Edit:
In October 2013 (found the first registration) my late Uncle's brother-in-law down north of Richmond had this motorhome. I don't remember how he came to possess it, but he didn't want it. My Uncle did, so BIL gave it to Uncle. The local scrap yard didn't want it because the body is fiberglass and aluminum... not enough pounds for them.
We got it running and I drove it to my Uncle's house in the Shenandoah valley... ~2 hour drive, including over a mountain gap. The engine was running, but not great. It did not have good power, even for weighing >10,000 lbs. But it was free. It also shows 33,000 miles, so it's had an easy life.
At first it looked like things would turn out well, since my dad was ordering parts and my Uncle was doing some work to it. My Uncle had a stroke in 2015 that left him unable to speak, but otherwise with complete faculties. I'm not sure he did anything else to it after that. My dad has a long history of being enthusiastic about a project when he first comes across it, then flagging and losing interest. That was a hard habit for me to un-learn (and maybe I have not yet been successful), but my dad basically never made the 1/2 hour trip from his house to my Uncle's place(*) to do much to it. It's been basically where it's parked right now since 2013.
Recently, the town decided to crack down on "inoperable vehicles", as defined by not having a current VA inspection sticker, across the town. There are many, many people in town affected by this, with the RFTMHQ being a relatively minor offender. Unfortunately, these are not wealthy people, so I don't think anyone affected has the money to take this to court and tell the town to go absolutely fuck themselves in the absolute goatass. After all, what people have on their own property that isn't hurting anyone else should not be anyone else's fucking business.
Anyway, my dad's far too law abiding (My mom was a pastor, so I'm not sure where I got my great big "Fuck the Law!" streak...) but at least he's doing work on getting RFTMHQ running again. Theoretically it was "running" when we parked it, just not well. The distributor was stuck in the block, so we couldn't adjust timing. Since this is a '73, it did not have HEI. HEI came out in '74 on the Olds engines. My dad has an HEI distributor for it, and has been looking up the wiring mods that need to be done to make that work. We had a (another) machinist friend make a custom pry-bar--that ended up working better as a wrench--that pulled the old distributor out. Not realizing that in Olds engines, the distributor does *NOT* go through the intake manifold, we had previously removed the intake manifold. That helped with clearance for removing the dizzy, but was not strictly necessary. The heater core output comes off the right rear corner of the manifold, and nothing comes off the left rear corner of the manifold. I suggested that since this engine would work its ass off pulling the RFTMHQ over Cumberland Gap or similar, we should machine the manifold for four point coolant outlets while it's off. We dropped it off with a different machinist friend to remove the heater outlet fitting and drill/tap the other corner of the manifold this week. If nothing else, we can plug the hole, but at least it will be there so that we can add the other two coolant outlets later.
We should be able to get the manifold back on, pre-oil the engine and install the dizzy next weekend. The carb is a Q-Jet, but has a rebuilder's sticker on it. We're not sure what we're going to do with that yet. The tires are ancient and probably dangerous to drive. It uses dually style wheels w/ 8x6.5 pattern. My dad actually bought a full set of 7 2000's truck dually wheels, which are currently at his house. I think the stock wheels are 16.5's, which by itself is enough reason to get rid of them... Although maybe we could run HumVee tires?
In addition to the wheels and the dizzy, other parts my dad ordered include a rear disk brake kit--for all FOUR rear wheels.
There is a kit to convert the front end to use modern (well... GMT 800?) 3500 Silvahraedo knuckles and hubs.
There's a surprisingly strong and active user community built around these vehicles. That stems from them being assets that enable expanded lifestyles, rather than simple appliances like many cars. It's pretty impressive for a vehicle that will turn 50 next year.
Basic info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GMC_motorhome
This is a 26 foot model.
Community forums: https://www.gmcmotorhome.org/
Oddball chassis pics:
https://silodrome.com/history-gmc-motorhome/
Wikipedia:
(*) My great-grandfather bought the property in the '50's and it's been in the family since then. It was built in 1908, and is a nice large lot in a picturesque small town, a block from the Shenandoah river. Unfortunately, it's also a demanding for my Uncle's widow to look after. :,^(
