New members Louis and Laural Hudgin here from Gilbert, AZ. A little bit about us and our 1974 26 ft GMC CANYON LANDS we call Sunshine. You might guess what color it is from the name. We bought it in "restored ready to go" shape in early 2018. 2 weeks later we attended part of the GMCMI convention in Tucson (my home town) with it and one of our microcars, a 1970 Subaru 360 sedan. On our prebuy inspection I mis identified a cooling fan noise as a minor shroud or blade adjustment problem. It turned out that the 400 mile since rebuild Cadillac 500 engine had already burned out the thrust bearing and it was the crankshaft pulley that was hitting the fan. So 4000 miles and MANY MANY thousands of dollars and many months later we picked up our GMC with another new engine and many other mechanical upgrades and repairs. 30 miles later we were broke down in a rainy parking lot for the night. Got it going again late the next morning but was broke down again 150 miles later. Got that fixed several hours later and another overnight stay and made it home the next day. I come from the general aviation world and am both a professional corporate pilot and licensed A&P mechanic (recently retired) so am used to a very high standard of safety, maintenance and "airworthyness" if you will. After getting it home and doing a close inspection similar to an annual inspection on an airplane I ended up redoing much of the work I just paid to have done and finding and fixing hundreds of other large and small items. As with any old machine like this, that is a job that is never completed. So now we have a usable antique motorhome we can and do take anywhere we want. We have put 21000 miles on it since we bought it and 8600 just this year so far with an anticipated 4 to 6 thousand more by the time we get back from the GMCMI convention and the end of the year.
I was first attracted to the GMC Motorhome when they first came out in 1973, the year we were married, but never persued one untill about 5 or 6 years ago in preperation for our retirement. We also collect old microcars, (15)airplanes(2) and vintage garden tractors(21) and like to travel to events featuring those vehicles. The GMC is a perfect vintage vehicle for doing that and we have already enjoyed several trips doing just that. I'm also a "HYPERMILER" (100+ MPG) and use a 2000 Honda Insight for that. We use the GMC to burn all the gas I save in the Insight. We are members of the Saguaro Jetsetters and have attended a few of their events and we joined the 6 Wheelers this summer in Volo for their rally.
When I figure out how to attach pictures I'll do that and hope to meet many of you in Chippewa Falls.
Louis
I was first attracted to the GMC Motorhome when they first came out in 1973, the year we were married, but never persued one untill about 5 or 6 years ago in preperation for our retirement. We also collect old microcars, (15)airplanes(2) and vintage garden tractors(21) and like to travel to events featuring those vehicles. The GMC is a perfect vintage vehicle for doing that and we have already enjoyed several trips doing just that. I'm also a "HYPERMILER" (100+ MPG) and use a 2000 Honda Insight for that. We use the GMC to burn all the gas I save in the Insight. We are members of the Saguaro Jetsetters and have attended a few of their events and we joined the 6 Wheelers this summer in Volo for their rally.
When I figure out how to attach pictures I'll do that and hope to meet many of you in Chippewa Falls.
Louis
