musselmanphotos

Being younger (mid 30's) my wife and I have purchased our 38' Overland diesel pusher. We are hoping to be able to do some traveling and making new dreams come true. Therfore we named ours "Dream Maker". We are getting ready to paint it in full body paint in dark blue across the back and use a star motif and make constellations of our 3 blue heeler (fur babies) in the paint. The entry door will use a little line from Chase Rice's song "Ready, Set, Let's Roll" We are hoping to get out in a couple of weeks to hit a weekend campsite. Spring work will be kicking in fairly quickly and I don't know when we will get to hit some campgrounds. We are trying to plan for Glamara. Take care. J

Not sure how your set up is and how accessible your tanks are but I would look at installing tank mat heaters that run off your 12v system. Install the mats and then insulate around them. For your water lines, once again accessability, I would use the pipe wrap insulation that you can pick up from any box hardware store. If you you were real worried you could always wrap them first in heat tape (like they do for mobile homes) around your lines, they are usually powered by 110V. That would alleviate leaving a "space heater" on while you are not in it. As far as heating inside, my choice would be the box style infared heaters (look like a little fireplace). They may take up a little bit of room, I think they are like 14" square box, but they heat the crap out of 35' FW with slides. One of our co-workers uses it in hers and our temps are getting down to 0's as the low here lately. My 2 pennies. Jake Musselman

Just noticed that the last part of my response was cut off. Don't know what happened. But yes we are members of FMCA, signed up the night I bought the coach. Not part of any chapters yet because not sure how soon we will be on the road. Still discussing moving into it full time. We can live on property at my work for free and we have a dump station so that is the main motivator for me to want to go to full time. With the savings we can become debt free and then be able to travel in a short period. But we shall see. Hope to hit a couple of gatherings nearby.

Thanks for the welcome folks. Yes being a tech helps a lot. Just today after work I wrenched on the Honda EV6020 genny. It had gas in the oil. Figured it was the carb's float and needle messing up. Took carb off to find it in really good shape, drained oil and changed filter, took a closer look and found the carb vent tube completely blocked. I opened that up, put the carb back on, fresh gas in the tank since it was essentially empty, and it fired right up and runs like a champ. As far as upgrades goes it will be a little bit at a time. First will be the replacement of the carpet in the bathroom and living room, and the ceramic tile in the kitchen area. Just put new front steers on Thursday. The 3208 is a turbo model, and needs 2 immediate things. 1) New belts 2) Exhaust manifold gasket needs replaced. Fortunately I'm also an old farmboy and used to working

My wife and I live in Indianapolis and are in our 30's. One of my dreams have always been to own a diesel pusher for us to travel in, little did I realize that time would be sooner than later. I work as an RV tech at a dealership on the eastside of Indy and 2 weeks ago a customer traded in a well taken care of 1990 Mallard Overland with a 3208 Cat and Allison auto. For 24 years old it is in really good shape just needs a little updating, slight tlc, and new paint. By working there I got a pretty good deal on it, although I was dealing with a hesitant wife, I bought it. We currently rent a house near downtown and we are now thinking of purging unnecessaries and moving to living in the coach full time for a year to save for some land in the country, although we are still in the talking/analysis phase. Hoping we can meet up at some of the rallies around Indiana and the tri-state area. Named it Dream Maker.