Hey All
Going to use this and my website (linked in my Sig) to post the progress of my 1978 Royale Twin Bed. Its what Jim Bounds would call a survivor, I believe. Its in very good shape, and was being used right up until we bought it. The house part of the coach is very nice. Its clean and usable right from the word go. My wife has more modern tastes though, so we will be giving the interior a refresh. That is the "update" part of the title.
The restoration part of the title comes in here. The gentleman we bought it from only drove it 75'ish miles to camp at the beginning of summer and 75'ish miles home in the fall for the last few years. I don't think he did anything mechanically to the coach to maintain the drivetrain. When we bought it, we knew it had an exhaust manifold leak and needed tires (they were from 2004). The guy seemed to know his stuff, the rest of the coach was so nice and clean, I assumed the engine would have been maintained as well. It ran good and shame on me for not giving it a better look.
We made a deal (I still feel like I got a good deal) and drove it home. The coolant light started flickering about 6 miles from his house, but it went away when I turned the heat on. I limped it to the highway rest stop about 12 miles from his house. By that time, the coolant light was on solid. I was thinking to myself..."what did I just buy?" I started checking it over, and noticed the overflow bottle was completely empty. So, we let it cool down and I popped the Radiator cap. It was low. I added about a gallon and a half of water to fill both the radiator and the overflow. I asked my wife, who was following behind, "Was it blowing white smoke?" She said it wasn't. Weird. Anyway, we decided to press on. Took the back roads home and made it with no problems. 70 uneventful miles. Steering is much less precise than I'd like, so add that to the list, but she ran down the road with no issues. Brakes feel good, tracks straight, she's quiet, Drives nice.
As far as upgrades done over the years, you can see the Alcoas. Also has a Ragusa entrance step, Ramco Mirrors with blinkers (no power adjustment though), wind wings with screens, a full curtain set for the windshield, new water heater, LCD TV, Stainless Oil cooler lines, 4 wheel disks, New last year ZipDee Awning and a brand new (like within the last 3 months) water heater.
Here is our ol' Lady.







Going to use this and my website (linked in my Sig) to post the progress of my 1978 Royale Twin Bed. Its what Jim Bounds would call a survivor, I believe. Its in very good shape, and was being used right up until we bought it. The house part of the coach is very nice. Its clean and usable right from the word go. My wife has more modern tastes though, so we will be giving the interior a refresh. That is the "update" part of the title.
The restoration part of the title comes in here. The gentleman we bought it from only drove it 75'ish miles to camp at the beginning of summer and 75'ish miles home in the fall for the last few years. I don't think he did anything mechanically to the coach to maintain the drivetrain. When we bought it, we knew it had an exhaust manifold leak and needed tires (they were from 2004). The guy seemed to know his stuff, the rest of the coach was so nice and clean, I assumed the engine would have been maintained as well. It ran good and shame on me for not giving it a better look.
We made a deal (I still feel like I got a good deal) and drove it home. The coolant light started flickering about 6 miles from his house, but it went away when I turned the heat on. I limped it to the highway rest stop about 12 miles from his house. By that time, the coolant light was on solid. I was thinking to myself..."what did I just buy?" I started checking it over, and noticed the overflow bottle was completely empty. So, we let it cool down and I popped the Radiator cap. It was low. I added about a gallon and a half of water to fill both the radiator and the overflow. I asked my wife, who was following behind, "Was it blowing white smoke?" She said it wasn't. Weird. Anyway, we decided to press on. Took the back roads home and made it with no problems. 70 uneventful miles. Steering is much less precise than I'd like, so add that to the list, but she ran down the road with no issues. Brakes feel good, tracks straight, she's quiet, Drives nice.
As far as upgrades done over the years, you can see the Alcoas. Also has a Ragusa entrance step, Ramco Mirrors with blinkers (no power adjustment though), wind wings with screens, a full curtain set for the windshield, new water heater, LCD TV, Stainless Oil cooler lines, 4 wheel disks, New last year ZipDee Awning and a brand new (like within the last 3 months) water heater.
Here is our ol' Lady.







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