New Class B family!

stan909 makes a good point on tires: get five of them. You don't want a crummy spare 200 miles from Denver or Fairbanks. His point about stiff sidewalls is also on target. You gotta remember: these rigs are heavy and have only four feet, not six like a Class C.

That's a beautiful van! Sounds like a great adventure!

I've been perusing the forums for a while but hadn't registered until I read your post and the exceptional replies from this community.

I've recently purchased a PleasureWay and have enjoyed many "Austin local" excursions to Inks Lake, South Llano, Fredricksberg, Pedernals Falls, Ft. Davis (I love that place) as well as a few "road trips to nowhere". Enough of those "extended weekend" trips helped me to figure out what I needed (and didn't need) to take with me.

I've taken the Pleasureway (Have you named her/it?) along the route depicted in your blog many times and you will be passing through some wonderful towns getting out of Texas and beyond.

I'm heading out of the Austin area around the same time you are but this time I think I'm heading North-East and perhaps finding myself taking secondary roads to Delaware (or Montana... I haven't decided yet).

I hope you and the Mrs. have a great trip, and I agree with the advice of getting new tires sooner rather than later.

Happy trails -

I second the buy tires now idea. When a tire comes apart it can tear up a vehicle pretty bad. I recommend Hurcules Terra track 2's. Inexpensive but strong. They also have a roadhazard warranty which is rare in an AT tire. The sidwalls are very stiff and really stabilize the handling of the van. I love mine.BTW.Buy 5 tires. Your spare is probably shot. These Hurcules were $580 out the door for 4 at my tire shop.

goreds2 wrote:

overbrook wrote:

oatsmoeller wrote:

Sounds like a fun trip!

You might be interested in reading 'Boon Dockers: A journey through America one Walmart at a time', about a couple who traveled the USA for six months in their Class B van.

Currently free for the Kindle at Amazon. Find it at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BQEUO28/ref=pe_385040_117923520_TE_M1T1DP

Bill

Can you get the hard copy of that somewhere? I googled and could not find one.

I don't think that book is available in print. But you can download the free Kindle reader app to your computer, and read it there.

Or better yet, buy a Kindle reader (you can find them for around $60). Fill it up with books (follow the free book sites to find free ones daily), and you'll have a library you can take on the road.

Get the basic Kindle reader, and it'll stay charged for a month or more of reading and hold thousands of books.

Bill

overbrook wrote:

oatsmoeller wrote:

Sounds like a fun trip!

You might be interested in reading 'Boon Dockers: A journey through America one Walmart at a time', about a couple who traveled the USA for six months in their Class B van.

Currently free for the Kindle at Amazon. Find it at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BQEUO28/ref=pe_385040_117923520_TE_M1T1DP

Bill

Can you get the hard copy of that somewhere? I googled and could not find one.

Great looking unit! We had a 1996 Dodge based Roadtrek 190P and it may have been the best all around rv we have ever owned. They had one of two engines, ours was the smaller 318 (5.2L I think it was). Both are great motors and we found the smaller one plenty good for everywhere. It would slow quite a bit on Rocky Mountain passes, but hay, so what? I mention this because the PW and RT are very similar from those years and both high quality.

Please consider buying new tires before you leave Austin. Six year old tires are starting their natural rubber changes even though the treads are fine. Your PC weighs a bunch and you really will be safer on new E rated tires. You can search these forums for a lot of discussion on tires for Bs and we all have our favorites. If you are going to buy them in Seattle anyway, why not just do it before you leave and be safe in that long drive up there. Just a suggestion. Changing tires on these pups is no fun, particularly out in the middle of no where.

AsheGuy -- you've compiled a really amazing log of your trips, thanks for sharing it! You guys apparently move very quickly. I see lots of long trips in relatively short periods. I started reading through, but there's a ton of info, it will take me some time to get caught up!

Our PleasureWay story --
We had initially considered several other types of vehicles. I'd like to share some of that thought process.
I owned a truck, we said let's tow a pop up camper and roll along with that (just like my cousins did when they were young). But, there are bears where we're going, so that's not the safest idea. Plus, there are only 2 of us, we don't need sleeping space for 6-8 people.
Then we said maybe a camper that fits in the bed of the truck. There are essentially no limits to the terrain you drive through with that solution, but you need a pretty hefty truck to throw 3000lbs in the bed. My truck wasn't large enough, so that would have been a $30k truck + $5k truck camper expense.
We looked into an RV, most were far more than we needed, and more potential headaches than we wanted, plus with the big RVs you end up having to pay more to park in campsites, and they're harder to drive.
We started shopping for other options, and discovered the Class B companies out there. Sites like this one helped us to realize that it's PERFECT for our needs!!!

So, we bought a 1994 Dodge B350 (1995 PleasureWay) with the 5.2 V8. 130k miles at the moment. I found it on Craigslist about an hour away from my house, it was one of the first vans I looked at, but we wanted to see a few more to decide if we wanted a wide body, or something newer, or something like a B+. In the end, we came back to it with a mechanic (who lived in a Class B for 2-3 years, obviously knew them well!), he checked everything out and said it was a solid vehicle that only needed a few minor things. We made an offer ($7800) and we're on our way.

Improvements/fixes we have had to do it:
New side mirrors
New Optima battery in the back (previous Interstate Marine battery had some corrosion built up already)
Replaced driver and passenger interior and exterior window weather stripping because it was in awful shape (dry rotted)
Alignment
Transmission gasket
2 front motor mounts
Rear brake shoe replacement

Still to come --
Installing a stereo head unit (previous owner did not have one installed at all)
Rear backup camera
Window tint removal and probably replacement
Front headlights are yellowed, cost is $600 to replace the set so we'll try a $50 reconditioning before I go that far
Planning to add a few additional lights for fog, or simply backup headlights (I hear the gravel roads in Canada can bust a headlight pretty quickly)
When we get to Seattle we'll replace all 4 tires. The current ones have plenty of tread, but they're 6 years old and starting to dry rot a little. We'll evaluate once we get up there, but I'd rather be safe than sorry when we're in the middle of nowhere for 60 hours between Seattle and Alaska...

All-in, we're probably going to be $10-11k invested into the van. Our original budget was $15-20k, so we still have some cash available if something major arises.

We're doing a thorough detail job next week, I'll post pics once that's complete. Here's the only one I have at the moment. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9YoiydcJiMIRGFDMEo0NUlzV1N2U0hwSURpaW9EX2Zkc21J/view?usp=sharing

This sounds like a great idea and great trip. Congratulations on having the courage to take off on such an adventure as recently marrieds. It will be an experience of a lifetime. Keep us all posted.

AND...tell us more about your Pleasureway. You will find a ton of B experience and PW specific experience on this forum. Enjoy the journey of life.

Paul

Sounds like a great trip, quite a bit longer then our longest trips of 6 weeks. You might check our blog (in signature), there are two Alaska trips in there (2006 and 2011) and other trips that include much of your route. You might find some useful info.