70s dodge motorhomes

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Craig Burriss

Craig Burriss

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I’m thinking about buying a 70s van nosed motorhome with a big block, to actually use as a motorhome, not an engine donor.
I would probably have to gut and remodel the living space, and I’d probably set it up with a Holley Sniper like my other 440s.
Has anyone here remodeled an RV before? How did it turn out?
Something like this.
0EC19DAE-43AE-4423-AA81-0EF4DCC1598C.jpeg
 
My wife and I remodeled a Class C Dodge back around 2008. It was a little bigger than the one you pictured, but along the same lines. Be prepared for it to have a lot of rotten wood, especially up in the bunk area. If you have a place to get it inside, fixing that type stuff will be a lot easier and not dependent on the weather. The fridge, water heater, gas stove, furnace and roof AC all need to be checked over good to insure they are in good working order. I cool sealed our roof after patching a few questionable places, but if I had it to do over again I would have put a rubber roof on it. The inside was the easy part. I installed new carpet front to back and my wife made new curtains, seat covers and cushions. It ended up very nice for a 78 model and was plenty comfortable for 2 people and 3 little dogs.
When we bought it, it had a new 440 and 727 with a Gear Vendor OD in it. It ran really well, but it had Flowmasters that the previous owner had installed. It was too loud and one of our dogs hated riding in it because of that. We used it enough to learn that we liked to camp and I sold it to another guy on Moparts, and then turned around and bought a Sunnybrook 5th wheel to pull behind my Dodge diesel.
If the one you buy has the old 16.5 inch wheels on it, find you some 16 inch wheels and replace those lousy 16.5's! Spare and all. Nobody keeps those old tires in stock anywhere, and if you have a flat you could sit there camped in a parking lot for 2 or 3 days until they can find you one to replace it. Most tire places can get 16" load range D tires in a few hours from a local distributer if they don't have one. If you do get a Dodge big block motor home, find you a spare rear dump passenger side exhaust manifold. If the one that's on it isn't cracked...it will be eventually. Whoever sits in the passenger seat will get their left leg roasted because there isn't much insulation in the doghouse. Not a lot of room to add any either.
Good luck to you in your hunt and restoration of one. If I were to do it over again with a vintage motorhome? I would buy an early 70's Travco and put a 5.9 Cummins in it. Look that up on You Tube! Those are some neat old motorhomes, and they don't rot.
 
I have that motorhome. We don’t use it much anymore. I bough it when I was riding dirt bikes every weekend. It’s actually a cool setup.
 
JDMopar said:
When we bought it, it had a new 440 and 727 with a Gear Vendor OD in it. It ran really well, but it had Flowmasters that the previous owner had installed. It was too loud and one of our dogs hated riding in it because of that.
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:rofl: Your flowmaster story is like the one of a guy in the car club I’m in. He has a 2000s something motor home, (I know nothing about these things) it has 8.1l vortec in it. Being the car guy he is, and really I guess we all are, he said it’s a big block, it needs to sound like one, so he had a muffler shop put flowmaster 40s on it…..now it’s too loud
:rofl:
 
JDMopar said:
I guess an 8.1 is a V10? That thing probably sounds like a giant Indy car.
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Naw. It's an overblown 454. 496 kyoobs. Chevy guys were makin um 20 plus years before Chevy finally caught on. Good engines.
 
Motor homes are a fairly bad investment.
If you have not done alot of camping, buy a small pull behind camper, and figure out what you like/dislike.
We started out tent camping for years when the kids were young, I bought a cheap pop-up camper from the neighbors.
Wife gave me hell for buying it, but the first night she slept in it, said the next morning, I am never sleeping in a tent again.
Now we have a 16' hard-shell hybrid, that two queen beds fold out the ends, it also camps nice and is short enough to manuever around in tight campsites.
 
Biggest problem I've found with older campers, including truck bed campers, "pop up" trailers or motorhomes or trailers, is LEAKS, MOLD, and SNOW/ other damage to the roof.
 
sireland67 said:
Motor homes are a fairly bad investment.
If you have not done alot of camping, buy a small pull behind camper, and figure out what you like/dislike.
We started out tent camping for years when the kids were young, I bought a cheap pop-up camper from the neighbors.
Wife gave me hell for buying it, but the first night she slept in it, said the next morning, I am never sleeping in a tent again.
Now we have a 16' hard-shell hybrid, that two queen beds fold out the ends, it also camps nice and is short enough to manuever around in tight campsites.
Click to expand...
I go camping a lot. I have a camper shell on my truck that I like, but it’s small even for one person.
762537B5-5B6F-4074-88B0-CB177792E088.jpeg
 
Craig Burriss said:
I’m thinking about buying a 70s van nosed motorhome with a big block, to actually use as a motorhome, not an engine donor.
I would probably have to gut and remodel the living space, and I’d probably set it up with a Holley Sniper like my other 440s.
Has anyone here remodeled an RV before? How did it turn out?
Something like this.
View attachment 1715976180
Click to expand...
that would be cool as hell.
 
Rat Bastid said:
I have that motorhome. We don’t use it much anymore. I bough it when I was riding dirt bikes every weekend. It’s actually a cool setup.
Click to expand...
I had 2 of them, and 77 Foretravel, Based on a D-300 with a 440 and a 727. Finding Plugs Drove me nuts! Damn Thang had peanut plugs!
 
i cant remember for the life of me who it was, but one of our members recently (within the last year or so) posted about a van they were going to retrofit into a camper

im sure it'll come to me sooner or later, but that would be good thread to consider
 
I wouldn't buy one that old unless I planned to gut it and fix everything all at once.

I have an old 73 Travco 270 that I am redoing right now. In addition to gutting the interior, I am rebuilding the drive train including installing a 518 and gear vendors behind the 440 I built.

If you can't do the work yourself you are much better off buying something a lot newer. Even doing the work yourself, you would be lucky to break even if you ever decided to sell it.

I am going to extremes with mine as I plan to travel the country living in it for months at a time.
 
@mgoblue9798 Why put a Gear Vendor on a 518? The 518 already has a better OD ratio than the GV does. I'd like to do a Travco with a Cummins and a 6 speed Allison automatic, but probably won't live long enough to get all the cars done....lol
 
mgoblue9798 said:
I wouldn't buy one that old unless I planned to gut it and fix everything all at once.

I have an old 73 Travco 270 that I am redoing right now. In addition to gutting the interior, I am rebuilding the drive train including installing a 518 and gear vendors behind the 440 I built.

If you can't do the work yourself you are much better off buying something a lot newer. Even doing the work yourself, you would be lucky to break even if you ever decided to sell it.

I am going to extremes with mine as I plan to travel the country living in it for months at a time.
Click to expand...
It wouldn’t be something I’d try to sell. I don’t sell things anymore. Because as soon as I do, I need it again lol
I would do it all myself
 
JDMopar said:
@mgoblue9798 Why put a Gear Vendor on a 518? The 518 already has a better OD ratio than the GV does. I'd like to do a Travco with a Cummins and a 6 speed Allison automatic, but probably won't live long enough to get all the cars done....lol
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So I can cruise 70mph at 1800 to 2,000 rpm in double OD. And because I have a divorced gear vendor unit already. Also for gear splitting. MH has a 4.56 rear in it.

12v Cummins is a great engine but I don't want to sit next to it for hours on end listening to it rattle. With fuel prices now 10mpg gas = 15mpg diesel. The 440 I am building will make way more torque than some stock 12v's at any rate.

As far as getting all the cars done, even if I did get the ones I currently own done my affliction wouldn't prevent me from bringing home others. :)
 
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