Holiday Rambler

[Roaderican]

Ok, my better half n I are getting a mid 80's Preside tial...not sure of the year yet...(long story short it belonged to a friend) and we are TOTAL NEWBS

What do we look for as far as chassis, engine, mpgs....you know all the newb stuff.

Thanks

[femailyetti]

I am playing with a 86 holiday rambler in the A forum, it seems like a well built unit, Mine has a few things wrong that i am fixing, Have fun and be prepared to work on it your self, if you can to save a ton of money.

[SEMO_Mike]

Purchased a 1993 25 foot HR Alumalite in 2015 with 58,000 miles on it. It is well-built, all aluminum. Solid wood cabinets. It is an E350 with the Ford 460. I had all the belts, hoses, fluids, and tires replaced, as well as new caliphers, and then took it on a 13,000 trip to Alaska and back with no issues other than the fuel pump went out in Montana on the way home. Love it. I intended on selling it when we got back because we already had a fifth wheel but we like it too much. It is easy to get around anywhere. Fuel mileage is really affected by speed. At 70 mph - 7 mpg. At 60 mph - 9 mpg.

[tatest]

Roaderican wrote:
As a newb with n older HR what should i look out for n how would i go about lightening the load some for better fuel consumption....

Weight doesn't have much to do with fuel consumption, at highway speeds on mostly level roads. Most of your power is being used to push air around, and the way to reduce that is to slow down, because the power requirement goes up with approximately the cube of speed (linearly with road speed, and with the square of air speed).

10% reduction of weight will barely change fuel consumption, maybe 3%. But a 10% reduction in cruise speed could reduce fuel consumption as much as 23% other factors being equal.

[Cobra21]

Things to look for are leaky roof and ceiling, that spells trouble. Other than that, tires, belts, hoses, brakes, radiator fluid and so on. Most of the cosmetic things you can see in the coach. Should see that plumbing and tanks work. Furnace, hot water heater, stove, lp system. Hopefully the main things can be gone over with you before purchase, or it can get spendy fast.
They are fun, Brian

[Roaderican]

Thanks for ALL the help when have it up n vkin i ll post pics...keep the advice coming

[j-d]

What is the Chassis model year? Which Engine does it have? Does it have to Pass Emissions Testing? How many miles on it?

[Roaderican]

As a newb with n older HR what should i look out for n how would i go about lightening the load some for better fuel consumption....

[Islandman]

HR's were fine units years ago, I haven't kept up with them in the past few years. We had a 30 ft. 1982 Imperial Class A and it was loaded with good things, was a little slow going up hills in the mountainous country, had a 454 Chevy engine. Bathroom was fine and kitchen was very functional, we lived in it for a little over a year while our house was being built. Had a golden retriever and two cats, everyone was fine with the setup. You shouldn't have any problems with an older HR if it was taken care of. Another advantage is that they always looked good, and old one still has style!

[j-d]

Welcome aboard!

We had a 1984 HR Class C Ambassador 24-ft. A very well built unit. Better than what we have now. Ours had a sheet aluminum roof and aluminum sides. Aluminum frame, rare in those years.

Ambassador was the base model, then Presidential, then Imperial. But all those were higher line than the Aluma-Lite series which was the entry level.

E350 chassis, drove better than the late models (1992 and newer) with 460 V8 and C6 three-speed transmission. About 7-8 MPG. The Aluma-Lite used Ford's 351 V8, at least in many models.

Reply with questions.