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fsprandy

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  1. Thanks for the picture of the broken axle on the 18' Sunrader. Note that even though it happened in heavy traffic on an interstate no one was hurt and there was minimal damage to the motorhome. This is consistent with my own experiences with axle failure - not as big an event as some would expect. I was actually passed by the wheels when it happened to me (again, not a Toyota motorhome). I see you misunderstood what I said about full floaters failing. I didn't say the full floaters were no better - just that they can and do fail too. The problem is the 14" wheels don't allow enough room so the spindle is, well, spindly. The full floater that failed was on a 21' Sunrader with moderate miles and was not overloaded. It won't surprise me if someone reports another full floater failure - hard to imagine I've come across the only one. That said there's no question the faux dually setup is more prone to failure though it is obviously extremely rare on the 18' Sunraders and unheard of on the 17' Mirage units. I guess what I was trying to say is that if I was the person that just bought the new Sunrader I would use it locally for a little while before investing too much more into it. That way they can be sure they're happy with it and it really does meet their needs. It didn't sound like they had a-lot of cash to burn and these rigs are not for everybody. Another thing I've seen is people buying a totally used up full floater for big dollars and thinking they have solved their issues. These wear out just like any other differential and have an added problem of packed bearings which have often been neglected. It's important to get a full floater with as low miles as possible and to have it properly inspected and serviced before the swap. Maybe even better to investigate some other alternatives.
  2. Lisa, Welcome to the world of Toyota motorhomes! I have a couple and in my immediate family we have 4 right now and have owned 6 or 7 so far. My brother has an 18' like yours but his is a 4wd. Be comforted that the 4wd sets much higher so he has to carry steps to climb in and out of it. You'll hear lots of opinions on the rear axle. The faux duallies are certainly not the best setup ever put on a vehicle. That said, I have them on my Mirage and have seen many, many still going strong after all these years. I follow this subject pretty closely and have yet to confirm an 18' Sunrader with a broken axle. One was reported a couple of years ago but when I got pictures of it what had actually happened is the lug bolts had sheared. Sheared lugs are probably a bigger problem with the faux duallies than broken axles and I suspect in some cases what is reported as a broken axle was in fact sheared lugs. The problem is there are only 5 lugs and the cantilever load can cause nut loosening and bolt fatigue. It is very important to check lug nut tightness frequently (every time you fill up wouldn't be a bad idea). Also, the full floating Toyota axles are not bullet proof either. I've seen a full floater on a 21' Sunrader which failed with a broken axle housing. Effectively the same as having the axle on yours snap. My brother uses a Tundra rear diff on his 18' Sunrader with single 15" tires and it is working very well. His is heavier (4wd extended cab) and he is almost always towing a fully loaded ~3,000lb trailer. I would be concerned with stability if you were to run singles on yours due to the narrow track. The Tundra axle is about the same width as the outer pair on duallies. He picked up the Tundra axle for $200 but has a fully equipped shop to work in and is able to fabricate whatever he needs. I don't know what it would cost to have someone else do the swap. I expect the differential gearing would need to be changed also. I see in one of your posts you were going to keep the tires inflated to 65 psi. I would suggest a lower pressure, maybe 50 psi. The lower pressure will improve the ride and also reduce the fatigue loading on your axles and lug bolts. I've run car tires on my Mirage for years with only 35psi in them and have never seen signs of scuffing between the duals. Heavy duty tires on my 21' Sunrader also show no evidence of scuffing with 50 psi in them. Of course with faux duals the spacing could be anything so no guarantees. My final thoughts on the axle are that if you know how to drive in snow and ice you probably wouldn't have much problem controlling you motorhome if a rear axle snapped. I've had this happen (not on a Toyota) and it was just a matter of keeping the front wheels pointed where I wanted to go. Much worse to have a front tire blow out and no rear axle will prevent that from happening. Safety: Bear in mind that cars are much safer now than they were 30 years ago when your camper was made. Also, trucks are made to less stringent safety standards than cars and yours is only a mini-truck and a very heavily loaded one at that. If you get in an accident with your motorhome the occupants will have far less protection than they would in a modern car. The stopping distances and handling of your motorhome are also abysmal compared a modern vehicle. Finally, being 30 years old the reliability is not likely to be very good. All of this conspires to place more responsibility on your driving skills and maintenance habits to stay safe. Don't drive it fast, slow way down on corners, wet roads, bumpy roads, blind corners, high winds, etc.. Don't even think of keeping up with traffic on the interstate. Find a good mechanic you can trust and invest money in preventive maintenance. Insist he use only oem Toyota parts or Japanese manufactured equivalents. NO NAPA PARTS! Towing: I often tow a small trailer with my 21' Sunrader. My trailer fully loaded is probably around 650lbs. If you were to tow my trailer you may still be lighter than many 21' Toyota motorhomes. I don't notice the trailer as far as speed, handling, or braking is concerned. The tongue weight of a small trailer is very little - maybe 100-150 lbs, so not much of a concern for the axle. The trailer tongue also has good "mass damping" so it wouldn't put much for damaging shock loads into the axle. It is extremely difficult to back up one of these motorhomes with a trailer attached - keep that in mind. The nice thing about towing my little storage trailer is I suddenly have all kinds of room to carry stuff. If you have a sound hitch setup I wouldn't worry about towing a small trailer. If you do tow you should drive even more safely! Finally, you need to touch base with Linda on the yahoo minitruckcampers group. She has an 18' Sunrader or two and I'm sure you would find her to be very helpful. Hope you can find something useful in my verbage. fsprandy
  3. The best filter for your Toy is the oem Toyota filter. In my opinion K&N's do not stop a sufficient percentage of finer particles which will cause accelerated engine wear. Cotton as a membrane filter media is too weak and the openings between fibers in a K&N are far too large anyway. Pleated as in a K&N it is too thin to be effective as an inertial impaction filter. K&N is all about marketing and separating fools from their money.
  4. No doubt the builder had a good engineer that insisted they use the tag. Maybe he retired or the bean counters saw the competition using just one axle and figured they were safe to overrule the dummy. Tag axles are very common on heavy trucks. I noticed the propane delivery truck that was in my yard today had one. The driver even lifted if for the sharp turn backing into the driveway.
  5. If? As I said failure was very similar to a broken axle on a non-floater. Both wheels came off together taking out the black water tank and some fiberglass on that side. It doesn't drop as far as one may think as the spring stack is tall and slung under the axle housing. It did grind the ends of the u-bolts pretty good! Owner was original and said it never made noise and had never been apart. Having examined it closely I'd say the housing simply failed. It really doesn't look very strong where it broke either. The small hubs allowed by the 14" wheels no doubt forced a design compromise limiting the strength of the full floating design.
  6. You might be better off with the axle you have than a used up U-haul one cobbled together under your rig. Remember, only a small fraction of the overloaded axles with the cantilever duallies actually failed. I still see them in service and it's been 25 years since they stopped using them. Your axle setup looks to be a huge improvement over the earlier one so you should be fine. I actually have an '86 Sunrader on which the full-floating axle failed catastrophically. It effectively did exactly what the old axle does with both the housing and axle snapping off and the dual wheel assembly leaving the rest of the vehicle. The event wasn't nearly as scary as it is often portrayed to be. The spring stack which is quite tall and close to the ground acted as a skid supporting the vehicle and no doubt adding significant braking effect. The driver said he heard and felt a thump and then it coasted to a stop. Much less scary than blowing a front tire...
  7. Since you already have the new muffler this is a little late but I've found a 'straight through' muffler makes a little more power on these than other types. Of course make sure all the tuning is spot on especially the valves (be sure whoever does the valves knows to not over tighten the valve cover). Stay away from the high flow/low filtration air filters - not a good compromise. I've also found the Toyota plug wires to work better than some aftermarket ones - even when old.
  8. Greg, That thread is to a sheared stud failure, not an axle failure. Have any links to axle failures on one of the 4x4's? fspRandy s
  9. The tag axle is there to increase the load capacity and means that the original axle is not overloaded. I think it shows a more conscientious builder to have gone to the trouble of the added axle. Downside's are more tires, larger wheelhouses so less interior space, less room underneath for tanks and such, and a higher cost to build. Positive side is more load capacity, less sway, and better ride. If the tag can be outfitted with airbags fun can be had with an on-board compressor. In town the bags can be aired down to effectively shorten the wheelbase and decrease the turning radius. Out on the open road the bags can be aired up to take more load off the drive axle as well as effectively lengthen the wheelbase further improving the ride. Tag's are common on larger rigs but rare on Toyota's. If I were in the market for another Toyhome I wouldn't hesitate to buy one.
  10. Not sure what constitutes 1st generation but the early 22r's (up to sometime in '82) had a dual row cam chain and were not susceptible to the infamous cam chain failures all of the later 22r/re's were. Replacing the factory smog carb with a Weber will do wonders for the power output. The transmisson depends a-lot on what you prefer. There are functional and durability advantages to the standard trans as well as better performance and mileage but the auto's work OK. Biggest issue with the auto is it is more complex than the standard, has much more that can go wrong, and with age is more likely to have problems, and will probably be more costly to repair when it does. Of course if you don't like driving a standard you're not likely to be happy with one. They all work quite well but really nice toyhomes are getting harder to find. If I was looking and came across a really nice one it wouldn't matter to me what drivetrain it had. As a matter of fact mine is an '86 which has an automatic (I hate automatics), fuel injection (I like Weber's), and a weak timing chain!
  11. Derek, FWIW the owners manual that came with my '86 says to repack the wheel bearings every 40,000 miles or 4 years, whichever comes first. They do not specify which wheel bearings. fspr
  12. I think the 4 cylinders are great! I've driven the same model 4 cylinders in Toyota cars and trucks since at least 1980. I have a 22r and a 22re now - both in Toyota motorhomes. The 3.0 V6 is one of Toyota's poorest engines (I have one of these too) and is a maintenance nightmare (requires too much preventive maintenance and is hard to work on). The very quantity of Toyota 4 cylinder motorhomes still in service after all these years is testament to their durability. All that said are you sure you can't find a pop-up light enough to tow? That would be an inexpensive and simple way to get in some camping time without having to sleep on the ground. If not then how about a bigger tent and sleeping cots? Getting up off the ground goes a long way to staying dry and might be an easier transition to camping than sleeping on the ground. If you do go with a Toyota motorhome understand that it's an old vehicle and expect that there will be regular repairs required.
  13. That's what you get for putting a Weber on it! If your 22r is the dual cam chain it should have no problems running at sustained high rpm.
  14. I think for a small motorhome the break action is better than the pump because it's shorter. The break actions are also simpler which should be more reliable plus with the doubles if one trigger malfunctions there is a backup! Easier to load and unload too.
  15. Marcus, That looks like the pre-full-floating axle on a very nice Sunrader. Some of those axles broke which resulted in the NHTSA recall. Interestingly enough my '86 Sunrader came with the full-floating axle and it broke! How many miles on your Sunrader? fsprandy I have this 85' (or 86') Toyota Sunrader. Just bought it, and am super excited about it, it's my first RV. I am now figuring out that I may or may not have this risky axle I am hearing about on the forum. Can someone look at this picture and tell me which I have, and what the next steps are for a safe ride? Thanks!!! Marcus P.S. The Axle FAQ is very helpful!! Thanks!
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