How many of us are there? Owners of Dodge based RV's?

[whiteknight001]

I'm new here, and curious.

How many of us in Class C own Dodge B300 incomplete
cab/chassis based RV's? I know two others- Steve aka
Ripsaw, with a 1977 Brougham, and Leroy aka 1978_Dodge
_Delta who owns a 440V8 powered sharp looking 1978
Delta RV. I would like to ask, and offer, help, idea
swapping and comparing notes on our particular RV's
which are based on the Dodge B300 van chassis.

Yeah, I know. These are low tech, podgy old RV's that
would be considered "entry level" for folks like me,
but I have a deep and abiding respect for the quality
of these old "monsters of the open road". And anyone
wanting to pick brains, joke about, share notes or just
brag about our old A- Dodge-io's are certainly welcome
to PM or email me. Between all of us we can form a real
good support group, and help each other with problems
we know we'll encounter with an older vehicle.

Sure. I'd love a new RV. But I'd rather have an older
one already paid for, and a lotta great memories. Call
me frugal, an old hippie, or whatever you will. I'm proud
of my old land yacht.

Mopar Madness Manifest in the flesh,

Mark aka White Knight

P.S. Mine's a '72. Is there an older one out there someone's
motorvating in? Maybe even a Travco? W/K

[ALnCORY]

Jerry,
I feel your pain, I know I ended up tearing into mine more than I planned although I think yours is worse. But look at the bright side, you will have a better built roof and new interior not to mention a newer fridge. Of course thats easy for me to say as most of my work is done. I know I was getting pretty tired of working on it before it was finished. Hopefully the weather will improve so you can get more done. I am looking forward to seeing the finished product.
A.

[chinook440]

Doug I sent you a p.m. a few days ago with my email , i guess you haven,t read it. My address is fabrekator at yahoo dot com.

If the history of chinook info that you mentioned is the page that,s on the tincantourists site i have seen that already.

Thanks

[Doug_in_CA]

Hey DaChinook440. Where would you like the literature e-mailed to? I have one that's sort of a history of the Chinook.

Doug

[eyeteeth]

DaChiNooK-440 wrote:

Shipping would defitately be expensive Al which is why i offered them to eye since he,s fairly close and i go out to s.w. michigan every now & then.

Geez.... now you have me even more curious.

[Jer_Ger]

Al, I'll probably have to use the launn panels too. I think I'll need about 6 from what I can tell so far. There was a piece of paneling on the underside of the cabover bunk that I'll have to replace after I rebuild all the framing there. I'll also have to find a new gasket for between the roof of the cab and bottom of the bunk. It appears to be made of some kind of tar made gasket, I'll check with Camping World to see what they have. Right now I'm trying to get the wiring runs in place while this wind and rain is around. A friend of mine says he has a newer frig. I can have so I'll need to fit that in too. I'll tell you, I sure didn't know I was going to get onto so repair. I thought I just had a small leak to fix.

[ALnCORY]

ChiNook,
Yeah I hear ya, I am in good shape for rims and have a local tire store that can get the 16.5's(at least for now) so I can order new ones if I don't find any good used ones. He found me one used one for my spare and thought he had a line on some others but it didn't work out. I will put some better rubber on before I start camping next year one way or the other. Sounds like you found a good solution too..... I may look into the whole rim, tire change over too... just depends on what I find.

[chinook440]

I was in need of one 16.5 rim for a spare as well but couldn,t find one anywhere but instead found a few early 90,s dodge dually phone co. bucket trucks with 16" rims so i bought 7 of those and just got all new readily availibe 16 "tires.
I really didn,t want to as my old tires look almost new but was sick of looking for a spare rim and no tire shops around me had any 16.5" tires either and they basically didn,t want to order any either and i don,t feel comfortable driving around far from home in the boonies with no spare.

Shipping would defitately be expensive Al which is why i offered them to eye since he,s fairly close and i go out to s.w. michigan every now & then.

[ALnCORY]

DaChinook, Too bad Chicago is so far away as I could use 6 8x16.5 tires. I imagine the shipping would be expensive. I have had a couple of leads on some local used tires but nothing has worked out yet. I am parked now for the winter anyway so I will start looking again in the spring.

[ALnCORY]

Jerry,
Wow, you did alot of work there. Thats great that the 2x4's work as that will add strength to your roof.
As far as the paneling, I ran into the same problem which is why I just replaced the wall panel I needed with luann sheeting and painted the whole rig. I did use a piece of paneling on the bottom of the overhead bunk because I didn't want that to be painted as I was afraid it would stick to the cushions.
I had to replace a piece of the ceiling panel as well but once again used luann and painted the ceiling white as I knew I couldn't match the existing vinyl covered panel. I know Leeann used some kind of a plastic ceiling panel and it looked real good. You might also be able to buy some vinly covered stuff from a RV repair place or manufacturing place.
Anyway I applaud your efforts as I know what the weather has been like. Your doing great.
A.

[eyeteeth]

I might be in a few once my finances recover. I wasn't expecting a reply so soon. I honestly only need the one rim. I replaced all my tires fall of 2007 when I bought my rig. The problem is the PO decided the best way to remove his flat tire, was to try burning it off the rim... which left the beads... and ruined the rim.

[chinook440]

Hey Eyeteeth if you,d be interested i have a complete set of 6 16.5" rims with good 8r16.5 radial tires for about the cost of 1 new tire alone.

[eyeteeth]

Just a reminder to everyone... anyone who's getting new wheels... I still need one of the ole' 16.5 rims. 🙂

[Jer_Ger]

AlnCory wrote:
Jerry,
If you go to 2x4's will you be able to reuse your roof metal? Seems like it would increase the width needed to cover wall to wall? I agree it would be stronger and you could taper roof better to avoid low spots. Your roof vent's might have a gap between the top and bottom covering due to increased thickness of the 2x4's verses 2x3's. (I know the new vent I bought had a gap, seems my roof is thicker than what they use now)
Those are my only thoughts. I know when I repaired my overhead I went with bigger timber where I could to help stengthen it, but that didn't effect anything else.
Al

I did a measurement of the roof now and I think that I'll be ok with the metal I took off.
I had tarped the RV wed. and I guess after taking it off and on, I put holes in it as everything inside was soaked. Luckly I had removed most things. But I had to do something, so I removed the roof, rafters and all. Replaced the rafters with 2x4's curved and replaced the plywood skin, then covered that with a new plastic sheet. Hopefully that will keep things dry until I can find some paneling for the walls and roof. I looked in H.D., Lowes and Camping World and it seems it's not made anymore. So now what, back to the drawing board I guess.Here are some pics I took, hope it works....Jerry

[chinook440]

WoW Doug ...sounds like you got a great deal on your chinook. I,ll p.m. you my email address . I have the original owners manual already but i would like to check out what ever other litrature ?? you may have .

Thanks
Harry

[Doug_in_CA]

Mine is an 18+ and I believe the literature is all on the 1976. Your profile picture looks like my rig with an extra window up top on the front. I will be happy to send you what I have. Along with the brochure I have the manual that came with mine when it was new. Wiring diagrams etc are in it. I would prefer to e-mail it to you as there is quite a few pages involved. My Chinook only has 33,000 miles on it and was stored indoors by the PO. The best part is I bought it for $1.00 from a guy who needed it off his parking spot. Let me know
and I will send everything to you.