Meet our rig, miss Lazy

The story of us buying our first RV starts 4 years ago in 2015. Back then we were living apart, Erlinde in San Diego (USA), me in Ghent (Belgium). What kept us going during our 4-year long distance marriage -besides good old-fashioned romance- was a shared dream to convert a tiny house on wheels and travel across the USA.

In 2019 I finally set foot on US soil with a Green Card in my pocket. Time to go shopping! After hours of online searching and countless inspections of promising vehicles, we initially bought a Yosemite Search & Rescue bus from 1991. We actually bought it while traveling in Thailand and Hong Kong. It was a beautiful piece of US craftsmanship... but way too big for our plans. The bus measured 34 ft. What a beast! Loud, unapologetic, clumsy, but ohhh so pretty. We sold it as soon as we received the keys.

Thanks to our best friend and RV guru Jonathan, we were introduced to our current motorhome, a 1995 Lazy Daze. The previous owner was the first owner and life-long member of the Lazy Daze fan club. The factory is in LA and he lives right next to it. Lazy Daze is considered one of the best RV's out there. Their website and marketing is almost laughably old school. But I like to believe they choose to prioritize their product over their branding. High quality materials and excellent engineering define their products. Customers order straight from the factory (no dealerships) and have to wait about a year before receiving their custom RV. They are busy!

We were lucky to stumble upon this one. Well maintained by a passionate first owner and only 72,000 miles on the odometer. As soon as we saw the ad on Craigslist we drove to LA to check it out. This was in March 2020, just as Covid started to impact regular life. Equipped with gloves and masks we met the 90+ year old owner. He explained in great detail everything he knew about the vehicle, including some traveling stories from back in his day. We bought it right then and there for $14,500. The drive home was sweet!

Once parked in front of our garage it didn't leave the spot for the coming 9 months. We completely gutted it and built it up again. It was our Covid project, the thing that kept us sane during the lockdown. An endless list of intimidating tasks and an exciting prospect of an 8-month long road trip. We were so grateful that we found the Daze, right in time!

I won't share with you the complete remodeling process. It would be too long and probably too boring for outsiders. But trust me when I say that the process had lots of ups and downs. Youtube was our daily teacher as well as the Lazy Daze facebook group and the Lazy Daze blog. Overall we learned a ton and are super pleased with the end result. We are now 2 weeks into our road trip and enjoy every minute of our hard work.

Below is a summary of the main specs and changes we made to the motorhome. We also made a 13-minute long walkthrough video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, well, maybe a video is worth a thousand pictures :) Enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-SMysJvkjsE

Main specs about the vehicle:

- 1995 Lazy Daze mid kitchen rear batch

- 23.5 feet long

- 74000 miles on odometer (currently)

- Ford E350 chassis

- 7.5 liter V8

Main upgrades:

Electic system

- 550 watt of solar power (1x400 watt and 1x150 watt)

- Victron MultiPlus Compact 2000 (2000 watt powerful true sinwave inverter and battery charger)

- 2x100 Ah lithium batteries

- Sterling Pro Batt Ultra - Battery to battery charger

- Two Victron smart solar charge controllers

- 3 Fan-Tastic Vents with temperature control

- Replaced old white fluorescent lighting with 12 led warm white lights (with dimmer switch in bed and sofa area)

Plumbing / Water

- Replaced toilet flange and rubber seal

- Updated kitchen plumbing

- 5 stage RO water filter system for drinking water. Directly hooked up to the main water tank

- Composite Granite 17-3/4 in. Single Bowl Kitchen Sink in Ivory

- Matte black water faucets in kitchen and bathroom

- Custom build bamboo bathroom sink (just a salad bowl)

- SHURflo 12v 3.0 GPM Revolution RV Water Pump

Sound system

- Pioneer radio DEH S4220BT

- JL Audio Single 250 Watt subwoofer

- 4x 40 Watt Memphis car speakers

Interior

- Waterproof cork flooring (Traces natural by Amorim)

- Reupholstered cab area with insulating and sound deadening double layer carpet

- Custom rebuild dog house cabinet with cupholder

- Reupholstered drivers seats with two tone faux leather

- Reupholstered couch with faux leather cognac color

- Reupholstered bed mattress with off white stain-free fabric

- Custom build desk with build in subwoofer and 12V and 120V outlets

- Custom build jar cabinet with bungee cords

- Custom build wooden countertop in kitchen and bath

- Custom build wooden planter boxes in living area and bathroom

- Custom build wooden lamps

- Custom build wooden and glass plant holders

- Repainted interior off white

- Two secret compartments for valuable items

Exterior

- Draw-Tite Front Mount Trailer Hitch Receiver - 2" (9000 pound line pull, 500 pound vertical load)

- Custom build back hitch (CURT 49512 1-1/4-Inch x 12-Inch Weld-On Raw Steel Trailer Hitch Receiver Tube)

- Front CURT 18109 60 x 20-Inch Tray Hitch Cargo Carrier, 500 lbs Capacity, Black Steel, 2-in Folding Shank

- Custom build box with CURT 18210 56 x 18 x 21-Inch Weather-Resistant Black Vinyl Cargo Bag for Hitch Carrier

- Thule T2 Pro XT 120 pound load capacity with build in lock

- Painted hub caps, front bumper, grill, water intake, awning, ladder, rear view mirros, steps

- Repaired entry door step

- Removed and replaced undercoating

- Repaired rotten wood under end cap

- Caulked every. single. window. sigh...