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It's not just the static tongue weight. It's the forward "see-saw" bias when you hit a bump or surge of some sort. Several companies used to make little tongue dollies just for the this sort of use. E.g., a tow vehicle that cannot handle tongue weight. I wonder when there are no equipment trailers for highway use with zero tongue weight like done with farm trailers and hay-wagons. Or maybe there are, and I just haven't noticed.

The reason why a 20-21 foot Toyota RV is not rated to pull anything is not because of the engine size. It is because of many factors that are already maxed out, e.g. transmission, brakes, rear-frame, etc. Regardless, many people have pulled small trailers and done fine. The original owner of my 1988 Minicruiser with a 22RE and auto trans pulled a 16' boat for many miles and years. Note though that I am in northern Michigan and the roads are all pretty much flat. I would NOT want to try it in hilly places. Trailer-tongue weight would be my biggest concern. A trailer-hitch on the rear of a 20-21 foot Toyota RV is so far back from the rear-axle - it has a dangerous amount of mechanical advantage to rock it and make it handle poorly if any substantial weight is on back.

Your motorhome may be slow - but I doubt you'd notice much difference when pulling that 4 wheeler. I pulled my 4-wheeler on a small trailer with my Toyota Minicruiser with a 22RE and did not even feel it behind me. I've got a 200cc Honda and a 250 cc Suzuki 4-wheeler. Either one weighs around 375 lbs. So with a 300 lb. trailer - seems I'm talking the same weight as what you want to do. What do you have for a drivetrain? If you have an auto trans - I bet putting in a manual trans and maybe a 4.56 rear would help. Or?? Just get a Toyota Chinook RV and it can tow just fine, as is (a little small inside though). If I was ever to do a swap in my Minicruiser ( and that is unlikely) - it would be a 3.8 Dodge V6 or a 3 liter Mercedes turbodiesel (common and cheap). Swaps are all a pain-in-the-a*s and once done - there are usually perpetual problems to deal with. I can buy an S10 pickup, complete with a 4.3 in 2WD version for less then $2000. Sometimes less then $1000. I'd do the body swap if I really wanted that 4.3. Comes with all that OEM engineering. In an ideal-world - my 1988 Toyota Minicruiser would have a 3.9 liter Cummins 4BT, have all sorts of pulling power, and get 20-22 MPG. Too expensive though, even though they are old engines now. The price never seems to go down on them. 6BTs from Dodge pickups are all over the place and priced reasonable, but way too much engine for the Toyota.

The FF has the same center-section at many other lighter trucks with semi-floating rears. No problem getting some sort of locker or "positive traction" type unit. Not something I'd ever want for driving in icy or snowy conditions. In my experience, they make driving worse in such conditions; not better. The nice thing about an open-differential is - when on ice or snow - the wheel with thebest traction does not spin and keeps you from sliding off the road sideways. Put a locker or clutched diff in there -and both wheels spins - and you slide like crazy. What WOULD be nice is some way to manually lock the rear only when needed. Like an electronic locker, or servo-hydraulic. Or - even two separate parking brake levers that can accomplish the same effect.

I didn't mean it that way. The 4.3 is a great engine. All I meant by that aside is this. If I wanted a 4.3 GM pushing my motorhome - I'd probably put the RV coach on to a complete S10 truck with the 4.3 and whatever my choice of transmission was. I've often though of doing that with my 1978 Toyota Chinook. I guess such a swap does not work if a person is Toyota-loyal, but hey. If that was the cause you wouldn't want a GM engine either. There's what was once a Toyota Dolphin just down the road from me and that got put onto an S15 pickup and looks great. Too bad it's a 1984 with a 2.8 V6 and 700R4 (an early, very trouble prone version).

You can buy near ever part needed for the swap pre-made. The days of dropping an engine in and out two-dozen times and going nuts fabricating adapters are pretty much over. I'm not going to say it's worth it - but if you really want a 4.3 in a Toyota - I think buying the premade major adapters, custom radiator, etc. is the way to go. Being a SB V8 with two cylinders missing makes it a pretty common swap choice. http://www.northwestoffroad.com/parts/engineadapters.php http://www.advanceadapters.com/tech-vault/1-engine-swap-info-toyota-trucks/

I just came across this for sale locally. I did not know such a thing existed. I also cannot imagine why anybody would want this very expensive device instead of a fully electronic inverter? Maybe I am missing something. I haven't researched it - but it appears to be a 12 volt DC motor coupled to a 120 volt AC generator. So yes - it makes 120 VAC from 12 VDC but weights a lot more then an electronic inverter. Also costs much more and I also suppose it kind of noisy? Like I said, maybe there is some advantage under certain uses that I am missing.

My on-board inverter is "on" all the time when driving or when camping. Never been an issue. The "stand-by" draw would take 10 days to run my batteries to 50% with no recharge. A non-issue with the way I do things. My main power-cord for the RV is plugged into the inverter. Subsequently, when "on" all our OEM AC outlets work. It's how we watch TV, run lap-top computers, fans, microwave, etc. My overheat fan has never come on under actual use. Just on the initial start-up sequence. It is supposed to come "on" for a few seconds just to let me know it's there and operational - and then it shuts off and stays off. I've got three inverters that get used a lot, with automatic cooling fans. A Harbor Freight 2000/4000 modified wave, a Ramson Sunray sinewave 1500/3000, and an AIMs sinewave 1500/3000. Some I have used pretty hard running big power tools. Never had a fan come on yet with any of them.

Generally speaking - tailshaft bushing wear is caused by two things. One is excess fore-and-aft driveshaft travel. Two - is towing a motorhome without removing the driveshaft.

That rear tailshaft bushing is prone to wear on vehicles that have driveshafts that use that bushing as the slip-joint for the driveshaft. Toyota does - but when the rear suspension is good, there is very little fore-and-aft movement to cause that wear. GM is known for that problem in light-duty trucks with a one-piece driveshaft (no slip-splines). So are some Ford trucks. I've never heard of Toyota trucks having any abnormal wear problems with that area. I know mine is fine and my trans has 150K miles on it. On my Chevy K5 Blazers and Suburbans - I often had to change rear seals every 40K miles and they did suffer from tailshaft bushing wear. On a side-note - the A43D has two seals in the rear and I have come across several that when a seal change was done, one of those seals was discarded. I suspect because it is not available aftermarket. It is reusable if care is used when removing it. It is a heavy felt dust seal in a steel cage. It is there to keep grit from entering the other seal that is a spring-loaded lip-seal.

Some time in the past - maybe 8-10 years ago, Walmart used Exide for their type 27 deep-cycle batteries. I had several fail at two years. Exide got sued by several companies including Sears (for making defective Diehard batteries). Also sued by NAPA. After that? Walmart switched to Johnson Controls and all I've gotten have been fine. My oldest is near 8 years old and is in one of my farm tractors now as a starting battery. It will do dead in a week if not on a battery-maintainer - but since I keep it on one - it still works good enough. In my area, Walmart sells those type 27 two ways - "long warranty" and "short warranty." Same batteries, just different prices. Less warranty, lower price.

I changed the oil in my 1988 22RE from Shell Rotella T Triple Protection 15W-40 to Mobil 1 High Mileage 10W-30.. I did not do it for oil-consumption reasons. I just wanted to see if there was any perceivable difference in fuel mileage. Ends up my oil-consumption went from 1//2 quart every trip, to zero. At least so far. The Mobil 1 "High Mileage", unlike regular Mobil 1, has special additive packages for older designed engines (like ours') and also for worn engines. I cannot attest that the oil is what actually made the difference - but it certainly seems so. I will also note that I suspect Mobil 1 is not even a true "synthetic oil", as many sold in the USA as "full synthetic" are not. Regardless - maybe the additive package has helped with oil-use. Note that I love Shell Rotella T and use it in just about all my gas and diesel engines. My 87 Chevy Sububan had 520,000 miles on it when the engine blew to pieces and all it ever had was Shell Rotella T. When the engine blew - most of the internal parts still looked near new. It was the crankshaft that broke into three pieces (GM diesels are known for this) and the issue had nothing to do with lube. So - I was pretty surprised at the drop of oil-use when I switched to Mobil 1 High Mileage. Who knows?

Yes, you are correct. That fan should never come on.

I've bought over twenty type 27 and 29 deep-cycle batteries from Walmart in the past 5-6 years with zero complaints. I am not going to say they are the "best deal" around - but if not the best for the buck; certainly close - if what you want is a 12 volt battery and not a pair of sixes..

Cup and cone bearings have easily visible wear patterns if in need of replacement. No "microscope" needed.

That 800 watt AIMs sounds defective to me. But - I have no idea what sort of load you are running. I also have no idea how much these things change, over time. I have four AIMs inverters. Two modified-wave, 1500 and 2000 watts. Also a 700 and a 2000 watt so-called "pure sine wave." All have thermally controlled fans and I've yet to ever have any of them come on when being used. That makes me wonder why your's comes on at all unless you are running that inverter at near max capacity. My guess is - it has a defective thermal switch. If it was mine, and was not under warranty, and not being used hard - I'd just cut the wires to the fan. I have experienced some other "odd" issues but figure I cannot blame it on AIMs. I have two "pure sine-wave" inverters that we use when camping or at our off-grid cabin. One is an AIMs 2000 and the other is a Ramsond Sunray 1500. With either - I discovered some oddities. One - if I try to use my cell-phone when using its AC converter for power - it is basically NOT usable since the screen-functions do not work. That is a Motorola Android Mini. Two - this one really seems ODD! I plugged in my Dell laptop via the AC power-supply and the mouse will not work. If I run the laptop off its own battery the mouse works fine. If I plug the same laptop into any of my cheap modified-wave inverters - it also works fine. Will NOT work with either of my "pure sine wave" inverters.

Not according to Honda. The diagrams are from the Honda EU2000i generator tech manual and Honda says they do not make any 99 cc engines in vertical form. Only Honda vertical engines (according to Honda) that come close are the 49 cc and 160 cc. I don't know where you get your info. Mine is from Honda.

By the way - I know how boring and also emotional oil arguments/discussions can get. Here are a few facts though I find kind of amusing. Synthetic motor oil first came into common use with Adolph Hitler in WWII. The main gain over conventional petrol oil was its high-heat endurance. So what do we have today on the shelves? Castrol Syntec 10W-30 "pure synthetic" has a max high heat rating of 392F Valvoline 5W-40 full synthetic has a max high heat rating also of 392F Now - look at plain-grade, conventional Shell Rotella 30W with a max high heat rating of 460 degrees F Also - Shell Rotella T 15W-40 conventional petro oil (for gas and diesel engines) has a max high heat rating of 415 deingrees F One might ask "why?" The answer is - many oils sold as "full synthetic" are not. Some have zero synthetic content. Lots of BS and marketing hype. Hard to sift through it all and keep up. Now - for a pure, non-scientific anecdotal report. My 1988 Toyota Minicruiser with a 22RE was using 1/2 quart of oil after every trip to the Michigan UP. That means maybe 500 miles of driving. I checked and this use was consistent with 7 trips. The oil in my engine was Shell Rotella T Triple-Protection 15W-40. Just messing around, I changed the oil to Mobil 1 High Mileage (high ZDDP) 10W-30. Now after 4 trips to the UP, I've used NO oil. Hard to figure but that is what I've witnessed. Why such a difference, I have no idea.

How does someone do that? Back when our Toyotas were "current" all motor-oils made for cars and trucks had near the same levels of ZDDP. My 1978 Toyota Chinook called for SE oil. My 1988 Toyota Minicruiser called for SF oil. Both standards are now obsolete and the newest standards are NOT all 100% backwards compatible (in my opinion). Especially true with diesels but I suspect to a lesser degree, with gas engines too. I doubt the API does a lot of endurance testing on engines built in the 70s and 80s with the newest oils. Similar issues came up in 1973 (or around then) when unleaded gas became the norm. Same sort of thing again in diesels when ultra-low-sulfur diesel became the norm and had to be used in older engines with mechanical pumps (that do not exist anymore in new rigs).

I take that back. On second thought, I think all the Toyotas here have flat-tappet cams. I know my 20R and 22Rs do. From what I hear (never had one apart) the 3 liter V6 also has flat cam followers. All the more reason to have oil with the same ZDDP level that it had when these Toyotas were built (in my opinion).

I had to move my 1988 Minicruiser around my house last winter with 3"-4" of fresh snow. All flat here. It got much better traction then my Ford F250 (when in 2WD). I was surprised it does as good as it does. But I suspect anyone who owns a 4WD pickup knows how bad traction is in 2WD mode on snow or ice. I guess a Toyota RV is kind of like having a front-wheel drive going backwards. E.g. most of the weight is on the drive-axle. Or better yet - a BIG rear-engine, RWD VW Beetle from the 50s-60s.

The actual load-carrying capacity of the axles and bearings is the same from the 1960s up through 2000s. No matter if 2WD or 4WD. What changed as far as weight-bearing capacity is when Toyota enlarged the housing-tubes from 2 1/2" to 3 1/8" OD. I don't remember exactly what year that happened but I think if was 1982 or 1983. The wheel bearings themselves and the diameter of the actual axles remained unchanged. The weight-bearing capacity is just one factor though when it comes to gross-axle-rating. Another is how much torque the ring & pinion can handle and that is determined by things like ring-gear size, or amount of differential-pinions, etc. That's why most V6s and turbo 4s have four-pinion rears instead of 2 pinion rears. I think it was around 2010 when Toyota finally increased the diameter of the axles and wheel bearings for the Tacoma and Tundra. Before that - a 1970 Toyota pickup has the same axle diameters as something like a 2006 V8 Tundra or Tacoma.

By the way - Lifan was sued by Honda years back for selling motorcycles under the brand-name of Hongda. I think that is funnier then h*ll. It kind of reminds me when Henry Ford was ordered to stop using the "Ford" name on his own products because another el-cheapo company seized the name. It is why many tractors were "Fordsons" instead of "Fords." Regardless, the Lifan generator engine has no similarity to any Honda engines I know of.

HF still has two different Predator inverter-generators. At least they did yesterday when I was at the HF store in Traverse City. The smaller one with the 80 cc engine is at least sold as a "2000 peak/1600 watt running" unit and not a "2000." That engine is made by Lifan in China and I think Yamaha also uses that same Lifan engine in their EF2000IS inverter generator.

Why do you assume a Chinese company who has been making small engines longer then Honda, has to copy a Honda? I've compared a Lifan Chinese engine sold by Harbor Freight to the Honda of the same size. NO similarity. The HF engine has a steel cam gear, gear drive, and a conventional crankcase. The Honda GX100 has a plastic cam gear, a rubber timing belt, and an odd clam-shell crankcase. Completely different engines.