1987 Winnebago LeSharo
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- Gas costs money. Back in the 1980’s Winnebago based the LeSharo mini-motor home on a French Renault chassis to allow fuel efficient tourism. But with 100 horsepower and a 3-ton GVW, don’t expect to get anyplace fast!
I love this. 1- I could listen to Steve all day with interesting car facts. and 2- I LOVE that he goes over these almost forgotten, neglected vehicles that don't fit in the classic car mold. Sure... many can talk about a Shelby GT500. But to see a video on a Le Sharo, or Dodge Caravan, or a De Soto.... GOLD.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Million's of subscribers eventually!!
Some of them had diesels. I would get stuck working on them! The injector pump was a beast to get at! You would cry when you went to work, and saw one there, waiting for you!
The Renault van which this is based on is the Traffic.... If you care ☺️. They were everywhere in France in the 80's.
Winnebago is based in Forest City, Iowa. Not Minnesota.
🤦 .. once upon a time 🤪 .. spread over a few states I think , like any other corp. HQ in min 🤷♂️ 😆 ..
Hope you are doing better, Steve
Is that a Studebaker wagon next to the camper?
Hahahahahaha, here come the Griswalds
Steve,
Best wishes to you for a successful time at the upcoming auto auction. I always enjoy watching the program, especially with your excellent commentary.
Much appreciated
Steve, please do a show on the Studebaker Wagonaire you were right next to.
ua-cam.com/video/XzbYAvo2T0o/v-deo.html
LeShitbox!
Excellent 👍
That you could actually take a shit in that box.
@@brianjacobsen5762 I see what you did there!!!!!!!!!
The USA still had the best options when it came to mobile homes and touring, Australia had Camper Vans which were as with the LeSharo a commercial Van type conversion with fibreglass modifications but until recently not as much custom coachwork but more along the lines of 70's through 90's Toyota Hiace vans with fibreglass high roof options and pop up style roof and the Hiace along with the venerable VW Kombi were the rule.
Both donor bodies were also horribly slow and with the added weight slower still often struggling to meet the Max speed in Aus of 62 Mph (100 Kph) and are horribly noisy at highway speeds as well.
So the LeSharo spec would fit right in here and in fact many Euro cargo vans are still converted or used as a base for this type of conversion although todays Vans are way better engineered and with greater power like the Fiat Ducato and Renault Vans being the "Gold" standard.
The norm though for holiday touring still today is the Caravan (AKA Wobble Box) hauled behind the family car, truck or 4x4 which is a recipe for disaster IMO.
I recently inspected a Car Club members 1970's Winnebago import for Club permit road registration and I have to say that it was a great design compared to our Aussie offerings of the time and the 440 Cube / 727 Torqueflite combination and whatever Dodge truck chassis the thing was built on had held up very nicely and with some love and a ton of time and cash I passed it on inspection after the 50km test drive with flying colours and my Car Club has a lot of RV's both Foreign and Domestic along with the usual 25 year old plus Classics, exotica and of course.... US Imports :-)
And I get to play with them all as Scrutineer.
Good point mentioning the nationwide 55 mph speed limit. I believe this law allowed the US auto makers to avoid developing overdrive automatics for about a decade, because the 3 speed automatics with highway gear ratios were good enough to get decent mileage at 55 mph
That, lock up torque converters on the three speeds (such as the THM350C, THM125C, etc.) also helped along with putting the cars on a "diet" and shedding weight all helped for a time as well.
I hope the two Studebakers make it into a video.
i think Its a Wagonaire
I’m fairly certain that I saw a sliding roof on the wagon
“I had a Renault in high school and I’m still scarred from that” lol! 😂🤣
One of our high school buddy's parents had a small newspaper and they bought 3-4 LeCars for company cars. There was no end to the shenanigans.
Find a nice one & swap in an LS FWD deal. 300+ horsepower would make it keep up with traffic.
you can run a sawmill off a pocketwatch it you have enough gearing.
First, I'm assuming you're going to show us the Studebaker with the retractable roof tomorrow(you better). Second, if you don't have ANY fond memories of your LeCar than you must have never discovered how much fun it was to howl one of them there crapboxes up on 3 wheels in a turn(it was SOOO much fun). And third, it's pretty obvious why the inside of that Winnebago is trashed, some poor family spent one day too many imprisoned in that thing some hot summer w French A.C. Some stories tell themselves
Hello Jonathan Gehman, if you like the Wagonaire, check out the Junkyard Crawl video I did on it a few months ago. It'll appear in the Playlist. Enjoy, Steve Magnante
ua-cam.com/video/XzbYAvo2T0o/v-deo.html
I went on a road trip in French crap box. The AC was worthless! The desert was brutal!
I just picked up two of them with titles. One has a turbo charger on it! I’ll be selling both. I’m out here in the Hugh plains desert of Colorado. Yes, that means zero rust
Is that a studabaker wagon with the sliding roof panel behind the Winnie??
I never heard of the LeSharo before. Interesting. Any thoughts on the gas mileage for one of these? In the early '60s dad took us camping in a vw van. 55 happened when you had a tail wind or a down grade.
Wikipedia says 22mpg (diesel)
I couldn’t imagine how awful that thing would be climbing the Rockies at over a mile in elevation
Cadillac compared to a rialta
I remember road trip vacations in the 70's-80's where behind a convoy of motorhomes was the last place a person ever wanted to be on sketchy two lane roads like climbing out of Hoover Dam, or Battle Mountain, NV, etc. (at least in our car it wasn't good). Like a bad episode of Wonder Years, my dad would shake his fist as he recited every swear word he knew over and over, and even invented some new ones as the family cringed.
The malaise big blocks that should have had power were slow too from vapor locking, out of tune, overheating, and then the roadside dead ones sporting the new 8R19.5 tires that were all but guaranteed to explode once they were 3 years old...
I guess some memories are better left in the past-lol.
I don’t even want to imagine😂🤦♂️
The hazard light switch was the most important switch on the dash.
I didn't realize they only made like 21,000 of these. I bid on a 1984 model back in 1996 at a salvage auction (It had a bad engine and insurance totaled it) I thought it would be a cool vehicle to take "The Fam" to the coast or the mountains on vacations as I live in NC. But, as soon as I realized it had a Renault powertrain I bailed out on that sucker! I've owned 2 French cars in my life... A Peugeot and a Renault.. That was 2 too many! Great series! Thanks Steve!
They're bad enough in cars, nevermind in a vehicle the weight of an RV! Yikes, that thing would be an experience to take up a long mountain highways.
@@volvo09 I bet that's probably why the engine crapped out in the first place! LOL!
Like a lot of European cars, they run better closer to home (Europe).
I am sure it could have been converted to another other engine. Maybe a V6?
I own one of these right now 1986 can't give it away. But I love it and would like to get it fixed up and running but can't find anyone that can help I thought for such a classic everything's original in it just needs a little tender love and care which I hope I can give it😊😊😊
VAN LIFE..... "21,000 people thought THIS was a good idea"
Love the sticker in the Studebaker window. “ I’m not speeding, I’m qualifying “ 😂😂
*Might reach 110 MPH falling off a mountain !!!!*
👍🏼😁👍🏼
Strip it, clean it, dry it out for a while and that could provide someone a comfortable home. (I live in a Mazda E Series van...just a bed in a van.)
The big problem with these motorhomes was the transmissions - and gettng parts for them. They would beak and break bad in the middle of nowhere and good luck finding a mechanic who would work on it or be able to get parts from France. They worked their way down the food chain pretty quickly. Folks would put a rebuilt tranny in it and then sell it to the next sucker. The tranny would then blow out again. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. The drivetrain just wasn't meant to haul around three tons. Winnebago tried again, years later, with a VW van chassis motorhome (The Rialta) with similar results. Of course, today, you can buy a new Class-B on a Mercedes, Ford Transit, or Ram chassis and they are fairly reliable - and get 20 mpg in diesel form (I am told). These newer Class B's are designed to carry the load.
I have seen a number of these things. Not one of them was running. Every one of them had blown motors. 2.2 Litres were not meant to pull over 3 tons. Even at 55 mph. Besides the fact that Renault has about the same record of reliability as Fiat. This design was a cluster f**k from the word Go.
Sorry Steve, a Class B motorhome is a van conversion. A Class C is built on a van/truck cutaway.
Sliding roof Studebaker wagon in back? LOVE them
Hello, I did a Junkyard Crawl on that very Wagonaire. Please check it out on the Playlist. Thanks again for writing, Steve Magnante
@@SteveMagnante Thanks
I going buy one , it had a blown head gasket ! They blow head gaskets a lot if don't keep a clean coming system .
$8.20/gallon up here where I’m at in Canada
From Leo: I met a man in Indiana that pulled the front subframe of a LeSharo out and slid in the whole subframe and drive train from a FWD Pontiac Bonneville. The over 200 HP engine completely changed the driving characteristics. It ran comfortably on the highway, climbed hills easier and he said it really got the same mileage on level highway.
I heard the most popular swap was the Chrysler LH swap as they were longitudinal engine and transmission.
I heard another popular conversion was a Chrysler minivan drivetrain with a 3.8L V6
They look nice but with two people in them it gets small fast. No towing power either
What’s the fenderless roadster on the Le’Sharo passenger fender???
Never saw one of these before. Thanks!
From Boston down through the South Shore to Plymouth, in the early '60s, there was a spurt of popularity for the Renaults - little buggy positive ground monsters. My Dad worked on them for a couple of years - we weren't allowed to talk Renault in the house 😂 In fact I had top really push to get him to talk Fiat (and I knew the many issues with the various models) decades later.
Great content.
I think you should ditch the dodge and build the Le sharo steve
Just do it 😂😂
this junkyard is museum, a time machine of sorts..and if this junkyard is realizing sales of parts, Steve deserves 10%..another great look in the past..
I bet Mags knows more about me than I do.
There's one of those floating around the RV facebook groups with a whole Pontiac 6000 front end grafted onto it! (I think it was a Pontiac anyway,)
Not bad Frog machine if your not in a Hurry . 😂
My dad had the turbodiesel LeSharo. Accelerate, it did not. But it did manage highway speeds pretty well, and they drove it all over the country many times. I was very impressed overall at the driveline package. And he managed a bit over 20 MPG in it.
3:16 Am I reading the ODO right? This RV only managed 53,746 miles before being junked? Guess it was overworked hauling all that weight around.
This is what happens when gas gets too expensive! We need cheap gas now before some company comes up with the modern version of this thing lol!
This vehicle is in good shape nearly rust free, it would be nice to restomod this bad boy with more reliable and powerful engine.
Steve - Take it from a guy who was born there, Winnebago industries has been based in Forest City Iowa for 60 years. In 2016 they got a shiny new CEO who lived in Minneapolis. he never moved. A few months ago he "moved the headquarters" to Minneapolis. a few dozen stuffed suits and some secretaries in a rented office building that... guess what.... happens to be a few minutes away from the CEO's McMansion.
Other than that joke, and a metal Fab facility in Blue Earth Minnesota, Winnebago industries is definitely not based in Minnesota
My Mom and Dad had one of these POS things for a short time back in the day. They left Santa Rosa Ca. via Calistoga road on their maiden voyage. About a mile out of town, there is a fairly long, twisty, fairly steep up hill grade about a mile long. The pig made it most of the way up the grade, then totally ran out power and just stalled out. Leaving my Mom to back it down to the bottom of the grade, all the while dealing with traffic. They were traumatized to say the least. Flat landed back to their home on Oregon and sold it.
Not only where they under-powered, they had to pass a smog test as well. I am sure on top of everything they were chocked with US emissions.
"Leaving my mom to back it down to the bottom of the grade." Now we know the reason for the rear windshield wiper.
It's the Delorian of RV's. No chance of 88 mph but nice looking.
Look up the happy bumble bee. Its a 4x4 conversion of a lesharo. Its currently in Washington state and was sold not far from my home in new york in 2002
I currently work at Winnebago, about 1/2 our current production is class "B" units built on Ram Provans and Mercedes Sprinters. Our headquarter is now in Minnesota but the big plant is in Forest City Iowa, but on the Hancock County side of the line. We do have a B van assembly line in Lake Mills which would be in Winnebago county. The original plant was in Winnebago county and on the grounds of what was the Oldsmobile/International Harvester dealer the Hanson family owned. We also did a similar conversion on a VW Eurovan platform. Those were interesting as they came into the plant as Siamese twins joined at the butt in a push me-pull me arrangement, one frame with a cab and drivetrain at each end. They'd get cut in half and get two chassis from each received unit.
This was an interesting vehicle. And I hope you will give us a video about its neighbors, the 2 Studebakers, the wagon and the sedan.
If you turn on the air conditioning, you would have to push it up a hill.
Can you imagine how under powered this thing was when it had 4 to 6 people in it and all their gear, and the A/C was on. Zero to sixty in what? A full minute?
Steve I worked on winnebago's in the late nineties and early 2000 and there was only very few people that could work on these. There was a guy named John Gross where I worked at and he was grumpy everyday he hated them things
Bring back 55
Ahhh, the Renault Trafic. The panel van versions were absolutely everywhere In the UK and Europe until suddenly - boom - all gone. Good vans but had the build quality of a shoebox.
I drive and maintain an 87 ITASKA, PHAZAR.
Great ski rig , front wheel drive . Slow on the hills, but whats the hurry.
Parts are a little tough to get and nobody makes a 2200# load rated winter tire.
Shout out to Washington Auto Carrige, Spokane, WA to keeping it on the road.😂
UM...?! NOT MINNESOTA!!! At that time, their enormous factory was in FOREST CITY, IOWA!!! 😡
Bet the rv industry is dead at 6 bucks a gal.
in some states it already hits the 10!
I've never heard of these before, something like this might be worth restoring but who knows.
I do not recall ever seeing these on the road, but I do remember seeing these in junkyards in the early 90s and in poor condition with flat tires in BH/PH dealer lots in the late '80s. My personal perception is that these for as long as they existed was that these were unreliable and basically went from the new dealer straight to the scrapper.
There is a reason the Germans rolled through France in 6 weeks in WW2.... ugh
Those were such turds...they went to the junkyard in a hurry. Half-French, half stick & staple- what could go wrong? Good news these days? Mopar is now a group of brands owned by a French-Italian conglomerate. I'm sure that bodes well-
Based on the Renault Traffic Cab/Chassis 👍🇬🇧🇬🇧
Steve, love the LaSharo, but niticed the rear window of a 40-50's Studebaker truck. Any chance of doing " crawl" about Studie trucks in yard?
Don't forget, it's a front wheel drive! we used to gringe when one of these pulled on the RV lot! Winnebago got sued by LeSharo owners, the diesel powered units wouldn't climb a 6% grade! what a P.O.S.!
These are based on the Renault Trafic. Parts for these old Trafics are very, very rare. Renault made them in FWD, RWD and 4WD, all with the same base gearbox.
I had the misfortune to work on that junk, a Renault 4 cyl. overcomplicated powerplant, talk about a ugly gutless piece-of-shit!
Unlike the cars surrounding that RV, most of the RV will never rust away and return to earth. Fiberglass is an environmental pain in the a** when it's life as a product ends. Were that body metal it would be easily recyclable.
Image this thing at 3 tons and a 100 horses, loaded with fuel, a full sewage tank, packed with luggage & gear, carrying several passengers, towing a motorcycle trailer, all while going uphill in a headwind. (Winnebago is named after the county that was named after a Native American Tribe, btw.)
Hi! I seen the hot water heater in the front seat!! I know it goes under the back seat/bed but ours gave out needs replaced anyone know the model and where I can get one? I actually have a 1989 Itasca Phazer and love it getting it ready to roll this sumer!
Thanks!
Montana complied with the 55mph limit in '74. Kind of, but not really since the fine was $5 and payable in cash on the spot. The ticket was for littering or some such, so it never went on your driving record.
But hey, they didn't even have a speed limit before that... or for several years after the federal 55mph limit was scrapped now that i think about it.
I have an 87 model myself. Love it but the gas sender is not registering the gas level.
I did a quick search on FB market place and found a one owner 1995 one in Broken Arrow Oklahoma for just $1000!
I’m born in 1965 and in high school I drove to and front school in my parents Lecar which they gave me for my 17th birthday, no wonder I had no girlfriend in high school although I tried very hard to get one but I was not successful hmmm I wonder if the Renault Lecar played into me being dateless?
Coincidently my friend Tim , he was in his first year of University ,he drove a Citroen , he also for some funny reason was single , wonder y hmmm?..
"SCARRED" by a LeCar ... be glad you did not have a Renault Dauphine rear engine 1.0 L 4-cyl
If you’re interested in an earlier 80’s review of this, check out MotorWeeks UA-cam channel.
State of Montana is the ONLY state that, had/has an OPEN speed limit on there Interstate Highway System. Dave...
By the time my wife loads my truck a 3500 by the way and trailer. I have no hope of being under the trucks rating.
The coach section of a Lesharo isn't fibreglass. It's aluminium. Jus' sayin'. The bonnet / hood is also steel.
I’ve wanted one of these, too bad it’s just a bit too far gone. Outstanding job as always Steve. I have to make a cross state trip and check that yard out…..
Aluminum body, not fiberglass although the rear is fiberglass.
Hello Steve, Can you talk about the truck shade accessories on the ford truck behind you? Those shades were popular back in the day.
Hi, Would you sell the wheel or wheels if it still available? I live in California and my uncle towed a Lesharo in our yard to live in it… not to drive, but two wheels are broken 😔. Road trip is manageable if they are available 😉
mm going down Donner Pass on 80, breaks will be screaming!!
that stubabaker Lark is nice, as well as that wagoner next to the rv
Great presentation. I am sorry for your LeCar experience. I am certain that it caused PTSD!
I’m willing to bet Bernstens is embarrassed to have that sitting in their yard
wee wee 😳🤣 … ✌️
I'm willing to bet they based those wheels off of mustang "Ten Holes" for the sporty look given that frontend.
One of our Scout Masters had one, as I remember it was diesel. It was "neat", but he said the drive train was unreliable. Winnebago did a similar treatment with the VW Eurovan I think. Same problem.
The vw was the rialto.
Gm had one tornado front wheel drive.
Robert in today society a Scout master with a winnebago doesn't look good.
But the Eurovan was actually beefy. ….
And had a 200hp v6
Not really comparable to a 100hp 4cyl….
Not to say the Vr6 didn’t blow up too.
And all auto trans are trash.
But not comparable
Its a Renault Trafic cab, you could get them in Europe with a BMW engine in them, they’re all dead now, bad metal
A 4 cylinder with FWD and 100 hrsp and then a Renault! That thing had to be a lemon !
My friend had one he dubbed as " The Rolls Canhardly " ..Rolls down one hill could hardly get up the next
The insides trashed. Someone could buy it and turn it into a fuel efficient car hauler by ripping off the back if the mechanicals are all good.
That wagon has a straight body line all the way around the vehicle. A great candidate for an 'el camino' conversion. What is it?
Yeah I had a la car I paid 100 dollars for to only drive to work I went everywhere in it once I started driving it until the la brakes went out and couldn't find parts
I had one it's a hard time getting someone 2 work on it.it ran great great mpg.
Always informative and entertaining! Thx
Looks like a 79-86 Mustang front side turn signal.
I wouldn't have wanted to go anywhere near 100 mph in this thing new!! lol