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krj

Toyota Advanced Member
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Posts posted by krj

  1. gosagititt7 has a great idea; lodging for work!

    Sign me up.

    I live 40mins from Glacier National Park and have ample room for parking. If you are willing to do light yard work (mowing, weed-wacking, etc) and want a private place to park your rig for short or extended stays let me know!

    Kevin

    P.S. I don't care about your politics, as long as I don't have to deal with my lawn!

  2. Baja's right, I'm pursuing a full size diesel and hard side camper. Free time just isn't what it used to be (what with employment and all!) and as much as I enjoy my shop time, I'd rather be out playing. I've been using a Tundra with FWC pop-up for the last year and a half. It's been OK, but frankly the whole pop-up thing I find to be a PIA. I'm also not very happy with the 13mpg I get with the camper on the truck. I'd love to finish the Newport project, but realistically it's been sitting in my shop untouched for over a year and a half now. Thought about putting it on a fullsize truck, but that just loops back to the free time issue.

    I'd rather see it go to someone who will finish it, so once GK shows up with a trailer and a case of Kokanee, its his.

    As far as the water thing goes, I'm with Baja. Minimize fixed sewage fixtures, s@#t responsibly in the woods (or desert), carry water in portable containers, use biodegradable soap for cleaning and have more room inside. That's just my opinion, and it's no longer my project!

    In regards to backpacking (which I do for both work and pleasure), I very rarely carry more than 2 liters at a time. Then again, water is pretty easy to come by in the NW...

    GK, I've got a lot of pics and measurements, once I get a chance I'll send them your way.

  3. I used a Varathane floor specific product recently on the floors of a rental unit. I don't remember exactly what it was called, it may have been the nano link, it contained aluminum oxide. It looked great when the new renters moved in, we'll see how it holds up. Water based as well so easy clean up and no gnarly off-gassing.

    In regards to your new project, I don't know if you got my pm or not, but I'd be willing to let my Chinook shell go for a song. PM me if your interested. If not, it'll stay in the shop until I retire...

    Look forward to some more pics.

  4. Varathane. Spelling may be incorrect, but the product works great. I used it on 2 wood slab counter tops in my house 7 years ago and they still look great. Water based too for easy clean up.

    Good to see the progress, it looks awesome.

    Your just about ready for another project, a Newport perhaps...

    Kevin

    btw, I had that flue also, it sucked!

  5. I'll have to look more closely at the toyotadiesel.com site. I didn't see anything about Tundra swaps there, although the site did show up in a "tundra diesel swap" google search. In fact, I haven't found anything about diesel swaps into Tundra's. Guess I'm not quite the searcher you and Derek are! Any links?

    Had a thought about your emissions/crazy CA vehicle reg laws. don't know it would be any easier, or even how to go about it, but here goes.

    Last year while in Baja I meet two people with Montana plates, neither of which had ever stepped foot in our state. One was from New Zealand. He bought his truck and camper in CA and had them registered in MT because - as he said- it was cheap and easy. The other fellow was from the states, but for some reason had his truck registered in MT.

    The one thing they both had in common was they owned their own businesses.

    MT has very lax vehicle registration laws, oooo, you can even register a four wheeler here; they pass me doing 70 down the road all too often! It is cheap here, and if your vehicle is 10yrs old you can get permanent registration.

    Just a thought, maybe it'll give you something more to research...

  6. Good to see someone is making progress! My project is still in the sad state of 2 pieces and gathering dust. If only someone would pay me to work on my own projects...

    Air bags are not that expensive. I put Air Lift brand bags on my Tundra for about $260ish? Got them at http://www.suspensionconnection.com/. They've worked great; month and a half in Baja and only had to add air once. I'd recommend them whether you use them for lowering purposes or not.

    As far as your lowering conundrum goes; you live in Cali, the home of the low-rider, someone in your hood must know how to do it! I'd imagine a good suspension shop could help you out.

    Look forward to seeing more progress. Baja trip this winter?

    Kevin

  7. Hey Clay

    I found a Factory Service manual for the '84 pickup I'm rebuilding on Ebay. Think I paid about $50 and its worth every bit of $100. Covers everything in great detail.

    Didn't you tell me your Chinook had a Japanese surplus engine in it, not the standard 20R? Good luck, keep us posted. Looks like the weather for the next week is well suited for shop work.

    Kevin

  8. Kevin if you check 2:44 in that video I posted

    there is a good view of the cab camper seal. The top portion of the seal is attached to the chinook shell itself. Does your Newport have the cab roof cut out as well?

    Lance

    Finally had a chance to check it out Lance. Looks super simple, the way I like things.

    From the video it looks like it is just general adhesive backed foam, is that correct? How did you attach the coach to the cab to get a good seal? My Newport has metal plates on either side, in the shape of the cut out, which I didn't see in yours. The cabover of my coach is also cut out so those plates may have been necessary to add strength and rigidity to the fiberglass. Not sure if I'll leave the walk through - it would be nice - or glass it over like Baja's. Guess I'll see how you make out!

    I also noticed a nice looking trim/sealer piece on the exterior of your rig at the coach/cab interface. What did you use for that?

    Good tunes in the video, who is that? Look forward to part 2 and progress on the project.

    Kevin

  9. Wow, I feel kind of guilty now! Good thing it was free to join or I would have had to refund your money due to lack of progress on my part.

    I started the Chinook project for multiple reasons, 1 of which was to use on a trip to Baja this past late fall/early winter. I saw the writing on the wall & knew I wouldn't come close to finishing in time, so I changed gears - at least for the short term. I dipped into the 'project fund', bought a Four Wheel Camper & put in on my Tundra. Had to build a flatbed for the truck to fit the camper, which led to additional storage on the sides. Worked out really well - kind of a hybrid Toy-MH. I liked the low profile of the camper when it was closed - I didn't need an 8' step ladder to get to my windsurfing boards.

    Now that I'm back, I do want to get back to the project, but I've been spending all my shop time fixing my daily driver. Once I post this I off to the shop to hopefully finish a rear wheel bearing rebuild. Current plan is to sell the DD, get the project truck going (a lot of work in it's self) and slowly add the camper.

    Short story long, there hasn't been any recent progress to update. You'll finish well before me. On the upside, following others projects always motivates me to make more time for mine. Baja's project has been my big motivator, now I've got another.

    On another note, I checked out some of your picks. I've frozen my a@# off at White Swan hot springs before as well, not quite -30 though. Nice spot - always try to hit it on the way to -or from- ski trips up North.

    The picture of your camper falling off the back of the truck?! Do tell, & more pictures!

    Good luck, Kevin

    post-3216-0-80542900-1298733616_thumb.jp

  10. Nice work so far. Making me wish I had more time for the conversion project I started 2 falls ago.

    Sounds like you cut the cab AFTER your road trip. How did you seal the coach from weather during your trip? I'll be curious to see if you cut out the roof and, either way, how you seal it all up.

    Good luck, look forward to more.

    Kevin

  11. Could be dry rot of weather striping as well; this is a 32 year old rig we're talking about.

    I had a '78 Chinook that spent her life in the desert. Once I brought her up to the wet N.W. I noticed a bunch of leaks in wet weather. Once I looked closer ALL the weather stripping was dry rotted; rain would come in both doors and puddle in the cab.

    If you want to fix it I'm pretty sure you can get new weather striping kits for these trucks from JC Wittney or other sources. Good luck, stay dry.

    Kevin

  12. Curious about your Nissan project, can you give us some info?

    Are Nissan dual rear axles compatable with Toyota drive shafts? Any idea on gearing differences? I ask because there's an old Nissan Sunrader with dually's for sale down the road, been staring at it for awhile now as a potential axle upgrade/4x4 transfer candidate. Never mind that I have no time for my current project - but one can always dream and scheme!

    Any info would be helpful. Good luck with your project, hope your making more headway than I am with mine.

    Kevin

  13. Its been awhile and there has been some progress, not as much as I'd hoped, but some nun the less. Some better pics as well.

    As I said in a post from last fall, I did get the coach off the truck and it now sits in my yard on an old snowmobile trailer. Ironically, the trailer it resides on was built the same year as the Chinook, 1978.

    First step was the anchor point. I didn't have any exposed beams or truss' in the shop so I used timber bolts and lags to attach an LVL to the scissor truss'. I spanned 5 truss' with the LVL and used metal strapping as washers to tie it all together. For an attachment point I wrapped climbing webbing around the LVL 3 times.

    post-3216-12755334344905_thumb.jpg

    In the first attempt at lifting the coach I used an old block and tackle set up and climbing rope. Didn't work so well. The rope had too much stretch in it and the block and tackle, as well as the strapping system around the camper, took up too much room vertically. It also didn't give me the mechanical advantage I was hoping for.

    post-3216-12755350589744_thumb.jpg

    To get rid of the rope stretch I switched to steel cable and to increase my lifting distance I got rid of the block and tackle and changed the strapping system.

    post-3216-12755354062567_thumb.jpg

    I hooked a cum-a-long to my boat trailer (anyone want to buy a 1993 MasterCraft Prostar 190?) and used that to lift the coach. You can also see the steel bar that spans the width of the camper. Lifting from the center of this reduced pinch on the camper and gave me more verticle distance to play with.

    Here's the hoisting process.

    post-3216-12755359578992_thumb.jpg

    And after I drove the truck out from underneath.

    post-3216-12755360018843_thumb.jpg

    This winter I spent rebuilding the engine on the 4x4 I bought to put the camper on. Slow process as I've been doing it on a time and money basis. Getting close to being done with that stage, waiting on a new exhaust manifold and still need to rebuild the carb. I'll throw some pics of that process up sometime.

    Also just finished turning the 2wd truck into a flatbed with a soft top.

    post-3216-12755366089317_thumb.jpg

    Once that sells I'll have some money to continue the 4x4 project.

    Thanks for the recent interest. I'll keep posting as progress happens. Tent camping in the rain this past weekend has rekindled the fire!

  14. I'm with Baja, fiberglass all the way!

    I saw a perfect little tow behind for your project the other day. A 14' all fiberglass Scamp. Unbolt one from its chasis, plunk it on your new toyota flatbed and away you go! It looks like, however, your pretty committed to the Winny overhaul. Good luck, look forward to following the progress.

    Thanks for the props on the flatbed, just kept it super simple. I've got an old tonneau cover that is going to turn into a convertible top. Figure it will make a good summer work truck or river shuttle rig.

    Not too long ago I found a link to a thread on yotatech about a guy who made a really nice flatbed from an old Winny. Can't seem to find that link again. I've tried searching on yotatech but no luck. Anyone see this one and remember where it was?

    Have fun

  15. Good on ya for opening up this bag of worms Mike. My selection for your poll would be turn it into a flatbed and mount a tow behind camper on that. You'd lose the walk through but you'd be dry and save yourself alot of work. oooo, you could mount you Sunrader on there and still have some room on the back for other toys.

    Baja, yeah the Chinook came off last fall and I spent the winter working on a 4x4 to put it on. Still working on that, ran out of money. The Chinook pickup turned into a flatbed and as soon as that sells I'll put the money back into the other project.

    Your answer about the fiberglass is what I wanted to hear, was wondering about the legitimacy of using screws temporarily. I also like our frp panels, may hit you up for more details when I get to that stage.

    post-3216-12750596089461_thumb.jpg

  16. Baja, good to see some progress on the project.

    Quick question; how did you attach the diaganol roof side structure to the existing shell with no screws or other penetration of the exterior? I can see where the diaganols were attached to your new roof from the inside and therefore won't compromise the shell, but how so on the bottom of your new raised roof. Keep up the good work, look forward to more updates.

  17. If you want to take your son camping, which is awesome, a couple backpacks, sleeping bags and a tent is much cheaper and easier to maintain. Thats camping. A motorhome is RVing. Get him hooked on camping and a motorhome turns into a good tool to live and travel in between trips. What ever you do, have fun.

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