Coast Resorts Open Roads Forum: How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

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Topic: How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

Posted By: Kendas on 08/12/08 02:58pm

79powerwagon wrote:

SURE! Take the easy way out! [emoticon]

Of course I will... Why post them here when I already have them available on a picture site. Extra posting uses up space and leaves less time to work on the beast.

Besides, mine is not pretty either, but every thing in it is functional. [emoticon]

1978 21ft Tioga Dodge 440 Motor,
4.5kw Generac and 80 watts Solar
1984 Goldwing Interstate (Daily driver)
Misc Things I've done to my RV pictures

USAF Retired
To Err is human... To Forgive is not SAC Policy.

Posted By: Doug in CA on 08/13/08 12:30am

I just love my 1976 Chinook / Dodge. It has had loving care all its life and I intend to carry on the tradition. I have the Chinook Mobile Lodge manual as well as some other interesting paper. The 360 engine purrs and the camper has just over 36k miles on it. The smaller size goes well with the coast and fitting into those off the road fishing spots. Would love to hear from other 70's era Dodge owners.
http://home.comcast.net/~dougobayley/site/

Posted By: Leeann on 08/13/08 05:40am

Welcome, Doug!

We love our old Dodges here...regardless of condition [emoticon]

'73 Concord 20' Class A w/Dodge 440 - see profile for photo

Posted By: Leeann on 08/13/08 05:49am

By the way, there's a member here - whom I haven't seen for a long while - who was rebuilding his '77 Chinook when he had the time, but eventually did give up.

http://www.birdsongguitars.com/chinook.htm

Posted By: Doug in CA on 08/13/08 12:17pm

Thanks for the welcome Leeann. I checked the pic on your profile. Nice rig. We see lots of vintage RV's her in CA as the roads never get salted and the humidty is generally low. The exception is the Pacific Coast where the salt spray in the air can be brutal over time.
I have chatted with Scott in Texas about his Chinook. He couldnt get it water tight even stripping it to the core. It seems the Texas sun has caused the fiberglass to go brittle on him. I got lucky with mine as it appears to have been stored indoors most of the time. I recently coated it with a UV protectant since my garage is to full of other stuff to even think of putting a vehicle in there. I agree with your "in any condition" statement. It's the heart of the RV that I enjoy the most, not just the outer skin. [emoticon]

Posted By: Leeann on 08/13/08 01:00pm

Oh, so that's what happened. I couldn't figure out why he couldn't make it water tight when he was sealing with 3M's 4200....now I get it. That stinks - he had made such good progress on his rig, too [emoticon]

I'm jealous of the no salt on roads and low humidity - both of which we have an abundance of here in MD. I'm not fond of humidity...

But I love my Dodge. The 440 is strong and has such a nice throaty roar. It'll tow whatever we put behind it, even through the mountains. People look twice or three times at us on the road. Or maybe that's just because they can't tell if we're coming or going [emoticon]

We've just sort of rebuilt our LoadFlite and are about to get it back in. Let me explain sort of...apparently, it had work done to it in '96. The clutch packs, the steels, the gears, the bushings - all look great. However, the thrust washers were worn out - all the tin was gone from on top of the copper. And that's the metal sludge we found in the filter and the pan. Also, we don't think they cleaned out the tranny cooler when they did the job, which didn't help with the metal situation. And when I changed the fluid and filter, I dislodged some gook.

While we had it out, however, we put a Transgo shift kit into it, set up specifically for motorhomes and towing. So we hope this lasts forever...or at least as long as we're going to own it.

I had a big block 727, factory rebuilt, just sitting in the back of my B250 van. So we used the good parts from both, plus the shift kit, to make one good, new, strong tranny.

Posted By: 79powerwagon on 08/13/08 06:42pm

I love rebuilding 727's, Leeann! I don't know why, other than most people think I'm really smart or magical to be able to do it!

(Pssst! It's REALLY easy to do!) [emoticon]

She ain't purdy, but at least she's slow!

Posted By: Leeann on 08/13/08 08:54pm

^ hehehehehehe [emoticon]

This one wasn't hard 'cause we hardly had to do anything to it [emoticon]

The hard part was doing the shift kit - Sam said he's never done one before. But automatic trannys are no mystery to him 'cause his dad was a specialist....and he was taught by his dad.

Personally, I still think auto trannys are voodoo!

Posted By: eyeteeth on 08/14/08 06:35am

No practice last night, so I went to the track, and spent a couple hours with the old horse getting a few more things done.

We pulled the battery to start contructing a new battery box/tray.
I finished attaching the ladder.
Put the top bunk in
Added pannelling to the bathroom
I turned the Fridge on... kinda making sure it still works. It was getting cold before we even left.
Lastely... took some sheets home to do laundry in preperation for using it soon. [emoticon]

Oh Yeah. As a bonus. I snapped a few more pics.

The Bunks
[image]

Bathroom

New Water Heater & "Trunk" area.
[image]

Posted By: Leeann on 08/14/08 06:44am

Lookin' real good!

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