B+ motorhomes

[Daniel_C_]

I just bought a Trail Lite B+ 211s with 8.1 Chevy
engine. This is my fifth motorhome (others range
from an old 20' Vagabond, and three Winnegagos, from 19 to 32'. This vehicle is fantastic. I am
using it as a mobile office (and sneaking in a fun
journey from time to time). It gets about 9.5mpg
and I believe I could pull a bus behind it if I wanted! I paid low $40's which is about what I had expected to pay for a five or six year old Chinook with a nicer interior, but fewer features
(slide). I am delighted thus far.

[Gene_in_NE]

B-Plus (Dario) - Long time no hear. Nice to have you back. 😉

[B-Plus]

Hello Ron and Chas, I have 44,000 miles on the Trail-lite and 21,000 on the Roadtrek and both run like a dream.
Your right Chas, If I had all of my Vehicles in the drivway they would not fit , my wife keeps telling me to thin my heard out!
Here's the 1980 Laredo CJ-7 I found sitting in a barn for 23 years, almost ready to take it out for a run.
Gary its an easy hook-up I found the battery wires to the coach and chassis right near the converter panel,its just a matter of identifying which is which and hooking them up to the gage.
Midnightsadie, I will try and find the diagram of the wiring I did but I think it will depend on what type and kind of meter you are going to purchase.

[Orion_42]

Dario, I had to blink twice when I saw you last posted picture. It looks like MY driveday!....though mine are a bit older. I have the Trail Lite and a gold-color Chevy hightop conversion van (wish it were a Roadtrek!) in the driveway, and a similar garage! I gues you are THE B+ expert with that fleet....nice!
Ron

[cheeze1]

The prodigal son returns!! Good to hear from you Dario! You don't have ALL of your fleet listed, btw.
So, the tires still have a letter designation? How many miles on the TL now?

[B-Plus]

gkreutzer wrote:
Time for new tires. I was thinking of putting Michelin LTX M/S2 on but nearest size to present LT225/75/16 D's is LT245/75/16 E. Just wondering how these might fit on duals on rear. There seems to be a good amount of space between the duallies now. Anyone have experience with this size tires on rear? :@
Thanks, Gary

Hello Gary, can't really answer your question about your size tire change ,but I may be able to give a good recommendation. I just put new tires on my Trail-lite and went with Cooper Discovers H/T
LT 225/75/R16 E. I currently have Bridgstone "E's" on my Roadtrek and and it rides great so I went with "e's " rather than "D's " and what a difference it made. Really improves the stability on the rig over the " D's " . just a little info for ya Gary.
Dario

[cheeze1]

I would love to do an Alaska trip too.
That's a good way to make use of the full bed and dinette.
I would really like to know more about that quilt!

[Orion_42]

Cheeze, nope, haven't painted it yet....still all plain white. Well maybe not Siberia, but I would like to do a Trans-Canada trip to Alaska some day. I'm just not yet ready to give up summers at the lake in NH.

For two people it's good. We have the sofa opposite the dinette that makes a super-king-sized bed if all converted to sleep mode. But we found that we could leave the dinette table setup and we slept with our feet out onto the dinette seats (sort of under the table) with our heads on the opposite wall. Was much easier to setup each night.

We had cold weather for much of the way down to Fla and we really appreciated the custom quilt my wife made to block off the heat-robbing cab from the coach. I'll try to get a picture of it, but it perfectly closes the opening with the quilt held at the top by closing the roll-down compartment doors on dowelled pockets along the top of the quilt. We were able to keep it warm and toasy with just a small quiet electric heater (with hookup).

[burlmart]

Orion_42 wrote:
Just completed a 4-week 7500 mile maiden voyage (yes we're nuts) in our fully refurbished 2001 M211 Trail Lite B+. Went from New England to Fla to San Diego and back. igher RPM.

Overall love the unit. Looking forward to our next extended trip this summer to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

I wanna do that kind of trip too. The Chevy rig is just so smooth on the road - more comfortable than our '99 Toyota 4runner.

[cheeze1]

Orion, that is some MAIDEN VOYAGE! Where you going next...across Siberia?
btw, did you paint the coach yet? I would love to know more details...it took 4 weeks. My sister is in Monterey, so I would have less miles than you, but I don't want it to be a marathon. It really is perfect for two people isnt it??

Gary, I'm not an authority on my tires yet...tho' I like tires..( I know, seems weird.) Anyway, from your post it looks like you are considering a tire that is 2 sizes smaller. Am I correct in that? If so, I would do some more research.
OOPS!! I totally read that wrong. Can you get specs on the cross section? According to Discount Tire, a 'plus zero' size would be 265's.

[Orion_42]

Just completed a 4-week 7500 mile maiden voyage (yes we're nuts) in our fully refurbished 2001 M211 Trail Lite B+. Went from New England to Fla to San Diego and back. 2/3 of the trip was just the two of us and we found the RV to be perfect for us. The other 1/3 was three people and a dog and it got a little crowded. Plenty of storage, power, and relaxing to drive. No problems whatsoever on the whole trip. On the leg from San Diego to Mass, we were towing a Toyota Yaris on a dolly.

Got some good lessons in V8 torque. Going over the mountains of Southern Cal, with car in tow, I found that the Chevy 5.7 could hold 70 mph nicely, but if I entered the climb below that speed (and RPM), speed would bleed off slowly. Lots more torque at higher RPM.

Overall love the unit. Looking forward to our next extended trip this summer to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

[gkreutzer]

Time for new tires. I was thinking of putting Michelin LTX M/S2 on but nearest size to present LT225/75/16 D's is LT245/75/16 E. Just wondering how these might fit on duals on rear. There seems to be a good amount of space between the duallies now. Anyone have experience with this size tires on rear? :@
Thanks, Gary

[Gene_in_NE]

cheeze1 - My wife remembers buying our digital clock at JCPenney's. I doubt they stock items like that on a regular basis. I'm guessing it was a gift item only for the Christmas season. Tried finding something like it on the internet close, but no luck. I'll get over to the RV in the next few weeks and take a picture and see the brand name. The snow is almost melted. Also need to copy the R-Vision owners pamphlet for another person on this forum.

There have been several postings about how that 6.0 liter Chevy can give the Ford V-10 tough competition in a drag race and always beat it in fuel economy.

[cheeze1]

Gene, I would love to know where/which digital clock you got. We do have the 6 liter engine and it's a gem. I have many times thought about having a Chevy Express with that engine for a daily driver. Only trouble is traction.

[Gene_in_NE]

cheeze1 wrote:
...After downloading the log from the Garmin turns out we averaged 13 mpg...I'm seriously thinking of going to a truck tire place and having curved, easy access airfill valves installed in the rear, the present ones are a pita and the inners are almost impossible to reach...We need some kind of clock for the interior, I'm thinking digital or a battery analog mounted on a wall or door, from a place like ClockIt or Merrits...

Great average gas mileage, we have a true 12.1 MPG since we bought our unit. I think you have the newer 6.0 liter engine (more power and more efficient). The steel curved valve stems are outstanding. We looked around a bit and found a battery operated digital that fits nicely between the overhead cabinets above the dinette. It includes a thermometer, alarm, and backlight button for reading the clock at nighttime.

CorgiThreePal wrote:
I just wanted to thank this forum for solving my noise problem...I read all posts and thank all of you for your many suggestions.

All I can add is that you are very dedicated to read all 244 or so pages. You can "subscribe" to this topic and then will see if any new postings have occurred.

[CorgiThreePal]

I just wanted to thank this forum for solving my noise problem. We listened to a whistle all the way from the southeast to San Francisco and back. We tried all types of fixes to the door until I read a note here from a person who said they solved their noise problem by affixing a baffle on the front arm of their awning. Just to be sure, we used the 'tried and true' duct tape fix, covering the small hole at the top of the awning arm and for extra measure, taping everything for about two feet down the arm. Blessed silence on a recent trip to Florida. Now we will attempt an easily removed yet permanent fix. I read all posts and thank all of you for your many suggestions.