Mileage with a Motor Home

[Robert Harris]

Of course, there is the really old fashioned way - install a 5 speed manual
Truck Truck transmission with a granny and change your rear end to a low 3
something. My 34 foot prison bus conversion (C-600 tilt cab with a 27 foot
passenger body set on the rails where the bed supposed to go) gets about
9-11 mpg with only a 292 V-8 and probably more weight.  (Talk to me about no
room to put a PC to do an ECU - hell, I'm thinking of a CRAY II !!!!)

And no - this little engine is not chugging like a 454 but spinning
somewhere around 2600 RMP. Something about a no slip drive system and a
highly sophisticated, reprogramable, self adapting transmission control
mechanism. And then there is the fun of putting it in granny, letting the
clutch out, and walking beside it while it idles in gear and a reverse slow
enough to actually make backing into a space bearable.

If one could be fitted in - yes I know some motor homes are such an abortion
when it comes to placement of stuff - you probably wouldn't spend much more
than an OD (Gear Vendors quoted at approx. $2000 to 2500 installed) and you
would gain one heck of a compression brake free.  Makes a nice anti-theft
device too - a lot harder for the mentally challenged (including a certain
Lockheed Data guy) to drive it.  Parts are nicely available in a TRUCK TRUCK
not toy truck junque yard.