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Removing the starter makes it easier. Regardless, I would remove the battery cables as you will be working around the starter: Use your imagination to envision what happens if you drop a wrench or brass gasket onto the starter power cable. This will make for a really great ignition source for all the fuel that is dripping out of the fuel filter.

There are actually three filters, 1) The sock, this helps protect the fuel pump from gravel. 2) The fuel filter, (the one everyone is talking about), and 3) there is also a tiny fine mesh filter inserted into the tip of each fuel injector. As Maineah points out, the main culprit for us will be fuel tank and fuel system component mold and rust. These things sit for months, and even years. Water condenses in the tank and after a few months , you can have a very thin layer of water sitting on the bottom of the tank, causing mold and rust. Same thing happens in the filter, A little water gets sucked up and sits in the bottom of the filter, now the filter rusts a little. Personally, I would recommend to any new Toyhouse owner, run the truck for a few hundred / thousand miles, then change the filter. Get a big can or jar, and blow air backwards thru the filter and see what comes out. The most common thing will be black mold or rust. Remember, the filter and fuel system are 25-30 years old, and your probably the first person to change the filter. Once you've changed the filter, you should never have to change this filter again. I have a 96 Toyota Camry with same / similar filter, I changed it at 200,000 miles, it still had acceptable flow, but was restricting a little. The difference, that car doesn't site for months and years, so any water that condenses in the tank, is removed tomorrow morning when I go to work and doesn't have time to grow mold or cause rust. Proper storage will prevent fuel system water that results from condensation. Always park / store the MH with a full tank of fuel, especially during the winter, or if you live in a high humidity area. If your storing long term (years) empty the tank, no fuel. A partially filled fuel tank is the worst thing you can do when parking the MH for a month or two or for the winter. Here's how water gets into the fuel tank. As the atmospheric pressure changes (Weather fronts, high pressure/ low pressure), this pushes air into the tank and sucks air out of the tank. The air has moisture in it that can condense inside the tank, if the tank temperature is lower than the air temperature. The condensed water now sinks to the bottom of the tank because its heavier than gasoline. The water is now trapped and cannot evaporate, because its not exposed to air. Biological mold will grow, but quickly dies for lack of food (thats the black stuff you'll see in the filter). Water usually won't condense in a empty tank, because when the air temperature inside the tank changes, the skin of the tank heats/cools very quickly to match the air temperature, and the dew point is never reaches (the temperature that water condenses). If any water is able to condense, it will not be trapped under a layer of gasoline and evaporates as the air temperature increases. HOWEVER, When there is fuel in the tank, as the air temperature changes, it takes a lot longer to heat/cool the fuel. The fuel temperature could be a couple degrees lower than the air temperature, and water can then condense on the fuel. The point is, DO NOT store with partial fuel tank level. The reason to store with a full tank of gas is to reduce / eliminate the air gap inside the tank. The reason to store with the completely empty tank is to reduce the thermal mass of the tank (no fuel), so the air temperature and the tank skin temperature will be the same. John Mc

I liked my 900 Dolphin - Rear bath with dinette table. These were probably the most common model of the entire Toyhouse MHs ( I think 9000 were built) I suspect, unless you have a very specific need for a specific feature, you'll probably adapt to whatever you buy. Keep your eyes open, learn whats a good deal and what to walk away from, and have your money ready to jump on a deal when the right one comes along. These move fast (not speed wise, sales wise :-) so be smart, and be ready. If you focus on a specific model to the extent that you ignore other models, You may find availability is limited. If you purchase a unit, then as you build up experience and decide you would like a different floor plan, I can almost guarantee you'll be able to sell your Toy for the same price you paid (if not more) John Mc 88 Dolphin 4 Auto

As WME and Stamar have eluded; You should have an AC power supply for your laptop, Usually, this is a small black box with two cords coming out, One cord plugs into a wall outlet (110 Volt AC) The power supply box then converts this to whatever voltage is needed, and sends it out the other cable that plugs into your laptop.. USE AN INVERTER. Inverters convert 12 volts DC to 110 volts AC. If your just running the laptop, a small 100 - 140 watt will do just fine. You can either wire the invert directly to your 12 volt system, or run the inverter off of a Cigarette lighter plug. You then plug your laptops power supply into the inverter and your good to go. DIRECTLY POWERED FROM 12 VOLT SYSTEM If your Laptop uses 12 volts, you could wire the plug directly to 12 volts. This would be the most efficient way, but will only work if your laptop runs on 12 volts. I do this with a TV. It wasn't advertised as operating off of 12 volts, but after careful looking, I discovered it would operate directly on 12 volts. Heres how: Look on your laptops power supply for what the voltage "output" is. If its between 12-14 volts, your in luck. Now you'll need to find a plug that matches your laptops power plug. This can be a little more difficult as some laptops have weird plugs. When I wired my TV I knew I would never use the 110 volt power supply, so I just cut the cable off of the TVs power supply, and wired the cable directly to the 12 volt system. You MUST observe polarity (plus and minus) else you could destroy the laptop. I Used a voltmeter to check polarity on the plug before I cut the cable off. NOTE - Some laptop power supplies are multiple voltage (5 and 12) so these would not wor, and of course if the laptop runs off 18 volts (my Toshiba) this will not work. John Mc 88 Dolphin 4 Auto

Caution when adding / relocating batteries. The battery needs to be vented to the outside world. They put off Hydrogen gas when charging and if this is in an enclosed area, it will explode if it gets an ignition source. John Mc

Nice photos. nice trip. I would recommend you re-size your photos before you upload them to the site so they are less than 100k, makes web page load a lot faster. Derek up North is on a cradle model and he is probably still waiting for the first photo to finish downloading. :-) I use Paint to resize. Open the photo in paint, click the "Resize" button. I usually resize by pixels, make the horizontal 600 pixels and make sure the "Maintain Aspect Ratio" box is checked.. Then do a "Save-As" a jpg file. I like to name the saved file similiar to the original, i.e. the original file is "original.jpg" and the saved file as "original_small.jpg" One of your original photos was 547kb, the re-sized photo (below) is 79kb, about 1/7th the original size, and loads a lot faster. Alkso note that it auto thumbs, and when you click on the thumb, it expands. John Mc

5k, marginal for high temp, high humidity, during daylite. Ok for night. I used silver buble wrap in the windoiws, this helped a lot during day. John

This is what I did with my marker lights: http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3753 This is what I did with my tail lights: http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=3663 john Mc

Look carefully for any cracks / leaks in that big air tube that runs behind the radiator. It comes from the Mass flow sensor, driver side fender, on top of the air filter, to the Intake throttle body on the engine. The Mass Flow sensor is a big air vain. When your cranking the engine, the air that your engine is sucking in moves this air vain. A set of switch contacts in the MFS then turn on the fuel pump. If the vain isn't moving far enough, the fuel pump will not run. If there are any leaks in the hoses, the vain may not move far enough to turn on the fuel pump. ( This is why I recommend using the test connector to force the pump to run) You also have a Fuel "Circuit Opening Relay". If this relay is defective / intermittent, it can also cause your problem. Again, using the fuel pumps bypass test connector will bypass this item.. John Mc

Exactly, thats why its impossible to vapor-lock an EFI system. The pump supplys about 70 psi at high volume. The regulator regulates this down to about 38psi by diverting fuel back to the tank. This constant flow of cool fuel into the rail prevents the fuel from vaporizing inside the rail. If you have a new pump and new filter, I would verify the pump is running. If the pump doesn't run, fuel in the rail will behave the same way a bottle of soda behaves. if you relieve the pressure in the rail by cracking the bango fitting, you lower the pressure in the rail, thus lowering the boiling point of the fuel, it then boils and squirts out the banjo fitting in the form of a gaseous foamy stuff instead of nice liquid. The exact same thing happens when the fuel injectors pulse. Instead of doing a nice squirt of liquid, they do this squirt of gaseous foamy stuff. The gaseous foamy stuff is probably 1/10 the density of liquid gasoline, so the corresponding fuel/air ration is very, very low and cannot support ignition.. John Mc

Jumper the fuel pump test connector to make sure the fuel pump is really running. If you have a blockage in the fuel system that is limiting fuel flow to the rail, or the pump isn't running, its possible (and likely) the fuel could be going to vapor in the rail until the rail is cooled down a little. If you have good fuel flow, the fuel will not be able to go to vapor inside the rail because its to cool and under pressure. You could have a clogged fuel filter or iced fuel line that is severely restricting fuel into the rail. If your positive the pump is running, its fairly easy to remove the return line at the tank, and see if you have fuel being returned. A good fuel flow thru the return line will yield about a pint every 60 to 90 seconds. Unfortunately, there is no test connector on the fuel rail, but I would suggest anyone who has the time or has the fuel rail removed, drill a 1/8 pipe thread on the end, and either cap it, or install a fitting in it for future testing. John Mc

Its impossible to vapor lock the 22RE. The Fuel pump (in the tank) is pushing fuel thu the lines, and the fuel pressure regulator returns fuel back to the tank, so you will always have fuel in the lines, and it should be under pressure. (about 40psi). For the 22RE to vapor lock, the fuel in the rail would need to be boiling faster that the fuel pump can deliver fuel to the rail. Under zero pressure, maybe, but not at 40psi. If you cracked the cold start fitting and got nothing, that tells me the fuel pump is not running, OR the filter is so clogged and not letting anything thru. OR, you mentioned cold, Water in the fuel line is freezing and blocking fuel. I suspect fuel pump not running or ice. Jumper the fuel pump test connection. This will bypass the MFS fuel pump switch and the fuel pump cutoff relay and force the fuel pump to run whoever the ignition key is ON. If you jumper the test connector and turn the ignition ON, you should be able to hear the pump running.. If you listen under the hood, you'll also hear fuel squishing past the regulator. John Mc

I use a local "non-franchised" muffler shop. economical, and they can bend, cut, install just about anything I want. I had them replace rusted muffler and new 2" tailpipe (about 15ft.) with nice custom bends and new hangers for $100. John Mc

The furnace sequence is 1) Call for Heat (Thermostat tells furnace to run) 2) Blower turns on for a purge cycle. This blows any unburnt gas out of the furnace to make sure things don't go BOOM. and brings in fresh air for combustion. 3) Controller tests to make sure blower is running by looking at the "sail switch" 4) Controller opens gas valve 5) Controller turns on igniter 6) Controller looks at flame to see if there was ignition 7) If no ignition, controller turns off gas and igniter, but levaes blower running. If you not getting past #3 (very common) then you need to look at why the sail switch isn't turning on. This can be a weak battery causing the blower not to run fast enough, or there is blockage in the intake or exhaust (Bugs like this and make a nice home during the summer). or, a defective sail switch. If you are getting past #3 you should be able to hear the gas valve "click" and the igniter turn on and start sparking. If this is happening, but no ignition, then check the gas supply, (If your stove works, the furnace should work) Also, there have been reports of the gas valve sticking. give it a good wrap and see if you get gas flow. JOhn Mc

I did a couple different google searches, Looked at web and images (I use images a lot) I didn't see any suspicious link. If you have a search term, let me know. I suspect there is nothing on this site that has the bad links, however, its very easy to hijack an image or link, The difficulty would be to get that hijacked url to the top of a search engine. John

Corbin, give me a sample and let me look into it. john mc

If its still having a hard start problem, one way to eliminate/troubleshoot the fuel system is to turn the fuel pump on about 10 seconds before you attempt to start. 1) Jumper the fuel pump test connector. (This bypasses the fuel pump switch in the MFS and tells the pump to run) 2) Turn the ignition on, if you listen very carefully, you should hear the fuel pump running. 3) Wait about 10 seconds, then attempt to start. Let us know what happens and we'll go from there. John Mc

I have an 88 on my web sit. It should be reasonably close for the 22RE. Its 85 meg so if your on dial up, plan about 4 weeks to download. http://iflyez.com/DOWNLOAD/88_TOYOTA_TRUCK_Service_Manual.pdf John Mc

One thing to do, remove the ECM fuse for about 10 minutes (or disconnect the battery for 10 minutes) This will reset the Fuel Management tables in the ECM and force it to rebuild the tables. They are probably corrupt from the vacuum leak. The truck may run like crap for the first few miles as the ECM relearns the fuel mixtures. The re-learning can take several start/stop cycles and the engine must be at operating temperature. Just drive it normally. Check E-bay for used charcoal canister. Buy a tube of "4 minute JB Weld" Its a 2 part epoxy and is perfect for making the repairs you just did Keep it in your spares box, with duct tape. John Mc

I seen a Toyhouse last week on I-70 (Illinois I think) It was towing a small car on a dolly. It looked to be an 80's model, maybe an 85 or 86. It was going in the other direction so I didn't have time to get a photo. I think this would be possible, as long as you have a good hitch that is secured to the truck frame. I had thought of doing it on a couple occasions, but never did it. John Mc

Maineah - Good reality check

You have a big vacuum leak coming from the charcoal canister. (Its surprising how such a small leak is actually a big leak) You can attempt to use JB Weld and glue the fitting back onto the canister, but make sure the adhesive doesn't plug the port. If you want to test, seal the hose where it goes into the intake plenum. Either use a small piece of hose that's plugged on one end or double the existing hose over on itself to pinch it closed. You can probably run like this, worst will be setting an ECM trouble code for a purge fault. Why are vacuum leaks so critical on EFI engines? The Mass flow sensor (MFS) measures the air that is being sucked into the engine and passes this information to the Electronic Control Module (ECM). The ECM then opens the fuel injectors based on the air flow and throttle position. The problem is, when you have a vacuum leak, the MFS doesn't see all the air entering the system and opens the injectors based only on the air it sees. Depending on the severity of the leak, the fuel/air ration will be way off (should be about 14/1), especially at low power settings. With the vacuum leak, you'll get a lean Fuel air ratio. This is aggravated if its cold when you need a very rich fuel air ratio. The Aux Air valve that I mentioned is also critical. If its jammed (dirt buildup) or defective. this can cause a hard starting problem. Here is the link I referred to, but I would take care of the vacuum leak before proceeding any further. http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=5697 John Mc

Check for any vacuum leaks. You may want to look at the aux air valve. Look thru this link, John Mc

Sufficient? - it depends on what your needs are - I would like to be able to freeze and cool, it appears this unit will do one or the other, but not both. As for use with solar panel - Look at the frig specifications - It consumes 138 watts at 110 volts. I didn't see if this was a compressor type frig (I assume that) so even at 1.1 amps running, I would assume it would be 2-3 times that for start-up surge. Your need storage battery, controller, and an inverter. The inverter should probably be at least 500 watts with a 2x surge. Then you need to test to see if that frig will really run off the inverter. Theoretically - It looks possible, if you have a lot of sunshine, and a good set of storage batteries, John Mc

Modified vs true sine wave. Most items will run / charge just fine on the modified. The small 140 watt should work fine for the laptop or other small devices (Look at the dataplate. 1 amp at 120 volts is 120 watts.) Over the years of using inverters, I've only run into two items I've run into that burnt up, An electric Tooth brush charger, and a small rechargeable flashlight. These two items blew up when plugged into the inverter. WHY - The reason is they used a resistive voltage divider to lower the AC voltage down to the correct level. no filtering, just a resistive/diode The modified inverters put out a square wave, and this will induce significantly higher voltages into the resistive voltage divider than a sine wave. John Mc