pwerwagn
Inmate #4800
- Joined
- Aug 28, 2010
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I had planned to document this trip like Dave did his. It did not happen during our trip, so I thought maybe when I got back I would do it. Here we are a month after the trip. It wont be as cool as daily updates, but I will try to go back and hit the high points to give others ideas!
About 8 years ago we bought a Gulfstream Super-C (kodiak chassis) to start taking longer summer trips with the kids before they are all grown up and gone. I have had an RV of some sort since I was 16, but wanted a motorhome for a trip like this. Every summer, we did ~week long trips to places, but we always talked about taking a month or more off in the summer and doing a big trip. My wifes Vet work, my work, etc always seemed to change our plans. We had decided Jan of 2020, this year for sure. Well...thanks to covid, that didn't happen. Then my Dad unexpectedly passed away as well in August of 2020. Being hit with the hard realization of how short life can be (my dad was only 62), we made it a point to plan for the summer of 21. My wife had since changed careers and became a HS teacher, so summers for her are no problem at all anymore.
We had spent the better part of 2020 remodeling our motorhome. I de-stickered it, made it all white, redid the interior, new flooring, new shower, new tires etc. I had already gone thru and done upgrades on everything else (Bilsteins valved for the coach, track bars front and rear, steering stabilizers, air bags, spare tire carrier, etc etc etc), so it was good to go for a big summer trip. Fast forward again a few months, and my mom offers us my dads Gulfstream super C that he bought for himself as his retirement gift. It would be MUCH nicer for our long trip, but it was bittersweet to sell our old RV. This is our old RV after we almost finished it. All I had left to do was to wrap the cab white and swap wheels, and it was done. Instead I sold it near the peak of RV prices and came out pretty well (used it for ~8 years and nearly doubled my money):
So after selling this RV, we purchased my Dads. My Dad bought it when he retired and did quite a few nice things to it and put about 13K miles on it. He never got to finish it up the way he wanted before he passed away. I bought it for that reason, to keep his dream alive and finish it for him. It was also going to be really nice for the upcoming trip we had planned. I purchased it in march of 2021 and did a bunch of upgrades before June. I gutted the cab and did dynamat/noico sound deadening, I put on a 4" exhaust, deleted the EGR, removed the viscous fan clutch and put on a Horton EC450 electric fan clutch, etc. Before he passed we had just put head studs, new oil cooler, etc on it. It also has a rubber damped rear shackle setup, better slide controller, King shocks, etc. The motorhome is a Gulfstream Supernova 6372.
My plan was to finish my 1979 ramcharger/cummins conversion and flat tow that around the country behind the supernova, but time didn't cooperate and it was easier to tow the JKU. I got the ramcharger about 85% of the way ready but ran out of time.
Here is a picture of the new motorhome:
Our initial plan was to leave New Mexico, and travel up thru Utah, wheel moab for a week or so. Then up to yellowstone, mt rushmore for a few weeks, then down thru wyo/colorado and spend the last week in Silverton, since we have spent a week there with family every summer since I was a kid. We didn't really have any plans, any dates, just ~5 weeks of vacation and go where we wanted to go.
About a month before we planned to leave, some friends of ours rented a house a Lake of the Ozarks. They invited us to go, but it was the first week of our trip. After my wife and I talked a bit, we decided that since I wouldn't have the Ramcharger done, wheeling Moab wasn't all that enticing, and I didn't want to take the rock crawler because it wouldn't be practical for the rest of the trip. So, we flipped our plans, and decided to go east instead of west. After that things just fell into place. With ~2 weeks before we left on the trip, we totally changed our agenda. We also have family that bought a house at Flathead lake MT in the meantime, so we thought it might be cool to "swing by" Montana. We still wanted to hit Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and spend a few days at least in Silverton.
to be continued.....
About 8 years ago we bought a Gulfstream Super-C (kodiak chassis) to start taking longer summer trips with the kids before they are all grown up and gone. I have had an RV of some sort since I was 16, but wanted a motorhome for a trip like this. Every summer, we did ~week long trips to places, but we always talked about taking a month or more off in the summer and doing a big trip. My wifes Vet work, my work, etc always seemed to change our plans. We had decided Jan of 2020, this year for sure. Well...thanks to covid, that didn't happen. Then my Dad unexpectedly passed away as well in August of 2020. Being hit with the hard realization of how short life can be (my dad was only 62), we made it a point to plan for the summer of 21. My wife had since changed careers and became a HS teacher, so summers for her are no problem at all anymore.
We had spent the better part of 2020 remodeling our motorhome. I de-stickered it, made it all white, redid the interior, new flooring, new shower, new tires etc. I had already gone thru and done upgrades on everything else (Bilsteins valved for the coach, track bars front and rear, steering stabilizers, air bags, spare tire carrier, etc etc etc), so it was good to go for a big summer trip. Fast forward again a few months, and my mom offers us my dads Gulfstream super C that he bought for himself as his retirement gift. It would be MUCH nicer for our long trip, but it was bittersweet to sell our old RV. This is our old RV after we almost finished it. All I had left to do was to wrap the cab white and swap wheels, and it was done. Instead I sold it near the peak of RV prices and came out pretty well (used it for ~8 years and nearly doubled my money):
So after selling this RV, we purchased my Dads. My Dad bought it when he retired and did quite a few nice things to it and put about 13K miles on it. He never got to finish it up the way he wanted before he passed away. I bought it for that reason, to keep his dream alive and finish it for him. It was also going to be really nice for the upcoming trip we had planned. I purchased it in march of 2021 and did a bunch of upgrades before June. I gutted the cab and did dynamat/noico sound deadening, I put on a 4" exhaust, deleted the EGR, removed the viscous fan clutch and put on a Horton EC450 electric fan clutch, etc. Before he passed we had just put head studs, new oil cooler, etc on it. It also has a rubber damped rear shackle setup, better slide controller, King shocks, etc. The motorhome is a Gulfstream Supernova 6372.
My plan was to finish my 1979 ramcharger/cummins conversion and flat tow that around the country behind the supernova, but time didn't cooperate and it was easier to tow the JKU. I got the ramcharger about 85% of the way ready but ran out of time.
Here is a picture of the new motorhome:
Our initial plan was to leave New Mexico, and travel up thru Utah, wheel moab for a week or so. Then up to yellowstone, mt rushmore for a few weeks, then down thru wyo/colorado and spend the last week in Silverton, since we have spent a week there with family every summer since I was a kid. We didn't really have any plans, any dates, just ~5 weeks of vacation and go where we wanted to go.
About a month before we planned to leave, some friends of ours rented a house a Lake of the Ozarks. They invited us to go, but it was the first week of our trip. After my wife and I talked a bit, we decided that since I wouldn't have the Ramcharger done, wheeling Moab wasn't all that enticing, and I didn't want to take the rock crawler because it wouldn't be practical for the rest of the trip. So, we flipped our plans, and decided to go east instead of west. After that things just fell into place. With ~2 weeks before we left on the trip, we totally changed our agenda. We also have family that bought a house at Flathead lake MT in the meantime, so we thought it might be cool to "swing by" Montana. We still wanted to hit Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and spend a few days at least in Silverton.
to be continued.....