good morning everyone eric here from nomadic fanatic i hope you guys are
doing well i think i'm gonna give up rv life and i'm gonna go live on a houseboat
that's how i feel right now it's gonna get better right i think it's gonna get better
how are you guys i'm gonna be uploading this video with some nomad internet there's a link
below if you need some mobile unlimited internet today was the day i was hoping to show you my new
power step installation but as you can see i still have a walmart 11 step out front
because yesterday i spent all day trying to install the new power steps down here trying
to install a better step system than the one i had before one that is advertised as a direct
fit replacement while all the wiring worked gosh guys i was underneath here all afternoon yesterday
sweating my butt off in the in the afternoon sun that was right here and they don't fit
you may also notice i've got the floor all tore up the floor used to be right here so then
three or four layers of half inch subfloor missing right now these are the brackets
and you can see the holes right here once you fit those down these actually go underneath
by the way so these two brackets what you have anything to say okay you didn't help me yesterday
these two brackets go underneath so that the steps aren't sunk all the way down but anyways a couple
things the lag bolts which aren't even there right now more on that and just like the lag bolts that
went down no longer protrude long enough to be able to get the nut on when we were trying
to just get one to fit and i mean i had kyle out here and tj was out here and jill was even helping
because it's they're like 88 pounds and they're just so awkward to try to install under there
with all the weight and stuff now all the we did test them the power works and everything
works on them but they didn't fit and so i gave up on that and at like five o'clock
yesterday i brought the steps out turned them upside down got a tape measure measured from
the center of each hole and sure enough they do not match up they're about a half inch to
three quarter inch narrower than the other ones so they were never going to work as as they were
supposed to anyway but we had lots of problems so i knew okay well now i got to build a custom
template with new lag bolts fine we'll just dig into the floor underneath and see what we can find
oh my gosh what is it with coachman thinking that we will never have to repair these things again
all right so what we're looking at here this is the inside floor this is this is the first layer
okay here's the other three layers three layers it looks like we've got two pieces of
plywood and then some osb here on top and then we've got the other piece over there so nearly
five or six inches of flooring okay and these are what protrudes underneath so those brackets
i showed you would go on here the steps would go on and then you'd have a nut right here and
as you can see i had to cut all of these just to remove them why did i have to cut them why not
just work on top and unscrew them okay oh look at that there's no lag bolt heads seen anywhere
you guys see what coachman did they built these inside and then stapled this
osb to the plywood so that nobody can ever have ac they even glued it so that no one can
ever have access to it you just throw the rv away when you're done and i try desperately to
get in there isn't that crazy that's not even the worst of it let's go back to the side door
okay so why wouldn't it move when i was trying to knock it back up this one stayed but the rest of
them wouldn't even move when i was hitting on the bolts check this out they even put
horizontal bolts in here to hold it to keep it from going up and down okay well that's easy eric
just find the head and take are you kidding me they built it before they put the exterior wall on
the rv there's no way to access those bolts either so that's why the floor got completely ripped up
by me taking it out it is literally meant to never be serviced in the lifetime again it's just a
put it in once and when they go out you're screwed throw the rv away that's kind of how i feel jax
to tell you the truth yeah now if you've been following this channel for quite some time you
know i don't have a whole lot of nice things to say about coachmen and how they build their rvs
they're just not meant to ever be repaired they don't want you to repair they don't allow you
to make a repair and everything i've had to repair i've had to do it in a way that is not
conventional and i have to be very very creative so i am going to fix this project today hopefully
tj's going to be bringing the truck by and i can go get some more osb some plywood i'm going to get
new lag bolts i'm going to measure everything okay and then once i get my new flooring put in with my
lag bolts aligned the right way for the brackets and the new steps instead of drilling through here
i am going to drill sideways horizontal ones from the outside of the box where i have access to
see right there i can access that from the outside later if i have to replace these
that is my project for the day i'm going to go shopping and come up with a new game plan
and uh i'll get back to you on this one i guess oh my gosh i don't usually film when i go into
these antique stores thrift stores flea markets or anything like that i don't usually film and
you know it's hard to explain the excitement if you collect something you probably understand but
you know you walk around from one boot to the next booth and then go like that kind of thing today
was probably the most fun i've had in over six months as far as antiquing for mickey mouse fines
i cannot wait to show you what i got today to add to my collection at base camp okay although
these are not in the greatest condition i got two aladdin mickey lunch boxes and you never find this
both of them had the thermos inside every time you open these you never find anything inside i got
two today eight bucks a piece this little as is mickey conductor train guy it's missing pluto
obviously that's different and i mean look at this guys it's literally a mickey mouse ice cream scoop
just unbelievable what you can find if you are looking for mickey stuff this guy here mickey
you push his hand he spins and lights up let's see we got the hollywood mickey by applause i
have no idea why there's plastic bags on his hands maybe just to keep him clean but i've
definitely never seen that version of mickey mouse very cool and then a two dollar little cardboard
cutout piece there of mickey i i don't know i don't know what he was displaying it looks like
maybe he was holding something at one point and the mother of all scores yes i said the mother
of scores it is a clock radio by general electric it says youth electronics on the top you got all
the different characters around the clock don't know if it works yet you've got the mickey mouse
radio so of course this is going right next to my other four radios but i've never even seen
anything like this nor do i know what year it's from to change the dial you turn mickey
i just love it i cannot wait to plug this actually screw it i'm gonna plug
it in right now yeah this should work all right i plugged it in and it didn't catch
fire as you can see the white second hand spinning around the clock works the radio
it works
we only get that fox sports channel but
i love it even more now it's pretty fun it's pretty cool and you know one day we're all
going to look back at this you guys are going to look back at this and decades from now say hey i
remember when eric got that little will we know that i'll probably have to buy like three more
houses to hold everything i'm in a good mood today has been a really good day uh shawn's just putting
some stuff away in the shop and then we're gonna go grab some dole whips that's right we got a
place here in town in east alton or wood river maybe that uh does dole whips yeah jax man how
are you doing you doing pretty good then okay jax you're good boy jim's a good boy i just finished
packing up everything outside all my tools and everything and it's just now starting to rain as
we've got some nasty clouds and thunderstorms going on but guys my uh 11 walmart step stool
we don't need that no more my buddy's uh tj kyle and shawn we're all out here and they're
like eric let's knock this out let's get it done let's get your steps installed now not to say
it was easy it was still tricky and it baffled us a couple times but watch this open the door
yes steps come out here let's go inside and flip this switch right here you flip that switch when
you don't want them to go back inside like you're camping and they stay in if we go back inside and
hey jax flip that switch back to the on position the normal position close the door yeah
was a very custom install here had to build all new brackets in here have an i use this top piece
of floor that already came with it but everything else under there is brand new it is very secure
very solid anchored with those carriage bolts to the steel frame of the under compartment there so
this is good and gosh i just cannot tell you what a relief it is to have power steps working again
for me it works i'm going to keep this step stool in case i need it later but uh i think i'm gonna
go play some pinball here since it's gonna rain for a little bit talk to sean see what he wants
to do also but uh really appreciate their help here at modified auto really put me into better
spirits
me