Impressive camper remodels lead to side businesses

It’s kind of like rehabbing old houses.

Or maybe more like rebuilding cars.

It’s that — plus Uber.

Sort of.

Tim and Cherish Fedders are building a side business while feeding their enthusiasm for rehab projects and the outdoors. They remodeled their old camper and started renting it out through social media.

The Sioux Falls couple launched their project into the world this spring. It’s a 2005 Forest River Wildwood with a slide-out, a queen-sized bed in the front, two bunks in the back and a fold-down couch.

Tim tore out the old floors, the dinette and couch. They knocked out a wall, replaced some of the framing with sturdier wood and then updated the whole thing with new floors, tile and accessories, including a smart TV.

Cherish cruises Instagram – where there’s a thriving community of camper rehabbers – to find great ideas.

“We’ve always been project people,” said Tim, whose full-time job is a Sioux Falls firefighter.

It should not come as a surprise that — like Airbnb or Uber — there’s an online world where you can rent other people’s campers for your getaway weekend. There’s always a demand for ways to save money on vacations, and the pandemic drove people to the outdoors as never before.

There are aficionado groups on all the social media sites and books on how to do it, and how to make money doing it.

Carmen Dyar dove into the camper rehab business with a nostalgic twist.

She has an affinity for Airstreams, the silver tubes you see pulled behind all manner of car and truck. The Airstream is a lingering symbol of American freedom, post-war expansion and the allure of open spaces.

Carmen relocated to the Black Hills to build her business, SLVR Linings Vintage Rentals. Today, she splits time between Rapid City and Sioux Falls.

Initially, the plan was to have several trailers in the fleet. She has four but is selling two and focusing on event rental rather than camping. Her two 1960s-era Bambi Airstreams can be staged as a honeymoon suite, a podcast studio or the wedding day groomsmen hangout.

The Bambi can transform to meet the event.

“I’m creating an experience,” Carmen said.

That experience serves a higher-end clientele, working with wedding planners and event organizers to capture that nostalgia with a modern style.

“This allows for a multifaceted, memorable experience,” she said.

The Fedders’ Facebook page – 605 Revive – has all the before-and-after photos of their remodeling process as the 26-foot camper went from worn to wonderfully modern.

They listed their camper for rent on Outdoorsy.com and quickly had inquiries coming in.

They loaded up the kids and headed to Lake Pahoja, just across the Iowa border in Lyon County, for a quick shakedown weekend before their first rental in April. The toilet leaked a bit, and the hot and cold pipes were crisscrossed in one spot, but those problems were quickly fixed, and it was ready for the market.

As businesses go, it’s not a get-rich-quick situation.

“It has to be something you like,” Tim said. “I like the project aspect, the tearing apart of it … from junk to glamping.”

Tim is already thinking about the next project. He would like to go a little further back in time — something from the 1970s with a classic retro exterior but a “crazy-modern interior.”

“I would really like to do that with the next one,” he said.

There’s no firm plan on expansion but Cherish knows that when the inspiration hits it’s best to hold on for the ride.

“He’s the big dreamer,” she said. “I’m more of the, ‘OK, let me think about it.’ If he has an idea, most time I will run with it.”

So while the 1970s retro with crazy-modern interior isn’t a firm plan, it’s not going to be a surprise either.

“He’ll pull up and honk the horn and wave at me, ‘Look at what I got.’ ”

It’s that, “what’s the next project” mentality that’s always in the background.

The couple completely remodeled one house and built another. Their old camper was getting pretty beat up from years of use. With three kids — Sam, 12; Stella 8; and Jack, 6 — there’s a lot of camping on the horizon. Fixing the old one made sense versus buying a new one.

The rentals – they have seven confirmations for this summer – are a revenue-building byproduct.

“We have this beautiful camper that we essentially use four times a year with our family,” Cherish said. “Why don’t we pursue the rental opportunity?”

There’s something deeper at work in Tim’s brain. There’s the accomplishment, the challenge, the spatial satisfaction of tearing down and building up. It’s probably all that layered with a desire to make things better, to create quality from mediocrity.

Campers, in particular, aren’t built to the highest standards. There are weight and cost considerations that drive the choice of materials, for instance.

The walls may be built with 1-by-3-inch wood, where 2-by-3 would supply more support.

“How do you get something that is functional, that is going to last and look good?” he said. “I’d rather make them so they are going to last.”

Things get tricky as the materials age. Buying a used camper is a crapshoot because people don’t know what they are looking at in terms of wear and tear.

In the back of his head, Tim has an admitted “pipe dream” to be a certified inspector. That would allow him to do more of the work himself — in terms of electronics and plumbing — and help other people when they are considering buying.

He and a friend even have an idea to open a shop for repairs and inspections. A used camper is still a significant investment.

Those are early-days discussions.

For now, Tim and Cherish are planning their summer trips in their “like new” camper.

“I just like the sense of adventure that having an RV gives to a family,” Cherish said. “You can unplug. The kids can disappear. We’ve been taking our kids camping since they were 6 weeks old. Now, they are getting to the ages where the parents can sit around the fire and have an adult conversation and the kids are off catching fireflies and riding bikes.”