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

[Trish_Davis]

UKdodge wrote:
Here's a bit of history before I post the pictures...

To begin we bought our Dodge Marque in 2004. It is a 21 ft with the 440 engine.

.....................

Sounds like I spent a fortune but I did all the work myself and almost nothing I put on her was bought retail. All came from ebay, junkyards, friends, what have you..

I never wrote all this down before. Man, that's a lot of work...

We understand. Really.
We (all) hate retail and love junkyards.

Do yourself a favor and *never* write it all down.
I did and it's depressing... ;0)

[UKdodge]

Here's a bit of history before I post the pictures...

To begin we bought our Dodge Marque in 2004. It is a 21 ft with the 440 engine. It wouldn't run for more than an hour on gas and wouldn't run on propane at all. There were 2 main problems: 1 the ballast resistor was bad and failed when hot and 2 when the engine got hot the gasoline vaporised and the motor would stop and not restart for maybe 2 hours... To fix the first problem I could've changed the ballast resistor but I didn't. You need a big spark to ignite propane (we use it a lot in the UK coz it is half the price of gas) and you need more advance than for gasoline. I installed an MSD 6 ignition and distributor with a blaster coil, MSD plug leads and an ignition timing adjustment module. To solve the second I could've put in an electric pump near the fuel tank and rerouted the fuel lines. Got carried away again and installed the junkyard efi I mentioned earlier. I also used the O2 sensor that I installed with the gas efi to send info to an electronic control for the propane system.

I got sick of the poor access caused by the manifolds (one of which was cracked) so together with the fact that the original exhaust was falling apart I fitted Thorley headers and a Gibson exhaust. Plug changes are easy and she sounds incredible without being loud. Getting the headers in was difficult because the engine mounts had pretty much collapsed. I put in new engine mounts and replaced the one on the transmission too. After that the headers were easy to fit.

She had a big appetite for starter motors too but when I put in the headers I put in a Jeg's mini starter wrapped in aluminum heatwrap and haven't had a failure since - around 8000 miles.

I also put in a K and N filter and an Edelbrock dual plane intake aluminum manifold. Since this work was complete starting has become a breeze - first time everytime on gas or propane. She pulls like a train and I get a lot of comments on how amazing she sounds when running. She does around 11 miles a gallon on gas and about 10 on propane, which is way better than when I started. If I ever see a gear vendors unit on ebay this should get even better...

About this time I got the radiator core rebuilt and fitted a twin electric fan set up together with an electric water pump. Both are controlled by thermostats. She never, ever overheats even with very long climbs in the alps.

I also needed more power from the alternator so I installed a 200 amp cs144 delco alternator and beefed up the charging cables. It happily ran everything and still had more than enough power to charge the house batteries. Unfortunately it was pulling hot air in through the back from over the headers and this caused the alternator to fail after less than a thousand miles. The AC pump was also seized and needed replacing. I made new brackets and mounted the alternator where the AC pump was - in the V and replaced the AC pump with a sanden unit which went where the alternator used to go. This has worked really well and in spite of the high loads the alternator has not failed since.

The suspension was utterly worn out. The rear would hit the ground going up even the smallest ramp and even the most hardened sailor would be sea sick in her... The rear sway bar had been replaced with one that didn't fit properly. It was bent, too thin, and because the rear suspension had sagged so far it was fouling the propshaft over every bump (I wondered what that noise was...) and had sawed a groove in the propshaft that I could lay my thumb into...

I took out the rear springs and got them re shaped and re tempered and replaced all the dampers with bilsteins. I got a local shop to make a new centre section for the propshaft and replaced the sway bar with a roadmaster unit. The difference is unbelievable. She was very tiring to drive at the beginning now it's a pleasure. She is still incredibly comfortable to ride in but has lost the vague, wandery steering, and the tendency to wallow everytime an 18 wheeler trundled past or the wind gusted.

I also rebuilt the brakes so she stops pretty well now.

Sounds like I spent a fortune but I did all the work myself and almost nothing I put on her was bought retail. All came from ebay, junkyards, friends, what have you..

All this work made her a joy mechanically and we did thousands of uneventful miles.

Last year I noticed a leak in the roof vent above the overcab bed. I went up and took off the vent to inspect the damage. There was signs of rot around the vent so I peeled the roof back to look. It was horrible. There had been a previous leak which had been repaired and the overcab area looked like it had been badly rebuilt at some stage. A lot of plastic sheeting had been placed behind the roof and wall ply. It had been leaking for a long time but the plastic stopped it from being visible. I tracked the rot across the roof both ways. There was rotten wood across the roof, at both front corners and the two main structural timbers behind the cab were both completely destroyed.
The rot had spread into the floor and was so bad that the only thing stopping the fresh water tank falling into the road was the reinforcement for the genny bay. What a disaster.

I decided there and then to part her out. There were lots of good parts and I thought that I could get a good amount of money back. My wife and kids absolutely refused to allow it.

And so I stripped the whole thing back to the front end vehicle that left the Dodge truck plant in 1979 to rebuild the rest of her....

Sorry that this post is so long, I never wrote all this down before. Man, that's a lot of work...

[Leeann]

TedandDonna wrote:
Just wanted to stop in and say hello. My wife and I purchased our new 77 this week, and will driving from Alabama to Ohio this weekend to pick it up. Haven't named her yet, but will when we get a feel for her personality. The RV is in very good condition, and the only install I will have to do is an roof top air conditioner. My question is how hard is it to install a new top unit on one of there older homes? The person I am buying it from told me it has a 14 in. vent that can be removed for the install. Need a little help on this if anyone has done this before.

Has it ever had an AC unit on it? Doing the physical install isn't that hard (and the instructions are pretty good), but if you have to run the wire it'll add an additional layer of complexity. Somewhere back a couple hundred or three pages should be pics of us removing our old AC unit and installing a new one.

[Leeann]

UKdodge wrote:
Hey all, thanks for the interest. I have pics and some video that I'll post somewhere on here when I can find out where.

Post the pics on photobucket or flickr, something like that, then link to them here (choose Advanced and click on the icon on the bar that looks like mountains on a yellow background, then enter the URL). Then post the vid on youtube and post the link 😉

[TedandDonna]

Just wanted to stop in and say hello. My wife and I purchased our new 77 this week, and will driving from Alabama to Ohio this weekend to pick it up. Haven't named her yet, but will when we get a feel for her personality. The RV is in very good condition, and the only install I will have to do is an roof top air conditioner. My question is how hard is it to install a new top unit on one of there older homes? The person I am buying it from told me it has a 14 in. vent that can be removed for the install. Need a little help on this if anyone has done this before.

[UKdodge]

Hey all, thanks for the interest. I have pics and some video that I'll post somewhere on here when I can find out where.

[Jer_Ger]

Me Too!!!!!.....Jerry

[whiteknight001]

eyeteeth wrote:
UKdodge... I can't believe no one has harassed you about this yet, but you're dong a complete rebuild and no-one has asked for pictures yet? Even if they won't... all ask. Let's see the work. 🙂

Wazup Eyeteeth?!?

I'll second the call for pic's-

Mark

[eyeteeth]

UKdodge... I can't believe no one has harassed you about this yet, but you're dong a complete rebuild and no-one has asked for pictures yet? Even if they won't... all ask. Let's see the work. 🙂

I swapped out the rear roof vent for a Fan-tastic vent today. I don't know what they used to seal these things with... but MAN! Getting that stuff off is a nightmare. I eventually want to add another fan-vent in the cab over. But some other time. Tooo much other stuff to fix before I start enhancing something. The motor will be dropped off tomorrow to start the rebuild process. I'll be happy when the old girl is mobile again.

[whiteknight001]

Hello and Welcome! UKDodge and FerociousLlama!!

And everybody here too!

Mark "whiteknight"

[Leeann]

On page 4 of this thread, Grand Slam has a '78 MB400 chassis with which he tows a horse trailer and an enclosed horse trailer. This is what he says about towing with it:
"To get the chassis in shape for towing I've had a leaf added to each rear spring, replaced the shocks, added air bag helper springs, had a killer hitch-frame extension structure welded to it, and replaced all six tires." I think the hitch as installed is pretty wimpy, especially with any frame extensions, and if you plan on towing anything other than a sunfish, you should probably upgrade the suspension components as he did.

My books don't cover the '79 chassis, but there is a factory parts book for sale on eBay that does cover teh MB400 chassis:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/1978-1979-Dodge-Motor-Home-Parts-Book-78-79-Motorhome_W0QQitemZ400066...

[UKdodge]

Hi DaChiNooK
That makes sense. The main frame extension looks pretty solid with good welding but the final section where the tow bracket is fitted is horrible so I guess I wouldn't want to quote a GCWR for someone else's work if I were Dodge... It would still be useful to have some idea though.

[chinook440]

Hey UK
I don,t think you,ll find a towing capacity directly from dodge on the motorhome chassis (an accurate one at least)...because they were sold as incomplete vehicles to the rv manufactures and they ( the rv makers)usually added rear extensions of varing lenghts and construction methods which will ultimately effect how much they can safely tow.
Some of the frame extensions from some of the different rv makers can be pretty flimsy .

[UKdodge]

Hi Leeann, again thanks for the response. There is only the GVWR on the plate. I also have the workshop book and the Haynes manual for these vehicles and the GCWR isn't there either so if you could help that would be great.

[FerociousLlama]

Unfortunately the rolling smog exemption stopped in 2005 meaning everything 1975 and newer has to be smogged forever.

I thought about the gm tbi setup. I think I will have to talk to a smog referee to see if they would approve the efi for smog without the emissions sticker.

I will let you all know what happens.