sweetleon

Including the face plate?

Thanks! I'll try to remove it with WD-40 this weekend and if my auto parts store doesn't have it I'll order the one from Amazon.

Thanks @Maineah! It's definitely rusted, as you can see in the photo on the carpet it's attached to. It's not just a friction fit but there are "teeth" from the metal plate that are bent to wrap around the light. I've bent them back open, but it still doesn't come out. Maybe some WD-40 will help. I can't seem to find anything exactly like it on Amazon, but this (link) seems pretty similar.

So I finally got around to replacing the interior light bulbs (1141/1156) with LEDs in my Sunrader shorty. It was pretty painless in the dinette, bathroom and berth as well as the light outside the door, but I'm having trouble getting to the bulbs in my kitchen range hood and the doorstep. I was able to "pull out" the fixture in the doorstep (see photo) but still can't get to the bulb. And I can't seem to figure out how to remove the plastic cover over the range hood light. Does anyone have suggestions for me? Thanks in advance, Lenny

Fair enough, but it solved the soft floor problem.

That chain is for the spare tire, which I believe is standard on all Toyota pickups and RVs of that era. Thanks for letting me know! If I can get the air bags on with the sway bars, I'll make sure they replace the bushings. But at the moment I'm leaning toward removing the sway bars in favor of air bags. Not sure how to answer that question. I'd say they look fine. Here's a couple of pictures of the RV from when I bought it 2 years ago (not full water tanks, tho). Cheers, Lenny

The ride IS really rough, which is why I want to add air bags. However, I don't believe the sway bars are making contact with the bump stops. That's just an optical illusion due to the angle of the photographs.

Exactly! 🎯

And a couple more:

Sorry it took so long to get this, Linda. Here are some more pictures.

I was hoping to install airbags on my Toyota Sunrader shorty, but it looks like there's a sway bar that'll prevent their installation. Has anyone solved this problem? Thanks!

I was doing a little cleaning on the exterior of my Sunrader and discovered that there's a crack at the top corner of one of the wraparound berth windows. I know those are notoriously troublesome, so I'm hoping to find a way to get this remediated before it gets any worse. And, as usual, I'm hoping somebody here has ideas. As you can see in the photo, it cracked and "escaped" the gasket a bit. Would it be safe to use a bottle jack (with a wood board at either end to distribute the pressure) to pry it open a bit and get the window back inside the gasket? If I could do that, I'd put some sort of epoxy on the crack to keep it from spreading. Thanks, Lenny

Got it! I had to physically bend the crimped ends of the bushings/collets to get the mechanism's faceplates apart.

Yes, I'm trying to fix the lock mechanism. Getting it out of the door was easy, but I can't get at the lock mechanism without removing the handle from it, and that won't seem to come off.

Unfortunately, the handle and plate don't seem to slide off for us (bc the handle is larger than the hole in the plate). I've attached some pictures and a video my friend Peter took of the door handle we're unable to remove. Hopefully someone will know the "1 simple trick" to detaching it. Thanks, Lenny WhatsApp_Video_2018-10-04_at_2_14.33_PM.mp4

Thanks for the excellent write-up @Lee & Joan! I've got the lock out of my 88 Sunrader (since it was closing but not locking) and I got the collets undone so the assembly is loose but can’t figure out how to get the handle off. No set screw or otherwise. Any suggestions? Thanks, Lenny

Hi @86Dolphino, I got a set of shelves at RV Doctor George last month when I passed thru Sacramento, so I'm not in the market anymore. They cost $20 plus CA sales tax and about an hour of rummaging thru the warehouse in July without air conditioning. So they're probaby "worth" $40 if I could've gotten them shipped to me instead of spending time and sweat. (The nice fellow running the place gave me a free bottle of cold water before sending me up to the warehouse to rummage, tho, which I very much appreciated.)

Given the quality of the work we've seen, I'd say it's underpriced. Maybe prices in Iowa are lower than here in California, but I'd expect to pay almost twice the $8,900 asking price for a Sunrader in that condition on the west coast.

@bwolfgti seems to be selling this "nicer than new" Sunrader on eBay: https://www.ebay.com/ulk/itm/401574734053

PS the worst of the cracks is too big to solder

Thanks everyone! I ordered the food grade stuff Linda recommended. I don't eat as much fresh veggies as I should, but I don't want to take any chances since I mostly take my kid camping in this rig.

The original Dometic fridge in my 1984 Sunrader has some cracks in the plastic inside. It's not a structural problem, but I suspect that it makes the fridge less efficient. I was thinking of applying some sort of epoxy over the cracks, but since it stores food I don't want to risk using something that might leech chemicals. Does anyone here have suggestions on what to use? As usual, your help is appreciated. I couldn't keep this thing on the road without you.

I'm about to install new speakers in my Sunrader shorty because the old ones are blown from 30+ years (and 196k miles) of use, and also because I've probably been playing my radio too loud to drown out the road noise. I'm also thinking of putting in a subwoofer so the speakers don't have to work so hard. But then I was talking to a friend about this, and he suggested that maybe I'm solving the wrong problem. Maybe I should do something about the road noise. Has anyone here done anything to mitigate road noise? I googled what folks have done for Toyota pickups, and there seems to be a lot of discussion and even an FAQ answer. Are the things folks do for pickups (e.g., Reflectix under the carpet or insulation for the hood, firewall and steering stem) sufficient? Does an RV need something else? As always, your insights are very much appreciated.

Well, the Fresnel lens works really well, so it looks like I won't be wiring it up to both the reverse and running lights. But it's good to know that a diode is what I'd need if I wanted to do that. Hat tip to @Gulfstream Greg on that bit of electrical knowledge sharing. And many thanks to all who've contributed to this discussion and my education on this forum.

Thanks everybody! I’ve ordered a replacement(?) Fresnel/fisheye lens for the untinted 8x10” area of my rear window. Hopefully that’ll suffice and I’ll be done with this project. Otherwise I’ll take a whack at using relays likes @WME suggests, though it sounds complicated. Also, I find that my display screen, which mounts on my rear view mirror and serves as a mirror when the camera is off, isn’t very easy to see in the daytime, so I’m not sure how helpful it’ll be when connected to running lights or turn signals. Either way, I’ll post an update after this weekend’s trip.