I am a travel trailer owner, parked for a few months as a Park Host at Huntsville State Park. A few days ago, a half dozen GMC Motorhomes came rolling into our camping loop. Maybe travel together often, or maybe in the area for a rally/meeting, not sure. Anyway, this morning I was staring at the rigs and decided I needed to update myself on what these things are and whether I might want one. Found this site and have been poking around all morning. Very interesting stuff. On the whole, looks like it might be a challenge to keep one of these kept up and running well. Maybe that is the motivator for many of the owners. Anyway, I am having fun learning about a new-for-me segment of the RV world. Looks like a great group.
Howdy from Texas
- Thread starter BirdDog
- Start date
Welcome @BirdDog! This is a friendly group and we welcome questions.
Another helpful site to check out is www.gmcmi.com.
Another helpful site to check out is www.gmcmi.com.
Hey BirdDog. I'm Billy Massey in the green Palm Beach within spittin distance from you. Seen ya talkin with some of our group a few minutes ago while the torsion bar replacement was going on. Come on over and I'll show you around the coach.
We're the GMC Classics club. www.gmcclassics.com
We're kind a secretive group,
we even have a secret greeting,
...I'll show you, but don't tell anyone...
Birdog,
What nobody has told you and what you really need to know is that if you have any mechanical aptitude at all, these old girls are relatively easy to maintain. But make no mistake, there is a lot of required maintenance. Some of them (like mine) are 50 years old. There is no such thing as deferred maintenance that won't come back to bite you in the spare tire carrier. Many have over 100k on them, and like mine, if I needed to drive it across the country, I could start tomorrow (right after an oil change and lube job) and I could depend on the coach (Chaumière is her name) to get me there. Any and all needed parts are very available and if you join (highly recommended) the international <www.gmcmi.com> you will get a thumb drive with all the known documentation stored on it. (You will also have accumulated several hundred brand new old friends.)
Now, the tough part...
What we constantly tell people that are interested is that a reliable and ready to travel GMC will cost you about 35k$us. That is all at once or as a kit. What we have to include is that sweat is credited at full shop rate (~125$/hr). Now, yes that is a lot, but if it is your sweat and you are looking at a day long job, you are looking at a value of 1200$. If you are going to do that yourself (or with the help of one of your new friends) that money can buy tools that you get to keep. And, there will be some certainly that the job got done right.
Matt_C
What nobody has told you and what you really need to know is that if you have any mechanical aptitude at all, these old girls are relatively easy to maintain. But make no mistake, there is a lot of required maintenance. Some of them (like mine) are 50 years old. There is no such thing as deferred maintenance that won't come back to bite you in the spare tire carrier. Many have over 100k on them, and like mine, if I needed to drive it across the country, I could start tomorrow (right after an oil change and lube job) and I could depend on the coach (Chaumière is her name) to get me there. Any and all needed parts are very available and if you join (highly recommended) the international <www.gmcmi.com> you will get a thumb drive with all the known documentation stored on it. (You will also have accumulated several hundred brand new old friends.)
Now, the tough part...
What we constantly tell people that are interested is that a reliable and ready to travel GMC will cost you about 35k$us. That is all at once or as a kit. What we have to include is that sweat is credited at full shop rate (~125$/hr). Now, yes that is a lot, but if it is your sweat and you are looking at a day long job, you are looking at a value of 1200$. If you are going to do that yourself (or with the help of one of your new friends) that money can buy tools that you get to keep. And, there will be some certainly that the job got done right.
Matt_C
I met some very fine folks while the GMC Classics Club was in the park. Got to tour inside a couple of coaches, too. Observed ten rigs in the park total, I believe. Made us realize we were merely seeing a tiny, tiny sampling of the various possibilities in outside and inside stylings, tow-behind choices, built-on party decks, etc. My thanks to all for their kindness and generosity! This encounter may not result in our becoming GMC owners, but it got us thinking again about whether a motorhome of any kind would support our increasingly nomadic lifestyle better than a towable. We had previously marked that option off our list, but now, Pondering.... Hope to see you down the road! @bdub if I am ever IVO Brownwood I might shout out a "Hey!"
