If anyone has looked at or is familiar with the 1989 Grand Villa for sale in Prescott Arizona, could you PM me? It is wearing Motorcade number 7414.
Thanks,
We're in Prescott until Sunday, and Nancy noticed the GV yesterday (assume it's the same one - at an RV park in town?). I'll swing by and take a look at it in the next couple of days.
That may not be the same one. The owners of the listed one just went out of town for a week, but I am working on getting out there when they come back. On the other hand, it could be the same one, so it would be worth a look.
Probably this one:
1989 GRAND VILLA MOTOR HOME - rvs - by owner - vehicle automotive sale (https://prescott.craigslist.org/rvs/d/1989-grand-villa-motor-home/6329171325.html)
Strange. In one place it says odometer 150,000 miles
Down lower it states over 200,000 miles.
Just a "slight" error?? 25%?
Be cautious as the add also states it has a Cummings turbo engine but it looks like it has Cat emblems .
Mike
Perhaps they replaced the original speedometer (odometer) at 50,000 miles?
Rear radiator, 10 bolt wheels and narrow body. Does that help identify the model and engine?
Wonder what you do with the front big screen TV when driving?
Red captains chairs. That's.....umm......different.
The 40 footer should have a 300 hp turbo CAT with a MT647 Allison.
Pierce
Sure looks like a u300 or u280 front fender says unihome
Which was a V-8, four speed and no retarder? That alone would take it off my list, though the price is low. Prolly not a bad buy, as long as one has paperwork and at least 10 CBs in their pocket for things Craigslist & E-Bay never mention.
If it runs well with no damage and no corrosion, how much more can you expect for $10K? Other than a couple of airbags and small stuff, ours has cost us almost nothing in about 9 years of ownership. P.O. had no repairs either. Our used RAV4 cost more than that. Good time of year to buy. Cash is king.
Pierce
It looks nice and well loved. Notice the tire pressure equalizers, all tile floor, OE TV in the bedroom etc.
All of the lights seem to work.
It looks to be a great deal @ anything less than 16K. IMHO. Looks better then Mine .
Go for it you can't buy a used pop up camper for that kind of money.
Anyone have any info of club member #7414 that's on that coach? Number looks familiar to me.
Bought the GV XVK, will be the GV XXK with But that was expected thanks to the forum. I think I got what I wanted, no slides, simple cat engine, Immaculate Oshkosh frame, simple systems, rock solid realitivly.. simple coach. Genset is a weak point, front suspension needs a modification. LED lights retrofit will benefit the whole system, along with an with modern roof A/C units that pull less than 14 Amps.
I just went and looked at it and PMed Mike. Body in great shape (but surprise - the decals need help! :) ). Didn't go inside, since the sellers are out of town. Coach is riding on its airbags (which look good), so airbags and 6-packs are at least serviceable, Tires - at least front ones are date code 3309 michelins, and rear ones are mystery Chinese. Some sort of roof repair visible from the ground, but I didn't feel comfortable climbing up without the seller there. A strange vertical engine air intake box on the passenger side.
If Mike is still interested, I'll go back and crawl under to look at the bulkheads.
Now that Dave pointed out the air intake that looks like the Parkers (seems like his name was Bob) old coach, if so they were from Nac. area IIRC. He had that air intake built to help stop dust thrown up by the rear tires from getting into the air intake. We would see them camping all around the East Texas area.
Pamela & Mike
That coach would not have 6 pack manifold on level system. These had 3 simple levers left of drivers seat to raise it lower left center and right.
I did get more data from the seller. He is selling it for his neighbor. It has 230,000 miles, 5194 hours on the engine. Tires 7 years old with good tread. It was last serviced 3 years ago when the current owner purchased it. It is reportedly driven a couple of hours around town every two months. Apparently it was last fueled up three years ago when purchased. Engine is a 3208T Cat. I tried chasing down the 7414 Motorcade number, and the only thing I found was a page from a 1982 motorcade publication mentioning a Bob and Marcielle Parker #7414 at http://wiki.foreforums.com/lib/exe/fetch.php?media=foretravel_general:foretravel_40_year_history.pdf Do motorcade numbers stay with the original issuees forever or do they get reassigned?
I have decided to pass on this one and continue the search. I am really still about a year out from when I have to have my coach in hand. If this one were closer I might consider it, but I really don't feel comfortable trying to drive an apparently fairly dormant coach 1800 miles with limited time and no previous experience. If I had time to flush the fuel system, install new tires, and have the drivetrain and brakes professionally checked over first that would be one thing, but working full time and understaffed at that I am not going to be given sufficient time off to make that happen.
Thanks all for the comments and thoughts.
Mike,
The unique Motorcade Club number remains with the original recipient. If he/she trades coaches, they transfer their number to the new ride.
Sounds like you made a thoughtful decision to pass on this coach. That's fine - everybody has their own time table and prior commitments. It is better to not rush into a deal if it doesn't fit your situation. There will always be more coaches to discover, and eventually you will find the exact right one for you.
Thanks for pointing out that link to the old Motorcade Club publication contained in our very own Wiki! It is a very interesting document. I bet it stirs up a lot of memories for our members who have a long history with the Foretravel brand. I poke around the Forum quite a bit, but I had not yet run across that particular item. Just another example of why this Forum is the BEST source of all types of Foretravel info and knowledge!!
Good luck on your continued hunt for
your coach!
Maybe put a deposit on it contingent to driving to the fuel station ,filling up ,add a biocil , and see how it drives .?
One thought si that as we move through time, these 87-93 GVs will fall into the parts value market and non viable as Coaches. These are by far the most dependable platforms for sub 100K$ . When you start looking in the near future, the oldest viable busses might be the 93-99 with possibly more build quality issues along with complexity.
The old ones are simple and cheap to fix. They have the least financial exposure when you have sub 20K $ in them and the fixes wont ruin you.
The mid 90s coaches are much more complex and eat CB at a a high rate judging from here. And you can't really just junk them due to initial cost. Much higher financial exposure.
Keeping in mind that the data points collected on this forum are problems. Most FT owners just drive around trouble free. When something goes wrong they show up here, as do I .
Maybe we need a forum topic of boring drives in our sweet coaches.
As I have perused these forums since I started looking for a Bus, I found that the Oskkosh/Cat was rock solid and expected to be cheapish to keep. The early "Unis" should be close second and ride/ stop better. IMHO
As far as a retarder or Jake goes, my old 4107 bus without any aux braking provided years of great service. The tranny lockup is also nice but makes less than half a mpg difference.
Pierce
I think something else to look at is realistically how much are you actually going to use it? Are you prepared to take long extended trips where lots of miles are put on. Or do you think shorter trips not so many miles but have a comfortable place to stay for the time you have to be there. I seem to do more hanging out in mine in the backyard than I get to do actually going somewhere. It's fun! C'mon lottery#s ^.^d
With any kind of maintenance, you should be able to mix long trips with the short ones without thinking much about it. Many of our trips are within 50-100 miles but after only an oil change, we drove from California to South Carolina and back without a worry. With the hydraulic hose failure, perhaps I should have thought more about it. :) :) :) Even if only to the local lake or stream, our coaches are fun to just sit and relax in.
No worries about taking the dogs, bed bugs or "resort fees" at bait and switch hotel/motels.
Pierce