Beast

Beast

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Beast has Arrived

 After a 700 mile flight and a 780 mile drive, the Beast is here.

Introducing a 2002 Revcon Trailblazer Diesel 4x4 RV!  Practically new at 21,000 miles.


 And a perspective shot, next to my 20 foot long Avalanche, think I waited a bit too late in the day to take the pictures, will post new ones soon.

   
This is one of the Rarest of RV's, one that I've been trying to find for a few months now.  I had all but given up on finding this model of Revcon when a bit of persistence paid off.  This Beast gets what I'm told is @15mpg, I was too tired with learning to drive it and staying awake to pay much attention to the mpg, so I will test it out over the coming weeks. To top off the rare factor of a Revcon 4x4, it's even rarer to find a Diesel one.  It may be a true one-of-a-kind.

So Monday night I flew out to Illinois and after checking out the Beast in person, I plopped down the cash and signed the title, added it to my insurance and hit the road.  The seller was nice enough to give me a Tom-Tom GPS, which I quickly found to be next to useless except for showing my MPH.  I turned to my Iphone 4 Google Maps, and used it all the way home with nice clear cut directions and following my little blue dot. About 220 miles into my trip I pulled into a gas station to fill-er-up, as the reserve tank was empty (was empty to start) and the main tank was at a quarter full.  56 gallons of Diesel later I was back on the road (Swiping my credit card 3 times in the process, $206 dollars or so).  Around the 330 mile mark I was out of gas, so I pulled into a Rest Area and parked behind a Class A Motor home.  I gotta say, the Revcon was about the same Length, but it sure looked a hell of a lot cooler than the rectangle unit.

 I had a nice nights rest at the Welcome to Missouri Rest Area (which by the way is one of the cleanest I've seen) in the King Size bed that is over the cab.  After a delicious dinner of 2 Deli-fresh (uh huh) sandwiches from the gas station mentioned above, I fell asleep a bit after midnight to the peaceful sound of the 18 Wheeler diesel engines about 30 feet away ticking away the night.  Or at least I finally passed out after about 2 hours of listening to that sound anyhow.

 Got up around 6:20am. Treated myself to a delicious hot black coffee from the vending machine at the rest area, grabbed a bottle of colored/flavored water(Power-aid or something) and hit the road.  Saw a few cool sights along the way, but with near 500 miles to cover Tuesday, I didn't stop to admire them.  The St. Louis Arch was pretty cool, I went right by it on I-44 on the worlds crappiest paved bridge in the world.  The pictures and TV don't do it justice, it was HUGE.  So I will do it justice by not showing you the pictures I didn't take of it as I bounced by(again, horribly paved road, I imagine just to make it impossible to take a picture as you drive past.)

 I believe I finally pulled into Plano a bit after 2pm.  My Odometer was only showing around 730 miles covered but I did discover something was up with the Speedometer as I drove.  When it was showing 65mph, GPS was showing 70.  So, that's about 7.5% difference or so. Meaning I had covered the 780 miles or so in which the directions showed, my odometer is just a little off because of the variance.  I guess the monster tires never got synced to the speedometer correctly.  65mph on the speedometer was really the top cruising speed for it anyhow.

 Today I spent a good portion of my day getting it inspected, the title swapped over, and giving it a quick bath.  Cool fact about the Texas State Inspection for a Diesel: it was only 15 bucks instead of the 40 for a gas powered vehicle.  Apparently they don't have to use their emissions equipment on Diesels.  The guy who did the inspection had never seen one like it, to which I told him he never would except mine every year when he re-inspects it.  It definitely gets attention.  Even the mailman stopped my wife to ask her about it.

 For such a big rig, all 32 feet of it, it actually handles pretty much like a large truck.  Has a handy video camera on the back so I can see everything behind in a 180 degree field of view for a good 20 yards or so.  I got put through the ringer on the drive as I went thru at least 50 different construction areas with narrow lanes, single lanes filled with cones, no shoulders, and the concrete barriers and I didn't bump a single one.  And there were some serious hills to climb as well.  The Chinook will beat it in a race any day of the week, but for the slow and steady race, the Revcon wins.  Plus it holds about double the fuel and gets better mileage(in theory)

 Next on the list of to-do's is to go thru it and take inventory (the guy left everything in it, pots, pans, the works).  Also the marine deep cycle battery needs to be replaced, it holds a charge for about 30 minutes with barely anything drawing on it.  Gonna have to beg my electrician neighbor to work thru it as well, I believe it has some minor electrical issues going on that are constantly draining power.  It apparently doesn't have the feature that the Chinook has that protects the main engine batteries from getting draining by the Cabin area, so something else to look into.  Already had a boneheaded moment last night when I tried to crank it up about 5 hours after I arrived to find the main batteries drained.  I may have left something on that drained it, or it could be a mysterious power drain.  Either way it spent last night on a trickle charger and so far today has been fine, though I did turn off the main cabin breakers and the master kill switch.

I'll go thru the features of it over the coming days, some will surprise ya!


 

17 comments:

  1. That is the baddest-ass RV I've ever seen! Looks like something out of an action film! Can't wait to see the interior...

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    1. We need to clean up a bit and I think I need some personalization in there... it's is pretty macho, and me and the hairier part of the crew are a bit more demanding. :D Will post pictures more hopefully soon. Stay tuned ;o)

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  2. The adventure has really begun! Congrats on this one-of-a-kind find. Hope you can get the battery issue figured out. Can't wait for more photos.

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  3. Wow...You're going to have amazing adventures. So smart to keep a diary/blog that we can share with you. Congrats, too on a safe trip back to Plano.

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  4. I own a 94 revcon trailblazer, drove it from san diego up the AL-CAN hwy and all the way to Sitka Alaska and back. lived in it in alaska for 3 years. Other RV's were sinking into the mud on both sides of the AL-CAN but the revcon never slowed. also drove it down a muddy trail to a riverside in washington, the same one three jeeps had to be towed out of just hours before, everyone told me I was never getting it out. I floored it and was just tearin mud, but 18,000 lbs eventually ripped into the dry clay and pushed me up the hill... final score jeeps -2 revcon +1. The campground dwellers were cheering and throwing beer cans in the air... I love my trailblazer because all that welded aircraft aluminum does what it's supposed to do.. it goes off road and doesn't break. Total bad ass vehicle... enjoy fellow revconeer...

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    1. That's awesome to hear, you are the first fellow Revcon Trailblazer owner we've heard of(other than the previous owner of mine). We're still breaking ours in when we can and slowly making improvements to it. Would love to hear more about your travels.

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    2. I am really happy to hear your story, are there any changes you have made into it? I was thinking of it being way too luxurious first, too much room for bathroom, toilet and laundry, but it feels kinda nice to be able to take a shower without having to patch up your elbows afterwards. We are thinking of few changes just to accomodate our 3 dogs easier, and hopefully also make a bit more available counter space (as needed basis).

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  5. I'd be very surprised at 15mpg. More like 8 with our 1994 7.0L turbo diesel. Love the attention ours gets at the campground. Cork flooring is going down this year. Kids and grandkids keep dumping too much stuff on the carpet. We live in Michigan and bought ours in Texas. Never drove anything that big before the kids and I brought it back from Texas. Enjoy it, it's an oddity.

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    1. It definitely is, can't even fill up a tank at the gas station without a big crowd surrounding and asking questions.
      The mileage is definitely still at this point a guess, but after driving with it quite a distance, we should have had both tanks emptied to go to 8mpg, instead the other one was still full. We still haven't had a chance to really put it into use and this all of course was with fairly empty RV. No saying yet how much will it drop from our estimate once we load it full.

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  6. Nice purchase. I just sold an awesome Airstream b190 , 4x4 diesel on ebay. We wanted to try something bigger. Purchased a revcon trailblazer. She is a beast. I habe a 30foot snowmobile trailer, and we are able to camp overnight in the high Uinta mountains in Utah, at temps well below 0, and there is no problem. Also, it does really well off road, for what it is. We also desert race dirt bikes which requires some off road manuvering, we go where only the trucks without trailers go, but we have a 32 foot revcon and 20 foot trailer.
    Only grip is the layout, not near as good as the airstream, and I also truly understand why deisels are better than gas, so we plan on a cummins install within the year.
    Awesome blog and happy trails

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    1. Joe,
      Where did you find your revcon trailblazer. I saw one of these about 3 years ago locally, but didn't jump on it since I didn't know the rarity or how perfect of a Utah vehicle it is. I'm interested to hear from others about where to find these vehicles for sale.
      Kids + snow + Utah park/mountains = Revcon

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    2. I've only seen one other for sale in the last couple years, but it was the older 1994 model and it was on Ebay. Heres that link, http://www.ebay.com/itm/REVCON-TRAILBLAZER-6x4-Expedition-RV-motorhome-for-those-with-free-spirits-/221274948446?ssPageName=ADME:B:WNA:US:3160 I haven't seen any of the few they made in 2002-04 up for sale except when I bought ours. We would consider possibly consider selling ours if the price was right.

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  7. I had no idea Airstream had a 4x4 diesel. I would wanted to have seen that.
    Good news for us, since we have been really torn between towing a little trailer, hauling a car or just going as it is. We thought that a trailer would significantly limit us. Nice to hear that is not the case.
    I agree on the layout of the Revcon. I think the extended cab is not necessary (at least in our case, there will be only 2 of us plus a hoard of dogs) and will take away from the storage. The bunk bed is not ideal for us either, but we always have some plans to make it a bit better, but the major floor plan changes are not so easy to do on the go and right now our focus is on our house.
    Glad to hear from yet another Revconeer. Please do update us on occasion of your experiences with the beast.

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  8. Hello,
    The first time we saw a Revcon Trailblazer it was on a French 4X4 magasine in 1994.
    At this moment the retails price was 70000us$.
    And just gazoline engined ! For French people it is a very curious choice.
    Finaly we make another choice , more classic European "motor home".
    But we still interrested by this model, some time we found gazoline one for sale.
    But unfortunatly never one with diesel engine .
    If some one heard of one model for sale you can let a message on our blog.:
    http://long-cours.62.over-blog.com/article-passagemaker-cherchez-l-erreur-77177400.html.
    One like this one with small milleage and diesel will be perfect (except for the color , my wife prefer the whote one...for the sun !)
    Thanks for share your experience with your Revcon
    Best regards and sorry for our poor English

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    1. I agree with the color being not ideal in the sun... especially here in Texas it can get really hot but the only time we have wished it was not black was in really hot sun light here in Texas. We have been toying with some ideas of perhaps painting it or doing some vinyl wrapping, but so far the beast remains black. :)

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  9. Are the water tanks heated or how do you deal with fluids at below freezing temps? Are the tanks all on board then?

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    1. The main water tank is onboard, under the back couch. I believe the other tanks are heated, though I am not sure, its something I still need to figure out. I don't really plan to drive in sub freezing temps much anyhow.

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