Boots

On this forum, there is a compiled list of parts, including brakes, and associated fittings: calipers, pads etc. Look up a fellow forum contributor: defrag4 date on start page is February 1, 2019. Lots of parts listed and other useful information. SECTION IS : Toyota PARTS NUMBERS FOR BRAKES, AXLES, SUSPENSION ETC. I didn't count the pages, but there has to be twenty pages or so, single page. Hope this is helpful. Found in;

Brian

It depends. Almost any generator will work, if it is small enough... However, it may not be able to produce enough power to satisfy your rv's needs. So start by determining what kind of power you need, list these appliances and circuits and amperage. Add that up and start with that. Let me know when that is finished. Boots

Fred, the primary reason the term "Not Secure" is placed on the browser is because the site owner, or the site provider have not or cannot set up the security settings, in a way that the site is shown with the https:// prefix. This does not mean that it is compromised and it very unlikely it has been hacked or hi-jacked. The quickest and easiest way to instigate a high level of security (i.e. https:// prefix) is to start using either a different browser, which can accept an app from a web store that forces the browser to change up the browser security level to the secured state. So some of the browsers that can accept this extension (app) are Chrome (latest addition) Brave, and Firefox. In addition, you might consider what type of antivirus software you are using, if it enforces banners, ads, cookies etc., blocking. Finally examine your antivirus /security and determine if it set up to reduce ad blocking and cookies that increase the likeihood of ads. If it does not and you are using "free" anti-virus software, consider buying one of the more recognized versions out there. Boots. This levels of security, might also be found in the "settings of the browsers themselves.

Tell me about what you want to do and perhaps I can recommend some solutions. First off though, what is your budget for this project, next do you have the tools to undertake this work and lastly is there a reason that you want to do use solar? One last item, is the term "110" referring to a standard electric refrigerator that is normally plugged into a wall outlet? Boots

Send me aa picture, there is an Onan dealship where I live on Vancouver Island and I may be able to help you. Send me any name plate information from the generator. I have an Onan generator in my rig as well. Boots.

Hi and thanks again, This is useful information and I will see if my local supplier can provide the adapters. Boots Boots

Thank you, I have been considering doing this, and I have all the tools and fittings for the pex system. I will try to post when I have the solution and configuration done. Boots

So all great ideas about these valves (and their potential for draining) - but no one said (a) who makes them. (b) where can you buy them or get a replacement. (d) an alternative valve assembly. And really to top off the cake how about saying what a valve like this might cost. There is that so hard. Boots

Hi all, My understanding of the 1986 et al, model is that is suffered from breaking axles, because the weight of the whole RV exceeds the rating of the axle. I seen pictures of this on this forum, and shows some poor soul on a road somewhere with an axle sticking out of the rear housing about three feet. I will say that the four cylinder R22 engine is relatively bullet proof, very durable and probably good fuel economy, however, it is way too under powered to haul the toy, around and up in the higher altitudes. I had one but only ran it on the west coast and took my time. The newer models had the famous Toyota V-6 and I have a 1991 model which is great, HOWEVER, it suffers from a fatal flaw, in that Toyota (during the lead up to switching up to the V6 had abruptly changed our the head gaskets from asbestos material to a Metal composite head gasket. That resulted in engine failures after a long period of time, and required a major engine rebuilt. I know because my 1990 model blew up as we were leaving a gas station (in 2015) and required a delay of five days to rebuild it. THE GOOD NEWS is that Toyota had a secret warranty (yes that is why you buy from Toyota) and THIRTY YEARS later they reimbursed the nearly 4500 cost when I applied for it AND they did it with a hand shake, smile and a thank you for trusting them. Keep this in mind.

With respect to fibreglass use, it is always good to protect yourself, AND your family. Fibreglass is an irritant, in more than topical irritation; it is also known to cause lung damage AND the fumes from the components are known (because I met three individuals who are disabled now) to have suffered heart damage. To that end, and to provide the next step in protection, I would advise you all wear N95 or N100 half mask fitted breathing apparatus. Next to keep your family free of any further damage, you strip off outside and pack your clothes in a clear plastic bag, to be washed independently of normal clothes washing AND you immediately shower before going back to your normal routines. Follow this advise and you should be relatively safe.

I plan to remedy that in a big way. I am removing the metal roof and all that is attached, and install a custom designed truss system to raise the roof up approximately 3 inches above the existing roof line (remember that means it will increase the clearance height by that amount) and I plan on making the trusses out of 3/4 marine plywood sandwiching a 3/8 inch aluminum plate. Skinning the roof will be the next part, and I will try out 3/16 Honduran plywood, two overlapping sections. I am considering laying a "Peel and Stick" roof membrane on top of that and then something fabric like EDPM. To counter the weight gain, I plan on leaving the A/C off the roof and adding something like a Fantastic Fan to provide circulation.

Welcome to the world of Toyota RVing! What motor does your rig have? 2.4 or V6? And what is the axle type? Single Tire or Duals? If your engine is a V-6, Toyota has a secret warranty, whereby if you qualify, they will rebuild the top end, head gaskets etc for free. Check in with a Toyota Dealer in your area for further information. Enjoy your travels. Brian

Hi, I am about to re-roof and prepare for solar panels. So this is a timely piece of information. I am removing my entire roof and will fabricate a number of curved roof struts (trusses) that will do a number of things for me) and so I will share on this site how I went about this. This is a major over haul on a 1990 Toyota Warrior, but I am sure this can be done on all most any rig. First a comment on your proposed approach. Lay any material on the flat (as you have done) will structurally be less rigid (think of 2x4 laying flat and then standing on them) and so I would suggest standing these metal struts on edge, for substantial increase in strength and support. I am using either rectangular aluminum tubing (no rusting) and/or a sandwich of two 1`/2 inch plywood with a flat stock of aluminum 1/4 inch plate. I will cut this out with a template which at the peak will be approximately 4 inches thick. Next, is that you are placing this over an existing ("old") roof and by the look of it, it is already sagging. Aside from the obvious rain water collecting in the center of the roof line, it says to me that the roof support (?) has nearly failed and that warrants a more robust solution. As the roof continues to sag, the seals around the vents, exhaust fans etc will also fail, allowing more and more rain water to seep inside. Something you do not want to deal with. I will be raising my roof and sloping it from the front to the back (in addition to arching from side to side) this will give me an additional interior head room and allow for all the wiring and cabling for the solar panels inside and down to the batteries. Glad to see you taking this on, because you will save a ton of money, and have a lot of fun doing this. Good luck. Brian

Hi, My first question is whether you have a temperature guage which measures the temperature as it leaves the tranny. If you don't know that it won't help to add anything. I installed a "tow truck gauge" which is so named because of the higher temperature ranges - most gauges read only to 285 and a towtruck reads to 400 F. I read an article on the net which showed a graph of transmission failures at higher temperatures. Basically if you let your tranny go up above 285 for 30 minutes, you will ruin your transmission. at 400F you have about 2000 miles before failure. Boots

Hi Steve, From my understanding of battery charging, you should not charge any battery at a rate greater than 10% of your battery's rating. So say you have a battery rated at 100 Ah (20hr rating) you should select a charger which is set to charge at 10 amps constant (and the Cteks are a good multistage charger with tightly controlled amperages) - another factor which is very important is battery temperature. So chargers / controllers have a temperature sensor which is attached to the battery case. If for some reason you are charging at a rate higher than the recommended charging rate (say 25 amps) the battery's temperature will rise and can cause battery damage, including shortening the life of the battery / loss of warranty. Todays modern solar panels have (in the bright sunlight) an output of 19volts DC which is then modulated by a controller down to the recommended volts (see 4 stage chargers) and this is how you never have to worry about solar DC voltage output for the most part. For more here is a basic explanation: http:\www.freesunpower\chargecontrollers.php and here is a YouTube video with a good over of a MPPT controller. Look up Morningstar TriStar MPPT 60 amp unit. This may not be the exact model for your RV system but it is information. Another source is Altestore.com / look up Morningstar. Not this unit can handle up to 36 volts (three 12 volt solar panels in series) Brian

Hi Derek, Yes sometimes these things are difficult to find and then sometimes not, here is a similar AC unit for an RV with it's specs. Time to find under one minute on the good ol internet. "Coleman 15000 BTU roof top AC, draws 16 amps cooling and 16 amps with heating strip. Operates on 110 volt AC. The specs did not clarify whether the 16 amps was AC or DV tho. Off to look at other examples. Brian

Hi You don't say what type of rig you have, however, in your manual it should list the electrical loads for your air conditioning unit. If the air condition is working normally, then the load should remain constant (it might be a higher draw when it initially starts) - so as other's has stated, there are only a small list of potentially trouble spots. One as mentioned is that if the AC (shore power) voltage drops down, the current load has to go up. A number of things happen when this occurs; first off if the current load is too high there is a safety - high amperage cut out relay (in some models) which will lock out the shore power. It may be an automatic reset, and when the relay is off for a while (it cools down) it will reset and the power is restored. The second thing that can occur is the wiring carrying the increased current load, may heat up; that is not a good thing and lastly what ever was causing the interruption has returned to normal conditions, all requirements are satisfied and everyone is happy One question, in your original statement you said your were on "shore power" and 16th May you said the change over mechanism kicked in after you drove some miles. So that is a different condition, what changed? Brian

For what its worth, some Dometics are repairable; even if the mechanic says it is not. Here is the deal, these type of coolers are really absorption coolers, not refrigeration systems. Refrigerators use a compressor to pressure a refrigerant gas and then force it through a small opening (some call this a king valve or Schroder valve) which then allows the gas to expand from a hot liquid to a cold gas, this gas is the circulated through coils, which in turn transfers the cold to the interior of the refrigerator. Dometics (and other similar models) use something called an absorption column, and in a way the design approach is similar it is in the method the difference is obvious. A small (propane fueled) flame is used to heat a line which contains chemicals, that carry the heat up into the absorption chamber (this is an overly simplified explanation) where the pressurized liquid is forced through a small orifice, from there it expands, from hot liquid to cold gas, it releases it energy to the coils in the frig, much the same way as a regular refrigerator works. The difference is there is no compressor in an absorption unit. This makes for a remarkably simple system which is very energy efficient system. Why do Dometics stop, because there are some chemicals in its system, which convert to a mineral crystal that eventually blocks the flow through the system, hence a dead system. I don't know about where you live but ask around and see if there is a company or a business who will open the system and clean out these crystals or replace the passage way tubing. Good luck. Boots

First off great that you have the skills to replace the propane system, however, there is a fatal flaw in your plan. Your vehicle insurance. If you do the work and you are not a licensed gas fitter or registered RV appliance mechanic with a gas certification and you have an accident or worse yet a propane fire, you will have zero insurance coverage, let me repeat that no insurance coverage. Even if you do not get in an accident and instead get pulled over by commercial truck inspectors (as happened to me on two occasions) and they find you did the work or they find fault with it, they will make you pull over, and they will tow your RV to an impound lot. Think about this, before attempting this work. Boots

This is just plainly a very very very bad idea. Just this last winter, here where I live, two fellows had bought a sail boat, and they did not want to pay for utilities, so they brought a ventless kerosene heater. Two days later they found both of these men dead from carbon monoxide poisoning...yep they saved a lot of money and left behind two families to mourn their passing. Throw your ventless heaters out. Boots

Before you start this project, consider whether you need a larger battery, which then allows you to consider increasing the battery box size (to a certain point) and then you go from there and decide how you will build it. Next is the suspension system, if you are handy, you could weld a sturdy frame which is large enough to hold the box. Word of Wisdom. Last September, I learned this lesson the hard way. I managed to squeeze a 78 lb battery into the existing coach battery box. Next step get into an accident. Next pick up battery box, and battery 200, yes, you heard me, 200 ft down the road. Last step, buy new 275.00 battery and new 300 dollar battery box. Lesson learned. Boots

Depending on your new battery (deep cycle, AGM, gel) all have specific needs and specifications for charging. The most current models (general you find the chargers in Marine Stores) have four stage chargers, each stage is standardized, but the cut in and cut out voltage is different for each different type of battery. Some of the more expensive model chargers are also equipped with a remote battery temperature monitor which operates independent of charging stage. The reason is as the charger is supplying a charge, it may increase the current, which in turn can overheat your expensive batteries. Overheating will dramatically shorten the life of your battery. The charger will sense a rise in battery internal temperature and cut back on the current being applied. You may not experience this if for instance you are in a cooler part of the country, or winter camping, the heat can be dissipated and no harm done, the charger will stay with its calculation of how much current to the battery. Now you are in a hot part of the country, and now there is a different set of circumstances, and the battery charger will scale back. On the other side, I have seen folks who have gone with the maintainer type chargers (typically around 30.00 dollars) and they put out about 2.5 amps. Over the long haul, what may happen is sulphurization, or sulphur coating overall on the battery plates. Once this has happened, the battery is compromised, will not hold a charge and what typically happens the owner thinks more is better leaves it on and boils off the electrolyte in the battery and in the end destroys the battery. Boot. Invest in either a multistage charger built in to the convertor, (the best choice) or buy a 4 stage charger and connect it manually.

Convertor woes, So if you have the original converter it will likely be a Parallax model, 6300 and they do fail after a while, and worse sometimes will short out and I have seen one post showing a burnt floor under it. Parallax makes several direct replacements one of them is 7300 and another model I can't recall the model number. Now onto your comment about the battery; taking a multimeter and testing the voltage is a very poor indication of the battery's condition. Only when a load (current draw) is applied can you see the batteries state (or capacity) For example if you have a fully charged battery your voltage should be close to 14.4 volts DC. If you then turn on say a (DC) coffee maker and it drew 20 amps, this means that you are drawing 14.4 volts x 20 amps or 288 watts. now depending on your battery state (or health) it will supply that for a period of time (let's say 15 minutes) and then the voltage will drop by some variable number; for this example say to 13. volts. A battery supply company has a meter which does basically the same thing, and their meter shows that state (good, poor or bad etc.) Now if you battery is not fully charged, or is discharged say to 12.5 volts, and you try to draw the same current - 20 amps you will only get 250 watts, and as you try to sustain that draw your voltage will drop even lower, causing the battery to overheat or fail. Time to rethink how to approach this, and if in doubt have the load test. Checking the ground wire(s) is an excellent suggestion as well. Boots