Well, went ahead and did it !!!
Bought a used Eldorado 'Renaissance' 1988 model. (NOT a 'Starfire').
Seller was a local guy whom I've known for a lot of years. He's a
great guy and runs a very! profitable local business . This was his
pet project for the last few years. He's the sort of person who liked
the 60's so much he just sort of decided to stay there. He's been
throwing $$ at this RV in large handfuls for some time now, not
because he had to.. just because he could and it was his 'toy' ...
The list of upgrades and replacements is quite amazing.
This model was built on a John Deere frame ( too heavy for my local RV
guy's license. Had to have it checked and serviced at a heavy truck
shop).
The original fridge died so last fall he replaced it with the best
top of the line double door that Dometic has.
It has two furnaces. One (original) started to act up ( age related
burner probs) so he replaced it and the other one too 'while he was at
it'. Heat ducted to the basement holding tanks.
His wife didn't like to Microwave that was in it so he put in a new
high end convection microwave.
Installed onboard computer with GPS nav.
6 brand new 19.5' tires ( about 10k km on them).
There was a 'noise' in the back end that he wanted to track down.
Turned out to be a minor suspension issue but in the 'search process',
put brand new ring gear in the differential.
Didn't like the genny that was in the rig so he replaced it with a
brand spanking new Honda 4.5 kw 'ultra low noise' set. As I write
this, the genny only has 68 hours on the run clock.
Completely rust coated/undercoated every year since new.
All new brakes all around last fall.
Didn't like the old 'boxy' B/W backup camera so swapped in a new high
res colour camera and monitor.
He installed a Doran remote tire pressure monitor system.
Pulled out the in-dash radio and installed an very high end Alpine
radio/CD.
It has full seat belt accommodations for driver + 9 passengers.
His wife didn't like the entry step so he installed a new 'Kwikstep'.
Wife didn't like the amount of hot water (electric heater element was
getting weak) so he pulled the whole old heater put in a brand new
'autoselect' extra insulated hot water heater with all new lines and
bypass valve.
65,000 km (40K miles) on the frame and only 30,000 km (18k miles) on
the engine/tranny.
Why so few on the powerplant?
Well, originally it came with a 460 gas engine on a Ford tranny. But
he doesn't like gas engines or Ford. All his business fleet trucks are
Cummins diesel powered. And, what the heck .. one of the trucks got
totaled with only 10K km on the Cummins Turbo 5.9, so he swapped out
the engines. Had to have a custom made intercooler and a whole bunch
of stuff. Has a 'Banks' pack on the diesel. The 'swap' took most of
the summer of 2004. At present engine only has 30k km on it. That's
hardly broken in for a Cummins.
Oh yeah .. couldn't put that on the old tranny, so he had a local
performance tranny shop custom build a new tranny. Apparently, the
choice was either an Allison 5 speed or a custom built job. Of course,
he elected to go custom. It's a 4 speed with 5th overdrive that is
driver selected (switch on the consol) plus torque lockout, also
driver selectable. It shifts when YOU want to not when IT wants to.
Love it! Wish my truck was like that! Just to keep track of things he
has both an exhaust gas temp gauge and a tranny temp gauge. And just
to be sure the tranny doesn't overheat he put in an auxiliary tranny
cooler .. and just to be DOUBLY sure he installed a second
thermostatically controlled dual fan tranny cooler mounted underneath
on the frame rails. Suspenders and a belt syndrome!
HUGE basement compartments each with 'door not closed' indicators (for
all eight bay doors) at the driver's console.
I've done the road tests and in full rig, 'wet' for travel, it gets
between 12 and 14 miles per gallon (Imperial not US gallons!),
turning 2000 rpm, depending on road condition, hills and how heavy my
foot is ( at 58 mph on Interstate class roads = 16 miles per US gallon
on low sulphur diesel). I have a Chevy p/u that I use to haul the 25'
5er that only gets 18- 20 mpg running empty!!
I was a little leery about it at first given EMC's history. But, it
isn't the ill fated Starfire model and after all he's done to it, it's
essentially a new rig. It runs beautifully.
In the last 3 years he's put about 20 K Km on the rig. But, now he's
building a new house and refuses to use the bank's $$. Needs cash, so
he sold us the rig at a very good price for cash.
Of course the bottom line is that SWMBO likes it, so my opinions
aren't really all that germane to anything <grin>.
Looks like we'll be turning the 5er over to the kids and traveling a
lot in this rig starting this summer.
Hope we can get together for coffee here and there.
JD