1977 holiday rambler imperial 5000 454 32 motorhome and it's upgrades

[Tony lyman]

So this will be my second post about an rv I acquired in a pair the other was a 90s flair. Got them both in running condition for free I then traded the flair to a friend of mine.

Then came the daunting task of moving them neither had been on the road in almost a year mine had no brakes and the flair had some really crappy tires two were leaking air as they got filled. So we had to get them both towed to my residence and to his mine had to go about 7.3 miles and my buddies the flair had to go about the same. Now everyone here knows towing these rigs can get expensive. But my buddy who got the flair had a tow rig but it was unfortunately down due to a brake caliper in the front , but his other family runs a tow and recovery service. For 1500 dollars we got them both done with the stinger on one of their ramp trucks in an hour and a half both tows. Which isn't bad considering most other places wanted 2k a piece. I know after being a driver myself in the past they were price gouging hard.


So anyways I've started to tinker on mine which as stated In my previous post has been completely remodeled hardwood floors, shiplap walls ,tung and groove ceiling, updated power all 110 , tankless hotwater heater, nice fuĺl size toilet, a custom pull down Murphy bed queen size, beautiful bathroom vanity, there is a tub thats temporarily covered with hardwood with 6 shelves above. I'll be doing some custom tile shower with seat , I have access to a jacuzzi tub but I don't know I'm a very good finish construction guy owned my company for quite a while. So a nice glass door with a smooth rock floor with slate would be nice. Has a gas stove and a fridge that definitely came out of a new rig can run on gas and electric.

Someone made it full airide as in four semi truck air bags that have female connections one line for rear one for front
I see myself adding onboard air some way or another either a pump drivin off the belt with a tank with a blow off basically a semi set up or an electric setup with holding tank and electric pump. Has no heat in it might do a smaller propane wall mounted job somewhere or even two really small ones one being down were the plumbing is in the bathroom along with another by the front of the rig where the Murphy bed is. Also is lacking an air-conditioning rig as they were taken off I just got a set of two off a 2012 tow behind 5th wheel that was wrecked so ill be putting those on soon as I'll be in Florida.

Now my question is I have two fairly large fuel tanks directly behind each front wheel width by height is square but they close to 5 feet long, anyone know how much they hold???

Next question is what might the gearing be in the rear end of this rig???

I ask this because I have access to a few different engines. One which I hold dear to my heart is a 6v53TT Detroit which would sound sooo nice , 2nd a 4bt Cummins 3rd a 5.9 Cummins 4th a 6.7 Cummins with all trimmings aka deleted and has 5 tunes done with EFI live with a large monitoring system I think might be an edge. Same guy has a few cat engines as well, along with a few brownie boxes aka 2 ,3 and 4 speed gear boxes. Were used as double over drives. This motor home does have a two piece drive shaft so a brownie box most likely a 2 speed could happen....
All diesel engines if geared correctly will do alot better in the long haul with reliability and fuel mileage. I know of a yard that has access to a few Eaton-fullers a 6, 9 , 10 and 13. If I'm not mistaken 10 and up need air. But I've done some math depending on the gearing in the rear 6.7 tuned with the 10 speed I'd be sipping fuel on the highway cruising along with almost 3 times my rigs current fuel mileage. The current 454 has 17493 original miles 4½in to 5in dual exhaust with Flowmaster 44s. Friend of mine is after it pretty bad for his muscle car.

My propane tank under the rear after the axle on passenger side is quiet big I also know where there is another identical one so I could mount it and have spliter or the likes or a valve on mine so I could hook to a large standing tank.

Working at a junkyard and knowing where quite a few junk motorhomes and camper trailers are helps. That i can pick pieces off. It originally had an Onan generator which was taken out of it when I got to the rv. Now if I did swap gas to diesel I'd run a line to one of the tanks most likely high-pressure rubber fuel line and have a valve on each tank to connect to for fuel to the diesel generator and keep the other valve capped but have the ability to unscrew the fitting and hook it up to the other tank if needed.

Each fuel tank has a fairly new peck drain valve half an inch. Depending if I can figure out the size of each tanks I'd drop them both and cut the end off each and use ¼ in steel and make them both as long as I have room for. It would hurt at the pump but properly geared and tuned (depending if I went with the 6.7) I could make it from NH to FL on one fill up. I heard off road diesel is cheap 😉😉.

On my last truck my 2013 6.7 cummins dodge mega cab dually all deleted I had a titan 55 gallon aftermarket under the truck plus a 200 gallon transfer tank in bed and I could make it from FL to NH with never having to stop to buy fuel.

So yeah that's about where I'm at. I can add pictures of fuel tanks and any others.