gmg

Before replacing my tires, I had 195/70r14 tires on the front. I actually happened to measure the width difference under load where the bulge out and it was right around 3/4" but were slightly under inflated. It would be very close to rubbing with the duallys if they are not kept at 60 psi and your rig is heavy. If your rig is light it may be a non issue.

Good find! Definitely another option which is good when we have so few options. If anyone is going for a more aggressive tread, I would argue these are the way to go. https://simpletire.com/specialty-tires-of-america-e7814lt-lb3a5-tires I have them on my rader for a week now (thanks to soneones suggestion on here) and am seriously impressed. Mostly with the 4 ply side walls and bias ply build. This adds a lot of rigidity to the side walls which has made a HUGE difference in stability. I do have to say, they probably hurt me slightly on fuel economy and a little noise, as expected with a tread like this. Also after sitting for even an hour they will get flat spots so you get a lot of vibrations for the first few miles of driving.

That is one incredible find... I am jealous

Same kind of power could be had out of a 2.0 vw TDI for like $3k total and around 350#... Let's be real though, saying you have a Cummins powered toyhome would be dope!

I can not find it right now but someone on here fully removed and reglassed in an entire new floor. It was a lot of work but no point in skimping out now if you are willing to put in the work. I really do not see any problem with dropping the floor other then shifting your center of gravity up. It would be no worse than what I am dealing with as my reinforcement shifted the camper shell up a two inches.

I lifted my shell as well to reinforce the floor on my 79. May want to cast a critical eye on the floor. Yours looks like it has collapsed a bit like mine. While it is off you may want to check it out as now would be the time to work on it. http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/index.php?/topic/10508-79-sunrader-cab-crack

I think the simplest and tidiest way would be to ditch the power center. Get the lead acid batteries you want. Wire a fuse box directly to your battery (+) and a ground block hooked up (-) as well. You can run all of your 12v power using the fuse box and ground block. This gives you the ability to easily and safely add whatever you want in the future, including 12v cigarette sockets, usb or fans. Added benefit you only have two wires running to your battery for all your 12v loads. Then for shore power/ac power look for a inverter/charger unit. These do most everything for you. When on battery power, you have an inverter for ac power. Shore power runs into the inverter/charger unit and has a built in transfer switch. When you are plugged in, shore power will run your ac power and charge your batteries. You can then run a line to hook up your house battery bank to the car battery. On this line I am a big fan of smart relays, which sense the voltage on both the car battery and house battery. If either of them go above a certain voltage (I think mine is 13.6v) the relay will close allowing the batteries to be connected. This is nice as it allows charging in both directions. So your car battery will get trickle charged from solar and shore power and house bank will get charged from alternator. If you want I can give you links to these different things.

I will write something up with details. But to answer your specific questions. 1. The TDI alh is found in all 1999.5-2003 Jetta/Beetle/Golf TDIs. I can help with questions on selecting a good donor. Donor car will greatly reduce costs as sourcing all of the additional parts can get expensive and time consuming. If you want to put in a fully rebuilt TDI alh engine and don't supply a donor vehicle, the swap can still be done but additional costs would be incurred as I would build a wiring harness from scratch and have to source additional parts. 2. Swap would be done on Whidbey Island in Washington. 3. I anticipate conversions taking 4-6 weeks. This is mostly due to as parts get placed, clearances can be determined then more parts can be sourced and waiting on parts takes time. Again be more time if you want to start with a new rebuilt engine with no donor vehicle. 4. If you want to keep engine stock and no tune (as I have done) you are looking at very similar performance to 22re (slightly less HP but more torque). But you will get fuel economy around 25 mpg cruising at 55mph (this drops to around 22-23 at 60-65 and hammering it up hills). Since I would have the engine out, I would do the timing belt, seals and any power upgrades for nothing more than parts cost. Injectors, vnt17 turbo and a tune can support up to 150hp and 270ftlbs of torque (aka flying up hills at 60 all day long). This kind of power would also necessitate a higher torque clutch which I can source. Lots of little things would also get done during this process. For instance engine bay would get cleaned and painted first thing. Mostly because I hate working in a rusted engine bay! I would probably not go as far as a conversion kit. The biggest ticket item, the adapter plate and flywheel, are already available. The hardest part about an engine swap is the hundreds of little details that go into it. I fabricated so many small little things that were unique to my installation. Let's just say I have a healthy respect for good car engineers who can fit so much in a small engine bay. This is a small engine in a what I thought was a large engine bay but fitting everything was a game of Tetris.

I am going to start offering my services for doing engine swaps! As I am finishing up school and going to be starting up my own software company, I am going to be starting up a side business to fund my startup costs (aka living expenses) for a couple years. I have figuring out engine work as it is a great escape from sitting in front of the computer. I want to gauge interest of individuals here who want to re-power their toy homes with diesels. At this point, I would do the same swap I did (TDI alh) or an om617. To make the swap easier for me and cheaper for you, running donor vehicle would need to be supplied. Initially will only be doing one swap per quarter. First swap would start in October. PM me to work out details and pricing.

I was wondering the same thing! I started digging and found out they still make quite a few. Mostly larger off road tires (very popular in the rock crawler crowd) and motorcycles. With the mention of bias ply tires, do you find these to make driving a little more difficult? Do you find these tires following grooves in the road creating more lateral movement going down the highway? I imagine having the duallys in the rear probably help to bridge over a lot of the uneven parts but I could imagine the front wheels having issues with this.

These are exactly what I need! How has the tread been holding up?

Not Greg, its Gabe fyi haha. I have not started seriously looking yet. Weather is pretty crummy where I am, so no swap in the near future. I think you may have more success with a gm 14 bolt as they seem to be more common. Here is some good information on 14 bolts and the dimensions. https://www.roundforge.com/articles/14-bolt-axles-differences-between-srw-drw-and-cc/ I would just be sure to look for a dually purely for the stability. Also look for dana 70 axles as these typically have disk brakes which may be nice to have.

If you went a dana or gm 14 bolt, swapping gear ratios to match would have been pretty easy. And these axles can be found every where for relatively cheap. Honestly after seeing that build, if you would have posted something on here about the handling, I would have done a swap for you in exchange for supplying me with parts and coffee. And that offer stands if Amelia ever finds her way back!

Also second the question about the sway bar. That could have been a major factor.

Was completely remodeling a sunrader to live out of at the same time you were posting your initial videos. Was definitely lusting after that 4x4. Sucks when I heard you sold it after all that impressive work. My two cents, whatever it is worth in hindsight after you sold it, is that axle was just too narrow to be running single wheels on. Any improvements to the suspension would be a band aid fix. If the stance in the rear was about 6 inches wider on each side, it would have been manageable. I know you wanted matching lug patterns. But if you rocked duallys, all that would really be needed is a spare for the front. Even though you sold it, I really appreciate you sharing your experience.

Stage 1 is typically done without any physical upgrades and gets you to 110hp/180 ftlbs. You can get all the way up to 135hp/235 ftlbs. with just injectors. Beyond that you are looking at a larger turbo. In heavy rigs like ours though, I do not think I would put in larger injectors without a larger turbo, as exhaust gas temperatures would become an issue. You are probably looking at $1500 for turbo and injectors that will allow you to get in the 120-150hp and 200-275 ft lbs of torque range. Have no idea on longevity of a setup like this but I would guess that the engine would still reliably go 300,000 mi if EGT are kept in check and routine maintenance is done religiously.

Figured it is time for an update. Man this thing has given me some headaches in the last couple months! Driving to Seattle from Idaho for thanksgiving, the alternator went out after a few hours on the road. Luckly I had a large house bank to limp us to the next town with an Oreilly's where I put a new alternator in. This did require removing the radiators and ended up being a 4 hour job in 20 degree weather. The next morning, not even 5 miles down the interstate, there was a loud clunk, the feeling like we ran something over and the sunrader started jerking and shuddering. I thought the engine grenaded and my stomach sank! It ended up being some oil that got thrown up onto the clutch. I think the clutch was damaged as I could barely get it into gear and grinding into 1st and second. I limp it to seattle. Mind you this entire time the engine was going into limp mode and I had very little power. My initial inspection led me to believe it was the rear main seal that was leaking. So I pull the engine and find this was not the case. It was in fact the main seal around the input shaft of the transmission. I seal this up and in goes a new clutch. Sadly the 1st, 2nd and 3rd gear syncros are kaput. This transmission was a junkyard transmission so I knew it was going to have to be replaced at some point but not this early. This was determined on thanksgiving day so no chance of sourcing a new transmission. I had to leave our home in Seattle for three weeks and headed back to Idaho. At this point I want to take this thing out back and put it out of its misery! Over that three weeks I did a lot of research to figure out how to diagnose my limp mode issue. Also got everything to do a complete timing belt job and do all routine maintenance items as I had no idea when these were last done. I came back to seattle ready to get this running well. One of the greatest things about the tdi engine, is the online community and wealth of information out there. Also having VCDS to log any engine sensor and access all of the ECM data makes working on a more complex engine much simpler. I was able to trace my limp mode issues to a poor connection in the MAF sensor connector. Got a new connector, did the timing belt job and other routine maintenance. In doing the timing belt job, I realized that the person who did the timing belt previously did not do it correctly. The cam was slightly out of time and the injection timing was highly retarded (which would cause lower power and poor fuel economy). Everything got fixed and a new transmission was put in. I now have almost a 1000 miles on it since doing the work. Not once have I gotten limp mode and all I can say now is this thing is a blast! This engine is bone stock so only has 90hp and 155ft lbs. of torque (similar to a 22r). So on very steep hills I am only going up the hill at 40 mph in 3rd (not pushing the engine hard). However, on gradual hills on the interstate, I can power up those things in 5th gear at 60 mph. This was not possible before. All of these miles have been fully loaded at just under 6000 lbs. At this point, I am not going to tune the engine or do any performance upgrades. I think I will take the fuel economy and longevity over going 60 up steep hills. Wish I could say something more certain about fuel economy over those 1000 miles but sadly the speedo cable broke within the first 10 miles of finishing all of this work. Using mile markers though, I am certain I am well into the 20's mpg (I estimated around 22-23 mpg). I am finally enjoying my time driving this thing as I am not always on edge thinking when is it going to go into limp mode or worried about the timing belt going and destroying the engine. Finally, here are some pictures of my sunrader. I will post some interior pictures at some point as this has undergone a total overhaul and remodel, beyond just the engine.

Call me crazy but I already have the proper toyota one ton axle but may be swapping it out for a chevy 14 bolt or dana 70 rear axle. Want to have more wheel/tire options, better supply of parts and better brakes, plus planning a 4wd conversion (with a dana 60 in the front). If you are interested in doing a non traditional rear axle swap, I can start passing along information as I find it. I will probably be doing this swap in a few months. I will be sure to start a new thread detailing this swap. If you want to stick with the toyota axle, my axle and 4 wheels (plus spare) will be available in a few months. It would be coming off a 1979 sunrader with the same generation truck as yours so should be close to a drop in swap.

For you Linda, I may entertain the idea in a couple years. Next summer I already have an om617 swap into a jeep lined up for a good friend. That following spring or summer, I could do it. I think the second swap would be much easier.

Thought I fixed the leaks in the tank so filled up. Still minor leak but I was able to get an accurate fuel economy reading. 23.76 mpg. Again this does not take into consideration the substantial amount of fuel that leaked out. Was also a lot of idling and probably 70 miles of city driving. I now definitely forsee regularly getting 30+ mpg.

That is them! Honestly that is bada**! Dont think I would enjoy driving that though. I would be sketched out the whole time.

Only going up to 29" tires. So only 1-1/2" of additional clearance on all sides. I also currently have a 2" body lift so clearance shouldn't be an issue.

Want to get peoples opinions. Save you from details but I am exploring getting bigger tires on my 18' sunrader. I am interested in wheels that are readily available. I stumbled upon 16" sprinter van 3500 dually wheels which have a 6×205mm bolt pattern. They are cheap and plentiful. These would require an adapter to use. In my research, I have found adapters fail due to a few key things: 1. Come completely loose and wheel comes off 2. Cheap casted aluminum adapters break 3. Play in adapter on hub leads to bolts shearing off The first point can be addressed by thread locker and properly torqueing lug nuts holding adapter on. The second and third points can be solved with quality custom hub centric adapters and even steel ones can be made. At that point, the adapter itself is probably significantly stronger than the wheels themselves. Now the weak link may be the axle and/or wheel bearings. Pushing the wheels further out from the hub will no doubt add some additional stress. I called a guy who makes these adapters in Nevada and as soon as I said 6x7.25 he knew it was for a toyota motorhome. He has made them before so someone out there is using them. What does everyone think? Is this a disaster waiting to happen or worth a shot?

Oh I got the vagcom! Best few hundred bucks I spent! Took 10 minutes to figure out I had a bad maf sensor which was also causing limp mode. Makes diagnosing problems very easy. Will also make tuning and future upgrades for power and efficiency easy. It is crazy how efficient these engines are. Was poking through tdi forums and someone did a very good job comparing total efficiency between a tdi alh and the prius drive system. The tdi was the clear winner in total efficiency. Your experience speaks to that as I dont know of anyone who got 57 mpg in a prius!

That is definitely the plan! Turbo works under light load so driving on flats it kicks in and nothing but sh*t eating grins on my face! At this point I will not be surprised to see 30mpg on a tank. One problem I am having is with final drive ratio in 5th, I am up at 2800 rpm at 60. I want to be down aroubd 2400-2500. I can not find any information on any gearing smaller than 4.1 in the differntial for the one ton axle. Anyone know if 3.73 or something similar exists? If not, looks like I may be getting custom wheels and bigger tires. That will probably be worth 1-2 mpg increase on the flats.