1993 Revcon Trailblazer - Project Overhaul

AdvWife

Active member
So in February, Expedition Portal posted an ad on their Instagram page for a pretty rad looking 6 wheeled off-road camper. We instantly fell for it. The ad forewarned us that it would be a total project, but we contacted the owner, put a downpayment on it and flew from AZ to OR at the end of March.

Meet our 1993 Revcon Trailblazer. Built on a custom 6 wheeled Ford F350 chassis. This is how we first saw it.

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What is it? We'd never heard of Revcon before but apparently they were a small overland company before that was a thing. According to research conducted by fellow Revcon owners, approximately 57 Trailblazers were built. From what we currently know, ours was the 3rd ever built.

The story we know about it: a few years back the previous owner purchased it and refurbished the entire interior. On it's maiden voyage, an electrical fire in the cabin ruined all the work just completed. It was purchased back from the insurance company and given to a second company to clean it up and repair the fire damage. That deal eventually fell through and the owner decided to sell.

We met up with the owner's good friend who was storing it in his bamboo creation kingdom. Mike took us through what he knew, helped us load it all up (interior tour later), replaced the dead battery and provided us with replacement bamboo to at least re-do all the walls inside. HUGE shout-out to Mike. Amazing dude with a really great company. If you're in Portland, check out Bamboo Revolution.

We didn't make it far. After fueling both tanks up, we went to Discount Tire to replace the dry-rotted tires. Unfortunately they don't make tires for 16.5" wheels anymore. So we had to purchase 7 new wheels and tires. That was a bit of a gut punch, but we never would have made it home otherwise. Discount Tire got us all squared away for an install on the following day, so we headed to power-wash the beast and pick up odds and ends from Harbor Freight and Auto Zone.

Little did we know, we'd need much more for it before we could get out of Portland. The rear air-conditioner wasn't bolted in, so we removed it and quickly patched it in the Harbor Freight parking lot as a storm was rolling in.

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Little did we know, we'd be patching and repairing it long into the night. One of the rear tires split and the airbags were deflated. So long into the cold rainy evening, we stuck around an AutoZone parking lot just trying to get it road-worthy.

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We called it a night without fixing the airbags. Had a late dinner at Elmer's (thank you staff for putting up with late night-closing time customers!) and crashed. Tomorrow meant more repairs and fingers crossed, we'd be getting on the road.
 

AdvWife

Active member
Day 2: Oregon to Idaho

On our way back to Discount Tire, we stopped by 4 Wheel Parts to get air fittings to resurrect our airbag system. Riding around without them was.....uncomfortable. They didn't have parts to sell, but graciously offered us a piece from a display for free. They saved the day. Big time.

Discount Tire had our wheels installed as soon as well arrived, and after a bit more tweaking on the airbags, we grabbed lunch and finally got on the road.

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Oregon is beautiful. It was our first time there and sadly, we just didn't have the time or confidence in the Revcon to adventure off the highway.

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Which was a good call because about 250 miles from Portland, we realized the fuel lines on the rear tank gave up the ghost. At Deadman's Pass, of all places.

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Thankfully, the Revcon has two fuel tanks. Sadly, the larger tank was now unusable. Which meant stopping for fuel every 100 miles.....on a 1500 mile trip. Ugh.

We pushed long into the night. Almost ran out of gas in Idaho and finally called it in Yampa, ID.

Day 3: Idaho to Arizona

We woke early, thanks to the freight trains. Got on the road and were impressed with the snow covered mountains clear into Arizona.

Idaho
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Utah
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Dinosaur with a dinosaur
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Utah brought us into a snow storm. Nothing terrible, but we were glad to have the new Cooper's under it.
 

IdaSHO

IDACAMPER
Cool! I've been tempted a few times when these are up for sale. This one as well.
Thanks for saving me from another project ;)

Good luck with the project. These trucks are really cool and have huge potential ?
 

Raul B

Explorer
Day 2: Oregon to Idaho

On our way back to Discount Tire, we stopped by 4 Wheel Parts to get air fittings to resurrect our airbag system. Riding around without them was.....uncomfortable. They didn't have parts to sell, but graciously offered us a piece from a display for free. They saved the day. Big time.

Discount Tire had our wheels installed as soon as well arrived, and after a bit more tweaking on the airbags, we grabbed lunch and finally got on the road.

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Oregon is beautiful. It was our first time there and sadly, we just didn't have the time or confidence in the Revcon to adventure off the highway.

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Which was a good call because about 250 miles from Portland, we realized the fuel lines on the rear tank gave up the ghost. At Deadman's Pass, of all places.

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Thankfully, the Revcon has two fuel tanks. Sadly, the larger tank was now unusable. Which meant stopping for fuel every 100 miles.....on a 1500 mile trip. Ugh.

We pushed long into the night. Almost ran out of gas in Idaho and finally called it in Yampa, ID.

Day 3: Idaho to Arizona

We woke early, thanks to the freight trains. Got on the road and were impressed with the snow covered mountains clear into Arizona.

Idaho
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Utah
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Dinosaur with a dinosaur
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Utah brought us into a snow storm. Nothing terrible, but we were glad to have the new Cooper's under it.
What an epic adventure. I can't wait to see what you do with it.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
 

AdvWife

Active member
Day 3 continued: Bryce Canyon

Realizing that we were passing by Bryce Canyon prior to the snow melt, we knew we wanted to see the red towers covered in snow. We made it into the park as the sun was setting and were delighted to see how beautiful it was.

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We closed yet another restaurant, The Pines, and somehow made it all the way to Page, AZ in the dark with only one headlight.

Day 4: Page, AZ to home

Thankfully our last day home was fairly uneventful. We had to make a small airbag repair in Page but were able to motor the remaining miles without incident.

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Now the real journey is ahead. It'll be a very long and slow journey but we're determined to get this old beast restored and ready for many adventures to come.

I'll post up a video walk-through of what we're starting with in a bit.
 

Oldcarnut

Adventurer
I remember when these came out and wanting one BADLY. Was not of driving age n parents were not interested so did not happen. Good luck and keep us all posted.
 

AdvWife

Active member
Thank you everyone! We did a video walk through and YouTube finally uploaded it. We have a lot of preplanning to do so updates may be delayed but I’ll keep this thread going.

 

AdvWife

Active member
Deconstruction: Part 1

On our drive down from Portland, we noticed the steering was pretty loose. Mike put new tie rod ends in this week, so hopefully that fixes the sketchy handling this big beast had.

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This weekend we started deconstructing/demo. For the most part, it was already pulled apart when we got it. We took everything out and tossed a bunch of stuff we knew we wouldn't need.

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The problem is, it sat unused for a long time. A long time. We decided to start demo from the front to the back. And I'm glad we did. We already knew there was water, termite and mouse damage to the platform above the cab, but we weren't expecting just how bad it was. To think, we sat in this thing for 4 solid days with this stuff.

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Thank goodness for 3M. It took hours to clean and sanitize the area. We rebuilt part of the structure so we could get around up there. We're thinking of using honeycomb instead of plywood to save weight. Since it'll be the bedroom, we'll want it solidly built.

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Mike also demoed the bathroom. We decided to switch from a full RV toilet set up to a cassette toilet. It makes the most sense for what we do, and we don't need to travel with smelly hoses and whatnot. We mostly boondock, so losing the ability to hook up to sewer isn't a huge loss for us. When he ripped up the shower floor, the dead mouse count rose to 5. 3 today and 2 the day we picked it up. A thorough clean up and an abundance of bleach water will hopefully help the smell.

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He moved on to removing the dual propane tanks. They are really corroded and not serviceable. We weren't expecting them to both be full though. That throws a wrench in disposing of them. We decided that we're only replacing one tank and not both, as it seems like an excessive amount of propane to carry. Save weight and money, as this style of tank is crazy expensive.

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Keep on keeping on and someday we'll start rebuilding.
 

zelseman

Observer
There is so much room under there, you could have all kinds of storage in the frame rails. Great looking truck, I am excited to see where this goes.
 

AdvWife

Active member
There is so much room under there, you could have all kinds of storage in the frame rails. Great looking truck, I am excited to see where this goes.

We’re thinking of moving the water tanks underneath to allow more usable storage inside. Still gutting it and planning it out. We’re easily a month away from rebuilding.
 

AdvWife

Active member
Interior demo is finally done. It is oddly satisfying to have it completely empty.

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The worst of the demo was the liquid nails they used to put the walls up. Needless to say we are not going to glue the walls up. They will be screwed into the studs just in case of a water or electricity issue that needs to be fixed. That way the wall can come down and go back up without damage.

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We took care of roof demo during a passing storm. It is pre-summer here in AZ, so we take advantage of any cloud in the sky.

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We have quite a few holes to patch on the sides and roof of the Revcon. We're removing or replacing most of the lighting, doing away with the black water tank and upgrading the solar.

We'll be spending the better part of next week working to get the holes patched. The first full week of May we've taken the week off work in order to get as much exterior sanding, repainting and caulking, and interior insulation done before real summer gets here.
 

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