Paul, I'm planning a trip to NCR and Show Hauler in june any sugestions? I'm trying to convince the wife so hope a tour of the plants will help. Thanks Nickhin@aol.com

Regarding onezman's question on the 12 speed, I chose the ZF Meritor Freedom 12 speed because it's the only fully automated manual transmission available. I believe the others have clutch pedals which are not fully automatic. What 10 speed are you refering to? I'm not familiar with a fully automated 10 speed, and I didn't want the Allison automatic.

The nice thing about the Meritor is that it "knows" when it has a light load and will take off in 4th or 5th gear, automatically skip to 8th or 9th and then go to 12th. I believe it also has a two speed reverse. You can let it do all the work for you or you can manually shift by just flicking the paddle.

I agree that it will be very rare when you need all 12 gears, however when I'm towing a 20,000 pound stacker it will probably use a few more gears.

Also, it's very inexpensive when compared to an Allison slushbox.

I ordered a day cab Freightliner because NRC is geared up to do the conversion on that configuration. Also, I think the day cab is significantly less expensive than the sleeper.

nickhin,

I also visited both Show Hauler and NRC. Both do an excellent job of showing there build process, etc. My friend also took his wife to NRC and she was very impressed. My only suggestion would be to time your visit when they have some almost completed conversions, so she can see the end result of quality and workmanship.

Paul,

I am just not up to speed (pun)on the latest automatic transmissions. I just assummed, (never do that) that if 12 speeds autos were availiable, surely 10 speed autos were also availiable. Then I assummed again that you selected the 12 over the 10 for some specific reason. Those darn assumptions rarely result in correct answers do they...

Standard tractor transmissions generally include 9, 10, 13, 15 and 18 speeds. I guess Meritor decided a 12 speed was needed. Volvo makes their own 14 speed available. I don't know why.

If I were planning your type of conversion, I think I would begin with a day cab too. I don't know if Warpath wishes he had started with a day cab. He may have gained some space and aerodynamic advantages.

onezman

https://onezman.tripod.com/whitehotrvhauler

I'm purposely going w/ a condo sleeper to obtain a full stand up pass through and IMO a better looking, more aerodynamic coach. The bunks on some conversions are usable, but most not...for sleeping anyway. The less my rig looks like a U-Haul truck the better. On Showhaulers site in the gallery, under garage coaches there are several condo conversions.

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Patrick:
. On Showhaulers site in the gallery, under garage coaches there are several condo conversions.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I found only the red Century under garage coaches as a condo conversion. Where are the rest?

Oops, my bad. I should have said several pics of a condo conversion. My Century is at the chassis stretcher right now. There are a few more pics of a C120 condo conv. on Becks Marines site...painted white.

There were also a number of pix of a Peterbuilt and a Volvo 610 with a condo on showhaulers site. I'll see if I can find the exact linnks but they are in the gallery somewhere.


Sean P. Clarke
WERA Motorcycle Roadracing

I am talking soon to NRC I am looking for the most economical setup.Price will have allot to do with what I get.Any advice would be well appreciated.Thanks William

William, are you having a rig custom built from scratch? Doesn't seem to be the most frugal way to go? You can find lots of used rigs for pennies on the dollar. As for building, I too believe NRC is a great builder. Did you check into Hawk Engineering too? Similar construction types I think.