Other Travellers Rigs

Gail and Marks Cruiser is a 1977 GMC motorhome. GMC's are purpose built motorhomes produced in the seventies in the USA. There were 12000 built with still around 8000 on the road around the world. There are approx 12 here in Australia with ours the only one of two we know of currently registered and running on the road. The drive train contains a 455 Oldsmobile, 425 3 speed automatic and is front wheel drive. With no drive shaft to the rear this allows the body to sit quite low and aerodynamic. The aerodynamics were designed in the Boeing wind tunnel with aluminium frame, aluminium skin on the top half and SMC fibreglass panels on the lower half making it very lightweight for its size. The motorhome comes with large windows that open to allow for great cross ventilation and great visibility all around The front suspension is double lay arm with torsion bars and the rear suspension consists of leading and trailing boogies supported by an air bag. Air bags can also be used for levelling when parking and camping. It is not dual wheel which saves on intrusion of wheel arches into the living area. The GMC was imported into Australia in 1990 and converted to right hand drive by a previous owner. Whilst it was a motorhome when we purchased it the vehicle has since had a complete rebuild inside from windscreen to back window including removing the dash and replacing all electrical wiring throughout Whilst most comfortable for 2 it was built for 4 as we had teenagers when we built it. The lounge in the front converts to bunk beds and the two forward facing dining seats are car seats with seat belts. Water capacity is about 350 lites, grey water 80 litres, and 200 litres of fuel. Most interior panelling is made from lightweight plastic called Celuka. This is a very easy product to work with We A-frame a Mazda 323 when we have the need to a 2nd vehicle As with most motorhomes it is never finished

Our GMC is fully self contained with 4 x 125 watt (500 watt total) solar panels, a 1500 watt inverter/charger, 40 amp regulator and 4 x 6 volt batteries giving us 215 amp hours of stored power. This power system runs our 190 litre 12 volt fridge, a 40 litre Engel chest fridge, water pump, all LED lighting, stereo, TV, DVD, charging of laptops and phones etc and through the inverter microwave and any other 240 volt appliances (including our electric blanket for the cold winter nights). The only thing we can not power from this system is our roof top air conditioner. When plugged into mains the battery charger turns on automatically, the fridge runs on 24 volt through a transformer. Hot water is a combination of 240 volt/gas so runs on 240 volt when plugged in to mains. We have never found the need for a generator.

Gail & Mark - Working Hard at Home

Mark is a house dad and has been for 21 years. This gives him time to build motorhomes so we can travel as often as Gail's full time job allows. Mark is very hands on with all aspects of the motorhome building 3 motorhomes now and working on many others. All skills are covered except woodworking. Mark is also the technical expertise for our website motorhominglifestyle.com Gail is a full time theatre nurse and creator and driving force behind motorhominglifestyle.com and Nomads Notes travel diary software. My passion is motorhoming We have travelled Australia extensively in our various motorhomes over the past 30 years and travelled full time for 12 months with our primary school aged children in 1999

Our website - www.nomadsnotes.com and www.motorhominglifestyle.com