1975 FMC Motorcoach

Coach Information:

We bought this motorhome in summer of 1999, to take to Alaska and Northwest Canada. We had thought about renting a motorhome, but the cost to rent one for 6 or 8 weeks, extra mileage and the drop charge at Anchorage (plus airfare home), was at least 2/3 what we spent for this FMC. When we started shopping, we were only interested in FMC and GMC - both motorhomes from the 1970s. Eventually we settled on the FMC, partly because of potential traction problems with the front-wheel-drive GMC in slippery uphill situations. FMC's Motor Coach Division built some 1252 vehicles between 1972 and 1976. Approximately 135 of these were Transits, and there were a like number of shuttle buses built on motorhome chasses as well. The FMC used a proprietary chassis with very compact fully independent suspension. Front: upper and lower control arms with a transverse leaf spring. Rear: trailing arms on torsion bars (much like a VW Super Beetle rear suspension - suitably beefed up). Having the engine in the rear allowed the floor to be very low, with a correspondingly low center of gravity. That, plus having the wheels even with the outside edges of the body makes for very stable handling. The FMC 2900R Motor Coach employed the Marine-Industrial version of the Chrysler 440 Wedge. Mated to a Chrylser Torqueflite 3-speed automatic transmission, the engine was mounted into the passenger side corner of the engine compartment at an angle. The driver's side corner was balanced by a 6.5 kW Onan generator. A short, carefully phased driveshaft connected the transmission output to the frame-mounted Rockwell differential. Two more short u-jointed shafts took the drive out to the wheels.
Note: Excellent web site for this coach here! Has high res pictures and more information.

Pictures: