flipper the 87 dolphin

Flipper is my first RV and I am super excited to take it and do the cross country adventure.

I am an industrial designer, photographer, and avid camper. I also do a little drawing and graphic design work. screen printing also.

here is the story so far... I am just holding it here until I save the info and make myself a book.

I bought Flipper from a single mother with a special needs child. she was moving along and no longer needed it. day one I got the transmission filter and fluid change then drove it over the continental divide back into Denver. I think that both previous owners did very little mechanical work. sure it was sent to the shop and grease monkies for the necessary things. but when it comes to general maintenance and keeping it safe they did very little.

yea there were tires but they were date stamped back in '97. I bought it in July of 2017. A set of six was a fun time to find. and also too expensive. but now we have new safe shoes. that takes us to lights and flashers, the old bargman had a irregular shaped socket. somehow it became oval shaped and the bayonet mount would not hold a bulb or light.  a quick look on the interwebs and some fellow was making LED upgrade bargman sets. I had to wire them up and chose to soldier them into place. in hindsight I should have looked into adding the resistors. they flash fast, but bright. then I noticed that the coach sags toward on the drivers side excessively so I replaced the old airbags with new. then the carpet flooded as this is my first RV and I filled or actually overfilled the water tank. well no sense in trying to dry out 30 year old carpet and I have a utility blade so out it went. then replaced the carpet with wood flooring. now that I see how little floor space is needed I may rip out the wood flooring and replace with a better type. not something with 1 mm of laminate vinyl but an actual wood floor that could be resurfaced many times. but I will get to that eventually. I noticed that my batteries kept dying so there had to be some fault in the system. took it to my mechanic for diagnosis and sure enough the alternator was not doing it. oh yea the speedometer was not working so the odometer also had called it quits. the parking brake would not engage or release, it was bound or seized strongly. also there was an exhaust manifold leak. this I think caused the speedo and parking brake cable to melt inside their sleeves.

of the things that I have done to it include. ECU, injector relay, ignitor and coil, all of the standards plugs wires cap rotor and such. then the motor a new cast block, alternator, oil and water pump, fan clutch, exhaust manifold, parking brake cable, speedometer cable, a rebuilt starter(thanks Dudek), and that is all I can recall at the moment. the list of receipts is crazy. and I have not paid myself for the hours. but really what is this thing worth? it is my house. that means to me that it is irreplaceable. When I am done it would be keen to feel secure in its reliability for another 30 years.

Soon I will have to drop the transmission to reassemble the kick down cable as it is loosened and will not up shift properly. the engine roars with gusto but the top speed is about 30 mph. and that is just unacceptable. I enjoy working and updating the systems and the cab n' chassis but there is a certain wall where I need others to tell me to take a break and recharge my motivators. spiritually not any sort of physical motivators.  but I have gotten very efficient at ripping the top end apart and timing and re timing and re timing again. once I discovered that the harmonic balancer was slipped the timing came together  so nice. after having the ECU rebuilt there was many difficulties in the starting. turns out the ECU had a poor ground. a single self tapping metal screw and a bit of splice and soldier on the factory line and now it fires up. so nicely. the batteries used to go dead as there was some sort of draw until the ground was fixed. but now the batteries are happy and the charging system is working great!

but alas I have encountered the issue of limited economy. simply put I ran out of coin. so it is parked at my wonderful sisters house and I am off to make some bank which will help to make it a suitable daily driver. I still would like to refresh the aged exterior and add a few modernizations like the backup camera and maybe electronic bonuses like generator solar and entertainment devices. but for now all is good so much done and so much left to do.

trying to be grateful for what I have and happy for all that I have done.

This forum and its wonderful members have been a lifesaver more than once and the motivation reinforcement that I needed. help with parts locating and technical advice to no end. what a wonderful group of persons. I am feeling truly blessed! and am trying to accept help and acknowledge all of the gains I have made. be grateful every day for what we have and not to dwell on what we don't. each rising sun follows a new opportunity.

I drove through a field of rough terrain. the result was the breaking and removal of the black and grey water gate valves. the new parts are here. still need to install. also the transmission was fixed in Colorado springs by the transmission clinic fellows. turns out when I dropped the motor in I compromised a tranny kick down cable.so that has been fixed.

update march 2019. I have installed a new exhaust manifold onto the block and am waiting for a clear day to have the muffler shop install new pipes. I have adjusted the valves to proper intake and exhaust clearance. at the moment the flipper runs better top end than ever before. but the take off from stoplights is not the best. once I get the tail pipe and muffler fixed I hope that it will help with the peppiness.

the dreaded power draw is returned. the LED tail lights have an ever so mild illumination when the truck battery is plugged in. so still more left to do. until next time.

Thanks J G Mc  and FLIPPER the 87 Dolphin