Thought I'd share my TDR Board announcement with ya'll. ( I know I'm a lazy bastard who doesn't feel like typing the thing all over again so I cut and pasted the news.)
Soon I will be burning up the highways with my TOW RIG. And doing my part to rid my world of the "West Nile Virus".
From TDR:


I got Smoke today!!!:)

I announced this projects start on May 29th ,2002.

Remember?

Motorhome Conversion begins?

EFI 460 Ford and C-6 tranny to 98 Cummins (12V)with an Allison AT 542!! 260 horse!!!!!

Remember?

We'll I've been building this thing by MYSELF since then.

Today August 22, 2003 I got smoke out of the thing.
It actually starts with the key and starter on command.
I am very very very very HAPPY!!!!!!!!!

A little wiring left, a little clean up, and fine tuning the cables and such, regear the rear end and put the body work back on the front and I AM DONE!!!!!!!!!!

And you guys thought I gave up. HAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

I feel invincible!!!!!!!!!

Just thought I'd climb up the Internet Mountain and shout it to the world.

SSSRodeo

And would you believe I forgot the camera?


__________________
"90" Fleetwood Limited Motorhome. Almost done with conversion to Cummins 5.9 L Turbo Diesel. Big Block Ford is history.

Curtis...you know how hapy and impressed I am, great job..maybe we'll get to take that thing all the way to Moab and sleep in it yet :D

You'll be impressed to know I have a tow rig now as well. Got a free Chevy 1500 with a bad V6 in it from a buddy. Swapping out motors and have a $300 trailer I'm eyeing..should be all set for not much more than a grand :D

Originally posted by Joe_W
Curtis...you know how hapy and impressed I am, great job..maybe we'll get to take that thing all the way to Moab and sleep in it yet :D

You'll be impressed to know I have a tow rig now as well. Got a free Chevy 1500 with a bad V6 in it from a buddy. Swapping out motors and have a $300 trailer I'm eyeing..should be all set for not much more than a grand :D

AW Joe, You never could add. :) That'd be under $2 grand Dude! :)

Sounds good, but, you are going to put a V8 in that 1500 aren't you. That six is gonna dissapoint you pulling the Sammy on that same climb out of Denver .

I' gotta stay afer the Bus so I can get it ready to go to Crawloween. And the Rodeo needs another front R&P now.

Still the hard part is over!
I haven't wheeled all year! What a depressing thought.

SSSRodeo

PICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sounds awesome I'm about to start my swap in an older chevy dually

Good to here it's running!

Hmmmmm, I forgot I had made an announcement here. Sorry. It got burried.

Here's a link to my Picture Albumn. (http://www.photogra.com/index.cfm?p=viewphoto&albumID=79643&PG=Yes&d=1) There are 86 pictures of the progress from start to today.


Guess I should give an update.
As of today I have the Dana 70 HD in the shop to get a new set of gears and a LSD. Going to the tallest ratio available at this time. 3:54's. It's still not tall enough since the Allison is a four speed with a 1:1 top gear.

To cure that I found a very rare and rebuilt Brownie Auxiliary transmission made in 1957. A Spicer 5831 "C" model. The 5831 is a three speed with a 2:1 1st gear and 1:1 second, and a 1:.73 3rd for an overdrive. This ought to give me a lot of versatility up the mountains and for fuel economy. Even though I'll probably not use low gear, it would make backing into tight spots a breeze. With me doing the install it will be about half the price of a Gear Vendor. The Gear Vendors auxiliary won't bolt to the Allison anyway and it won't handle the Allisons reverse gear torque (4:1) or the Bombed Cummins (260 HP). Looks like the Rodeo isn't the only rig I'll have with more than one transmission. Now all I need is a transfer case and some Rockwells and I can go up the slippery slope. Just kidding!

Used a Ford 6000 Radiator and intercooler to cool it. Very large. It takes 30 minutes to warm it up at idle.

I have actually driven it around the block with the too low gears (4:88's) the Dana originally had. 40 MPH was top end. It starts on command and the parking brake works. It moves forward and backward. Brakes and master cylinder have been rebuilt Reverse lights ar still not hooked up though. All leaks to date have been fixed.

So for now, it sets in the driveway with the rear end out, and the Aux Tranny in my little shop getting fitted for mounting brackets. The Dana will be ready to re-install by Tuesday next week and I should have the brownie mounted within the week. Then it's a matter of shortening the front drive shaft, making a short mating shaft between the two trannys and it'll be ready for a shake down trip. I'll be using a regular three speed floor shifter for the Brownie with a short shifter lever. So it won't be sticking me in the butt every time I crawl into the Drivers seat. Since I won't be jammin gears all day long wth it. This tranny requires shifting finesse so air or electric shifters would mean a lot of gear grinding. Manual shift linkage will not be that big of deal.

And in case your wondering how am I going to shift that thing with no clutch.... You don't use a clutch to shift a brownie. Well mostly! It's called dry shifting. You lift the throttle to up shift . And to down shift you have to unload the torque on the tranny by lifting you right foot and then slip the brownie into neutral. Then rev the motor up enough to match the rpm's of both shafts in the brownie and then push it into gear. That , or just put in the gear you want before you strart the motor and drive it all day that way. It's rated for 36,000 lbs GVW so I'll never wear it out.
I estimate in high gear it'll do 70 mph at 1900 RPM give or take a little for torque converter slippage. Should see about 12 to 14 mpg too! And in case your wondering why I don't just use a 6 speed world transmission, They cost $10,000 new and about $6k rebuilt. Hell,the core charge fora rebuilt is $2 grand. I have less than $3 K in this set up so far. With 12 forwards and 3 reverse gears, I'd say it's a better deal.

Well that's pretty much it so far.

Yea I know I type way too much, but I thought I'd spell it out so there would be fewer questions.

See ya on the trails again soon.
SSSRodeo

Congrats!!! :beer:

Absolutely kick ass.

it asks for a user name and password to log in when you click that link...

Brownie....... Cool;)

We have some Teichert Construction water trucks coming through the shop, having brand new two speed Brownies installed.

Let's see if I can try that link again.
Here's a link to my Picture Albumn. (http://www.photogra.com/index.cfm?p=viewphoto&albumID=79643&PG=Yes&d=1) ]Photogra.com/Public Albumns/Vacations & Travel/fun in the sun/Motorhome repower projectbyCurtis J

I spelled out the photo carrier link just in case.

I hope this works!!!!!!! There are many pitures of the same thing, but, I was hoping to build a WEB site and haven't decided which ones to use.

SSSRodeo