Coach in the Making Two - Graphics

[Warpath]

Here are graphics we are going with.

[BillD]

Bill,

That will look awesome going down the road.


Bill

[Gary Atsma]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by BillD:
Bill,That will look awesome going down the road.
Bill <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
There, and anywhere else it may be. Again, AWESOME!!!!

[vapoppa]

bill, mase,--- where are you putting your black and grey tanks---- ? mine are edge ways between the drive shaft and the frame verticle and lengthways-- they are aluminun-- gives more space in the basement--- just a thought-- like the graphics too, cool but not gaudy--- there you go---- classy-- mase

[KAYE RIVERCITY]

.....I agree Mase!.....I personally can't stand the glitz cuz in the building business I know it covers up cheap or shoddy....everytime....It's like a dead giveaway....geof

[W900]

Bill,

Are the graphics going to be paint or vinyl?

[MarkP]

Bill,
I love the new motorhome - floor plan, interior and exterior.

Couple of questions:

If this box was built on a FL Columbia chassis do you know what the overall length would be?

When do you expect to be close to complete on the manufacturing? I would like to fly out to Showhauler and show my wife what a nice conversion could look like.

Thanks for the great site - I'm a regular lurker/learner.

Mark

[Warpath]

Welcome to the site Mark.

The truck does not come off the FL assembly line until 2/14/05. Then Show Hauler gets their hands on it and with any luck we should have a completed conversion towards the end of April. Check with Lonnie he always has some awesome rig being built over there. When we visited him a month & 1/2 ago, he had a unit with 2 bathrooms, also a rig used for hauling dogs (really crazy configuration on that one) a cool Kenworth T800 w/ extended day cab that just looked huge.

As far using a Columbia chassis, you might add 2-3 feet to the overall length. The Columbia is a taller cab, so your overhead bunk is very small, best to use this for a entertainment center or storage. The bunk on my FLD was a bit bigger than that of a Columbia and I could never sleep up there. Couldn't even roll over the ceiling was so low.

W900 - Graphics will be vinyl.

Bill

[MarkP]

Bill, Thanks for the response. I'm not yet in a big hurry to get one ordered, so we may wait to go see yours as it is very similar to what I want.

On the length question, what I'm after is the overall length of the rig if the Columbia was used: 29' + Columbia = ??

Thanks

[Warpath]

Approximately 40'.

Not sure if you read some of my other posts, but if you travel alot and plan to get off the beaten path, the shorter the better. I just don't know how alot of these guys are getting around in 40' plus rigs and these huge trailers. I found myself in trouble in a number of small intersections and if you tow a car you cannot back up without putting serious stress on the tow bar and front end on the toad. Actually, we ended up doing some damage to the steering box and I never tired to backup more than just a few feet to give me the wiggle room to get out of a jam.

This summer we where in the Loudonville, Oh town square and a Show Hauler w/ 30' plus trailer got all crossed up at a intersection which wasn't even that small.

I was kinda bummed when Lonnie said we would have to go to 29' box to make the floor plan work.

Bill

[Camping Dutchman]

Our Trendsetter box is 30' and the columbia adds about 7' or so... So we're about 37'.. Maybe a hair longer

[Gary Atsma]

Hey Dutchman-
The bumper-to-back-of-cab measurement on your truck is either 112" or 120", depending on the model(FLC112 or FLC120). Therefore your cab IS a hair longer than 7', like closer to 9'4" or 10'. Just thought you'd wanna know.

The only cab that is 7 feet (bbc)is the vans like the Ford E-450 used in the smaller Class C motorhomes.

The usual MDT cabs are about 8 1/2 feet BBC. (bumper to back of cab). The Freightliner M2 is in that size in the 106 model. When you move up to the class 8 cabs, like the Freightliner Columbia they are at least 10 feet. Some of the long hood models like Peterbilts and Kenworths can be 11 to 12 feet.

Something else I forgot to mention is the cab length on pickup trucks. Most people do not realise that a MDT cab is shorter than a pickup.

The regular cab Ford Super Duty pickup has a BBC of 10 feet. For comparison the new style GM C-4500/5500 is 105". That is 8.75 feet. Yet it's competition the Ford F-450/550 is almost 1 1/2 feet longer because it uses the Super Duty Pickup cab.

Chevy and Dodge pickup cabs are similar in length.

[Gary Atsma]

Excellent points, cm. In fact if a person is checking out Volvos, and they need or desire a shorter cab than the VNL series, they should look into the VNM series. The "L" and "M" stand for Long and Medium, by the way. I do not know the exact BBC measurements on these, however

[MarkP]

Hmmm, This is a tough one. We have a 30' gas class A Safari with the bed that drops down from the ceiling.

We want a seperate bedroom, are disgusted with the poor quality & handling of traditional motorhomes and need enough power and stability to tow our 28' race car trailer.

So, I think we end up with a conversion like you're building but we need the bigger engine.

With the shorter MDT size cabs about the largest engine you can get is the 300 hp 860 lb size like CAT has had for a few years. Freightliner might have a Mercedes with a little more power but not much more.

From what I understand the problem is that the more powerful engines need more room for greater cooling capacity. So if you need or want a more powerful engine you have to go from the 8 1/2 foot BBC sized cabs into the 10 foot BBC sized trucks.

Using Freightliner as an example that would be going up from a M2 106 to a Freightliner Columbia. There is a M2 111 but I think that in in the 10 range again.

[Gary Atsma]

The longer hoods are NOT, in themselves, for the purpose of better cooling, though a larger radiator is usually included. It's so that the larger engines (ISX Cummins, 60-Series Detroit, C15 Cat, etc) will physically FIT in the space. They're looong! You usually won't find these engines in the shorter-hooded Class 8's, only the M-series Cummins and C-10, C-12, and C-13 Cats.
BTW, the Freightliner 112 is just that, 112" BBC. That's why it's easy to know FL BBC's. Just look at the series #.

[KAYE RIVERCITY]

....just wish Bill would get more pix up of this newest conversion....so I can steal his ideas and add them to my trailer.....Bill, ever thought of a pellet stove to keep warm instead of running your generator and gas/propane furnace?....might increase the 'romantic factor' along with that big 35" shower.........geof

[Gary Atsma]

Man, yer really stoked on that pellet stove huh? 'Course, it's one less appliance sucking up the propane, which I would never have in a rig. It's all gonna be Diesel-fired heat for me. But then, that's not nearly as romantic as a good roarin' fire. Oh well. Carry on.