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GREENSBORO — With squirrelly steering and mushy brakes, this old RV’s next life could be that great junkyard in the sky.

More than 21 years old, the mobile command post for the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office is easily the oldest in the fleet and soon might be retired.

Especially if Guilford County commissioners this week approve spending $188,446 in recovered funds — not county tax money — that the sheriff’s office has for a new mobile command center.

The current 38-foot RV is in its third life after starting as a mammogram-mobile in Minnesota in 1986, coming to Guilford County EMS in 1994 and going to the sheriff’s office in 2004.

Though top-notch computers and satellite and radio equipment are on board, the motor and drivetrain are showing their age.

“There’s one hill coming out of the airport,” said Fred Redmon, technical services manager for the sheriff, speaking on the RV’s brakes on a trip from Piedmont Triad International Airport.

“And they work,” he said of their mushy stopping power. “They’re just not what you’re used to in your personal vehicle.”

Then again, the RV is from the era of “National Lampoon’s Vacation” movies. The odometer has turned over so many times nobody knows how many miles are on the ride.

A new command center would take all the high-tech equipment from the current RV (made by the now-defunct Beach-Craft) and put it in a refurbished Thomas Built Bus from the late 1990s.

Matthews Specialty Vehicles of Greensboro would do the work. And the company would provide an update for a vehicle that offers mobile office space to law enforcement for calls from presidential campaign stops to homicide scenes.

To hear Maj. Tom Sheppard compare the two vehicles, it sounds like the difference between Mr. Magoo and an Olympic sprinter.

“The best thing for us is it’s a newer suspension and a drivetrain,” Sheppard said, “and it will be driveable. The old one is more difficult to drive and is constantly hitting things.”

Fortunately, none of those things have included people or other vehicles, but after 21 years, the RV has the scrapes and dings to show its age.

Contact Gerald Witt at 373-7008 or gerald.witt@news-record.com