A friend of a friend is looking at selling his 2001 Fleetwood Expedition 36T. It looks like it is running a 260 Cummins/Allison on a Freightliner chassis. The deal has peaked my interest but I am worried that the 260 Cummins might not have enough power to tow what I will probably end up towing. Right now we are just have a Baja bug and a couple motorcycles that we tow but I will probably be stepping up to a 20-24’ enclosed that will eventually carry a 68 Camaro. So I want to make sure there is enough power. Also I haven’t been able to figure out what the towing capacity of the Expedition is (I know look at the sticker but it isn’t in front of me). Anyone have experience with this setup? Can give me some input?




Correction - It is a Cummins motor not CAT

I cant answer this for the CAT but I have a 275 HP Cummins in a 2000 Freightliner that I got a fuel controller for and bumped it to 300-310HP and it hauls anything I want now. The weak link was my Allison Tranny. I could spin the clutches in it so I had it tricked out with redline clutches and billet converter and now no issues. If you can get it cheap enough and save $5-6k to beef up the tranny go for it.

I had a 2001 Expedition and it towed my trailer fine.

I have a 34' box trailer that weight 7000# empty and load it with tools, a quad & two small sandrails. The weight loaded on the trailer axles was 10,000#. The overall weight of the rig was 39,000#s.

I went to the dunes about 4-5 times a season for 3 years with that trailer, coming from Mesa, Az. to the south dunes. I cruised at about 70mph until I reached Ca and then slowed down to 60 mph. I got about 7-8 mpg. It slowed to 35 mph on one hill between Mesa & Yuma

I really like the RV and would still have it today if it wasn't wrecked. I replaced the Expedition with a 40' Damon Escaper with a Cat 330 and I tow the same trailer. My mileage is the same and I go up the same hill at 40 mph.

The only add I did was to put on an aftermarket trans cooler. I took off the cooler before the MH was totaled out. I still have the trans cooler & lines for a 2001 Expedition.

Here is a photo of my rig then:

Click to view attachmentClick to view attachment