kevinchinook

Linda, I have both a 77 Chinook and 86 Sunrader Adventure

Thank you! I wasn't aware my rig had vehicle A/C. I'll have to see if it worked. When I first picked up the truck I drove it home during the night and turned on the heater and blew so much dust in the air I turned it off and haven't bothered to try any of the hvac since.

Hello, Can anyone tell me what the circled part is please? I recently had tie rod ends, gas shocks, tires, steering, alignment serviced. Radiator recycle and oil change. Thinking about bringing it back in for rear dif fluid and transmission fluid. I'm eager to actually start using my little camper lol. First trip will be Riverside, California to my sister's place in San Diego for Thanksgiving. I need to install my bigger side bears and led brake lights beforehand.

Glad you got it home safe and you took my suggestion with the straps. I was lucky mine popped up at relatively low speed and didn't damage too much. I'd heard stories of others being completely ripped off. I eventually installed exterior rubber trailer latches to secure the pop-top. Got the kind that had 4 screw holes in each mount and used silkaflex in the screw holes. 2 latches in front and 2 in back. Really secure now.

Throw a tie down strap OVER THE TOP of the camper too. Trust me on this one. The interior straps holding the pop-top down may appear in great condition but they can fail easily, the metal bites can fail, the screws holding the straps can be rusted and fail, the material the screws are in could be corroded and lead to failure. If the pop-top parachutes on the freeway its a painful problem.

There are a couple guys in Colorado who have been doing some amazing Chinook/Sunrader conversions to newer 4x4 trucks and I know they have been scooping up a lot of the craigslist postings all over the US. Might be a good home if you are interested in seeing it restored and used.

Thanks for the input ya'll. I appreciate the help. So here's where I'm at: I'm pretty much cool with driving it "stock" but I want to start bringing my girlfriend on trips so I wanted to make sure I could trust the brakes/tires going over the grapevine or up and down mountains. My Sunrader is 4x2 automatic with 5-bolt front and 6-bolt free-float rear. Adventure 1 model. I really have no idea how well these things can stop because this is the only one I've driven and I bought it and drove it the 500 miles home with relatively no issues(lucky me?). It was a bear to stop but keeping it a low gear and getting passed by semis meant I had a lot of room to stop and the weight/tranny seem to keep slow enough not to worry. Also vibrated like hell over any sort of bumps, even trying to accelerate through them. Thinking of shelling out a couple grand for tires, brakes suspension and tuneup from the Yotamasters here in socal which is what led me to bigger wheels. Might just have one of the guys at the yota shop take it around the block and tell me what they think I should do. Also, my name is Kevinchinook because my grandpa had a 76 chinook that was his daily driver. I bought a nice chinook on craigslist in AZ last year but was foolish and kind of scammed so I'm left with a big paperweight in my driveway without a title.

Thank you for the response. That makes sense. I will call them tomorrow.

Hey all, I have a 1986 22RE automatic 4x2 Sunrader 18ft with the 6 lug free float dually rear and 14" wheels. I want to upgrade to 15" wheels as well as install this disc conversion for the front brakes (Don't want to put my girlfriend in something I cant stop confidently in) Lucky me https://www.customandcommercialwheel.com/ is just up the freeway about 10 minutes away. In looking at this literature on their website I see "Micro Mini Home 86 UP (6x7 1/4)" Is this the right one or do they have to do some sort of fabrication?

Good luck. I would request really good pictured of the tires. I drove from CA to AZ to pickup my Chinook. Owner swore up and down the tires were good but when I go there they were not safe to drive on at all. You will NOT find same day tires available, so have a plan in place for that.