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Gulfstream Greg

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  1. Bill, I got the pics, schematic and a nice donation check, thank you very much for that. I will put that info up on the site as soon as I can. Your panel looks different than mine. I almost have my radio installation completed. Below should be a picture of the new electrical panel I put together. The so-239 is for an external antenna connector. The new antenna mount antenna actually will come thru the open hole on the upper left. The volt meter is a cigarette lighter type that I used. I could not find a small affordable digital VM so that got drafted. There are two rocker (black) switches, one controls the refrigerator rear compartment exhaust cooling fan, has a red flashing led to remind me its on. The other will eventually control a boat bilge pump that will pump shower water to the grey tank. The silver toggle is to turn the VM on or off. There is a cigarette lighter outlet and four Anderson power pole connections. The small rubber grommet is for the data cable for the remote head in the cab. There is also a roof top TV cable connection and a shore TV cable connection. After testing I am a bit concerned with the audio quality thru the cat five data cable to the cab speaker. Just does not seen very clear so I may be running a separate audio cable up to the front. And thats basically it. SWR was basically non existent with the diamond 7500, I have not yet tested the antennex. I ordered a new mobile mount from Yaesu to mount the radio in the back. Besides needing to put up some mike clips front and back its almost done. I mounted the remote head to a bracket that inserts into the ash tray on the dash. The ash tray will push all the way in and using super Velcro to mount the head. I will get some images posted of that soon. Thanks again Bill for the check.
  2. That kit looks really good and LC is definitly a quality outfit. For info the stock turbo engines produce horsepower close to the V6. Its biggist problem is over heating of the turbo and a hole being burnt thru the housing at the waste gate. If you could find a turbo truck or celica engine and support parts an engine swap for the stock setup would probably be a bunch cheaper than the LC product. An 86 truck will give you the instrument cluster, computer, down pipe and everything else. As far as know it should be just plug and play into the existing 86 wireing harness of your truck. Any how good luck with the adventure and keep us posted. Remember that this forum will keep the history of the thread intact for all to read from beggining to end unlike the yahoo groups where threads become lost in time. Greg
  3. Before you write the check for the turbo you should check out this yahoo group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/22RTE-Trucks/ . There are some experts on that group that can and will save you many days of migrane. Many of these guys run 10 psi boost all the time but not from a converted 22re engine but from the 22rte engine. Its actually built for the turbos produced horsepower. One of the key elemants is lower compression. You might consider finding a 22rte engine to drop in your truck and then hang the LC package on it. There can be several advantages to this. One you can put in a crank kit and end up with new bottom end bearings with out having to pull the head. New main bearing seals, and other assorted leak prone gaskets. Turbo charging an engine produces extra crank case pressure if your rings are worn. Another advantage of using a 22rte is getting its computer and other sensors. Ya I know its basicly a swap again but lets get real, you want to just drive it and not have to spend days trying to get it all to work smoothly. Many of the 22rte owners have retrofited thier engines with the t3/t4 hybrid turbos which I think LC is using. My rig is the factory turbo which is considered prone to failure due to heat build up and usually limited to 6 psi boost. The 22rte engines with a hybrid turbo easily run 10psi boost with out fear of blowing up. I would be a bit concerned to run 6 psi on a stock 22re. Any how check out the turbo group and ask some questions there. Greg
  4. Hi welcome and thanks! Dry rot can be a hard one to find. Sunraders are constructed with a fiberglass exterior, then a layer of plywood then the finale layer of paneling. There is no air space in the walls etc. You will have to look for signs of water damage inside around windows, roof vents etc. I personally do not know how a New Horizons is built. In my sunrader I have signs of water leaks at my rear windows. After I had pulled the carpet up I found a very small amount of dry rot from those leaks on the floor. So it can be almost impossible to find any dry rot. Severe structure problems will show up in the alignment of exterior panels, maybe where the coach meets the truck or a panel that is wavy more so than others. Greg
  5. Please monitor this ad so that the phone number can be removed when it is no longer listed on craigs list. Greg
  6. Hi Darlene Owners manuals tend to be somewhat generic mostly in the area of appliances. In other words a lot of coach builders use the same stoves, refrigerators, water heaters etc.. The actual coach owners manuals may cover locations for items such as fuse panels, drain valves and basic coach care. Most if not all can be found by searching the INTERNET or asking in the forums for info on specific appliances. The truck part of the RV is a Toyota pickup of that year. Chilton's is a good manual. If you can get your hands on a factory repair manual for that year even better. Any how there are some manuals in the gallery section. You might find some covering your years appliances. Greg
  7. Being a several car Turbo owner I have to agree with WME. You can do it but your engine will be short lived. If you have the money build the engine from the ground up for turbo operation. The stock Toyota turbos are prone to overheating. It is felt that it is partly due to a bad waste gate design and second too small exhaust. There are some after market turbos that the turbo toy owners are using to replace the stock unit, its a t3 t2 hybrid. Most have been really happy with it and the 10psi boost is better than the 5 to 6 psi of the stock, they also spin up faster. As a note to the stock units, the bearings is not what fails as in most turbos. They actually get a hole burned thru at the waste gate due to the heat build up. Another option is a super charger. I have no experience with that so I will stop there. I will say this about the turbo , high altitude and steep grades. It takes a while for a turbo to spin up, even longer at altitude. Because a turbo engine uses lower compression at low rpms you also have lower horsepower until you can get that turbo producing boost. I have a whole set of lower gears due to being 4x4 so I do use them at 8000 feet to get a good start on an upgrade In normal gears without the turbo producing boost you wonder if your even going to get lift off. Greg
  8. Hi Bill I have my second mount built. It consists of 4 40cm and 4 2 meter ground radials. I was going to screw down the mount but now I think that I will just adhear it to the surface with Lexall. Lexall is very strong stuff. The ground radials will also be glued down for support. After testing the antenna I bought (an antennex cs144/440 which has a spring on the radiator whip) and not being able to get a good match I did some more testing with my truck antenna, a Diamond Super Gainer 7500. I got a good match on both the 70cm and 2 meter sides. Testing of both antennas on my truck were about the same except that the antennex really does like a huge hunk of metal under it. I think it is a 1/4 wave antenna where as the diamond is a 5/8. So any how I bought another diamond 7500 for the rv. No spring but it does fold down which can be a benifit. Too bad it also does not have a spring. Its much taller than the antennex. After I get it all set up with a radio and a ground from the antenna to chassis perhaps the antennex will match better. Hopefully this weekend or next I will have those results. I think your repairs and findings on the panel definitly would benifit everyone. If you want to send me some photos and text I will put up a page on the main site for you. I found that I could not get mine to zero out. So after investigating I found the wire connections under the coach to be corroded where the crimp connectors were used. I removed all those and soldered them and put shrink tube over the joints. I did the same for the inside. It did make a difference. I filled the holding tanks and emptied the water tank then zeroed them. Greg ki6bji 73's
  9. I am happy with the ifs front end. The ride and handling are supurb. Yes it is a 4x4 but at 7000 pounds loaded its not a trail machine. You have to consider what type of 4x4 you need. Something that is going to get you into somewhat ruff camping spots or some what extreme spots. A smaller 4x4 chinook is a much better all around 4x4 rv than a sunrader. Weight will allways be a consideration. Greg
  10. Bill My first attempt at an antenna mount was somewhat of a failure. I will take pictures of the next prototype. Basically it should have worked fine but I feel the swr is too high. I borrowed an antenna analyzer from a friend. It resonates good at the 2 meter side but the swr is up around 2.5 at 145 mhz. Going to work it over some more and see if I can get it down. I changed the ground radial configuration, a cut off and reweld option. It looks really bad, galvanized is hard to weld. There is one linked repeater in my area covering a good portion of the state, I think its cal-net. I can get in thru the Crystal Peak repeater which is Basically in my back yard. 443.750 + 100hz. My mobil rig is a Yaesu ft-8800r. The remote head cable uses a 6 wire standard phone plug. I will be able to run both the head and speaker thru a cat 5 cable. 73's Greg
  11. A conversion would need a same year(s) truck. (Although you could put a solid axle on an ifs 2 wheel drive) I could not say if you would have to weld in any mounting brackets for the front end and tranny transfer case but probably would. In 86 toyota switched to the independent front suspension for the 4x4. The extreme toy 4x4 owners seem to prefer the solid front axles and there are even some conversion kits made to switch from ifs to solid. The biggest problem I see is having the room to strip one truck then dismantle the other and rebuild it. A lot of work thats for sure. But the 4x4's can go for a high price. I hear that the 84 presently for sale is bidding at above 15,000 dollars. A conversion could be a reasonable option at those prices. Greg
  12. Hi Bill Thanks. I have been having a lot of fun! My plan for the toy is to use a c type bracket with some welded on ground plane radials. The antenna of choice is an antennex 144/440cs which has a spring on it with the whole thing mounted somewhat center of the roof. The bracket will be screwed down with stainless steel screws, 4 on each side of the bracket. I am going to use a product called lexall as a sealant and adhesive for the bracket. The ground radials will basically lay on the roof and also will be glued down with the lexal so as to stop any movement and rattles. The coax will enter at the rear roof where I already have an entry for my rear back up lights. The radio itself will be mounted under a cabinet in the rear with the remote head and speaker cabled to the dash. When camped the head can be moved to the rear. My reasons for doing it this was is so that I do not create any large thru holes in the roof (sunraders are about an inch thick). Not much hiding or head room to bring a connection thru anywhere near the center. My only other choice was to mount it at the very rear where a cabinet could hide the mount and coax or above the shower where the shower could hide the mount and coax. For those I would have used a uhf bulkhead type mount with a nmo adapter. Plus I plan to have some solar panels mounted in those areas in the future. The ground plane and being too close to the tv antenna were the negatives there. The negative about center mount is removing the antenna when under the car port. I have yet to do a height calc, it could end up over 12 feet. Might start putting it together this weekend and I will take some photos and post them. Got a web site Ki6bji.org Greg
  13. That certainly makes me wonder why mine is so heavy. I am going to have it re weighed this coming summer. Greg
  14. Rusty Remember that if you have the square type it must be closer to level than the round type. Greg
  15. Rusty That is about the same temps I get, and it seems hard to get them down. I too have considered replacing the cooling unit. It really does not look to difficult. Looks like I an just stick it up on the table and replace it without removing it completely from the rv as that would involve removing the passenger seat and taking it out that way. The fans did help me to a point, certainly not to the point where I am happy though. I can't recall your vintage year, there are two basic models. One with a square burner chamber and one with a round burner chamber. The square is level critical as where the round is level tolerant. The fans I have in the rear, one is solar powered and the other is a 12volt dc computer case cooling fan which I control via a switch inside the rv. Its right at the top of the cooling chamber to exaust air out the top vent. I have a flashing led light to remind me its on. Greg
  16. Hi Rusty and welcome to the group here. Getting your refrigerator level is key to it cooling. Use the freezer tray in the center to level then find a spot on a counter top that is also level, that way you do not have to open the door to level it. I also have had problems with cooling and wonder if a rebuild would fix it. Actually a rebuild is the replacement of the parts that actually do the refrigerating. I have found that if I cool it down a couple of days prior to a trip it helps. They need contents to work properly. I put in a bunch of soda, water bottles and even freeze some bottles in the freezer. An empty refrigerator will not recover very fast when the door is opened or something room temp is placed inside. The contents act as a thermal mass. I have also found that at higher altitudes it does not cool well. In the summer we travel east to the Sierra Nevada mountains. We pass thru the Sacramento Valley where it can be 100 plus degrees and so during the travel the temp goes up and then is hard to get down once camped at elevation 7000 plus. I also run it on 12 volts dc when on the road. I found mine cools better that way while travelling. I also have an exterior temp readout so that I don't have to open the door. Also one of the fans that move the air around inside the refer help a lot. I have also installed some fans that help get the hot air out of the vented area behind the refer. Dolphins are good rigs, but make sure you do not develop any leaks. A friend of ours just discovered she had a leak and the bad news she got was that much of her dolphins main construction was particle board and has started to come apart and so now she is looking at several thousand dollars to have it rebuilt. Thanks for the compliments, I still got a long ways to go. Greg
  17. I am in the same boat. My guess is just say its a one ton axle. If there is a tag on the axle somewhere you might be able to use the number and call toyota and find out the year etc to use when ordering from local parts houses. Greg
  18. Hi Lee There is a device that senses altitude and cuts out the overdrive. Not exactly sure where its at. Later today I will pull out the service manual and give you a better description. So just so you know its not a defect, its a default. Greg
  19. I think your right on track. That contact should be open when in the off position. You might try a gentle bending adjustment to see if it will open when off and close when on. Greg
  20. Passed the test, now an official amateur radio operator. Got a radio in my pickup. Next step is to install an antenna on the motorhome for 2 meter and 70 cm. That will be a challenge. Really do not want to drill a hole down thru the top. So attatching to some sort of bracket assembly will be needed. This will be an ongoing project that is a few weeks away.
  21. It does seem like that sometimes. Spread the word that we are here. The Yahoo toyota campers group is very popular. There is a ton more options and abilities offered here though. I started this board just to offer more technology to users than Yahoo gives. I think though even the users here have no idea of the available options. We will be upgrading to the latest versions of the board and gallery, maybe tonight or over the weekend. Thanks Greg
  22. I think floor plan is your main objective. Ya gotta love the floor plan thats comfortable to you. Rear bath or mid bath , rear kitchen, mid kitchen etc. Having the dinette in the rear is really nice as they usually give a 180 degree view of the scenery. Having the generator installed in the coach is a major advantage to one that you have to lug out and hook up. A portable also needs to have a chain and lock so no one walks off with it. Also if your Grand Parents are really elderly just starting the gen on a cold day could be ruff. One that is built in with electric start from inside is really nice. I would think five years and further down the road. Push buttons can go along way when it comes to enjoyment of your RV. Only other factor I would really be concerned about is water damage. Check what ever you look at for signs of water leaks. They can mean nothing more than a stain on the wall or there could be serious damage to the structure or roof that you can not see. Greg
  23. I think you have a few options. Oil press, trans temp etc can be put in a door pillar gauge such as this one Pillar Gauge Pod As for better in dash instrumentation I would call a few wrecking yards and see if I could find an instrument cluster with the tach. There might even be a digital cluster available. I know that my owners manual for my 86 shows a digital cluster with tach. Probably hard to find though. Should be a direct replacement, just plug and play. Of course your other option for a tach is an after market. They work just as well if you are willing to have some of your instrument cluster blocked from view. For trans temp gauge I reccomend getting a digital one. Much easier to read than the analog models. You will have to get all the parts together your self as there is no real kit. A brass tee with barbed fittings for your hose. One thing to be careful of is to make sure the sensor does not protrude into the oil stream and impede the flow. Any how JcWhittney has some good gauges for that and at a reasonable price. All the fittings should be available at a hardware or auto parts store. I have one of the three gauge door pillar pods. I have very little room to mount gauges under the dash. The pillar mount is easy to see and safer to look at. Greg
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