RV Use & Upgrades

[apr67]

I used to tow with a 23ft 1980 Class C KIT RoadRanger. This was during the good old days when I lived in St. Louis and Chris and I raced together. Back then we towed his 2 car flat trailer with both of our race cars, spare parts, and 3 to 4 people all over the midwest. Pretty good for a Small Block 400 with lotsa miles and a 20,000lbs total weight.

So now I am buying a used RV from my folks. Its a 1990 Pace Arrow Class A, 30ft, powered by a TBI injected 454. I'm going to be towing a SM on an open trailer, I figure the total towed weight will be under 5k.

Anyone have any suggestions on upgrades to make the RV have a longer and happier life on the road? I think I am going to look at having the hitch area 'beefed up', and investigate the whole oil/water/tranny fluid cooling situation. I am also going to go over all of the normal maintainance.

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Joe Craven]

Amazing what you did with the Class C. BTW, Class A rigs usually have very strong frames, much stronger than the van frames of Class C rigs. You should be fine, crawl under there and confirm how beefy the setup is.

[racer_tim]

With any 454, get a set of header's and free flow exhaust. Since it's already FI'd there isn't alot to do on the "front" end.

We had a 454 in our old 1974 Chevy wagon and got 8 mpg stock. We added headers, dual exhaust, high-rise manifold with a Holley 650 single pumper carb, Hayes electronic ignition, and big-ol 360 degree chrom air filter. It got around 16 mpg after we "let it breath"

We did go through spark plug wires about every year because of the heat in the engine compartment.

Let the big block breath and it will be much happier.



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Tim Linerud
San Francisco Region SCCA
#95 GP Wabbit
http://linerud.myvnc.com/racing/index.html

[Quickshoe]

I think you pretty much have it covered.

The receiver area is probably going to be better than that of the Class C, but safe to check it out anyway.

Keeping the thing cool is the right idea. My father-in-law is on his 3rd 454TBI in his 27' Class A Pace early 80's, (around 150K total) 2 overheating issues and one broken oil pump pick-up tube. It is an absolute pain to R&R a 454 from a P30 (I think) chassis! The 3rd time the tight-arse felt like $2500 labor was a good deal! He did the first 2 R&R's himself.
Those class A's are considerably heavier, beefier chassis, usually much larger fresh, grey and black waste tanks, extra batteries and often dual A/C's, larger storage bins also mean you'll probably be bringing more with you too.

I'd like to find a small class A diesel and trade in my Class C, but I think the demand for such a beast is so small I probably won't have much luck.

[PDoane]

Be careful with Class A hitches because some of them just tie into the frame extension for the coach and not the chassis frame.

I extended and beefed up the one on my 23' Class A because it didn't tie into the chassis frame and the coach frame extension looked pretty weak.

Peter

[Quickshoe]

Peter,

Are you sure you are talking about a Class A? What you stated seems to be the rule rather than the exception with the Class C RV's. I haven't looked at many Class A's that small (23'), do they really have frame extensions, or do the chassis rails go all the way to the rear?

My 23' class C chassis ends where the van rear bumper would have been and then two chassis extensions (2" x 6" x .166" I beam) goes to the rear of the RV. This extension is probably 6-8' long and only overlaps the original chassis joint by about 1'.

[apr67]

Most class A's (gassers) have extensions also. My 90 fleetwood has about 3 ft of extension. Its a 30 footer. If it were a 28, it might not have any.

Now since the newer chassis are more geared towards RV's (and not bread trucks) you might find gassers with full lenght frames. Pushers all seem to have full length frames.

Alan

[chuck baader]

I have been shopping for a class A for several weeks and have noticed a couple of things..diesels are expensive, except when the horsepower is low...like 190 to 200. those can be had often because they won't pull a noodle out of a turkey's but A friend of mine who pulls way too much has said with a diesel you need 250 hp but rather pull with 300. Unfortunately those rigs are ususlly over 50k, even for the 14 year olds!!! I'll keep looking...

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Chuck Baader
#36 ITA E30 BMW
Alabama Region Divisional Registrar

[apr67]

Diesels can be tweaked. Old non-electronic ones get tweaked at the injection pump. Electronic ones get tweaked at the computer.

You trade some fuel, heat and longevity for power. Chris Albin towed two cars with a 6.2l Suburban that had a tweaked pump. Damn thing did really well.

[racer-025]

I've got a '88 24ft Southwind w/ carb'd 454. It's all tuned up w/ new headers and dual exhaust. The normal milage I get with her (towing a single car trailer) is 9.5 MPG. I am also building a 2-car trailer for it. The rear frame also has 30" frame extensions that the hitch is bolted to. Seems strange on such a short chassis. I am planning on beefing it up as well.

Chuck, I will be selling it in late September, if your interested. Only 40k miles. Asking $16K. I need her for the Targa NL Rally in Sept.

[apr67]

I think the reason they use extensions is pure cheapness. But it could be that the frames were not available in the length they wanted, so they always went shorter.

I'm going to probably stay with cheapness.

If I were going to tow something heavy (exceeding the 3500lbs toad/250lbs toung limits) I would probably get the frame beefed up. But alas, a 980 lbs trailer and 2100 race car leaves me enough wiggle room for tires and spares.

Peace out dogs!

[chuck baader]

025..thanks for the offer, but am looking for something in 34-35' Holiday Ramber, mid '90s. Just aren't many available in the SE and I really don't want to go to Washington or California to buy. Chuck

[racer-025]

Yeah, I want to step up to about 28-30ft max. and a little newer too. One thing I can say about the older units though, I can fix and/or tune just about everything on it....

[chuck baader]

025, contact me privately.. [email protected] chuck