Truck Conversion Motor Homes

A thread about trucks used as accommodation. I’ve been trawling through my photographs and here is a few to start with. Let’s hope DEANB and the others have some also.




tcmhunimog.JPG

Good topic! :sunglasses: I’ll get digging…

Chap called ‘Traveller Dave’ had a good nose for these and his pictures are all over the web :wink: . Here are some examples. Ro





Couple more.


I remember coming across the Kenworth at a campsite near Blenheim, South Island when I was in New Zealand. I have posted this picture before and Bewick said it looked like a pigeon loft.

ChrisArbon:
I remember coming across the Kenworth at a campsite near Blenheim, South Island when I was in New Zealand. I have posted this picture before and Bewick said it looked like a pigeon loft.

0

To be honest, Bewick really had a point :laughing: . Hope they weren’t homing pigeons or they’d have their work cut out for them :wink: . Ro


Older Peterbilt tractor unit, stretched and fitted with new professionally built bodywork.


Double drive axles are common but unnecessary although they probably give a better ride when towing.


Freightliner Argosy, distant cousin to the M-B Actros.


Work in progress; the owner was living in the trailer while building his tiny home on wheels.

Being a campervanner since 1984, I’ve have a keen interest in motorhomes and the like.
Oily

USA Tim Kuzdrowski cc by nc nd 2.0 at Del Rio Texas 32961042922_250ef0410c_o TK .jpg

Big 5th wheel travel trailers are usually pulled by big dual-wheeled pick-up trucks such as the Ford F350 or the Dodge Ram 3500 but increasingly, full size tractor units are being used. In some states these can easily be registered as recreational vehicles and are popular for people who want to bring along another vehicle too.

These two Volvo rigs arrived within a couple of hours of each other at Magnolia Beach in Texas but didn’t know each other at the time. Is a free long term camping spot on the Gulf of Mexico. The beach is made of crushed seashells and quite capable of taking heavy trucks. Being about one mile long, there is plenty of room for 65 feet long rigs; unlike normal campgrounds.

The Smart car sits on a steerable trailer attached to the travel trailer. Two three-wheeled Can-Am Spyders are on a purpose built rack behind the cab.

Double-drive Volvo carries a Jeep on custom built rack. Jeeps and Smart cars are the most popular runabouts carried by HDTs [Heavy Duty Trucks].

Volvos account for more HDTs than all the rest of the makes put together. This is one of the few Macks. It has been singled; previously being a double drive tractor unit. This guy was pulling a toy-hauler with a side-by-side off-roader in the trailer. He reckoned he was getting 12 miles to the US gallon [3.8 litres].

There are quite a few of tractor units with 40ft.trailers kitted out as living accommodation which come and go,often after a long stay,in my part of the Costa Blanca.There are many complaints from the locals about the waste they leave behind.

ChrisArbon:
Big 5th wheel travel trailers are usually pulled by big dual-wheeled pick-up trucks such as the Ford F350 or the Dodge Ram 3500 but increasingly, full size tractor units are being used. In some states these can easily be registered as recreational vehicles and are popular for people who want to bring along another vehicle too.
3 These two Volvo rigs arrived within a couple of hours of each other at Magnolia Beach in Texas but didn’t know each other at the time. Is a free long term camping spot on the Gulf of Mexico. The beach is made of crushed seashells and quite capable of taking heavy trucks. Being about one mile long, there is plenty of room for 65 feet long rigs; unlike normal campgrounds.
2 The Smart car sits on a steerable trailer attached to the travel trailer. Two three-wheeled Can-Am Spyders are on a purpose built rack behind the cab.
1 Double-drive Volvo carries a Jeep on custom built rack. Jeeps and Smart cars are the most popular runabouts carried by HDTs [Heavy Duty Trucks].
0 Volvos account for more HDTs than all the rest of the makes put together. This is one of the few Macks. It has been singled; previously being a double drive tractor unit. This guy was pulling a toy-hauler with a side-by-side off-roader in the trailer. He reckoned he was getting 12 miles to the US gallon [3.8 litres].

Some classy motors there Chris. Those motor homes owners must be a rich,what would one of those oufit’s cost ■■ :unamused:

This is an impressive trip in a Albion in 1956 ! :open_mouth:

Click on pages twice to read.

Cracking story that Dean, doubt if any of today’s motors would achieve the same even the works prepared ones.
Oily.

Gidders mentions leaving waste behind, this guy at Dingwall dumped his grey water(shower, washing up) in the lorry park. The few give the majority a bad name.
Oily

Gidders and Oiltreader make a good point about rubbish being left behind. Waste water and an overflowing black waste tank is a serious problem. I have an app on my phone that instantly gives me the nearest sani-dump so the bucket and chuck it brigade have no excuses.

I found this impressive rig parked in the desert just south of Quartzsite in Arizona. It’s unusual to see such an expensive truck and trailer “boondocking” [free-camping], they normally stay on RV parks that charge $50 a night for a concrete pad and water and electricity hook-ups. Dean asked about prices and I reckon this one sells for $400,000 when new. You don’t have to be rich to own one; they can be financed with repayments spread over 20 years. The trailer is known as a “stacker” and carries two vehicles, one on top of the other.

This is the Nexus Ghost, built on an International Durastar chassis and prices start from $165,000, going up to a quarter of a million, depending on specification. Renegade and Showhauler are two of the best known Super-C Class motor home builders. They build on new chassis-cabs but will also build on a customer-supplied second hand tractor unit. Not all rigs cost mega-bucks, it is possible to get on the road for under $50,000. Second hand non-sleeper 2x4 units are reasonable and there are plenty of used 5th wheel travel trailers on offer. A lot of people buy fivers and then find they hate towing such a big trailer; then they either use it as a static unit in a trailer park or get shot of it quick. One of the cheapest ways to get a truck conversion motor home is to do the conversion yourself, this is the route that I took; I got mine up and running for about $30,000, the price of the cheapest brand-new pick-up truck.

It’s true that the few give the majority a bad name when it comes to leaving different types of waste behind them.
I tried coach driving for a job based in west London many years ago and was amazed to see that some drivers would dump the coach’s toilet contents in the street.Just pull a lever,look nonchalant and drive away.Unbelievable.
As it happens I lasted 16 days before I quit.I guess I’m not a people person.

One type of Truck Conversion Motor Home is the Overland Expedition Truck similar to the Saurer that Oiltreader found in Scotland. Usually they are all-wheel drive [4x4 or 6x6] and undertake extended world tours lasting months or years. Some are built on new chassis but most use old military or emergency service donor vehicles. One popular trip for these vehicles is the Pan-American Highway, 19,000 miles from Prudhoe bay in Alaska to Ushuaia in Argentina. Apart from a 70 mile section known as the Darien Gap; it is the World’s longest driveable road. Over the years, I have come across a few of these intrepid travelers, mainly Europeans from Holland, Germany and Switzerland. One North American Port of Entry on a ro-ro ferry is Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

This converted horsebox was not doing the Pan-American but I came across it on the Trans-Canada Highway in northern Ontario.

This ex-military German registered Unimog still had the original bodywork and had minimal modifications. The German couple had minimal English. Here, they are climbing to an elevated campsite at the boondocking area called Snyder Hill, south of Tucson, Arizona.

tncon05man.JPG Besides Mercedes-Benz, the most common Overland Expedition Trucks are MAN. This one was visiting the big RV show at Quartzsite, on it’s way South after taking nearly six months to go from Nova Scotia to Alaska and onto Arizona.

Another truck maker of 4x4s is Mitsubishi with their Fuso Canter. Popular in Australia; this one was built in the US to an Aussie design. They were in Mexico for the first time and a bit apprehensive which is why they had the pop-top in the half open position.


This type of truck conversion is called a toterhome and popular with all sorts motor racing competitors; both two wheel and four. Most trailers contain full workshop facilities while the tractor units are as luxurious as high class RVs. A good place to look for a second hand toterhome is the RacingJunk website; some seem reasonably priced, some seem rather overpriced. Some are registered as commercial vehicles and have a DoT number but some have “Private Motorcoach-Not For Hire” stickers. I guess it depends on how much prize money you win and how much sponsorship you have; anybody making a living by racing should declare the vehicle commercial but a lot don’t.

This is a 1955 Mack LT with an old caravan adapted to provide the living quarters. It now has a 14 litre ■■■■■■■ motor but retains the original 5x3 twin-stick Mack gearbox; the axles have also been replaced to give better braking. It is owned by a retired logging company owner from British Columbia. Unfortunately, Ross had a heart attack while driving home from a Winter in Mexico, a couple of years ago. He recovered but the truck was left open while he was in hospital; rain and damp got in and the whole inside is covered in mold.

And this has been my home for the last two years. 1989 Mack R688 re-purposed fire rescue truck. 11 litre Mack motor with 5 speed Allison automatic gearbox. I bought it in 2015 with 22,000 miles on the clock and it is now up to 45,000. It has all the comforts of home with enough water capacity and solar power to stay off-grid for a week at a time.

Brand new International Lonestar at the Renegade factory on the north side of Interstate 80 in Indiana. One of very few builds on International chassis from Renegade; most are Vovos or Freightliners.

I came across the Lonestar a few months later while fueling-up at a truckstop. It was pulling a stacker trailer carrying two classic racing cars.

A popular choice of chassis-cab for toterhomes is the Freightliner Columbia which replaced the old Freightliner Century and now has been superseded by the Cascadia.

Another Freightliner Columbia. This one was collecting a custom-built Ford Mustang from the Shelby American works at Las Vegas, Nevada.

One from 1988.

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