Well beginning Monday I was keeping on eye on the weather, living in the snow belt we can go from 0" to 24" in one day and this past weekend we got 10". By Wednesday the temps where in the 40's, but they where calling for significant snow accumulations for Friday. So I called Lonnie at Show Hauler along with U-haul where I was renting a car hauler and luckily everything worked out to pick it up on Thursday. So my wife, son and I took off for Middlebury, Indiana at around 5:45 a.m. (my daughter wouldn't miss a day of school for this, what a student)
What a day for January, temps where in the low 40's and the sun was shinning. I was towing the car hauler with my Explorer Sport Trac and that darn trailer had very unbalanced tires so we had major vibrations at speed of 50-60 mph. Needless to say we had to make 3 stops to use the restrooms
We rolled into Middlebury at about 11:30 a.m. and made a stop at a little grocery store to get a few snacks and buy a few videos so my son would not be as board on the return trip as he was on the way up.
We pulled into the Show Hauler Parking lot around noon and the place was hopping. They are making major renovations along with adding a huge addition to place. Inside there where 2 motorhomes being built, one was on the all new Freightliner business class chassis which has a real modern look over the old FL70 look. We found Lonnie running around like a crazy man, he had 2 phone calls holding and various other things going on.
He got that all cleared up and he asked "Are you ready to see it?" Boy was I ready! Around the corning we went and there it was the most incredible thing I have ever seen. (besides my wife
) I have looked at tons of pictures of not only my motorhome as it was being built but also the over 300 pictures Show Hauler has on its site which all have impressed me, but seeing the rig in person blew away every expectation I had by 1,000 percent. It is huge! As I walked around the outside a little bit, I was just amazed. My wife & son both where in the same state, just amazed.
Now, obviously I have been around RV's, been to many shows, walked through many rigs, but for some reason this just blew me away!
So we decided to begin the walk through on the inside. And again as we walked up the stairs to the interior my jaw now hurting, because I can't close it, I was just blown away even more. My son Chase who is 7 yrs old, could barely contain himself and immediately wanted to get in the overhead bunk. My wife who I have shown pictures of this as the build progressed, but really was not as involved as I was, just could not believe how beautiful the interior was. I think she was expecting a more commercial type interior to go along with the semi truck front end. And again pictures just do not do justice to just how beautiful the interior really is.
As Lonnie was taking us through the ins/outs of the interior of the RV he was frequently interrupted by phone calls or other issues, which actually was nice for us. We would get a chance to check things out even further or just play with a specific item. I really hunted for some imperfection, something that did not work, anything that I could say "Your going to need to fix this!" We thought we found one with a light switch in the bathroom, but where quickly shown how it worked. Also there was a small mark on the dinette seat, but that was simply wiped clean. There was nothing we could find that need to be reworked, fixed, tweaked, or repaired. Every piece of trim was perfect, doors hung straight, latches worked perfect, I just couldn't find anything wrong with the interior.
When we got to the "Master Stateroom" (boater talk) is was just beautiful. My wife was again just blown away at how nice it was.
Now I want to explain my taste and what I like about a Show Hauler interior. I am a very functional type person, I like a rugged type feel, I want things to work as they are intended to for a long period of time. I do not like the marble & granite look, mirrors on the ceiling, sculpted carpet, pretty fufu draperies, white laminate cabinetry, ect... There is nothing wrong with all of this, it is just not me. I don't want to feel like I can't sit on something or use it because it is just too nice. We like to go hiking, biking, exploring, and touring and we get a little dirty, I would be freaking if the kids came in with dirty sock on nice white carpet. There is a lot of wood in here, wood floor, wood trim, cabinets, valiances, window trim, light trim, fridge front panels, and on and on.
On to the exterior, and again wow, was my overwhelming expression. The storage bins are so much bigger than the pictures would have you believe. (Joe-K I have 2 bins for firewood if I needed it, both have open grate bottoms so the creepy crawlies fall through) That 40,000 lb tag hitch is just plain massive with its 1 1/2" shank, which made for some problems when hooking up to my car hauler trailer. The Show Hauler guys made me a collar to fit the 1" shank ball I had. And I love that 8KW diesel generator which is tapped into my twin 150 gal fuel tanks.
After about a walk through of about 2 hours we wanted to get go back to Northeast Ohio before the weather started to close in on us. It had been almost 4 months since I was behind the wheel of this monster, so I was a bit nervous if I still remember how to shift this thing. The thing was we added a lot of weight and I could only image what that did to the driving characteristics of the bob tail truck I had brought up to Show Hauler.
So hitched up (love that color rear vision system w/ sound) we got under way. At my first stop light with every driver craning his/her head to find out why the USS Enterprise was on the road and not in water, I stalled it. (Thought I was in 3rd, but actually was in 5th)
So how does it handle on the road? Do you remember the big Fleetwood Cadillac's back in the 80's that use to float over the road. Well better than that! My wife and I where absolutely amazed that the ride was this awesome, with it's air suspension on the front and rear we just floated down the road. No banging, jarring, hammering, slamming, squeaking, rattling, just pure silky smooth movement over the pavement. We had a steady 15 to 25 mph cross wind with some 30 mph gust the entire way home. That truck was like a slot car, it did not move, I would get a slight hint of some movement from a passing truck, but I would have to paying attention to even notice. I flipped the cruise on at 63 mph and drove the 5 hours like it was nothing. I even took 480 which has a pretty rough section of road just to make sure I was not dreaming and it handled this just as well.
So you're saying enough with the chit chat show us some pictures! Well, I got to excited and forgot to take pictures when I was at the factory.
I truly zoned out! So this weekend I will get the camera rolling and get pictures of everything inside. We are supposed to get a foot of snow so exterior will have to wait.
I do have this from this morning. Darn thing doesn't even fit!
2003 28' Show Hauler Motorhome on a 1995 FL 120 completely refurbished chassis.
Currently in production - scheduled completion 1/10/03 www.showhauler.com