it with tents and the kids are grown and gone. My question is - My sister and her husband last used it 3 or 4 years ago. could not get it to close so they followed the old saying "If at first you don't succeed get a bigger hammer" so using a hammer they snapped the poles that lift the top.
I haven't dug into how bad this is yet and wondering if it would be worth repairing it. I went onto Jayco and could not find the parts but am still looking.

Also is there a JC Whitney of campers out there anywhere that carries parts for older campers? Trying to do this the economical way before deciding on going for broke and buying a new one. All suggestion are appreciated.

I have seen a ton of useful info just reading while searching.

Al :eyecrazy:  :eyecrazy:

[WolfPack]

Hi you can go to Canvas Replacements they should be able to help. there wed address is CanvasReplacements.com and here is there number 1-800-232-3932. i have used them before i hope this help.

[sacrawf]

It would be nice to see this restored and pulled behind a restored early '70's or late 1960's Ford LTD. Galaxie. or Fairlane Station Wagon, or maybe a F100 "Camper Special" pickup.   I never seem to see restored popups in the car show circuit matched with an appropriate year restored tow vehicle.  Car shows and camping too!

If that challenge is something you would enjoy doing, restoring this period camper for it's history, it would be great.  If you instead want it for camping in the 2000's and 2010's, move this project along to someone else and get a new or newer camper so you can spend your time camping instead of restoring.

I was given a 1973 Jayco camper by my sister. The wife and I have had it with tents and the kids are grown and gone. My question is - My sister and her husband last used it 3 or 4 years ago. could not get it to close so they followed the old saying "If at first you don't succeed get a bigger hammer" so using a hammer they snapped the poles that lift the top.
I haven't dug into how bad this is yet and wondering if it would be worth repairing it. I went onto Jayco and could not find the parts but am still looking.

Also is there a JC Whitney of campers out there anywhere that carries parts for older campers? Trying to do this the economical way before deciding on going for broke and buying a new one. All suggestion are appreciated.

I have seen a ton of useful info just reading while searching.

Al :eyecrazy:  :eyecrazy:

[ScouterMom]

Welcome to PUT! and to the pleasant experience of still sleeping in a tent, but NOT on the ground!

if all that is bad on it is the lifter posts - you can get replacements - even vintage ones - Jayco and Starcraft are two of the more popular and long-lasting makes of campers and you'd be surprised at the parts you can find or make -up when you really get looking.

Probably depends on the type of lift system, and I'm not that familiar with Jayco - but I've never seen a Jayco with it's lifter system on the outside - all the ones I've seen have a telescoping set of posts holding up the roof - like my Starcraft does.  If yours is like mine, even if the cable system is wired a bit differently, the POSTS would be easy to replace with almost any make of posts, as long as you can get the right height, which is really not that difficult. you may even be able to have someone fabricate them for you, using the old ones as a guide.  The posts on mine were fine, but the cables were all cut/torn and many of the pulley's were jammed or bent - now it works fine!

Try these places:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/wks/


http://colawrvsalvage.com/usedParts.asp

I'm sure you can also check e-bay and Craiglist, etc for parts or a salvage trailer for parts.  Most of the campers don't change much from year-to year -so most likely parts from a different year or model will still work on your camper or can be adapted.  Start with finding the manual on line for the closest match you can find by make, model or year.

I have a '73 starcraft that was much worse than I thought it would be when I bought it, and I have been able to restore it to quite a nice camper for just a few hundred bucks.  In addition - most of materials I needed were able to be found in the local hardware/ home improvement store, or were 'recycled' from other campers or household stuff I had. The few 'camper specific' parts I needed, I could get online, and fairly inexpensively, Starcraft still makes & sells many of the same parts (even from 35 yrs ago!), and I'm sure Jayco does, too.

You've already learned the biggest lesson necessary to owning a 'vintage' camper, or any camper, really - if it doesn't move easily, DON'T FORCE IT!  

Check out the Mr Fix it board, and the vintage camper board for more info. If you want to see a lift system torn apart - including all the posts removed and re-assembled, check out my photo albums.  I took LOTS of photos during any of my rebuilding, because other people's photos helped me so much.

If you can - post photos somewhere of your camper - we can probably help you more if we can see the damage.

Laura

[austinado16]

Welcome!
You probably won't find the parts you need, unless you come across someone junking one on ebay.  But you might have an easier time repairing the poles you have......depending on how and where they are broken, and how they function.

If you don't weld, you can usually get a place like a exhaust shop (not a Midas or Meineke) to do custom projects like this.  They've got the equipment and are always fabing things out of metal.

If the canvas, screens, windows, ceiling, floors, cabinets, and cushions are in nice shape, then maybe it's worth repairing and using.  Especially if you guys are into vintage stuff.  Otherwise, unless you're a DIYer, you might want to find something in better/newer shape (as has been suggested).