Anyone interested in 83 Pace Arrow Tear down and Rebuild?

[fulltimin]

Started to look into some water damage in the kitchen of our 83 Pace Arrow. The more I looked, the more I found. I have some pics of the damage so far. Anyone interested in following a rebuild thread?

[Bruce_Brown]

fulltimin wrote:
Curiosity. I just want to know where the failure point is. Nothing more, nothing less.

So what does that have to do with rebuilding a motorhome??? It seems like the answer is "nothing".

I'm not trying to be mean but if you spent more time working on it and less time screwing around with stuff like this you would have been done years ago.

[sundancer268]

Love the experimentation, I guess I like to find out little known knowledge. If the human race didn't experiment, we would still be in the stone age. A lot of experiments fail outright, some are ahead of their time and others lead to remarkable advances in human achievements in material sciences, medicine, transportation etc. Keep it up.

[fulltimin]

Curiosity. I just want to know where the failure point is. Nothing more, nothing less.

[LouLawrence]

Or, forgive me for stating the obvious, you could try working on the RV!
What the heck is so important about trying to reinvent the fiberglassing process? More importantly, why do I put myself through what has become a painful experience?

[Bruce_Brown]

What exactly is the purpose of this test??? What wheel are you trying to reinvent?

[fulltimin]

Well, after a few days of baby sitting duty, and a bunch of other stuff that needed to be done, I tried testing the strength of a piece of fiberglass cloth with fiberglass resin again.

Unfortunately, I had the same results as last time. At about 535 lbs or so things started slipping, so I had to postpone the test.

I guess I need to change the blocks that hold the fiberglass a little bit so they don't slip and see what the strength is when it fails.

As before, the fiberglass is still the winner, between that, epoxy, and Por 15.

Getting ready to start working again. Wahoo!

[fulltimin]

Happy Fathers Day, everyone!

[fulltimin]

JoeH wrote:
So, It's been 5 years since this thread started. I've learned/observed some interesting and innovative carpentry techniques & seen many inappropriate uses of POR 15 and followed some interesting discussions.

We've also traveled around the country in our motorhome 5 times plus numerous trips to the keys and a few cruises. Despite the $6/gal diesel prices, we started a 8,000 mile trip a week ago.

I hope you can get your project into a state where you can actually get out and use it. I know a great deal of the fun and enjoyment is the build and creativity going into the build , but it's time to see how your efforts actually work ... good luck & happy 5th anniversary

How time flies! Interesting discussions are why we are here. Some, better than others.

As one poster said not too long ago, it's time to get this show on the road.

Enjoy your trip, and thanks for the post. 🙂

[JoeH]

So, It's been 5 years since this thread started. I've learned/observed some interesting and innovative carpentry techniques & seen many inappropriate uses of POR 15 and followed some interesting discussions.

We've also traveled around the country in our motorhome 5 times plus numerous trips to the keys and a few cruises. Despite the $6/gal diesel prices, we started a 8,000 mile trip a week ago.

I hope you can get your project into a state where you can actually get out and use it. I know a great deal of the fun and enjoyment is the build and creativity going into the build , but it's time to see how your efforts actually work ... good luck & happy 5th anniversary

[fulltimin]

Bruce Brown wrote:

fulltimin wrote:

Bruce Brown wrote:
^^^ Ecoboost with the 10 speed auto is the real deal.

This one was the 6 cyl 3.5L engine. There are newer versions of this van with a rating of 27 on the highway with a 2.5L 4 cyl engine.

@ $4.50 to $5.00 a gallon or more, mileage makes a significant difference on long trips.

We bought 268 gallons of gas on this trip. The moho would have been 687 gal figured at 8 mpg.

I think you'll find that engine is in the Transit Connect, the smaller one. The Transit (the bigger one) only has V6 options.

Trying to keep this somewhat Class A related, I've often wondered why they don't offer the 6.7 PowerStroke in a Class A.

You are correct about the V6. I had been looking at the fuel economy dot gov website, and misread the data.

How about a V6/10 speed swap into the 83 Chevy? Yeah, no. Lol.

[Bruce_Brown]

fulltimin wrote:

Bruce Brown wrote:
^^^ Ecoboost with the 10 speed auto is the real deal.

This one was the 6 cyl 3.5L engine. There are newer versions of this van with a rating of 27 on the highway with a 2.5L 4 cyl engine.

@ $4.50 to $5.00 a gallon or more, mileage makes a significant difference on long trips.

We bought 268 gallons of gas on this trip. The moho would have been 687 gal figured at 8 mpg.

I think you'll find that engine is in the Transit Connect, the smaller one. The Transit (the bigger one) only has V6 options.

Trying to keep this somewhat Class A related, I've often wondered why they don't offer the 6.7 PowerStroke in a Class A.

[FloridaRosebud]

fulltimin wrote:

Bruce Brown wrote:
^^^ Ecoboost with the 10 speed auto is the real deal.

This one was the 6 cyl 3.5L engine. There are newer versions of this van with a rating of 27 on the highway with a 2.5L 4 cyl engine.

@ $4.50 to $5.00 a gallon or more, mileage makes a significant difference on long trips.

We bought 268 gallons of gas on this trip. The moho would have been 687 gal figured at 8 mpg.

That's why this spring we altered our plans and did not go out west. Instead, we did a SE US "loop", and saved 3,000 miles. My MH got 7.2mpg this trip, so we saved close to $2,000. Still had fun and saw a lot.

Al

[fulltimin]

Bruce Brown wrote:
^^^ Ecoboost with the 10 speed auto is the real deal.

This one was the 6 cyl 3.5L engine. There are newer versions of this van with a rating of 27 on the highway with a 2.5L 4 cyl engine.

@ $4.50 to $5.00 a gallon or more, mileage makes a significant difference on long trips.

We bought 268 gallons of gas on this trip. The moho would have been 687 gal figured at 8 mpg.

[Bruce_Brown]

^^^ Ecoboost with the 10 speed auto is the real deal.

[fulltimin]

FloridaRosebud wrote:

fulltimin wrote:

sundancer268 wrote:
Glad you had a safe trip and are back fully relaxed and ready to go to work. I managed to fix my cruise control today, I really need to get off my keester and cut the grass, It still hasn't been fully cut since I got back from my trip. I still hate cutting grass as it aggravates my allergies. I also am not sure it is worth over $5.00 per gallon to cut. Takes my mower about 5 gallons to cut the place so $25.00 plus to mow.

We did have a great time and the entire 3 week trip including van rental, gas, food and misc, cost us about $2,500, which is about $1,000 less than what gas would have cost for the motor home figured at 8 mpg.

In this situation, I am glad we rented a van.


Glad to be back. Hope everyone is doing well! I missed you all. 🙂

So inquiring minds want to know - what did you rent? What type of fuel and what was your MPG?

Al

Rented a Ford Transit medium top cargo van. Being 6' tall, I could stand up pretty straight in the cargo area, as long as it was not under one of the roof ribs. They were head knockers.

Engine was gasoline, with a v6 and 10 speed automatic trans.

20.5 mpg for the entire trip which was roughly 5500 miles. Roughly 2000 miles were on Interstate roads, at about 65 mph. Most of the rest mileage was on 2 lane roads, sometimes through small towns.

The 2 lane roads were usually between 55 and 65 mph.

The van was basically a 2500, and a 2020 year with about 28000 miles on it when we rented it.

We had close to 12 feet behind the pilot and co-pilot seats for cargo. Inside overall width was 68".