Painting new purpose into an old school RV

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As part of SnowSearch’s mission to build a better way to hit the slopes, our founding team is trading in corporate life in Boston for a simpler setup on the road. Enter Ol’ Betty — the 1994 Catalina Coachman we bought as we prepare to launch our startup. Betty stole the show in SnowSearch’s first Medium article, so we figured she deserved her own 15-minutes of fame.

The Backstory

We found the vehicle on Craigslist late one night in early May. Before even seeing her in person, we knew she had great potential. Here’s a snippet from our Slack convo that fateful night:

The Purchase

That Friday, we ventured an hour south from Boston to New Bedford, MA. The seller Justin had sold his house and was preparing to hit the road and and homeschool his 2 kids with his wife in their shiny new 5th wheel (trailer attached to the back of a pickup truck, for all you RV noobs out there).

His destination? In his words, ‘West’. The only thing holding him back? He had a 1994 Catalina Coachman — the very truck that had gotten him hooked on life on the road — sitting in his driveway collecting dust.

The Transaction

After consulting the various ‘how not to get killed when buying stuff of Craigslist’ guides we found throughout the week, we met Justin at a well lit, centrally located repair shop in Freetown, MA of mutual choosing. The repair guys spent about an hour giving Betty a thorough inspection, after which it was deemed she needed approx. $1200 in repairs. We negotiated most of that off the sale price, and drove to a bank to have the title signed over on camera and hand over $7K in cash (yeah, these guides are pretty thorough). With that, we were handed the keys, and passed down a name.

The Next 2 Months

$1200 and 1 week was the initial estimate. In a series of calls and voicemails over the course of the next 2 months, we heard the following:

‘This camper is giving us all nightmares.’

‘We want it off our property more than you guys want it in your hands. Trust us’

‘We’ll call when she’s running again.’

‘It’s like navigating the goddamn Santa Maria.’

Confidence inducing? Nope, not at all. Yet in early July, we finally got the call we had been waiting for. She was ready, so we hit the road to pick her up.

Betty driving through Fall River, MA en route to a new home

The Collaboration