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Semi Truck Converted To Motor Home
Roger and Doris Bobbett like to travel, but they never liked the way their motor home rocked in the wind. Plus, the gas mileage wasn't great. That's when Roger got the idea to combine the advantages of a semi truck with the comforts of a mobile home.
  "Everyone thought I was crazy," says the Morgantown, Ky., man. But fortunately, the project was a success, and the couple hasn't looked back since.
  "The original motor home got 4 to 5 mpg on gas. This truck gets more than twice the mileage on diesel - 11 mpg," Bobbett says. "It's heavy and doesn't wobble in the wind so it's much more comfortable to drive."
  Bobbett mounted his æ84 Georgia Boy Excalibre motor home on a æ92 Ford LTL Aeromax 9000 semi truck. The motor home was originally 31 ft. long, but he removed the fiberglass nose cone from the front of it.
  He removed the truck's sleeper compartment and extended the frame by 9 ft. On the motor home, Bobbett cut out the entire frame and axles before setting the shell down on the newly extended truck frame. One of the truck's original rear axles serves as the rear axle of the motor home.
  He opened up the back of the truck cab to make a walk-through entrance to the motor home.
  "The rig is pretty well wide open from the cab into the front of the motor home," he says. "Due to the truck chassis being 6 in. higher off the ground, I had to put an electric step on the side entry door of the motor home to make it easier to get in and out."
  The whole project took about 3 months of work. Not counting the value of the vehicles themselves, Bobbett says he spent about $10,000 on parts to join the two together.
  The couple has put 18,000 miles on their conversion in the last 2 1/2 years.
  "Most of the time, we pull into a campground, and here they come with a camera. Somebody told me there's a place in Houston that does this sort of thing û mounts motor homes on semi trucks. I've seen a couple on the road but never talked to anyone who has one."
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Roger Bobbett, 10005 Bowling Green Rd., Morgantown, Ky. 42261 (ph 270 526-9266; deb46@logantele.com).


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2005 - Volume #29, Issue #5