Revcon Trailblazer Roadtrip

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.

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. 

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. 

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.