fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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We don't want to forget the guys in Florida.
Auction Oct 26, 2017 10:00 AM EDT
If you want to do something, you will find a way.
If you don't, you will find an excuse.
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Good judgement comes from experience.
A lot of experience, comes from bad judgement.
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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A Southwind in Nebraska for the middle of the country...
Future sale of Southwind
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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I gotta get the heck off of that site. My wife just walked by and asked, "are you getting into trouble here"?
I asked, "are you worried"?
She said "should I be"?
Lol..
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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Question. Why would anyone want to rebuild a motor home that is 34 years old, and only 27' long overall? Why not something bigger, newer, more bells and whistles?
I am glad you asked.
Below are a few reasons why this rv is a very good fit for us.
Not everyone will agree with our choices, and that is ok. If they don't rv the same way we do, then, their needs will be different, but here are some of ours.
First of all, we travel with no toad.
This motor home is short enough, that we can take it almost anywhere we choose to go. Ever been through a Wendy's drive thru with your motor home? We have. Wendy's has no overhangs on their buildings. Got a couple of strange looks and some laughs, but, we never had to get out to go inside.
In cases where there is a restaurant we want to go in, many times, but not always, we can park in a normal parking space, and if the restaurant has a parking area with grass, we can back in, and leave the back end hang out over the grass. That leaves about 20' from the rear tires to the front bumper. Only slightly longer than some of the larger cars.
No slides. While that is a negative for some people, for us, it's a plus. No extra hole in the side of the rv to leak. And believe me, we know leaks! No motor, nor hydraulics to drive the slide in and out, which equals less weight.
This thing has a Chevy 454 engine in it. The same engine that was used in pick up trucks, medium duty trucks during that time frame, with who knows how many of them still on the road today.
Which means that parts for the engine are generally easy to come by.
The transmission that is in it, is a turbo 400, again, which was used in pickups, suburbans, etc. Many of them still on the road, easy to get parts.
With all these trucks on the road, finding a mechanic to work on one, (if needed), is not too difficult.
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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In our travels, we like to "graze". We sometimes sit still for a while, and other times, just keep moving, albeit, slowly. That means when we are done for the day, we don't have to "go back" to a campground, or central location, for the night. We just stop.
Next morning, we just move a little more.
By running the generator, and the overhead air, the whole coach stays cool. If it's cool out, we can keep the coach warm. We don't have to get out, and go back to a cold or hot trailer.
Somebody said, well, we just run the generator, and keep the trailer warm or cool. Ok, valid point. What are you going to do, when it's pouring down rain, and you really, really need to use the facilities? Your genny for the trailer, isn't going to fix that, you are going to get wet.
The turning radius on this is pretty decent. Not fantastic, bet decent. With a 30' trailer, you can add another nearly 20' for the truck, and now you have about 50' of steel running down the highway.
Try parking that in a Wendy's parking lot.... Lol.
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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When we get hungry, we just stop. If we need the facilities, we just stop. If we need a nap, we just stop.
We do not have to hunt for a restroom, because we are driving the toad around, and the camper is back at the campground.
We do not have to hunt for a restaurant, because the rv is back at the campground.
We do not have to drive back to the rv, because we are tired and need a nap.
We have it all with us, all the time. A kitchen, bathroom, and bed. How much better can it get?
There is only my wife and I that travel, so having loads of room, isn't a concern for us. As my wife said - it's just more to clean.
We worked out a system that works for us, where one cooks in the kitchen, while the other takes a break. With the new floor plan, that may change a little bit, but it works for us.
Tires. Consider the tires. This rig has 16" tires on it. Going to a larger rv, and now those 16" tires, jump up to 19.5's. Have you ever priced 19.5" tires, and compared the price to 16"? No comparison. Way cheaper to replace the 16's over the 19.5's.
Basically as stated somewhat before, most of the chassis parts, are similar to either a 1 ton pickup truck, or the P30 vans.
Less weight. The GVW on this is 12,300. I am working to reduce some of the weight while putting this back together, so we can have a little more cargo carrying capacity.
We have spent months at a time in this, and were very happy with the size, overall.
So, for us, it works well. Your mileage may vary.
More bells and whistles, = more things to go wrong. Kiss Keep it simple ....
One thing, I will let you in on. Before I started this project, we talked about it, and my wife said .... "I really am not overly concerned with the outside of the rv. The one thing I do want, is for the inside of the motor home (drum roll please), to look like a house".
So, those are my parameters, for the inside. Make it look like a house.
Uh, OK.
Now you have a glimpse into the future of this rebuild.
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oyvind
San Francisco
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Now that you've removed the space for the generator, where do you plan on keeping this? Will you move a smaller unit in and out, or have it on a trailer?
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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oyvind wrote:Now that you've removed the space for the generator, where do you plan on keeping this? Will you move a smaller unit in and out, or have it on a trailer?
I am looking at swapping out to a much smaller (physical size) generator, perhaps something like the 3500 Predator from Harbor Freight, Link which has, so far been given some good reviews, and way less money than the Honda 3000.
It only weighs about 100 lbs, which is way less than the Onan 4K that was in it.
One of the nice things about the newer gennys, is that they can run at a reduced engine speed, when the load is low, unlike the older style, which had to run at a constant speed to keep the voltage and hertz correct.
So there is a gas savings over time that will pay for the generator.
Probably looking at behind rear cap, most likely near the center. I was thinking, perhaps, mounted over top of the receiver, but still be able to use the receiver for something else.
Some rv's had a "continental kit" in the rear, so that might be an option to cover up the genny.
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oyvind
San Francisco
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fulltimin wrote:One of the nice things about the newer gennys, is that they can run at a reduced engine speed, when the load is low, unlike the older style, which had to run at a constant speed to keep the voltage and hertz correct.
Yeah, inverter generators are nice like this. I'm also planning on replacing the Onan, but with slightly different setup.
I have about 420Ah AGM capacity and a perfect sine inverter hooked up, and I also happen to have a small GX390 engine sitting around (very quiet and efficient 8.5kW four stroke). I'm going to hook this up with two alternators (custom voltage regulator) to drive the 12V bus/charge the batteries, and build some circuitry (including an Arduino or two) to start/stop the engine.
The idea is to have the Arduino sense the voltage and start the engine when it's needed. It will then run until the batteries reaches the desired level (based on how many charge cycles I want etc). While the voltage regulator + engine governor will adjust the throttle based on the load, the next project will be to actually disable the governor and adjust the RPM such that it produces just enough HP to drive the alternators at the current load. I'll also add some solar capacity to this ![[emoticon]](http://www.coastresorts.com/sharedcontent/cfb/images/smile.gif "smile")
So in the end, I'll be able to turn on A/C etc without being concerned about where the power comes from, or when the generator need to kick in.
That's the plan anyway..
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fulltimin
Home is where we Park It.
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Joined: 12/14/2003
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oyvind wrote:fulltimin wrote:One of the nice things about the newer gennys, is that they can run at a reduced engine speed, when the load is low, unlike the older style, which had to run at a constant speed to keep the voltage and hertz correct.
Yeah, inverter generators are nice like this. I'm also planning on replacing the Onan, but with slightly different setup.
I have about 420Ah AGM capacity and a perfect sine inverter hooked up, and I also happen to have a small GX390 engine sitting around (very quiet and efficient 8.5kW four stroke). I'm going to hook this up with two alternators (custom voltage regulator) to drive the 12V bus/charge the batteries, and build some circuitry (including an Arduino or two) to start/stop the engine.
The idea is to have the Arduino sense the voltage and start the engine when it's needed. It will then run until the batteries reaches the desired level (based on how many charge cycles I want etc). While the voltage regulator + engine governor will adjust the throttle based on the load, the next project will be to actually disable the governor and adjust the RPM such that it produces just enough HP to drive the alternators at the current load. I'll also add some solar capacity to this
So in the end, I'll be able to turn on A/C etc without being concerned about where the power comes from, or when the generator need to kick in.
That's the plan anyway..
That's interesting, because I have kicked around almost the same setup. Just running a small gas engine with 12v alternator, batteries, solar, and sine wave inverter.
With everything else I am looking at, I haven't gotten to give enough attention to the electrical setup yet, although, most of it is going to be 12v dc.
I had considered just using a separate inverter for each 120v ac device I wanted to run, with it installed near the device, although, that would require larger cables to be run for the dc side, so that probably won't happen.
I figure, if I can get this insulated properly, there shouldn't be a need for a 13,500 btu ac overhead. That would cut ac usage by a considerable amount, as well as eliminate a huge hole in the roof. After all, we are only looking at 142.5 sq ft, and less than 1000 cubic ft.
Something is wrong when we need 13,500 btu's to cool such a little space.
We have a 396 sq ft living room in our house, with 3168 cu ft, and a little 5000 btu ac, will absolutely freeze us out of there, and there is no insulation in the walls, or floor, although there is a basement underneath, which is unheated.
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