Quote:
Originally posted by Profmcmillen:
I am about to retire from a college teaching job and want to hit the road in a Garage Truck Conversion that will hall my Subaru Legacy which is 16' long 6' wide and 5' high & weighs 3500 Lbs. I want to travel to the interesting sites in the US and Canada (I want to visit lots of steam railroads too). I will be 63 in November and my wife (much younger) is going to work and will fly (common carrier) in on weekends to meet me (thus the need to have a car to pick her up at airports). I want not to have to tow a car, and Subarus (AWD) can not be towed. So please inundate me with suggestions and ideas. My initial ideas are Volvo or Freightliner with Cummins 8.2 and Allison transmission with air brakes. Yes?? No?? Why?? Why not??
What are traveling costs average for fuel, camping and supplies for a man and his dog and week end wife??
Thanks.
Michael94605@yahoo.com
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Michael
sorry, this will be a long post and not my native language; i hope you can read it
)
sounds like a great plan
...but IMHO pulling a full conversion (and a 3500lbs car) with a Cummins 8.2 together with a Allison will be painfull slow (not only on the grades
)
i highly recomend you to look into something like the Eaton/Fuller "Autoshift" (air/electronic shifted "automated" manual trans; more gears then a auto, no chlutch needed for shifting, does not have the parasitic loss of a auto)
on the engine there is not realy a reason to not go bigger: a small engine has to work harder to move the same load so the MPG difference is very little. i personaly would not go with something smaller then the C12 cat or the cummins M11.
i like the cummins N14; there are a lot of them out there => you can get replacement parts almost everywhere and in a lot of truckstops 24/7.
a other nice side effect of a big diesel: you get a "Jake brake" engine brake
IMHO one of the best safety features for towing. you almost never need to use the service brakes so they are "fresh and cold" for any emergency situation.
building a Truck conversion with a garage that can hold a 16'long car without a exessive overhang is a challenge (the rear axle of the truck is in the way)... i take it you dont like the idea of towing a enclosed "toybox" style trailer but how about a 5th wheeler/ gooseneck trailer?
they tow great (if you tow with a class7/8 you hardly know the trailer is there
)
i personaly like Toters: a Toter is like a mini motorhome towing a large 5th/Gooseneck trailer. you have all the comfort for traveling like lots of elbow room (for our dog
) seating for 4+, sleeping for 2+, direct access to the restroom, kitchen, fridge, ...
in the trailer we will have more beds, another restroom, shower, living quarters, lounge and a garage for two cars.
so if you dont feel like driving the Subaru (long daytrip or a overnight trip) you could just park the `baru in the trailer, unhook the Toter and go
our rig will be 65' but with only one car, a dog and 2 peeps it could be shorter.
...just some ideas
stephan