Truck conversion

[Lonnie time to go]

Well I may cause trouble but after looking at other sites I am curious.   I  would like to know if anyone on the board has info.  Hoping to find members who have one.  Maybe know someone who has one.  I like the idea of cabover but need more details of how they ride.  I checked a couple of truck conversion site but cant find what i am looking for.  Hope you don't mind helping.
Lonnie

[TomC]

I am currently in the first stages (just finishing having the 32ft box built) of converting my '85 Kenworth 90" Aerodyne cabover to a motorhome.  It was my cross country truck that had a 235" wheelbase with a 8ft sleeper (had double bed on electric cable hoist, shower, toilet, refer, microwave, sink, 75gal water, 25gal gray, 20gal black, 6.5 Onan commercial gas gen with belt driven A/C compressor), and had the frame stretched 4 ft to 283" wheelbase, had the 13spd manual taken out and an Allison HT740 installed with a Caterpillar 400hp 3406B in front of it.
When I was driving it commercially, I put over 1.2 million miles on the truck and the vast majority of the time, I rode down the highway with my air seat completely deflated down to the bottom (liked to look low rider), and never had a complaint about the ride.  Only on the roughest of roads did I sometimes put air in the seat.  Now-if the ride isn't what I like, I will install the Donvel air bags (two per side) on the front axle. They are cab controlled, and can vary the pressure in the air bags till you find the right ride quality.
Over the 25 years I was truck driving, always drove cabovers (mainly because I was furniture mover and needed the shorter truck to get into the residential streets), and almost bought a 2000 Freightliner Argosy 101" cabover with a Series 60 430hp and Allison HD4060 with 275" wheelbase to facilitate a 12ft sleeper box-but I went into New Truck Engineering and Sales at Los Angeles Freightliner.  This is why I'm converting my old cabover-it was worth basically nothing, and I knew exactly what the truck was all about-mainly NO electronics.  Good Luck, TomC

[Lonnie time to go]

Thank you Tom
Yes i looked at the photos excellent start
I can't wait to see it done.

[Gary '79 5C]

Tom,
How is the noise and heat rejection with the engine between/ under the two seats ? I was thinking that the 3406 might possibly encroach into the cab floor. I dunno, never drove truck before.

Best of luck with your endeavor.

Gary

[TomC]

Both the floor and the dog house (engine hump in the cab) have one inch of sprayed foam, plus the cover over the dog house is insulated also.  With the huge A/C (the entire front grill of the radiator is the condenser, or as KW calls it-a Grilldenser), and the smaller windshield then a bus, I never had an issue with heat.  Granted it is a bit noisier than a conventional (with hood), but always had a killer high powered stereo to make up for the difference (8 speaker with around 500 watts power).  Good Luck, TomC

[Paso One]

Glad to hear the truck conversion is moving along Tom.
Do you have any progress pictures?? 
I remmeber seeing some pictures at one time that I think was your project.

[Le Mirage]

Look this one...I'm very interesting by this "conversion"...
http://www.lespac.com/recherche.php?PHPSESSID=c8d84c3afbe98b0522f3947d06836547&region=&num_reg_ori=4&ville_rech_id=2347&parindex=0&o=%252Fapp%252Frecherche.php&total=&total_categories=&cp=0&cpt=&gr=0&parindex=0&regionmembre=N&R01=&R19=0&mots=9214247&lstgr=0&ville_rech_text=St-Casimir&agemax=0&distancemax=0&orderby=distance&prix_de=0&prix_a=0&annee_de=0&annee_a=0&type=0&etat=0&no_region_de=0&no_region_a=&no_region=

[crown]

  hi tom i while back you talked about mounting ducted roof top a/c in the bay do you have
any pictures or plans on how to do this thanks john

[Jeremy]

Look this one...I'm very interesting by this "conversion"...

That's very typical of the sort of motorhome you see here - either as a straight motorhome, or combination motorhome and horsebox (or toy hauler if your prefer).

There are very few Class A motorhomes or bus conversions here - basically everything you see is either van-based or truck-based. Small rigids like this one are cheap to buy and cheap to run as the annual taxation and roadworthiness testing costs are similar to that of a car, and anyone with a regular car licence can drive one.

Jeremy

[BG6]

The vast majority of big-truck conversion attempts that I have seen have been abandoned partway through in favor of coach conversions.  The few which have been completely have all had technical issues or been scaled back from the original plan, or been big-box tractors (like you see in cross-country movers) with the 5th wheel removed and the box extended.  The owners mention that they burn as much fuel as I do with my 40-footer, and have 1/3 the cubic feet.

Doing a box van truck like a U-Haul is the truck-conversion equivalent of a skoolie.

The basic problem is the basic design,  You are trying to mate a box to a cab, on a frame which was intended to carry a lot of weight on short rails.  The cabs move on the rails, which flex and move the boxes a different way.  Cabover cabs have to lift up for engine access, which means you need to leave a gap between cab and box, which means coming up with either a tunnel or a gap seal of some sort.

In other words, there is a long way to go on a truck conversion before you even get to the actual "motor home" part. 

It makes more sense for someone doing this to buy a used lo-deck furniture trailer and convert THAT, then pull it with the tractor, and it is FAR less expensive.