Art has to move you and design does not, unless it’s a good design for a bus.

– David Hockney

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, we sold our GMC Motorhome, the Silver Shell, in order to upsize to a rig more spacious and suitable for full time living. This last week we made the purchase: a 35’ vintage 1963 GM PD-4106 bus! As our vehicle ownership history indicates, filled as it is with odd models like the Suzuki X-90, an Isuzu Vehicross, and multiple Saabs, we like our rides unusual. So in looking for a larger motorhome within our price constraints, a used bus was a tempting option from the minute we started our research; we just needed the information, confidence, and right rig to come along.

The first two requirements were provided by the adventurous couple who run Technomadia and other online RV-oriented endeavors. They purchased a slightly older version of our bus, a ’61 GM 4106, and significantly upgraded the existing motorhome conversion with modern tech wizardry. Having followed their blog for the last year, we had a good feel for the pros and cons of a vintage bus, and were reasonable prepared to assess options as they presented. We had narrowed our search to Flexble, MCI, and GM busses from the ‘50s through the ‘80s.

When we ran across the ’63 GM on eBay, saw that it was conveniently located next to relatives in Wilmington, NC, and noted that the auction bidding was stuck below half of the original asking price and well within our expected range, we thought we might have a bargain. When we learned that the most recent owner, a nuclear engineer, had lovingly converted, upgraded, and maintained it during his four decades of ownership, including with a full engine rebuild, we knew we had found our future home if we could win the bidding. In a tense evening of constant refreshing, last minute research, and more than one glass of wine, we executed a last second “sniper bid” on the eBay auction, effectively eliminating a psychological bidding war, and watched as the last seconds ticked down without anyone exceeding our offer. We committed to the purchase with a deposit the next day.

This last week we flew to Wilmington, stayed the night with my mom and father in law, and then we all piled into their SUV filled with our travel bags and folding bicycles, and met our new bus at Wilmington RV. Matt Rancourt had been working with us since well before our arrival to conduct routine maintenance and storage accommodations, and gave us the grand tour and as much of an operational and technical rundown as possible. We signed the papers and drove off the lot headed toward Miami.

Now, I know there must be some skepticism out there about the wisdom of switching from one old ’78 vehicle to an even older ’61, but the reality is that diesel buses, real buses meant for passenger service as this one was, were designed to go a million miles, and the Detroit 8V71 engine is a well-regarded workhorse that will serve for decades more. A new “diesel pusher” motorhome would run us at least a $100K, so the $22K we paid for this one leaves us lots of budget room for upgrades. Our four day shakedown cruise from Wilmington to Miami proved that this big boy is comfortable on the road, and having had 750 miles along a steep learning curve, I think he is significantly more reliable than our somewhat finicky Silver Shell. We will post more about that first road trip another day, along with information on the upgrades and interior changes we are looking at, but for now, enjoy some pictures of the Big Kahuna.

For a size reference, here is Wilmington RV salesman Matt giving me the first tour of the Big Kahuna:

Mom, Tim, and I in front of the bus:

Closing the deal:

We have some news: Our first motorhome, our Silver Shell, is now in the hands of another couple and well into a 3000 mile journey to the Pacific North West. No, they didn’t steal him, we sold him! And no, we have not changed our plans for full time RVing, we simply realized that though we gained a great deal of critical knowledge and experience from our GMC Motorhome, he was just too small for us to live in full time. We enjoyed the heck out of half dozen adventures, especially the GMC Sunshine Statesmen rally’s and our 750 mile circuit of Florida over the holidays, but we need something with significantly more living space.

A few weeks back, after having enjoyed a flawless eight day “shakedown cruise” of Florida, we decided that since our GMC was in demonstrably peak condition, it would probably sell most easily right then rather than let all those expensive repairs we did over the past 9 months get older and less relevant to a prospective buyer. We put him on the market, including some GMC websites, Craigslist, and eventually eBay. After three weeks, a dozen inquiries, and one mysteriously vanishing buyer who went radio silent immediately after committing to a purchase via eBay, we finally made a deal with a couple from Washington state who flew in to MIA and took possession.

It was certainly not without drama and heartbreak! A couple of weeks before the new buyers committed to buy I received an interesting call from the on-site coordinator for a modelling agency. Having seen pictures of the GMC on craigslist, he wanted to rent the Silver Shell for a retro themed model shoot in Wynwood, the art district of downtown Miami. After some negotiation, he agreed to pay $200 per day for the rig and another $150 per day if I could find a driver to stay at the shoot and position it as necessary. Anticipating a four day and very profitable long weekend, I met my father in law (our family’s designated model shoot motorhome driver) at our storage lot… and it would not go into gear. Surprisingly, my cussing and swearing did not fix it. After urgent calls to Jim Bounds at GMC Coop, we determined that at a minimum the shifter cable was likely frozen and would require replacement. Later our mechanic found cascading series of problems including a cracked flywheel, but that morning I had to call off the model shoot, much to the chagrin of a very flustered modelling coordinator. After about ten days, three mechanics, and $1000 we got the motorhome back into smooth running condition, but it was a race against the clock as the new buyers were on the way and wanted to as soon as feasible. We made it with a day to spare, and we kept them apprised of the progress the whole way.

We will have some news about our revised RV plans in about a week, so stay tuned. Until then, here are our farewell pictures of our Silver Shell, and the happy new buyers just before the start their journey across the country.

  

November 2013

http://www.ramblersrestrv.com/amenities.html

September 2012

http://www.verobeachkamp.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

September 2013

http://www.wekivafalls.com/

 

 

In bridge clubs and in councils of state, the passions are the same.
                 – Mason Cooley 

There are quite a number of organizations out there to help a new RVer get their bearings, but if you have a vintage, collector, or relatively rare vehicle then the gold standard is a club specifically created to support your type of rig.  Since I have received great support from Saab and Suzuki forums, and exceptional benefits from being a member of  the Isuzu Vehicross community, I sought out a similar group for our classic GMC Motorhome.  These GMCs have rabid owners all over country with regionally organized clubs that have regular rallies.  I found the Florida based club, the GMC Sunshine Statesmen, just in time to attend their first rally of the 2013-2014 season.  Once a month the rally host coordinates a discount rate at a carefully selected RV park and arranges food, entertainment, events, social hours, technical sessions, arts and crafts, outings, and more.  We could not have asked for a more welcoming or supportive group.  Arriving at dusk for our first rally, Jeff Sirum noticed right away that I was having a problem with a sticking throttle, and made sure that it was sufficiently reliable to get us home.  Member after member went out of their way to greet us during the weekend, and we had the opportunity to tour a score of other GMCs and thus get a flavor for the wide variety of internal options and styles even in these relatively small motorhomes.  After our departure on Monday we stopped by Jim Bounds’ GMC Coop shop and spent the day getting a number of things inspected or repaired, and had the opporutinity to work side by side with his mechanics so that I could learn what was actually going on under the hood.  Having a support groups, whether for the collective knowledge of the hive mind or just for the social opportunities, is an invaluable asset for an RVer regardless of experience.

Still thrumming with excitement at taking a tangible step towards our RV life with the purchase our “Training Motorhome,” we could barely wait to get it out on the road for at least a weekend trip.  Despite living in Southeast Florida and having visited quite a number of the Florida Keys, Rose and I were both ignorant of the RV parks on the islands, so it was with some excitement that Rose stumbled upon Bahia Honda State Park during her research.  One of the best rig friendly spots in the Keys, Bahia Honda bosts what many consider the islands’ best beach, electrical and water hooks ups with a dump station, snorkeling, kayaking, and an affordable cost.  We wanted to go as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, Bahia Honda is quite popular and has a limited number of RV spots, and the experienced patrons reserve a year in advance.  We had put Bahia Honda in the “maybe someday” file, when on a whim I checked the Reserve America website that handles reservations for all of Florida’s State Parks on the chance they had an opening due to cancellation for the coming weekend, and we nearly wet our selves with excitement when we were able to lock in one night.  Thus 13 days after getting The Silver Shell home, we were able to take her out for a weekend in the Keys.

We had a wonderful time.  The beach and cove are fantastic, the wild life abundant, the water clear, and everything is exceedingly picturesque.  In addition to the joy of being in this beautiful natural setting, we had our first opportunity to interact with other RVers, and you could not ask for a more welcoming unofficial community.  As obvious neophytes, we took advantage of the experienced neighbors to ask questions and seek advice.  In our short day and a half stay we learned more than we thought possible.  We gained familiarity with the idiosynchracies of our rig, and were able to start a list of things we needed to upgrade, repair, or purchase to make things smoother during future trips.  Probably the number one lesson: You need bicycles.  Many of these parks are quite large, and even getting from your spot to the concession area, much less to all of the places worth seeing, can be quite a hike.

As for the park itself, it has much to recommend it.  The camping/RV spots are sufficiently large such that you dont feel like you are right on top of your neighbors, and each has a significant amont of vegitation growing between each spot.

The sunsets are fantastic…

And even when it rains it is beautiful…

After finalizing the purchase on the 1978 GMC Motorhome Royale, I made arrangements to pick it up from the Florida panhandle the next week. It turns out that from Miami it is much easier to get to Panama City, Panama than to Panama City, FL, but after a plane flight, overnight hotel stay, and three hour bus ride, I was met at the station by the two ladies that were selling the GMC (due mainly to lack of use). They gave me a tour, showed me as much as they could, locked the keys inside once, jimmied open a window to retrieve them, accepted my cashier’s check and then pointed the way out of town. Go South, (not so) young man.

That first trip was an eye opener. As a driver, the disconcerting thing about a motorhome is not the length, but rather the width and inertia. Even with a rebuilt 455, it takes a while to get 12,000 pounds up to speed, longer than you think to stop, and man does it take up a lot of road. Think about sitting in your car and looking at the space between your seat and the passengers. Now make both seats oversized and spread them out another two feet… that’s a motorhome.

Within the first two hours the cruise control made a popping noise and ceased to control the cruise. Shortly after that I was on the phone to the owners asking if there was a trick to understanding the gas gauge because I seemed to be burning it at a prodigious rate. I later determined that the answer was yes, there is a trick, but no, it really does burn a lot of gas if you have a heavy foot. The GMC has two tanks read by one gauge on a toggle switch, and the gauge is neither accurate nor linear. Further, as Jim Bounds of the GMC Coop would later explain, these beasts are very aerodynamic at lower speeds, but above 58 MPH they turn into bricks. I had been averaging over 75 MPH, and was getting maybe 5 MPG on that first tank. Ouch. After each refill I slowed by 5 MPH and eventually learned the idiosyncrasies of filling and more accurately measuring the dual gas tanks and gauge such that things have improved to nearly 8 MPG, but it will never be a Prius.

I stopped in Gainesville to visit my daughter, in her final year at UF, and got a taste of city driving in a motorhome. I did not care for it. Adding to the challenge was the sudden and operatically loud collapse of the dash A/C performance and a distressing problem with sporadic mushy brakes. After dinner with the girl child and a tour of the new RV, I continued on to Tampa for the night, arriving at Bay Bayou RV Resort well after dark. Pro Tip: do not do this on your first RV trip, or ever if you can avoid it. Thankfully, the extremely helpful security and after hours check in man helped get me sorted out, guided me into the spot, and spent 30 minutes supervising my comic attempts to find and hook up power and water. It was one heck of a relief when the roof A/C came on to give me relief from a hot Florida summer night.

The next morning I completed the journey to South East Florida, staying the night at my father-in-law’s before taking her down to the Homestead Air Force Base for storage.