Kirk: I love the old girl. That's one of the reasons we decided to start full-timing with her. When I was a kid, my parents had an RV called a Zodiac, built on a Ford chassis. As an adult, there were a lot of factors that inspired me to get back into RVing: traveling for work and having easier family vacations were the biggest ones. I started looking at all of my options, and eventually made the decision to go vintage. Looking back, I think I wanted to recapture something of my childhood.
I changed jobs in 2015, and so I've been stationary. It's been good; I work for a wonderful company, and I've fallen in love with an incredible woman. But I've always wanted to be back on the road. Initially, my fiance and I were looking at buying a fifth wheel, but I felt like I'd be doing the old Winnebago a disservice. So after many late night conversations, we decided we'd use the Winnebago for the time being. At 25 foot, she's a little on the small side, but it will give us a chance to figure out what we like and don't like as a couple in the RV.
The Winnebago (which is named Wiley), is a 1972 Winnebago Chieftain D24-CL which I have converted to a standard D24. The difference is is that the CL came with a desk and chair, instead of the two convertible couches. She sits on the Dodge M-375 chassis, which shares some items with the Dodge M-series military vehicles. Her drive train consists of a Dodge 413-1 8 cylinder engine coupled to the Dodge Torqueflite 3 speed transmission and a Dana 70HD rear end. The drive train is one of the reasons I went with this vintage option: those same components were common across many years of Dodge vehicles, and parts are incredibly common.
I've got to re-do most of her brake system,. Incidentally, the brake system is one reason I'd urge anyone looking at a vintage Winnebago get a later model one; many of her brake parts are specific to the M-375. She has 6 wheel cylinders that need to be replaced, as well as two slave cylinder/booster units.
RPSinc: I hadn't actually put that on my list, though I knew it needed to be done. I have added though. I think I need to just go ahead and get new ones. I know they make combo units, but isn't the prevailing wisdom to have smoke detectors up high, and CO detectors down low because it is a heavier gas?