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The what did you do to your toyhome today thread


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In the last week I got new tires, replaced the old nonworking cassette player with a new cd player, changed oil, drained and refilled transmission twice, repaired the generator muffler, filled and flushed out water heater and tanks, replace rod in water heater. Checked for water leaks in tanks and plumbing and fired up water heater to make sure it works. By the end of this coming weekend I hope to get a rear carrier put on and get the one leak I found in a gray water valve fixed. The only thing I have left is to give the fridge a once over to see if it works. I might go do that now.

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No More Hyper-Flash

Finally tackled the flasher after putting on the LED tail lights. Pretty easy. To review : 86 Dolphin; flasher is behind kick panel on driver's side, two screws to remove panel. Flasher is green and does not want to come out, leave the cover on and keep prying and pulling straight out. It will come eventually. Notice which side is up. Now remove cover; snip or unsolder teeny little resistor in middle, close to outside edge. I unsoldered, didn't have snips small enough to get it. Snap cover back on, shove it back in. TaDa. No more quick flash.

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Aired tires, replaced the rest of my rusting fasteners with stainless. Found out one of the new plastic hold openers (propane tank cover) the spring is rusting, others are ok.
The original chromed ones were ok for rust but were replaced by the guy who painted it with the plastic ones. :(
Will start the search for the chrome replacements, they looked a lot better anyway.

john

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thanks. hoping to have mini done by spring. I should have the outside all replaced by October. then over the winter I can replace the inside.then spring go traveling Michigan . but thanks to everyone here with there stories of there minis and traveling .helps keep me motivated. been 5 1/2 months of weekends and just about every day during the week rebuilding the mini from the ground up.

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Working some more on my tall tool and supplies closet with 8 drawers and 2 shelves in it. Can't have a drawer low down because of the wheel well and can't have one up at the very top because of the Z shape at the top of the walls in a Sunrader means the drawers I am using would be too long. But the bottom shelf will hold my model maker's precision 4 inch table saw that is a little too wide and heavy for a drawer and the top shelf will store the vacuum cleaner hose for my built in cyclone vacuum system. The vacuum hose won't come down with a heavy clonk on my head all at once and it has no sharp edges.

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Photo above is of the two side panels with the drawer runners installed. More work to do on it yet, the shelves have to cut, cutout needed to clear the wheel well on one of the panels. I need to make the cleats that will tie the cabinet to the ceiling and the floor and top of the wheel well. Then assemble the sides and shelves at the workshop where I have a flat floor to work on, make some temporary bracing, take it apart and reassemble inside the motorhome. Nothing is really level or square in an older Sunrader so there is no surface to reference off of which means some of the cabinetry work has to be done elsewhere then reassembled just like they did in the factory when they built it. No doubt some shims will be required as the floor in the motorhome is not level. The finished face frame work will be done later on once all the basic cabinetry frames are installed throughout the Sunrader.

One extra thing to note about my ladder structure. Adhered to the uprights immediately below the drawer rails is an extra small block that is 3/4" thick. That is an important little feature. When the drawer are in the rails those blocks keep the rails from possible rotational stress under load. That kind of rotational movement could lead to the screws that attach the rails pulling out of the structure. So now those small blocks resist that movement and transfer the load back into the uprights instead of all the stress going onto 6 small screws in the drawer support rails.

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Karen, nice job on the closet walls. I like your idea better than the way I framed my closet. Took me forever and still a little flimsy . You are right there was not a level spot on my Sunrader with the floor and roof both bowing. You just about have to cut long and trim to contour.

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Dolphin Coach Door Lock

OK, I had two annoying problems with the 86 Dolphin coach door lock. One, the inside handle would hang down, wouldn't return to horizontal; so the tongue of the lock would stay in the door and wouldn't engage. So we'd have to pull it up manually to close the door. Two, it wouldn't lock; either with the key or with the push pin from the inside.

So I see two screws on the inside of the lock face, hopefully even I can't screw this up. I get the face off and start playing with the push pin lock. Oh. the push pin is actually a bolt and it had worked loose and wasn't engaging the slot that would lock the door. Tighten that up and it's fixed. Could've done that from the outside months ago when I first got the thing. Well you don't know what you don't know.

Then I lubed everything inside there and the handle now seems to want to stay up. Easy peasy for once. I also did a small crack and a chip in the windshield with the DIY kit. Mine never look as good as the pros but it's much better. Four little problems done, thank you very much.

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Karen, nice job on the closet walls. I like your idea better than the way I framed my closet. Took me forever and still a little flimsy . You are right there was not a level spot on my Sunrader with the floor and roof both bowing. You just about have to cut long and trim to contour.

You are right Roy and indeed I did cut long and trim to contour from the cardboard template. I used that approach so my layout of the "ladder" structure could be easily squared up while constructing it. I glued the three upright supports onto approx 24" wide by 72" tall plywood panels. So basically you cut a plywood panel to six feet long, cut it in half length wise and on each panel glue on 3 pieces of 1 x 2 by 6' long timbers. Minimal fasteners on those 1 x 2 to attach them to the plywood, adhesive does the real work.

This is an example of stress skin panel construction. The 1 x 2's are doing the work of transferring the loads down to the floor. The thin plywood is keeping the 1 x 2s aligned with each other and preventing them from racking. The work of the plywood sides is not for supporting the weight of the drawers, its primary work is for diagonal bracing.

I just took the panel that goes against the bathroom wall into the motorhome for a trial fit. Only minor adjustment was needed at the lower edge where the wall curves and the same thing just below the Z shaped beam. A few seconds work with my Japanese handsaw did the trick. Then I used a straight edge against the wheel well to transfer some tick marks onto panel. I will transfer those marks to the side panel that sits over the wheel well to cut the clearance for the wheel well.

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Got a dog walking job in my neighborhood for the labor day weekend! Now you might not think that is working on the motorhome but I will use the $$ to help purchase a new converter. Easy money as it is a slow moving, elderly black lab. Today I am making some tiny paper house kits in the color black for miniature Halloween haunted houses, pre-orders for a few of those is funding the rest of the money for the converter :holloween: .

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Got a dog walking job in my neighborhood for the labor day weekend! Now you might not think that is working on the motorhome but I will use the $$ to help purchase a new converter. Easy money as it is a slow moving, elderly black lab. Today I a making some tiny paper house kits in the color black for miniature Halloween haunted houses, pre-orders for a few of those is funding the rest of the money for the converter :holloween: .

I borrowed money from the kid to send away for my new converter kit. Can't wait. It says it should take 30 minutes. I figure that's about a full day for me. The first instruction is "Disconnect the battery". Heck, that's 20 minutes right there. That strap is hard to get loose. Have fun with the doggy.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bought my new converter today! It will take a week or so to get here. It was a good week for selling the tiny paper building kits so that funded the converter and a new starting battery.

Finally going to get around to assembling my storage closet today.

Got my new converter installed today! Ran the generator for half an hour and it took the battery from 30% to 80% charged. Didn't do anything before. Yahoo!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi
not sure if this is in right part of forum. went shopping after work in my toy at local supermarket. when trying to get around parked cars (not much space in uk car parks) an elderly man and his wife leapt out in front of me waving arms around. first thought id clipped a car. no he wanted to know where to buy spares for his 4runner based dolphin motorhome. so swapped email addresses and told him to sign up to our owners club (?). got moved on by store manager and trolly returners for blocking half of car park. small price to pay for signing up a new member. total of 7 that i know of in uk. so toyota motorhomes are still extremely rare in uk.

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Hi
during an internet search on ecomodders to try and improve aerodynamics common consensus is to fit a front air dam. so made a rough one up to test. did nothing for mpg :-(. But today in a 30+ mph cross wind well it tracked straight lean was a bit interesting. did my usual 50mph cruising speed without any wandering across lanes and buffeting from articks 40 ton lorries very little twitching. now planning a more professional front airdam. now need air bag repair/replacement for my 3 tm's to control lean.

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Hi

during an internet search on ecomodders to try and improve aerodynamics common consensus is to fit a front air dam. so made a rough one up to test. did nothing for mpg :-(. But today in a 30+ mph cross wind well it tracked straight lean was a bit interesting. did my usual 50mph cruising speed without any wandering across lanes and buffeting from articks 40 ton lorries very little twitching. now planning a more professional front airdam. now need air bag repair/replacement for my 3 tm's to control lean.

pictures?

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Hi

will try to take and up load photos tomorrow

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Hi

during an internet search on ecomodders to try and improve aerodynamics common consensus is to fit a front air dam. so made a rough one up to test. did nothing for mpg :-(. But today in a 30+ mph cross wind well it tracked straight lean was a bit interesting. did my usual 50mph cruising speed without any wandering across lanes and buffeting from articks 40 ton lorries very little twitching. now planning a more professional front airdam. now need air bag repair/replacement for my 3 tm's to control lean.

Don't forget side skirts, the airdam/sideskirts thing is to keep air from getting under the vehicle and causing drag.

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installed a 75watt solar panel & a new solar regulator

my old solar panel was a 15watt peace of junk I got burned on craigslist with

I get 3amps out of 75watts should be all I need to charge battery & run a stereo & charge mp3 player & charge phone

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Hi

fingers crossed this link works for my lashed up front airdam http://.783.photobucket.com/albums/yy117/

Thanks

dave

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Hi

having probs uploading photos. on help section to sort it.

post-7122-0-77777100-1412011841.jpg

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Hi

very similar to this borrowed photo.

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I've been playing the Princess and the Pea. I found those cushions to be a little hard for sleeping. I'm a poor old guy, so I bought one of them 10 buck foam pads. That helped a bit but not enough. So I went the next step up, the 20 buck foam pad with the half inch of memory foam. I put that on top of the other pad. And that seems about right. I slept on it the last three nights. Pretty nice.

I'd like to get a thicker memory foam topper, but my bed is the dinette bed in the back. When I need the dinette I got to move everything off my bed; blankets, pillows and pads to the son's bed in the front. So I don't really want any big old thing there that I have to fight with moving.

When the weather is nice, I don't even set up the dinette. We each got a chair and a little aluminum table and we sit outside. But when there's rain around, that back dinette is cool, got that big picture window to look out of, sit there, read, play games.

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The cab gets cold in winter time use. I cut a piece of Reflectix to go between the matress and the cab over. So no more cold butt in the middle of the night.

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I did a valve adjustment today only had to tighten #3 exhaust all others where pretty close to specs

also replaced fuel injectors last week..

RV is running better after tune-up

All ready for trip to Yosemite leave Saturday for a week..

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Winterized the screen door. Since I got my first RV in the spring it's been "open the coach door then open the screen door". Or yell at the son, "Close that screen door before the bugs get in!" So today I opened the coach door then opened the screen door and said to myself, "Dude, bug season is over". So I unscrewed the roller catch on the screen door. Now the the screen stays magnetically stuck to the coach door and I only have to open one door. Hey, sometimes it's the little things.

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put new lp tank in, sealed new rubber roof. put new fold out entrance step on. new straps for waste tanks and fuel fill neck. tomorrow cutting off old rear bumper and welding new one on. maybe seal the rest of mini. then start building storage shed for I can work on interior in the winter. then camp in the spring :D

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Finally getting back to work on my interior remodel. I set the new storage closet in place in my 18' Sunrader. It is in the same place as the original closet, adjacent to the one piece fiberglass bathroom. The face frames on my cabinetry will not be installed until after I have all the basic cabinet structures in place.

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The closet consist of two sides with ladder like structures to hold the drawer runners. There are three shelves that keep the width of the cabinet consistent. The drawers are Cambro translucent food tray pans. Those are available from restaurant supply stores. They are nice and thick but light in weight. A nice size, plenty big for holding folded clothes, food, kitchen items and tools. The drawer size determined both the width and the depth of the closet, it was custom designed to fit them and the depth 21" plus 3 inches space behind the drawers for clearance of the bathroom vent pipe worked out for a perfect 2' deep closet. That width matches the countertop width that will be at one side of the closet. The runners are made from PVC extrusion that is used to cap panels of PVC lattice, that material came from Home Depot, I trimmed the width to work with the width of the edges of the food tray pans. The food trays are made to slide into runners on racks. It was an easy solution for drawers in my closet versus building wood drawers installed with heavy metal runners. Plus with the plastic runners and plastic drawers they will slide without ever binding up, no wearing of the surfaces from friction, easy to wash out the drawer and no rattles or squeaks.

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This cabinet is screwed in with some blocking at the moment. I will need to be able to do some minor positional shifting as I add in more cabinets around it before I adhere permanent blocking to the cabinet. One side of the cabinet rests over the wheel well so it was jigsaw trimmed to fit at that lower edge. The blocking at the base of that side will be epoxied to the surface of the fiberglass wheel well then screws from the cabinet into it. All the other blocking is adhered to the cabinet and then screwed into the ceiling or floor.

The drawers will hit a vertical stop at the back edge. They don't extend all the way back to the wall as there is both plumbing and electrical back there so there is a 3 inch gap between the back of the drawers and the wall. I will install some removable pouches on the wall of the coach behind the drawers for infrequently accessed items. The drawers are very easy to remove to gain access to that area. My Sunrader will function as a mobile workshop studio so I will carry some odds and ends of materials with me for making and shipping things so those removable pouches will come in handy.

I am already appreciating having the new drawers for holding supplies and tools used in the rest of the remodel. Next up is the cabinet just aft of the closet.

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