Blogunity

Actually, there’s another set of these very similar fancy tractor trailers which also belongs to a circus — a French circus . They do all their trucks in blue (click here to see). This silver motorhome has a look that I haven’t really seen anywhere else on the internet (as you can see in the photo above).

The luxury RV builder Foretravel sells these things in the range the low hundreds of thousands over a million — like $1.2 million. For most people, that kind of money would mean a luxury house would be possible, but for others they love the road. On sale, $1.2 million RVs can come down to the high hundreds of thousands, like $800,000.

One good thing about used is of course the lower price — hundreds of thousands of dollars less. One good thing about new ones though is the warranty. Foretravel offers a 2 year / 24 thousand mile limited warranty. But it depends what you want to buy. Another, much more economical option is to convert a tractor with a custom sleeper conversion or just convert and toterhome-ize a trailer for it. (Luxury motorhome interior photos look best on a large screen.)

Luxury RV Motorhome

This giant luxury RV is pretty luxurious and has nice lines — it has three slides (the model we featured a picture of, but you can get custom slide options), and even though it looks something like a bus, it somehow carries off its own look and doesn’t leave me thinking “schoolbus” if you know what I mean. It’s a Dynamix build, who make all sorts of luxury RVs, trailers and anything else. I think they do RV conversions like some of the other luxury RV builder guys, but most of what I see from them is factory-made motorhomes and trailers.

I’ve seen a few of their trucks and videos and they seem to use robust material, achieve good use of space, create attractive curved lines and an aerodynamic outside, which are good for both maneuvering and general energy-saving with fuel consumption.

This luxury motorhome is called the Grand Sport Ultra (the non-Ultra is somewhat shorter) — kind of a show-off model where Dynamax shows the accumulated experience “a million miles” dedicated to design and comfort. They boast a top of the line chassis that will last a long time. They use, as you might expect for the prices of some of these trucks (new, they get quite a bit cheaper used) materials for everything interior and exterior of top quality. It’s a C-class.

This luxury RV has: 416 liter drinking water tanks, 530 liter fuel capacity, 8 meter wheelbase or 8.18 meters (depending on the model, there are two). The exterior length is 11 meters. The height: 3.5 meters. Width: 2.59 meters. It also has two discharge water tanks that are just under 200 liters each. All models come with various awnings, but they vary by the body model chosen. The interiors have a lot of options, too, so the photos we included are just some examples of these options.

All models when it comes to these types of luxury RVs can be customized to suit customer preferences, so the price varies depending on the added luxury equipment. You can also order the exterior paint with the logo of your team or company, or just give a particular touch to make it unique.

The one pictured has a 37600-54000 GVWR (depending on package), the choice five interior decoration packages, automatic leveling feet at four points, five full body paint package options with six transparent layers of “Ultra” protection and a steel cage for security surrounding the cabin, powered by an Allison six-speed automatic transmission which pushes 4000TRV. For the collage picture below, view on a large screen for best viewability. Also, I think the exterior photo at top (the part of the photo up top) from the exterior was taken by Long Horn RVs photographer. The luxury motorhome has since sold, but you can stop by there to see what else they have available (click here).

Big Snowmobile Toterhome

This giant house on wheels toterhome (or igloo on wheels?) is one I have been trying to find information on for around 6 months. Finally, the search has paid off. Another photo of the same RV unit was posted on the Truck Conversion forum, asking if anyone had ever done a snowmobiling toterhome (or possible a quad toterhome). The owner of this snow motorhome is still unknown, but I think the information on the thread was just as good, because a bunch of people who had experience with custom motorhomes for sleds contributed.

So some cons to this truck: most of the weight of the RV unit is on the front axle. That combined with not having a heavy trailer means there’s little weight on the drive tires, so you wouldn’t be taking this to a lot of places you’d want to skidoo because you wouldn’t be able to take it around icy corners or anything, just keep it on the highway. Also, how would you get those top 2 sleds down? They’re up there in height which could be risky to health and safety. Wouldn’t it be better to have cargo below the roof line. If anyone who has knowledge of this vehicle reads this, let us know a bit about the toterhome, please, and we’ll include your comments here.

(Oh, and guys please don’t bother suggesting that Snow Bound website that all the copies of this image link to on other places — I contacted them and they have no idea about this truck.) The guys also figured that whoever made this luxury RV must have already had the truck, otherwise why would they do it? It would be cheaper and easier to pull a trailer with 4 snowmobile places with a normal RV motorhome or totorhome, or even camper truck.

It would be expensive to do an RV conversion for this purpose. RV conversions like custom sleeper units and slides for luxury RVing make sense in a way, because you can’t get what you get any other way, really. But just for sleds?

However, there have been cheaper versions of the RV toterhome sled hauler. At least one such bus/hauler custom home made RV has been constructed. Here are some photos of the both units discussed here.

Big Custom Sleeper Semi

This giant custom sleeper semi, in bright orange and red and yellow flame paint, was built as a testament to “never forgetting” the attack that was perpetrated against America (and, some might argue, all peaceful people everywhere) when two planes were hijacked and piloted into the towers of the World Trade Center in September of 2001. Kentucky (Somerset) couple Donnie and Diana Harper built their custom sleeper tractor as a 9-11 memorial vehicle. They refer to it as “Enduring Freedom” and 15 years after the violent attack, Americans and others worldwide have not been daunted, but have had their resolve to protect and preserve freedom strengthened with every attack against it.

This custom sleeper has a custom pain job. Former President George W. Bush and Mayor of New York Rudolph Giuliani are represented on the lower corners of the mural, and a plaque bears the slogan, “God Bless America.” Both of the giant sleeper’s sides also have an eagle’s profile with a tear in its eye. There is a picture of the burning towers inside the eagle’s tears. Other images on the custom paint of this big RV-like semi are firefighters and flags.

We will turn now to the specification of the truck, and to read more about the meaning of this paint job Ten Four Magazine has a very lengthy, emotional writeup.

This truck has been featured in parades and truck shows. It’s won many custom truck awards, especially in the categories for custom sleepers, paint and graphics, and people’s choice.

• Truck: 2002 Peterbilt 379
• Referred to as: “Enduring Freedom”
• Runs for: Reliable
• Wheelbase: 340 inch
• stacks: 8 inch
• Chrome: lots
• Sleeper: custom 166 inch with full skirts (completely cover the fuel tanks and frame rails)
• Inside (sorry no photos found): full bathroom, kitchen, entertainment center, leather sofa, tile floor, in-motion satellite TV, sat radio, solid wood cabinets, and a lot more.

 

The Ultimate Motorhome Semi?

Is this very large custom sleeper toterhome tractor the ultimate bug out vehicle? We’ll get to that later, but first lets look at the truck itself. Guess how many people you can seat in this truck? More than most families need to travel! More than two families, often enough. It seats eight people in the rear, so 10 people can comfortably drive in this custom sleeper. Is it a bus?

It’s got a pretty decent power and has been used a good amount for travelling. And it actually came up for sale not long ago — a couple years — with a price tag reported at $90,000. That’s actually not that expensive when it comes to these things.

It was blogged about at the Bubba Effect, where the guy has a big interest in bug out vehicles. Bug out vehicles just means the kind you would use if crap hit the fan and there were widespread, serious social problems and people decided to seek safety away from society, called “bugging out.” But you can also just bug out recreationally. This looks like it would be suited more to recreational bugging out. It doesn’t appear to have massive storage for fuel or special insulation. It has very little ground clearance so you’d have to stick to maintained roads. It does have a lot of room though, so you could take along a lot of people with you.

The truck is a 1990 Kenworth T600 toter. It had 240,000 miles on it when it went up for sale in 2013.

Specifics of this custom sleeper unit:

• Cummins engine
• Eaton Fuller 10 speed transmission

Interior:

• Sleeper sofa couch
• All leather interior
• Hardwood floors
• Sink
• Fridge
• Cupboard space
• Bathroom floor tiles
• Shower
• Toilet
• 7.5 KW generator

The power would come in handy for some of the luxury features of this custom RV motorhome semi:

• TV
• Entertainment System
• Playstation
• CD/DVD
• Surround south

Sorry, no interior pics available, but here’s a couple more exterior ones. I think this is of the truck at an earlier / later stage of its life. The custom sleeper has been modified — windows changed in the two photos, and its towing a trailer. It could be a different vehicle though — the photos look like they were by Justin Moritz and were curated by Hanks Truck Pictures. You never know what kind of custom sleeper semi / RV units you can buy for $90,000.

Visit Hank’s Pictures (click here). Visit the Bubba Effect.

Blue Legacy Sleeper “Bad to the Bone”

This custom sleeper semi tractor is a truck that won some awards over 10 years ago. Still a nice looking Peterbilt even compared to today’s most done up entries.

It was covered best at the 2004 32nd Annual North American Trucking Show (NATS) held April 29, 30 and May 1 and covered by Ten Four Magazine. Nothing was written about this truck by them, even though it took two awards at the show:

• 1st pace INTERIOR (AFTERMARKET SLEEPER)

• – 2nd place BOBTAIL (2002 & NEWER) Donald & Susan Pardue – 2002 Blue Peterbilt 379 (Bad to the Bone)

Guess that’s one of the things a nice custom sleeper can do for a show truck. Lets also take a good look at some of the details. There is a lot of chrome on this truck, set off from the blue but complimenting it — not too strikingly different that chrome and that shiny blue, and all harmonized by the black fading to grey and white detail work on the custom paint. Instead of the flat smooth chrome block bumper we see quite often nowadays on custom big rigs, they have the grated pattern on the lower half — the top has the licence and the middle has what the owners — the Purdue’s — called the truck: “Bad to the Bone.”

It’s a Pete 379 with a 150″ Legacy Custom sleeper conversion.

This truck and its custom details has a bit of a classic custom feel to me. The details are not all simplified and smoothed out like many moderns. Instead they are their own parts, and each asks for attention to its own detail rather than being part of the whole of the custom presentation.

The other piece of information found on this truck is from the ARI Legacy Sleeper website, where truckers who’ve had custom sleepers added to their vehicles post comments about them. It looks like the comment was from 10 years ago, too, but Donnie & Susan Pardue wrote, “We just wanted to say thanks for all your support for showing the sleeper at the shows. You make the best sleeper on the market and you should be proud of it! Thanks again!”

Donnie and Susan, how is your truck doing now? Send us some new photos, please.

Now That Is a Motorhome!

These luxury motorhomes are made by Cowboy Cadillac, and they can make an RV unit to fit almost any vehicle, it seems, and to suit almost any RVer or trucker.

They’re one of the leaders in designing and building customized vehicles like this massive RV and others: cabover motorhomes, toterhomes, etc.

They also make some normal trailers (35 feet to 53 feet). And they make some giant trailers with multiple windows and slide outs (the slide outs on the conversion unit can up to double the width of the interior).

Some of these are pretty luxurious inside, with creature comforts like full kitchens, multiple entertainment equipment, large beds, offices, and fancy dressings like ceiling lights, wood floors, etc. As you might guess, they make these for event trailers and other vehicles as well.

They make the conversions to meet the motor vehicle standards of the customer’s country. Prices for these RV semi conversions start at around $70,000 for a 30′ vehicle conversion with 2 slides.

This one’s a 2002 Kingsley Coach Camelot Class-A

Model – Brand: Kingsley Coach “Camelot”
Year: 2002
Fuel Type: Diesel
Odometer: 21000
Engine: 600hp, cat
Transmission : Manual
Cruise : Yes

Read our update to this motorhome write up here.

Cabover Building

Usually you drive your truck to your office, but in one town in Australia, they drive their trucks back to a big truck — this is the headquarters of Australian transport company Wickham Freight Lines. It’s located in Australia’s Queensland state, in the village of Warwick.

A giant custom Kenworth coe … office. You walk through the wheelwell. The front looks like it could be a double-doors as well, but I guess it’s probably just decoration.

People are always making fun of coe’s for their boxyness. Saying they look just like houses. Guess they do, because this house really looks quite a bit like a cabover.

Another thing working truckers, whether local or long haulers, is they get to see the open road and don’t want to be bound to an office. Here, the whole truck is bound to the office.

This office Kenworth replica even has windshield wipers. Look, it even has mirrors, pipes, and a sun visor.

Wickham is a transport trucking company that employs a lot of workers. It has around 100 Kenworth tractors in its fleet, many of these used in road trains, which means they can pull two or three trailers — sometimes many more. Most of their trucks, it looks like, are conventionals, but they have a few cabovers as well.

Photo comes from this article about the building (in German, I think — some foreign language)