Transportation - Introducing Smokie & Bandette

 

Introducing Smokey & Bandette

So I mentioned in our Planning & Prepping post that we had a new mode of transport, namely our rebuilt motorcoach and SUV.  In today's posts, you'll get to meet them both and see the four year transformation that Smokey underwent.  I have to say that Papa Bear truly had the vision and perseverance to see the RV renovation through to completion.

Smokey

Oh Smokie. Where do I even begin to tell your story.  Rewind four years to Papa Bear telling me he wanted to put a bid in on an RV that was being sold by an auction house for the company that had insured the vehicle. It wasn't a cheap investment, but when we put pen to paper, allowing for materials and sweat equity, we knew that this would be a sound investment and something we would enjoy for many years. I was certainly skeptical, but knew Papa Bear had an eye for these things and agreed to make the investment.

Smokie started her life as the 2005 Safari Gazelle 40PBT model. She was designed by Monaco Coaches for Safari and sits on a Roadmaster chassis. She has an overall length of 40' 8.5", exterior width of 8' 4.5", height of 12' 7", and a gross vehicle weight of 17.3 tons (34,600 lbs). The interior dimensions are 40' long, 8' wide, 6' 9" high. Her original paint and interior decorating scheme were called "Black Pearl". She also has a 12 gallon hot water tank, 100 gallon fresh water tank, 60/40 gallon grey/black water tanks respectively, 55 gallon LP gas tank, and a 130 gallon fuel tank.

 

She is powered by a Caterpillar C9 400 electronic engine with Allison 3000 MH 6-Speed World transmission and electronic shifter. For times when you are off grid or if you want to run the living/bedroom air conditioning units while in transit, it is also equipped with an Onan 8.0 kW Quiet Diesel generator. Oh...and a one-of-a-kind hand-painted mural on the back.

We won the bid, paid the insurance company and then arranged a pick-up time from the salvage lot in Lufkin. Yes...I did say salvage. You see the insurance company had totaled this vehicle and paid its previous owners for their misfortune. See, somehow the RV caught on fire. It was a doozy, but luckily (to our knowledge) no one was injured. The interior was toast and had not been touched since the day the fire had been extinguished. Prior to putting in a bid, we had a very good friend that lived in the area, that knew RVs and had been a long haul hot shot truck driver go look it over. With no apparent damage to the actual external structure, chassis, mechanics or powerplant, it looked like this would be something that could be renovated.

Before

 

 

That same friend went with Papa Bear over to the lot the day of the pick up. Now this wasn't a show up and tow it home type of thing. No no. These things are not really meant to be towed, which was why there was damage to the front end of the motorcoach. This sad little fixer-upper needed to be driven off the lot. Believe it or not, the only thing the guys had to do was find a plug for the air brake system and then crank her up. Even after sitting, and even with all the internal damage that the fire had caused, it ran great. They then drove her about 10 miles to our friend's house and parked it, until we could get a temporary tag to get it home. 

I won't bore you with all of the fine detail that went into the clean out, strip down and remodel. That would be an entire other blog of its own. But, Papa Bear does deserve great credit for the nights, weekends, and holidays that he spent. The Cubs also contributed at specific points along the way, helping to restore the interior or work on mechanics. My major contribution was supplying Papa Bear with sandwiches, iced tea and occasionally crawling under the coach to help with installation of some part or other. As you can see below, the before and after are strikingly different, and I'm super proud of Papa Bear's accomplishments.

After

 

 

 

 

Smokie is now a lean 33,580 lbs, having shed some weight during the renovation project. We can now enjoy approximately 320 square feet of living space, wrapped in the warm tones of solid maple. We ditched the safari theme and went with earthy tones that felt more inviting and in tune with our sense of style. We reconfigured the living, kitchen and bath area to squeeze out some extra space, and used every nook and cranny for storage. Every single inch of the interior of this coach has been touched. From updating wiring and electronics, to new air conditioning ducts, flooring, custom cabinetry (all made by  Papa Bear), tile work, and decorative elements, we as a family constructed what you see above. The only things we were not able to do ourselves were to recover the captains chairs and dash, and manufacture the specially engineered sway stabilization bars that go under the coach.

Did I mention the mural - the snowcat mural? So, there was much debate about this mural when we were talking about getting some paintwork done. The painter is fairly famous and the pictures are unique because they have hidden images in them. We thought long and hard about whether we should we keep something original, or ditch it to bring it in line with the modern age. Ultimately, we made the decision to paint over the mural. In homage to the Dame Family, you can see more of their work here.

Some of my  favorite elements in the coach are the "televator" that allows the tv to travel safely inside the cabinet and be out of the way when not in use. I also really like the full size residential refrigerator and the oven (had to fight for that one). We did sacrifice additional sleeping area by installing a dual recliner sofa, but honestly they lay back far enough, and are comfortable enough that someone could manage a night or two on them. I also like that we were able to find off-the-shelf black out blinds for the bedroom. I do not like slivers of light coming in when I am trying to sleep.

Bandette

Bandette is a 2018 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4 Wheel Drive. She is both the replacement for my recently completed lease vehicle, and our "toad" (RV slang for a vehicle towed behind a motorcoach). White wasn't really my first idea when choosing her, but we had some very specific criteria in mind when selecting our toad. The major thing was it needed to be something that could be towed 4-down without a lot of fuss. While there are some modern vehicles that can be towed 4-down, there's typically a lot of stopping, cranking the engine, letting it run, etc. We wanted something that was a more rugged vehicle for exploring more remote locations along our main route, and didn't have to be petted every 250 miles. 

The JGC with ActiveDrive II has the ability to disengage the transmission for flat towing with no fuss. It seemed a little like voodoo going through the steps the first time we practiced towing. And I was pretty sure the noise it was making was unnatural. The last thing we wanted was to drag it behind us, or burn up the transmission. But after consulting the manual, watching several YouTube videos and having a mechanic-y neighbor assess the sounds, it was determined everything was good. This was all confirmed during/after our shakedown trip to Fredericksburg a couple of weeks ago.

Bandette is also equipped with an add-on brake assist that we put in and remove before and after towing. It's a boxy little mechanism that attaches a claw to the brake pedal, is held in place by the driver's seat, and works with inertia to activate. We have a radio frequency monitoring device that alerts us to any issues. Oh, we also have a TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) that monitors pressure and temperature of all of our tires - RV and Jeep. Very valuable in alerting to any issues that need immediate attention. If you've every seen any YouTube videos of RV tire blow outs, you will understand why this is a very important investment.

So, now you have seen our transportation and accommodations for the trip. If you'd like more information on any of the products or equipment that we have in the RV, feel free to send us a note in the comments section below.