Who made this?

[Shadrach]

I have the VIN and it tells me is is a Dodge RM400 (R500) "stripped chassis model" which means no body. It is stamped into the frame rail and it all makes sense when I decode it. I looked all over it yesterday and can't find a tag on the body anywhere. The original owner is dead long time ago, so no answers coming from there.

Still searching...

[Skip426]

Can you post the year of the chassis , it could help narrow the field , by eliminating MH manufacturers , that were out of business by the time the chassis was built.
BTW: Dodge/Chrysler got in a lot of trouble , back in the day , by re-doing the serial numbers on unsold chassis , 78 chassis with 440 , suddenly were 1980 chassis.

[guardrail53]

I had a 1974 Shasta, it had round single headlights and a grill out of a Ford Heavy Duty truck, like a 800 series. It was built on the Chevy/GMC P-30 chassis with the 454 and turbo 400 trans. This MH, with the stacked square headlights, and the 3 doors?
Skip426, he did say in his first post it was built in 1973!
I will do some searching, see what I can find? Rail!

[Skip426]

Originally Posted by guardrail53

Skip426, he did say in his first post it was built in 1973!

AND I skimed right over that info.

[tderonne]

This one has got me, I can't find anything....

But, I did find that the square sealed beam headlights became legal for the 1975 model year. "Built in 1973" 1973 chassis VIN? 1975 box?

[guardrail53]

Originally Posted by Shadrach

I was at a friends farm and he has a class A motorhome on a Dodge RM400 chassis with a 440 in it. It was built in 1973, but I can't identify who made the body. It all aluminum, but I'm pretty sure it's not a Barth. Anyone recognize this?



David

David, in my honest opinion, this MH, never being finished on the inside, and the looks of it on the outside, is a way newer MH built on a older chassis? It has the square windows, the stacked square headlights, are two reasons I say this. I looked online, and saw nothing that came close to this one? And I am sure you have looked too? All of the Barth MH's have round headlights, way up into the late 80's and early 90's. All of the vintage MH's of this year chassis, all have the slash style windows, and round headlights, but the headlights could have been added after the fact. But the square windows? So, I am at a loss, but I will keep looking! The Clark Cortez MH's had the dual front doors, but a very distinctive front grill, and most of them had a rear door! I will post a few pic's that I came up with, one a 73 Barth, one a 74 Shasta, (just like the one I used to own), and a 73 Clark Cortez! Good luck in your research, and I will keep looking also! Rail!

[Shadrach]

We pulled the 440 and 727 out on Sunday. We took it out the front with the help of a fork lift and it went real good. We then loaded the MH onto a tilt-able flat deck trailer that had a winch and I hauled it to my buddies place 110 kms (65 miles or so) away. I am trading some Cummins part for the motorhome so it isn't costing me a pile of cash. Since my friends truck was already hooked to his trailer and the trailer has a pintle hitch and his truck is a dually I used it to haul the MH. I weighed the whole thing and it came to just over 13k Kgs which is over 28,500 pounds. While I would have liked to use my 08 Ram to see how it handled the power. I think the tongue weight would have been too much for my SRW 3500. His truck is an 06 dually with the auto and CTD.

My plans for now is to get my wife to see the unit and "make sure" she is still OK with this adventure. Then it is a lot of thinking, planning and asking questions to see if this is still a good idea.

[Shadrach]

Update: I took my wife out to see it last night and after doing some detailed measuring inside of it and comparing it to our 28 TT that we have right now, it is in reality going to be too short for our liking. It's about 26' on the outside and you lose 4' for the cab part so even if I did side and rear slides on it it is still going to be too small. Oh well it's been an education. Nothing ventured - nothing gained, and my wife and I are not mad at each other, which is a good thing.

Anyone one want to buy a project?

[tderonne]

Find any clues to what it is? If there's another one out there, I don't think it's on the internet...

[Shadrach]

I still think it must be a locally build, as in Western Canada, unit. I will continue to do some more investigation and if and when I find out I'll be sure to let you know.
David

[Kenvb]

your picture isnt there anymore!

[Shadrach]

Not sure why the picture disappeared. The VIN says it is a 1973 Dodge R500. The build sheet says it has a 159" wheel base, a GVWR of 14000 lbs and 4.56 gears, a 440-3 and a 727 auto. It has disc brakes and 8-19.5 tires with five stud rims. It was sold as a stripped chassis, so in other words Dodge did not build the body.

David

[77Travco]

Dodge R500?... Do you mean M500? My Travco has an M500 chassis as well as many other 1970's motorhomes.
Does it have a title? If so then what does the title say it is? Maybe do a title search on the deceased owner to see what vehicles they owned.
M500 chassis were built up to 78 and some were titled newer than that.

[Shadrach]

You are correct on the M500 - I got a little confused there

VIN R59CA3S...... breaks down as follows: (courtesy of http://www.classicwinnebagos.com/Pag...oder.html#1972 )

R5 = M500 (aka RM400)
9 = incomplete chassis
C = 10,000 - 14,000 lbs
A = 440-3
3 = 1973
S = Warren truck plant # 1

It has never been registered so I'm not clear on how it would be registered up here, maybe as a homebuilt unit??