krj

Hola amigo! Good to hear the old girl is still working for you. I'm heading down south as well, but not until the end of January. I'll keep an eye out for your rig. Even though I've chosen the standard truck/truck camper route, the sight of a Sunrader always get's me thinking again. Maybe someday... Kevin

Glad you made it home with no problems! Can't say I wasn't wondering how it'd go... Any good pics of our Newport loading process?

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!

Looking good. Whats the status of the interior? Any recent pics? It's always good to see updates to your post, keep em coming. South of the boarder this year?

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.

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.

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!

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...

All right, a new build thread in the works! I've been pipe-dreaming about squeezing a diesel Sprinter engine into my Tundra; the current 13mpg w/ camper on really hurts. Can't wait for this thing to start in earnest, good luck.

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

BEER

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

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

Nice work on the video, as well as the truck. I still want the story behind the picture (from an early link of yours) of the camper hanging off the back of the truck!