I Interview The Owner of GMC Motor Homes, Okeechobee, FL

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and no other ever built start yes man chassis or something they're all filled ride suspension Alexis yeah air ride torsion bars so you get a lot of them in here for repair yes not primarily what you do here yeah mainly we repair up but we also upgrade them and accessories we have we were just last my wheels you see these no the awnings engine step everything autumn this wasn't available from the factory we sell the upgrades and customization anything that makes people happy more modern yeah available once again them safe mechanically that they concerned about what can I do to make it more modern make it more yeah and how did you ever get started in this your interest on my dad I'm a new guy here I've only been 35 years dad started out to MC bomb one okay yeah start using it it was tired dealer he had a shop here in Okeechobee and they blasted who was maintaining and remodeling it in servicing it and he said he did all the sudden he had two customers than those two customers told two other people word of mouth and so how far does your average customer come to have you guys work out a motor on on average probably 2,000 miles really yeah a lot of times we have probably four customers that are within - yeah the rest are two three four five thousand so you get the only got once it's specialized in these in the country that are doing the early MCS shops around the country up to Michigan the guy in California there's another guy in Orlando that basically work on these inclusively okay and what there's a very limited number Jones yeah it's a specialty thing it's a little niche market and something we do to keep these things going if there wasn't shops like us these things will disappear and how is it try to get parts for these things do you have to get them off like we saw some of the the front that looks like you grabbed some windows in the back I've got a boneyard okay body shop for bastard repair like just went out back right now we did damage to the back doors those parts on the bill and again a clean wheel brings brakes shocks wheels tires those things are pretty much still available yeah some of the specialty stuff support frame structure some of the suspension we're down to use enough from a salvage partners you Kangnam its motors it's an ultra built for 55 and out built in 30 years yep so that block where you continuing rebuilding so the rest of the components on these what would GMC be using for like when you look up a park you have to look it up for this unit specifically I buy another GMC truck or some stock 16 to 18 hundred different parts we get nine from general ray lest we get every other supplier we have suppliers that call me make one thing for us okay if stuff made there's people all around the country the support group for these there's people all over the country they do one or two things for the GMC yeah and we stopped it because we have to have the part yeah because of that you can buy about anything you want on this boat or whatever elephants Albanese support down their back three went out of business six years ago they went out of business there's company that cares where's our needs there's groups like guys too devoted TMC owners yeah make sure yeah any idea how many of these are still on the road he estimated about seven thousand okay it's not a lot but they only made 12900 just Dartmouth that's oh that that.oh the introduction was under thirteen thousand and more than half are still run well that's pretty good but no one really high really run together not rolling yeses after forty plus years yeah you take something like a Ford Pinto there's probably a couple hundred left and exists objectively stop forty years already nineteen seventy eight seventy it was last year yeah two different sizes is that right yeah they are all 26 footers there's 23 footer on the left right now in the back nice yellow so that the more popular one was 26 hours most of the production went into 26 I think about less than 10% Speirs they're hard to find I don't have any for sale right now yeah but there's one in the air just one of em to lift this 2300 people like them they're a little more convenient to just a little tight here but this being only 26 foot it's not intimidating anybody for driving yeah good mister they're not going down the road I think bed don't feel like give me a blown around on honey day is there a reason they did the tandem axles instead of the fuel wheels on these does their front-wheel drive there's no driveshaft there's no differentials there's no access they can get the vehicle low the floor is basically at the same height if you have a underneath oh you can spec what you want but in reality they get between a predictable yeah yeah if you do run into some glad to or not keep attracted yeah exactly the gas mileage is our only priority then you price should buy anymore most of the gas is only a part of the obligation of Oh what was the retail of one of these when they were due average they started out in 73 about thirteen thousand twelve nine thirteen thousand and they went up very fast 78 the last year they made in Williston 77 they may have they were up to 38 39 still set at 78 when they were just a continuum they still weren't getting enough money I'm the engineering the development TF would enjoy to set these things up they never never gotten plan to make any money really the price that the tax still wasn't enough now in 78 when they start discontinuing I've seen a couple invoices where people paid over forty forty forty-one thousand because they announced a discontinuation and they waited for the last few production just to get like the last of a series nowadays we see them all prices we sell anywhere from five thousand up to 50 depending on how well they're customized accessorize modernized there's a lot of stuff you can do to him to bring him up into the modern era now somebody did to this one right put a lot of money a lot of time in funny to you guys do the work on this one some of it a lot of it was done by the owner okay for sale and there's a paper in there it said they're called like forty thousand he did yeah it's very difficult to break that right you know it's there has been a time where you could buy a GF back in the 70s we do pop on in 74 Kevin till 77 you can sell it at a profit because the one who bought was cheap three years later he was charged so much you could still get all your money and a lot of people didn't they bottom and they have been three years and realize they put a quarter they've been to their family didn't need it and resold them and they are off for three or four years and get all you money money you're going to new RV dealer today and tell ya if I sell it back for three years you may be able to fight back I'll just laughing everyone to get half of it back half is more likely yeah they tripled the price over six years yeah 13 up to almost 40 can you tow where they rated to tow every one of these just he hasn't really H on it most people tow small talker okay I told Chevy Tracker see smart buyers we see him talk about any smoke and some came with single roof air and some came with double it looks like a lot of them from the factory most of had one but a lot of toured and they're starting to put to the silent coaches almost always have to okay have a second and the big storage popped on the top without an option it is because being a low floor there's okay yeah did you have a minute to shows your services our job well now we were done he show us the service shop facility the shop here where they work on the gmc's and barely you work on other motorhomes - usually friends oh yeah so you really do specialize in these things pretty much like they owned that GM speed four years older we've got more grandkids yeah they got into something bigger bigger yeah but they really like us and when they like yeah way we service the ball though here's yeah we can't tell them no yeah the guys doing some work on this one here that looks like a real nice one looks like a nice lot of custom paint job okay so somebody's gone through this one or you guys have go through this one okay I'm upgraded when done up in um I think Ohio someplace okay but it came back and we had to kind of finish the plumbing and finish okay stuff that they got confused by oh yeah dishwasher yeah that is dishwasher yeah I put a dishwasher in this one wow they really went all out yeah very nice and we put lines in this and and panels mm-hmm then we got this one over and we are doing with me and Carrie are on like it happens here no news pouches or anything but we came in painted it white because it was really really really bad and scratched and you guys painting it white yeah painted a white carrier okay I think you were working on this door panel when I first walked up today to talk to you guys new cabinets new doors okay cabinets original pain today I didn't want to spend a lot of money push it to freshen up a little bit yeah give it a little facelift and get the - all tore apart up there yeah because he's gonna replace it with that oh okay oh wow all new instruments never making upgrades to these things okay okay so you can still go out and buy something like it um pretty something like that yeah we haven't done that I don't know if you I know the history of them at all but new instrument panel around they made 13,000 of them there's still about 8,000 still left on the road today ya know if you know that's what Jeff was telling us and they're easy to work on got a newer refrigerator yeah that's brand new yeah spent some money on one of those those guys refrigerators are not cheap like 18 1980 about so they made these for a while was it six years they made them from three 73 to 78 and they made different models that looks like I know they made two different lengths I think two different lengths 23 foot which was really not a lot of those I saw you have that one on the lift out here in 26 foot okay but the 26 what was the more popular yes and they probably made more motorhomes in 70s six than than any other time okay but that was a good year but they had different models we saw Palm Beach yeah and that depends on what they were gonna have it in per options like a car yeah fine and they had a desert one and and they had all to all kinds of Sequoia Oh a little Indian or Navajo lookers yeah yeah not but basically today kind of the way I was gonna redecorate it on the inside who really there's really not a lot of them original original yeah people paint oh yeah you know like this was a probably loved seeing one that's all original I mean it's like just like a car that's original you know well that's that Palm Beach out there okay then the one out in New York yeah it's fully original okay that's a resume yeah we haven't seen that one yet I don't had been over that way yet okay yeah that one is original original a lot of these are painted wood chopped interior yep hey yeah Wow look at all these parts yeah so some stuff you probably have to make custom I would think yeah because he just can't get apart or whatever you end up having to make it or yeah pretty much somebody has made a part okay so you can get a hold of it somewhere he set up our he has a lot of parts made other GMC applied California you know they all kind of like bike parts and then you kind of share them alike so you can keep extra cams and engines awesome here we have one made all the time you do yeah that's a big-block 455 455 but in 1977 they stopped making the 455 I'll take every Bell row three okay so so they're all rebuilt ones if you put one in that while the other are evil yeah we can't even yeah durable torque okay yeah interesting and this is glass we probably have the windshields are huge in any sakes daily life the most original or the most pieces of blessed and any other any other yeah Jeff was saying there's a few places around the country that do work on these right yeah but you said your customers come from hundreds of miles under Televi come from thousands of miles away Alaska yeah okay yeah it's all the way to Southern Florida Alberta I mean you know yeah they just go on and on yeah Center some of the California people come out here yeah Kansas mm-hmm well you get a name and then people drive because they want a good job right it's almost 35 years Jeff dad started this yeah - Dee was telling us yeah so was he Alex I saw the name on the uniform yeah he was out okay so pretty much shot yeah so what do you got over this way he just got more motor homes over that way you got a little camping area for your customers of its own the GMC just come in okay so a box so you take care of the owners yeah oh that's the Palm Beach you were saying there that's all original yeah it looks to be in really good shape I like these old retro colors like that the greens okay here's an original yeah look at the shape this one's original but the curtains okay okay yeah pretty much we were in another one over here that I think had to pretty much the same colors going on yeah but look at the shape this one's in the original car you even got the original shag carpet with the this about forty or protective plastic on it so original counters look at that ceiling yeah well they're seen them basically had a padding on it and the padding is off if you look up upper front that's the patty and it had foam underneath it having the foam deteriorates okay two years so we normally take them all down take all the cabinets and put a new board up and we use boat liner it's nice durable oh guy he stuffs yeah so why would this one be here you guys are doing some work on them but I bought it Norway and he had a tote here Nevada yeah he did an assessment and we're gonna work on it okay who come in March and pick it up I was wondering what was here in Norway see a lot of them put the flat screen TVs in this area now yeah so they didn't ever have TVs in him it looks like yeah I think they did but it was an afterthought yeah yeah base a lot easier now to get a flat screen inside there this is a beautiful condition I wish I had that of that video that I can have you looked at when actually made them it was called a promo video okay and it brought you and there was always a pretty woman coming up popping in yeah putting the key in driving off yeah okay they wanted to make it that a woman could drive this oh yeah like I'm sure minivan yeah okay basically so you know and they had them in the video they have suspension wised yeah Winnebago that was was driving over around we wrote eyes all he does yeah and GMC just went so smoothly yeah of the airbags yeah I'm in the French I didn't realize I had the airbags until today so is that what this electro level system is up here yeah okay okay just when they came out with the electrical basically the ones before that or ear valves enjoy the video like right it'd be amazing to see [Music]

Channel: Happy Wanderers

Views: 39,118

Keywords: Alex Sirum, GMC Motor Homes, GMC Motorhome, Okeechobee, FL, fulltime rv, front wheel drive motor home, workampers, Middle aged Travelers, GMC Campers, RV Repair shop

Id: ShOlI0qNeVc

Length: 24min 6sec (1446 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 28 2018