Converting van front motorhome to car hauler? Anyone do it?

How about a Fire Truck?

Sure. Except for the gearing. Ever notice one driving by with the engine screaming while it's moving along at a blistering 45 mph? Fire trucks are designed to haul a lot weight relatively short distances on local roads with little regard to efficiency. They don't do long hauls on the hwy well.

Wha? You're concerned about parking a school bus and yet you want to park a car transporter?

Check your local ordinances. Car transporters are often considered commercial vehicles - even if registered for personal use ('Not For Hire' painted on the doors) - and can be not welcome.

For awhile, I considered replacing my truck with a Izuzu cab-over roll-back, until I found out I wouldn't able to park it in my second driveway. And my area is pretty lienent about these sort of things (nobody cares about derilict cars in back-yards).

City ordinance here is regarding length, so it can be ugly as hell as long as it is not over xxx ft (have to look to see what the max length is), that is how the other motorhomes cluster on the same street I park my junk (public street). And there are plenty of Isuzu type box trucks that park there too...

I live in a pita condo complex,so I cant even park anything at my house that does not fit in a garage at all (no overnight parking without a permit-if the association grants a permit it costs $125 a month to park in a space, and I know of 2 people who have them-in a 150 unit complex, so the association does not like granting them) so parking on the street is the only option...and if it fits the letter of the law I dont care what the neighbors think!

School bus I agree would be the best choice from a mechanical standpoint, diesel power would be ideal also, but with no place to keep it would be a nightmare...

Looks like I need to find something I can daily drive and tow-been looking at full size station wagons and full size cargo vans also, but I will still be customer of the month at the local u haul.

Sounded like a great idea at the time, and would be pretty easy (straightforward-maybe not easy) to fab some ramps and not have to have a trailer, but I dont want an ill-handling monster that is seriously overloaded by a 2800 lb car-if I wanted that I could borrow my s.i.l's Caravan again!

Thanks for the thoughts and ideas!

Saw this; http://ventura.craigslist.org/cto/2404332573.html thought of this thread. Looks kinda cool, or am I crazy?

Woody wrote: How about a Fire Truck?

Like this?

I know it's not the original object of the exercise, but how about a dual rear wheel crew cab truck with the frame stretched?

Around here, lot's of farmers but the back passenger section off school buses & use them to haul pallets of cucumbers & other such produce. No idea how much those loads weigh but it looks like a lot. Must work pretty well because I've been seeing it done locally for 10-15 years or so.

shadetree30 wrote: I know it's not the original object of the exercise, but how about a dual rear wheel crew cab truck with the frame stretched?

I know somebody who has one of these. They do dirt-track racing and stuffed one of their old SBC race engines (spec-built, so not really all that hot) into it. They had to rebuild the rear ramp deck as it apparently the previous owner/builder thought making it 'look' like it was attached to the frame was good enough. Unless you're only planning on movign a small car, you'd need to find a CC dually then swap the cab for a single.

http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/2413828181.html

vdubinsd wrote: the school bus gives me an idea-leave the motorhome sides, and gut the center and add ramps and folding roof-undercover motorhome car hauler

Ain't gonna work.

I'm serious about the GVWR. The cabinets and interior you remove don't come close to the weight of the car+ ramps+ tools you are going to add. You're gonna be overloaded, and VERY tail happy.

DuctTape&Bondo wrote: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/cto/2413828181.html

that is awesome-just take a zero off the price for my budget.....and I guess I am going to throw in the towel on the idea-searching for big wagon or free candy-type van to do my bidding and be a junkyard hauler

anyone in SoCal area want joint custody of a car trailer? (and have a place to keep it?)

Didn't road kill show some cool set up in Australia?  I think it had a fiberglass body.  It was really nice.

SvRex is probably right concerning the Class C RV chassis. They are probably running close to maxed out. A E350 chassis is good for about 7k pounds. Subtract all the RV parts and that is your net weight capacity. 

The Class A I just bought has about 5000 pounds of net capacity. Empty weight is a touch over 12K pounds. GVRW is 17K. GCWR is 25K. The car will be going on a trailer. 

Anything you look at should have a build plate showing the weight limits. Mine is in a closet. 

One other thing to think about is if you have to stop at the truck scales.

If you do and forget it can be a big fine , 

And it it's on your normal route you can be stuck Everytime you head that way.

They just reopened a truck scale by my house that had been closed for 5 years ,  often 15 to 20 trucks in line...,

ransom said:

All I know about van-based motorhomes is that the one my friends used as a touring vehicle for their band was prone to sway and tail-wagging with just a half dozen people and a few amplifiers in it.

Putting a car on it, let alone on top, sounds absolutely terrifying.

I came in here to say exactly this, then realized it was an eight year old thread and I already had. So there.

Meh, we had a Champion motorhome delivery conversion  that worked out OK except the rear axle ratio was made for city use. It had a 454 engine which I warmed up a bit and it could definitely keep up with traffic. We drove it coast to coast a coupla times, it was not hard to drive and never felt dangerous but did eat fuel.

Halfway finished for you...