A friend of mine has said for many years that when he finally retires from trucking he is going to get a huge motorhome and get out in the hammer-lane and do 50 mph for the rest of his life. When asked why, he said, "They've been doing it me for 40 years, now it's my turn."
Actually, quite a few truckers retire to a motorhome and spend their time visiting places they saw from the window of the cab but rarely had the time to visit. North America is a land filled with wonders, everything from the Empire State Building in New York to the Santa Monica Pier in California, which marks the end of old Route 66.
And for the really adventurous, there are always Mexico and Alaska. Recently, I caught up with a number of interesting truckers who had converted old trucks to motorhomes and set off around the country and around the world in search of adventure.
George and Ruth Worley make their regular home in Leichester, N.C., but their traveling home is a beautiful 1951 Mack A20H. This rig is unique – it started life as a 1995 Tioga Class 3 motorhome on a Ford chassis.
Explains George: "I cut off the Ford front end and just put the Mack front end over it. It's powered by an International DT466 245-horsepower engine, which is plenty of power for the rig. It uses an Allison 4-speed automatic transmission.
"I found the Mack in a field in Kernersville, N.C., and paid $400 for it and thought it would make a good-looking front end for my Tioga. I put about 3,000 miles on since I finished it, and it drives real well. I have had no problems so far. I sure get a lot of attention with it!" George has also found that he can't hurry anywhere because of all the attention. He was getting ready for a tour of the United States. His rig is unusual because the old truck body is just cosmetic; all the running gear is late-model equipment.
Jake and Ruth Baker of Sparta, Tenn., have a similar-looking rig, but in reality it's a whole different creature. Baker bought his 1950 Mack LJT in 1977 for $100.
"At first, I converted it into a wrecker and added a special set of front fenders. Then I pulled off the fenders and put on the stock ones, took off the bed and made the truck into a road tractor for hauling auto parts.
"In 1983, I stretched the frame and added a sleeper to the rig and used it in my work until 1992 when I retired. It took me about a year to take off the sleeper and add a custom-made motorhome box."
Baker added a 10-kilowatt Kubota engine for power and installed a full-sized bathroom with a full-size shower in the rig. It has a 200-gallon holding tank and a 118-gallon freshwater tank on board.
"My daughters and I did all the work ourselves," he says. "Back in 1989, I had updated the engine to a 400-hp Cummins with a 13-speed transmission, so it has plenty of power. We have been all the way up to Fairbanks, Alaska, in the rig; it runs great."
Baker now drives the Mack about 15,000 to 20,000 miles a year visiting truck shows and antique shows.
Yet another approach to antique truck and motorhome living is offered by Thomas Bennett of Jasonville, Ind. Bennett converted a relatively stock 1960 Mack B61 into an extended cab pickup to haul his large-size travel trailer.
"I have had the truck for about 15 years now," Bennett says. "I added a GMC dually bed over the Mack drivetrain, which features a 237 Maxidyne engine with a 5-speed Rockwell transmission, a double disc clutch, and a Rockwell 3:70 rear end.
"I just woke up one morning and had a vision about what it would look like. The sleeper is an old railroad crew box I found in a junkyard, and the dually bed was originally used by a coal mine to store old oil filters."
Bennett is 40-year trucking veteran and now does most of his traveling in the Southeast and Midwest.
Gid Gibson of Cowpens, S.C., has a similar tractor-trailer rig but uses a 1951 Mack LJ powered by a 400-hp Cummins for his travel trailer set-up.
"I bought the truck in Alabama about 12 years ago after it finished life in the oil fields," he says. "Originally, it was a twin-screw, so I converted it to a single-axle rig. I operate a truck repair shop, so all this is pretty easy for me. During the conversion process, I added a Western Star sleeper and Volvo fuel tanks. I pull a 33-foot Prowler trailer with the rig and it is sure a lot fun to drive.
"My big interest is stationary engines, so I take this rig to all kinds of antique vehicle and equipment shows. I made it to be sure I wouldn't get stuck with no place to stay."
One man with a lot of traveling experience with truck-motorhome conversions is Gary Straight of Ft. Collins, Colo. A longtime trucker, Straight bought a 1953 Peterbilt he nicknamed "Zelda." It was equipped with a 262 Cummins and a 5-by-3 tranny. He added a used Ryder rental box, and after spending long hours on restoration and modification, he hit the highway for the trip of a lifetime.
Straight started his journey in Key West, Fla., and wound his way north, hitting the Truckers Jamboree in Walcott, Iowa, the Hog Fest in Sturgis, S.D., and Frontier Days in Cheyenne, Wyo. He then headed up through Canada on the Al-Can Highway and finally landed in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
Straight went the extra mile by putting his travels with Zelda on audio tapes which he sells through select truckstops or by phone at (907) 227-0237.
Tim Ludwig and his luxurious "Paddywagon" were featured in Road King in 1999. He had dreamed of owning a combination motorhome and trailer and had planned to restore a 1985 Peterbilt 359. But when he found out that insurance on the rig was too costly, he opted for a motorhome conversion.
"The restoration took me about five years altogether," he says. "This past winter, I extended the cab by 12 inches to give myself more headroom and allow the seats to recline a little. I was a trucker back in the 80s and this was my favorite truck, so I bought an old Werner unit and started fixing it up. It's powered by a 3406 Caterpillar hooked to a 9-speed-over transmission and gets about 10 miles to the gallon."
Ludwig says he is proud of his creation and he has every right to that pride. His black-and-white motorhome is absolutely drop-dead beautiful in every way.
Then there is a whole different breed of guys and gals out there who like to convert trucks into motorhomes for travel in underdeveloped countries.
Josef Schmitz and his wife, Katharina, make their home in Dusseldorf, Germany, but spend most of their time traveling around the world in a converted 1957 Mercedes LG315 army surplus truck. This massive rig features 14.00-by-20 18-ply tires, four-wheel drive, winches on the front and back, dual spare tires, dual glass on all windows, solar-powered battery packs and a wide array of driving and fog lights. The truck is self-contained and the interior contains beds, electronic gear and a kitchen.
"We spent about five years on our last around-the-world trip and visited all of Europe and parts of Asia, especially India, then the United States, Mexico. We also have been to South America," Schmitz says.
"I originally bought five of these German Army surplus trucks, and this is the second one I have converted. We just finished a two-year trip all over Australia, where we went completely around the country and then criss-crossed it both ways. Then we shipped the truck to California and went down into Mexico then back up into Arizona. Now we are on our way to South America for another two-year journey. Everywhere we have been people have been nice.
"The only problem I have in the United States is that this rig only goes about 55 mph, so it is a little slow for some traffic. In India, you can drive for 10 or 12 hours a day and not go 150 miles because traffic is so slow. But here at least all the truckers are nice and try to accommodate my slow speed. Over there, the truckers try to run you off the road. We plan to come back and do another tour of the United States again soon."
A sometime-traveling companion to the Schmitzes are Wolf and Ilona Ogorek of Hamburg, Germany. Wolf Ogorek is the owner of a small trucking company in Germany and says that the best part of traveling in the United States is that "we have a lot of room and the people are friendly.
"We met the Schmitzes about 15 years ago in Chili and got hooked on this type of travel," Ogorek says. "We have been all over Canada, the United States including Alaska, Mexico and Central America and are now on our way to South America for a couple of years." The Ogoreks use a more modern 1995 Mercedes 917 chassis for their 26-foot self-contained motorhome, which was custom-made for their needs.
Travel in truck-motorhomes just makes a lot of sense for truckers. They are familiar with the equipment, and old trucks are pretty rugged, much more so than most new motorhome units. These travelers know their equipment inside and out. In fact, most have built their units themselves, so they know exactly what to do when things break down.
But considering the mega-loads these rigs were meant to haul in their day, it's pretty much retirement living for them, too. Looks like a neat way to go when you are done following the white line for a living.
