Carl, that's neat. I used to have half of a Cortez. Was yours the Slant Six? With the proper mods, I made that thing faster up the hills than a lot of 440 V8 MHs.

Motorhomes are something like boats; I used to describe my 26' Trojan as "Cruises 2, sleeps 4, fishes 6, parties 8, and carries 10."

I had a boat once that slept 2, fed 4, and drank 12.

Bill H: My Cortez was a four wheel coach with a front wheel drive powered by an Oldsmoble 455 Tornado engine.If you had the skills and the knowledge you could jack up the front of the coach and roll out the front axle and engine for major repairs.The three kids were out of the nest so it was the perfect small RV for two people.It's one main fault was the front wheel drive when turning at sharp curves or corners. You would "dig in" something fierce.....c

"THE TOY" 88 33' Regal SE Coach #3448

Carl, mine was an earlier model. It was basically a Clark fork lift drive train pointed backwards with a motor home behind it. Good for its day, though. Good use of a small space.

quote:

Originally posted by olroy:
I had a boat once that slept 2, fed 4, and drank 12.

Mine only drank one...but then, I was never one to share....

Bill would you expand on why your would like to stay away from the 5.9 Cummins?

I would like to have something that I feel more comfortable with and an 8.3L or a Cat 3208 or even an L10 Cummins would float my boat as I have plenty of experience on them. I have worked on many of 5.9L (no rebuilds) and would still consider one but feel that motor might be a tad overworked.

I have a friend who races 5.9L in pickups at the drag and swears by them. I have seen some things that give me the "impression" of them being a little wimpy. Several of my accounts have them in there city fleet and some of the little things that go wrong with them just don't happen as often with the 8.3L or bigger motors.

I know if I found a Coach that I fell in love with I would still take the 5.9L or even a 8.2L Driptroit. They're just not at the top of my list for first choices, that's all.

Not on the list 6.5L GM

Also, a front entrance does not save all that much space. In a typical front entrance coach, the passenger seat is set back 15 inches farther than the driver's seat to allow for the stairwell. A side entrance requires about 24 inches, so a front entrance saves 9 inches of wall space

I like the fact that your under the awning when entering and leaving. I also like less thru traffic in the cockpit area. Middle openings give you less foot travel to get around.

Some lucky Barther around here has a drop down over the front seats, something rarely seen in a Barth. I'd trade off the headroom for that setup in a second!

I added one to my coach Danny. I think your talking about the pics I posted.

------------------


1991 Barth Regal
460 EFI C6 Transmission
33' Oshkosh/John Deere Chassis

http://www.TruckRoadService.com/

"Without Trucks,

America Stops"

[This message has been edited by Bill (edited January 14, 2006).]

Just a follow up to my post about the 5.9L Cummins.

I have no problems with that motor that would exclude it from my buy list. I would have no problems with taking that setup anywhere. It's just not at the top of my list.

That Coach with the N-14 (855) cummins in it was just to much doghouse but a beautifull looking coach. Now a 3116 or 3126 is also a great motor.

I hope no one thought I was bad mouthing the 5.9L Cummins. Ryder uses that motor in alot of there straight jobs and they load those pretty heavy. I sometimes get calls from a "big rigger" who rents one of those Ryders and thinks he should get the same throttle response.

------------------


1991 Barth Regal
460 EFI C6 Transmission
33' Oshkosh/John Deere Chassis

http://www.TruckRoadService.com/

"Without Trucks,

America Stops"

quote:

Originally posted by Bill:
That Coach with the N-14 (855) cummins in it was just too much doghouse.

Heck, it was more like an outhouse than a doghouse!

I would need a bosun's chair and a pulley to get into the driver's seat.

Hey, Tim, how about weighing in here on your 5.9? Got any numbers on Banks improvement? 40-60 accelleration, hill climbing, etc?

It sounds like what you need is an entertainers bus conversion. Back bedroom with bunks on the sides down the hall. Try looking on ebay motors under buses... these come up for sale every now and then. You might just find what you need at a reasonable price. Not that i am trying to talk you out of a Barth or anything but if you have to go to a SOB to get what you want you may as well look at a bus.

Entertainers party pretty hard and the interiors of their buses suffer.

But some of them have remote black tank dumping capability.

Hey Bill, Why not the 6.5L GM ? I noticed cinconben's '94 that Rusty is going to see has that motor. He also told me that the transmission has been replaced with an Amcco (he only has 44,000 on it is that unusual?) I'm starting to look again for a unit for the summer so I'm back in the market.

A search of this site will yield some good info on the 6.2 and 6.5 diesels.

Here is a good site:

http://www.62-65-dieselpage.com/

I've haunted that website, and there's less criticism than I would have thought on the 6.5L. I do remember when the 6.2L came out, it was overstressed, and even a 1/2T PU couldn't haul or pull much at all. Its (6.5L's) only virtue is that crated engines aren't too expensive, and they use a lower compression ratio in the turbo engines.

I'd prefer the Cummins, or the 3208, but better the 3116/3126. Never heard of the 855, but the 955 and "triple nickel" (555) were real dogs.