Closing in on almost 70k on my 39c.
Maybe can shed some light for you if still interested. We use ours to carry a Harley FXDX, a Polaris RZR, my dirt bike and some miscellaneous stuff inc. a kayak at the same time, towing a 4 door Wrangler. The chassis is great, slow but great. When I was shopping for this type of RV I looked at the Senecas and others with the GMC 5500 chassis. I test drove one in Vegas and saw my wife bouncing as the slide flexed while she was sitting in the couch! OUch!. Too flimsy. We went with the 750 based RV.
Known problems/issues:
-Unit really should have been rhino lined or linex'd in back. We had a leak where rain would enter and pool near the liftgate just past the seal for the rolldown door. Water got into the wood flooring and will be an expensive fix.
-Unit comes with one house battery. You will want to add more.
-Slide rattles hard to fix.
-our passenger side wall needed bolts added to hold it firmer to the chassis. I've heard other manufacturers have this issue so it is not Funmover specific.
-Bathroom small but usable.
Over all we beat the******out of ours but it still does what it was designed for. It's not as comfy as a class a but doesn't need to be. It's easy enough to load and take out for a couple of days or a month.
We've really started hitting the Interwebs looking for the right Fun Mover for us for this season.
(Side Note: Shameless plug: I own www.biofuelstechnologies.com, and have full plans on converting the Cat engine to run on waste vegetable oil... should be a fun project...)
2004 Thor Fun Mover 39C
2007 WW FS2500 Superlite
2002 Ford Excursion, 7.3 PSD --> Converted to WVO!
2003 Dodge 3500 5.9 Cummins --> Converted to WVO!
2002 Human Son
1974 Human Wife
1996 Honda XR600
1998 Honda XR100
good luck with your search. i would agree with others in that i would not expect a better build quality because it's on a larger chassis. sadly they are built like crap, like just about every other RV on the market. if you want quality, i would look for a custom toterhome like rig built on a volvo or international cab. the build quality on those is definitely a step up.
i have a 2001 35c with the cummins motor on an F650. i would not rule out the f650 if you find one. i have heard mixed reviews of the cat motor from both the internet and first hand from f650/f750 owners and i've heard nothing but good things about that cummins motor. met two people in my travels who have put over 300k and 500k on that motor/chassis in service vehicles.
that said the f750's with air brakes are nice, we almost bought the 39c and i did like it. we are nearly at our weight limit of 26k lbs in our f650, but we full time in it and have a -lot- of stuff with us. still, i got my rig for 50k two years ago which is a pretty decent deal compared to the asking price of some of the newer rigs. so if money is a consideration then definitely look for an f650 as well.
i don't know how the newer ones are but one downside is that it definitely has a truck like ride. pretty harsh and unforgiving. i even replaced my front shocks and it didn't help much. on bumpy roads i have to run the air ride seats at max pressure to keep from going into a crazy pogo. i'm thinking of modding the seats with adjustable shocks from a mountain bike. i find the cab to be pretty loud as well, but i dunno maybe the cat is quieter.
the only real mechanical problem i have is the trans on mine is a sassy b***h. i have the older allison 5 speed on the tree instead of the push-button and if i leave it in D and go up any hills it will get stuck in a gear until i pull over and restart the rig. if i just downshift to 4th it never happens, so i don't use D unless i'm cruising on the freeway. also my ecu has some weird bug in it as well and every now and then when i take off it thinks i'm going like 2x the speed i'm going then the speed limiter kicks in when i get to like 45mph and the speedo is reading 90mph. with this i have to restart the rig and then it works fine. very annoying and no one has a clue as what the problem is.
overall though it's a good rig. the older ones like mine with the OEM chrome bumper have great clearance and approach angles. they can definitely handle rough roads better than some low riding class A.
Looks like you got the same unit I have I'd be interested in getting together sometime, to compare the units...see how they're each holding up, etc. Christmas time would be convenient for me, as I drive my family up to Couer D'Alene every year to see the in-laws.
I'd really like to see pics of the unit!
Mike
2004 Four Winds Fun Mover 39C (39' including 14' toy hauler garage)
Cat 3126E 300hp Allison MD3066P Pics of the FunMover
I would be happy to meet with you and compare units. I'll apologize in advance for having more questions for you than you do for me. From my perspective, I'm still learning about the units "personality". I'll PM you my contact details...
We've put about 1600 miles on it so far... and so far I'm in agreement with much of what has been posted from others. Solid engine. Solid ride.
Fuel Mileage: If I keep the tachometer at around 2100-2200 rpm, I get about 8mpg.
Anyone have any details about "how much weight you've put in the garage area and how much the handling was affected?"
I just took delivery of a Kelderman air-suspension for the back axle. Putting that in here in the next few days...
... and I've been pouring over the details on the engine and designing the fuel paths to convert it to run on WVO. Should be fun.
Had 2005 39c with 750 Ford with C7 cat buy 2006 or later with air bags on rear. Otherwise it's like driving a haul, pretty rough. Noise is loud in cab but not bad
. C7 is a good engine with plenty of power. One battery is not good, water is limited for dry camping, bathroom is small. Allison 4000 was good but with this size unit it really needed engine break. Levelers on this unit would also have been nice. Lift gate works well but keep it oiled because if it hangs up it can be a mess... Know this from experience. Quality of unit is okay, item not a top of the line unit. Thor is pretty much middle of the road. Garage was nice and would hold two full size quads with ease. Heard that after I sold it the the floor had separated from the chassis??? I would recommend 2006 or later.
Not sure where to post this... whether to start a new thread, or to continue this one.
Spent yesterday on the Fun Mover...
Installed (or rather, I ASSISTED in the installation of) the Kelderman air-ride suspension in the back. Took 7 hours to install... but it's done.
I drove the rig 70 miles back home from the installation place (alone), and I've noticed right off the bat that the general "sound" is lowered, and that there are hardly any more rattles. Not sure if it's my mind playing tricks on me or not... I'll have to have my wife with me so we can check it out more.
It's definitely SMOOTHER... we only installed the back axle stuff, and you can feel the difference when you drive. (When you go across a "bump" in the road and you normally get the BUMP---BUMP as it hits the front and the back tires? Well.. now it's BUMP---tick...)
Also yesterday I worked on the battery and electrical system. The house battery was shot, so I got a source for hybrid deep cycle batteries used in a prototype electric car. (Designed for QUICK charge, DEEP cycle and HIGH OUTPUT). The program was scrapped, so there were 6 extra batteries lying around.
HEAVY. Each battery weighs about 70 pounds, and they are a touch narrower and longer than a standard car battery.
I was able to grind out and re-weld the battery tray to accomodate 2 batteries, and then fabricated a bracket and welded it to the INSIDE frame on the other side of the basement storage for an additional four... (that's total of 6). Again, the batteries are narrow (about 7" wide) and long, so they fit in that spot perfectly.
However... we can't get the shore power to charge up anything... the generator does, but when we plug it in, shore power doesn't.
I checked out the converter under the stove in the kitchen, and I've verified 13+ volts at the leads when the shore power is plugged in, and 13+ volts when the generator is running...
... and at the batteries I've verified 13+ volts coming into the battery cables when the generator is running, but not when the shore power is plugged in.
Does anyone know if the 2004 Fun Mover was originally designed with an auto-transfer switch for this? Or are the batteries only designed to be charged up with the generator? (Which seems silly... but stranger things have happened).
I don't see anything mentioned on the converter about a 12V charging system... and before I tear into it more, I wanted to ask if anyone knew whether it was even SUPPOSED to work this way, or whether this is one area where they decided to shave a few pennies off.
yeah that is weird. is there a 12v line from the generator feeding the batteries or is the incoming line from the converter the same one you measured 13Vs from when running the generator?
afaik, auto transfer switches only switch the incoming AC power. my 2001 had no trasfer switch just a plug in the cord storage to connect to the generator. i removed that and installed my own auto transfer switch. if you have no plug to plug in your cable then you probably have an auto transfer switch somewhere.
the converter should charge the batteries no matter what A/C power is coming in, however if you're going to full time or doing lots of boondocking i'd ditch it as they suck for charging and get a proper inverter/charger. i too fabbed my own battery bay using the original chassis batter brackets. i moved one of them further down the frame and make a platform between them. i took the old sheet metal tray that sat in those brackets and made that a case to hold my xantrax inverter charger. it looks something like this...
not sure if yours has an inverter, mine did not, which i thought was retarded.
I haven't seen any plug or any port to "plug or unplug" the generator for power... so I assume there is a transfer switch somewhere, I just have to find it.
What you have would be a nice setup... an inverter is an obvious change to make to the RV, especially with 6 batteries worth of capacity.
On your inverter, it basically has multiple "inputs" for power, and distributes accordingly? So generator and A/C plug into it, and then you just wire the "out puts" to RV converter unit and such?
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I'd be interested in getting together sometime, to compare the units...see how they're each holding up, etc. Christmas time would be convenient for me, as I drive my family up to Couer D'Alene every year to see the in-laws.
