Replacement Doghouse

[SLPONWHEELS]

Hi, we have a 2004 Fleetwood Bounder. Our dog house is cracked and become very fragile. We're trying to find somewhere where we can get a replacement one. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Our RV is carpeted but wanting to put in hardwood. Dont know if thats a factor in selecting a doghouse or not.

[450Donn]

Unless fleetwood might have their source still your likely out of luck. Maybe try a couple of the RV junk yards. As an option make one.

[exrench]

If it was my doghouse I would beef it up with fiber glass woven roving or mat(the cloth is too thin and would require too many thicknesses). Clean off the underside to get the best fit. Apply 3 or 4 layers of mat and then reinforce the assembly with pop rivets(the fiber glass and resin will not stick to the original fiber glass dog house structure for very long.

[TN Bill]

You might try these





Used RV Parts And Accessories | Visone RV Monaco Parts Dealer | rvparts.visonerv.com


Colaw RV | Used RV Parts & RV Salvage | North America's Largest RV Salvage



RV Salvage and Surplus Outlets - used RV parts

[Gary RVRoamer]

I'm with exwrench - the most straight-forward method is to beef up the exiting one and recover with whatever you like. Alternate is to search the RV salvage yards for one, or one from a sister Fleetwood model that might be identical.



You can't just go to the doghouse store and buy one - it's one of the few unique parts designed and made for your year/make/model of RV. Rev Group (Fleetwood) maybe still has the mold for a 2004 Bounder doghouse but getting them to dig it out and make one just for you would take months ( or years) and cost a bundle.

[arcaguy]

Something else you might think about doing along the fiberglass route is to take a mold from the existing dog house and then mold a new one with more fiberglass. It would just about double the work and expense but fiberglass isn't all that expensive and you won't have to worry about sticking the fiberglass to your old dog house. There's lots of videos about this on the internet. You might also search for carbon fiber molding as the processes are about the same just the materials are different. Good luck

[SLPONWHEELS]

Okay great! Thank you for all the suggestions. All of those sound like they would be good sound options may be leaning toward reinforcing the existing one. Our dog house has a trap door for quick access. Is that the norm? And if so with looking at the option for making a mold how important is that quick access to the engine?

[PappaBull]

Originally Posted by SLPONWHEELS

Hi, we have a 2004 Fleetwood Bounder. Our dog house is cracked and become very fragile. We're trying to find somewhere where we can get a replacement one. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Our RV is carpeted but wanting to put in hardwood. Dont know if thats a factor in selecting a doghouse or not.

what chassis type? Workhorse or Ford? the Workhorse lid is a fairly easy fix with plywood

[Roy-c]

Find a local auto body shop or boatyard that specializes in Corvette repairs. That is an easy fix and if done right the fiberglass won't become unbonded. You may need to use epoxy resin instead of polyester as it has better bonding power. Look up Gougeon Bros or West system on the net.

[PetesMH]

If you’re not comfortable doing the fiberglass work yourself you might ask at a body shop that works on corvettes. The shop might not be interested in repairing yours but you might find one of their techs who will do it for you,

[SLPONWHEELS]

It's a workhorse.

[PappaBull]

Originally Posted by SLPONWHEELS

It's a workhorse.

there are posts on the workhorse thread addressing your problem. basically use the old doghouse lid as a pattern and cut plywood to to size, insulate bottom side and either carpet or stain top side. if your lid is in decent condition then just reinforce it. still insulate bottom to protect the wood from motor heat. the workhorse posts explain the process better than I do. hope this helps and follow up with your fix

[rwhite1223]

As long as it is going to be covered up and doesn't have to be pretty just about anyone can mix up some resin and lay fiberglass that will be strong enough.

[Isaac-1]

It sounds like reinforcing the fiberglass should be easy enough, clean off and scuff up the underside well (wire brush on a drill or sander) wear good face mask with P100 filtration. the wet and lay on a few layers of woven fiberglass cloth. Check out this web site they have some of the best prices on epoxies online, even though their web page looks 20+ years out of date. https://www.epoxyproducts.com/noblush.html I have bought from them several times over the last 15+ years. https://www.epoxyproducts.com/catalog.html There basic no-blush epoxy should work well for this application along with some basic woven fiberglass mat, which can often be bought cheap on ebay, etc.


Total project cost, probably under $100


p.s. here is a link to their store site, they hide it http://www.king-cart.com/cgi-bin/cart.cgi?store=epoxy