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Goodness, gracious 3bals RV a-fire!

Ok, here's the deal. I still have access to the P-400 powered motorhome. It is sitting in the insurance yard in Des Moines, IA. They want it gone. I tried to find someplace in the area to remove the engine/tranny and such. No luck! Either they didn't respond to my request or the wanted too much $$. So now I'm looking for some place local to do the work if I have it towed here. Or If somebody on here would like it, you can have someplace to tow and do the work, let me know. I'll need to know by Monday 12/20/21, so I can let the insurance company know.
 
Jody and myself have been working on this for a few weeks now, my son inlaw is 200 miles away from where it's sitting. Jody & me agreed on details, last week I talked to 4 different tow company's, I did not have details on the camper size etc, nor exact location, so they gave me a rough cost to tow it 200 miles, 1500-2000$... fast forward a week, I get the details on the motor home and address where it's sitting, call the same 4 tow company's ready to do the deal to the lowest, I get a much different cost from all 4, 3500-4000$, they said IA laws they needed a permit, and also to cross into Ill they would also need another permit, and if the tires need air that's more, LOL... 350-400$ per hour is roughly what the tow was going to be... so I just couldn't justify the towing and Jody's money..

I'm happy Jody could be able to keep the motor and other items, I really would not want to think about that stuff winding up in a scrap yard, I hope Jody can get things worked out ...
 
Maybe the insurance company can "tow it", or help with the cost, one last time to get it gone. When we smacked the elk the ins co. had the pickup towed to the shop I borrowed as part of the final buyout and settlement.
 
I fully intended to take it and remove the items Jody wanted and figure out how to get them to him, but the ending cost was prohibitive for me..

The son inlaw works on a big farm and was going to park it till we go out there in the spring... oh well...

I think the tow company's were looking for a early Christmas...
 
Why not just cut the front of the P-30 chassis open and pull the motor from the front, at the towing yard, @Twisted Steel Performance , instead of hauling the dead hulk anywhere. Who cares if you destroy the front end of a burned out motorhome, you no longer have to put it on a lift or over a pit to drop the motor/tranny from underneath. Sawzall, bunch of blades and the nose is more than open enough to reach in with a cherry picker and pull the motor out. Hell, all the glass is already gone, just cut through the aluminum siding and a couple of light steel cross pieces and you're there.
 
That sucks all the way around, @Twisted Steel Performance. If I had the money to buy the motor and tranny from Jody and a pickup truck to haul the motor and tranny in, I'd have loaded up my cherry picker, cutting torch, a couple of 20lb fire extinguishers and my cordless DeWalt reciprocating saw and a bunch of blades, couple of spare battery packs and the car charger for them and drove over to either the yard in Atlantic, IA where it was originally or to Des Moines, as that's still only 3 hrs away. Unfortunately, I have neither the dinero nor a haul vehicle to do it with. Going to be a damn shame to see a well built P400 go to the crusher.
 
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I know that day I went over to Atlantic, IA to help Jody salvage what we could from it, the towing yard didn't seem to mind our being there, just as long as we were gone by 5pm so they could lock the yard gate.
 
I expect once you buy it for the engine: you own it and need to dispose of the entire thing after you get the engine. Thus the insurance company may be willing to drop it off wherever you want it to get it off their books and storage expenses.
 
WarWagon said:
Curious what the quotes were to remove the powertrain?
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The only place that responded to me wanted to know what my budget was. I told them less than $1000. They said that would be only 7 hrs shop time and they thought that wouldn't be enough time. They really must be slow workers.

I think I might have found a local place to do the work. I'll know more tomorrow. I also have a quote from a local towing company for a reasonable price.
 
WarWagon said:
I expect once you buy it for the engine: you own it and need to dispose of the entire thing after you get the engine. Thus the insurance company may be willing to drop it off wherever you want it to get it off their books and storage expenses.
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Definitely depends on storage fees. When our car got wrecked, the storage fees were something like $300 a day. Does AAA cover motorhomes?
 
Make sure the tow company knows it is NOT a duramax, along with anyone that might get it after the tow company if you can’t make it happen in time.
they think duramax and they might want it to gut it. You tell them it is the old style 6.5 diesel- but you want it back still, and they might be willing to work more with getting rid of it.
200 people in the world like the 6.5, and we are 100 of them. 75 more are Hummer owners not on this forum, and the rest sell new duramax trucks.

I have done the “gut an rv for the engine”. Getting rid of the body and frame can be a nightmare. Renting a roll off dumpster and using a come along to get it in there is highly recommended if you don’t have a reach lift. The scrap metal value is not worth the effort of separation. You - and they- have to plan dismantling.

There is a couple small companies here that do it with trailers. The insurance company has to pay them to take it. They usually yank engine, trans, axles for scrap. Then use a big front end loader to smash the rest and load into a roll off. Talking to the guy that owned one here- it barely makes profit- he just already had the land by a tow yard and the loader. Most tow companies just do it with a junkyard already set up for it. Might be the cheapest way to get it is from the dismantling company.
 
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Will L. said:
Make sure the tow company knows it is NOT a duramax.
they think duramax and they might want it to gut it. You tell them it is the old style 6.5 diesel- but you want it back still, and they might be willing to work more with getting rid of it.
200 people in the world like the 6.5, and we are 100 of them. 75 more are Hummer owners not on this forum, and the rest sell new duramax trucks.
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And there are a lot of people out there that think 6.5s are Duramaxs bevause they are GM diesels. I've seen GMT400s advertised as such several times.
 
jrsavoie said:
Definitely depends on storage fees. When our car got wrecked, the storage fees were something like $300 a day. Does AAA cover motorhomes?
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Well my AAA does cover rvs but not like they used to. I've had it towed several times up to 200 miles for nothing, but now they changed the rules. Max $500 for a tow. I think the storage yard is owned by the insurance company, so storage fees are an issue
 
@3bals, is there a U-Pull-It type of salvage yard in Des Moines? If so sell the hulk to them, they'll tow it to their yard. Then pull the motor and tranny from it after it gets there. The one here in Lincoln charges $300 for a complete diesel engine and $100 for a RWD transmission. Sounds like it could be a break-even proposition and they'd still make money off the tires, rims, rear axle, etc.

Plus, the U-Pull-It yard doesn't give a crap if you cut the nose open to pull the motor/tranny AND they'll have an A-frame on truck tires with a hoist on it to roll around the yard for pulling motors and transporting to the gate where you can set it into your pickup/onto your trailer. After the hulk's been there a couple of months, they'll just crush it.
 
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