Location: Cottage Grove, OR
(97.94.227.253) | I recently received a phone call as a result of the Chapter Spotlight article in the Nov 2016 issue of the FMCA magazine, Family Motor Coaching. There is a post and link to the article in another thread.
I was called by John Bartley, coach #348, as he had a question about a part number. He got my phone number from the above article. In the course of the conversation, I learned that he purchased his coach new so he is the original owner. John put over 400,000 miles on his coach from 1973 until 2004 traveling all over North America including Canada and Alaska a number of times. In 2004 he purchased a 40' coach which he has used since then, but kept his FMC as it is still used by a grandson and because he may want to go back to using it if he gets tired of the large coach.
The coach is in excellent condition as he has done many upgrades and fully maintained it. Some of the upgrades are: 8.2 Detroit Diesel (he may have been one of the first four people to make this change), Allison 1000 transmission (upgraded from the 545 when the 1000 became available), 22.5 wheels, disc brakes and many more things. John was one of four FMC coach owners in his immediate area that early on started making upgrades to their coaches. If one of them made a change, they all made the same change! The coach has been stored indoors its entire life.
I, personally, had doubted that any coaches were still owned by the original owners. I was wrong! I now wonder if any more/how many are still owned by the original purchasers! Should I ever make it back to NC, I plan on making a stop in Highpoint to visit with John. |
FMC #348 still owned by original owner
