Speaking of vintage RV race support HQ...

A few of y'all have recently picked up older Wanderlodges and such, and my old 6.2 diseasel class A died a horrible death year before last and I just looked on with wistful jealousy, knowing that what I wanted to be able to do with my next rig was gonna force me into something similar, and I hain't got the money for something like that. But I researched the hell outta the subject, and trolled craigslist incessantly, and last week found Moby, our new to us service-area rally HQ and moveable vacation cabin. It's a 36' 1989 Foretravel U 280...well over a qtr mil new, bought for motorcycle money now, and there's dern near nothing wrong with it. We are looking forward to more and better family vacations, and rally weekends with more sleep, less stress, and thus less chances of wrapping the car round a tree. That and there's basement storage enough for every spare part I own and every spare wheel and a racegas drum and a crew chief and...

Sweet!

I want one!

I think I could live in that. Engine?

Ol' standby cat 3208T and allison 4speed. Truckers make fun of that motor cuz it's a nonreplaceable-cyl liner throwaway motor and it's only good for 650 ftlb but in this application, that's sorta old school Rolls Royce adequate, and I don't care about the cyl liners. It's a halfmillion mile engine with some care and minimal babysitting. I wanted the Cummins 8.3 but this'll do nicely. I've been picking the brain of the guy who sold it to the folks who sold it to me, he's the one who's done all the upgrades and knows way more about it than the last owners, and he said when he loaded it to the gills and towed 4500 lb of Jeep, he got 9.6mpg. I got 12 in my last rv, empty, I spect we can get close to that in this one. I guess we'll find out, next roadtrip. As for living in it, oh hell yeah. A very comfy studio apartment it is. I lived in my old one for 3 years, and everything this thing is, that one wasn't..

Wow you got a killer deal on that even if it costs as much as an Italian bike!

Very cool.

Hi Moby, I'm Mongo

A Foretravel, you did good!

Hi Moby, from the Fossil.

Nice find because Foretravels are rated up there with bus based RV's with industrial quality drivelines and house quality furnishings.

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That Unihome designation was thier own chassis, built like prevost and bluebird and MCI, where the walls and ceilings are loadbearing so it's a monocoque...sportscar, right? So Mongo and the Fossil and this thing are some of the very few that can do a rollover and have the occupants survive, though I think Prevost and Bluebird are are the "best" for that application. Just outta curiosity, have you guys run over a truck scale yet? I gotta do that. The claim is somewhere round 24k...

I have not scaled my tank but the owners manual says 34,000 pounds. Judging weight by uphill speed I see no reason to disbelieve that number. Yours will be a relative rocket because you have the Turbo which means 225 or 250 hp.

I should say that it is a really nice engine. Starts instantly in any weather, has a nice rumble and really doesn't smoke as bad as everyone says. It never gets fussed at a hill, even when we are moving slow enough to get out and walk. And 10 mpg everywhere, which is the same as a work truck I have with the same driveline.