Quote:
Originally Posted by pengyou1
Yes, you gain a lot of potential under carriage storage when you go RE and ditch the drive shaft. Too bad there were no mid engine buses to choose from! It's been a long time since the Crown's were made. Would it be that difficult/expensive to move the engine to about 6' in front of the rear axle? That would provide enough room for the garage...
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There are problems and trade-offs with the underfloor mid-mounted Crowns as well. There's always something as Finagle might say. Lost is most of that lovely underfloor space for plumbing, tanks, house batteries, generators, water heaters....much etc. The only recourse is to get very very creative and use what little free space there is available and put more required conversion equipment up inside.
The normal running gear takes up a lot of the space what with the laid over 80 degree pancaked engine, side mounted radiator and massive 90 degree plenum duct-work for the engine fan, the transmission and drive-line, and under the front or at the side is the spare tire laying on it's side. There is a small amount of space around the perimeter along the sides to find and use, and the enormous trunk under the rear windows is available, but the overall space is pretty limited and broken up into smaller and scattered locations requiring creative solutions. There isn't any completely through from side to side space for anything spanning the width of the body.
I'm dealing with this with mine and just accept it for what it is. But then I don't plan on any kind of garage or rear loading ramps for toys. I've seen some cool Crowns where they cut the rear cap and modified it into a lifting garage door like a C-5 and ramps to drive a car up inside and ride comfortably at the rear on the existing floor with about 1/3 of the front space still available for human comfort, located in front of a usually massive steel cage, and floor tie-downs, to keep the racer from rolling forward in a hard stop, which would ruin their whole day. These were usually hard core racing guys with various types of vehicles. Specialized to be sure but they had no real needs beyond basic human comfort and keeping everything in one vehicle (the Crown).
If and when I decide to add mobile toys to my Crown I'll just get a custom trailer and tow it behind. I don't particularly like having trailers since it spoils a lot of the close quarters maneuverability of the bus and adds other complications. But when the need should arise I intend to make the trailer a full on support vehicle with extra fuel, parts, tools, room for water craft and even a flying ultralight or some-such as well as the wheeled vehicle(s?) so I'll get the most out of it when having to drag the damn thing around.
It will definitely be reserved for those occasions where having all the added domain access devices onboard and with me will be of a benefit, the rest of the time I'll just keep the bus as a solo unit without the trailer since I get more fun out of just driving it and testing my limits with the local highway patrol.... The driving is truly the adventure, especially with a Crown.