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: ALnCORY on 08/14/08 09:14am

Nice job eyeteeth,,,, very nice!!

I don't think anyones dying statement ever contained the words "I wish I had spent more time in the office", so lets go somewhere!

Posted By: PPCLI-Jim on 08/14/08 07:40pm

yup saw one today . it was from california , he decided to back over my honda scooter with me on it . only cost him a new fender for my bike ..

Been there, doing that have a few T shirts .

Posted By: Brett J on 08/15/08 10:13pm

Hey.
I finally made it!!!!!!!!

I have been in love with old Dodge class c's for a long time, always wanted one, missed a chance on one last year, but I have one parked out front now!! drove it home yesterday. It is a 72 Midas Mini but unlike most I have seen and read about here I have single rear wheels, I am wondering if this is a bad thing? I'm sure I will have more questions latter.

Thanks

Posted By: Old & Slow on 08/16/08 07:30am

i have a 78 dodge tioga 24' in close to mint condition. my question is, what might be the max miles before a major engine over haul assuming the engine had proper care? it has a lpg conversion for the engine. so it's either or.

Posted By: Leeann on 08/16/08 07:40am

Hard to answer...what engine does it have?

If it's had proper care, you might be looking at forever. But who knows?

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

Posted By: Old & Slow on 08/16/08 09:02am

i have the 440. the last recorded record shows it was service @ 87,000 miles. now 90,000 it uses about one quart of oil every 700/800 miles but it does not smoke. it sounds smooth and idels smooth. the tranny is also smooth. how about the tranny what can i expect?

Posted By: Griff in Fairbanks on 08/16/08 01:59pm

Old & Slow wrote:

That engine should be good for at least another 90,000 miles and probably much, much more.

Oil usage is probably due to old, brittle valve seals, which can be replaced with the heads still on the engine.

That tranny is very sturdy and almost impossible to kill. Keeping it full of clean fluid and keeping it from overheating will make it last almost forever. (These are strong transmissions ... the same ones that were put behind race Hemi's.)

Replace the filter and fluid and flush the cooler every 50,000 miles and you should be okay.

The only problem I know of that can't be traced to owner neglect is the torque converter wearing out ... both Leeann and I have had that happen.

BTW - the extra capacity pan is a good, inexpensive investment.

1970 Explorer Class A on a 1969 Dodge M300 chassis with 318 cu. in. (split year)
1972 Executive Class A on a Dodge M375 chassis with 413 cu. in.
1973 Explorer Class A on a Dodge RM350 (R4) chassis with 318 engine & tranny from 1970 Explorer Class A

Posted By: Old & Slow on 08/16/08 02:57pm

griff,

partly grew up on the kuskokwim and flew in and out of fairbanks with frank barr on the mail run, so you know, i'm a old head. forgive the lower case, at present i'm one handed. thanks for the heads up on the 440. the one thing that concerned me was the use of one quart of oil about every 800 miles. the old engine runs so smooth. i bought this old relique as it is in near mint condition and many things like the toilet, refer, a/c and various other items have been replaced. i have cancer and have outlived the doctors preduction and i'm trying to squeeze just a little more out of the ol' hide. a new rv would not have added one day to my life. we flew to anc 4 years ago, rented a mh in anchorage and drove through fairbanks. didn't know the city. thanks again.

floyd

Posted By: Leeann on 08/16/08 08:08pm

The 440, as Griff said, is almost indestructible. Mine uses a quart of oil every 1200 miles or so and, as Griff said, it's due to valve seals. Which we might get around to sometime...but we will replace the oil pan gasket shortly and have done the valve cover gaskets as they were all leaking pretty badly.

The tranny is also almost indestructible. We thought the tranny self-destructed when it turned out to be the torque converter - we'll have a rebuilt one Tuesday. We took it all apart and found no source of the metal in the pan...and the clutches and steels looked almost new. We did put a shift kit in it when we put it back together. We finally found the metal source when we unbolted the torque converter from the flexplate. All sorts of little pieces of metal inside clinking about.

Oh, and the deep pan with filter extender piece is a wonderful thing.

Posted By: 79powerwagon on 08/17/08 12:03am

Brett J wrote:

There were many C's with single rear wheels back then. I assume it became some kind of issue because everyone went to duallys. But, you can simply stick her on a truck scale and see what the weight is on the rear axle, and see if your tires are up to the task.

My uncle had a Ford C with singles, and he used that thing from about 1974 to 2001 without any issues (other than having to rebuild the house several times).

You may want to install electronic ignition in there, whether it's Pertronix or Mopar...

Love these old crates! [emoticon]

Eric

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

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