JustJosh

FYI to everyone. This sold to the first people who actually came and looked at it for $7000. Thank you everyone for your help and advice over the last year and a half. I wish my visit wasn't so short, but family needs are the priority. 1986 Toyota Escaper RV. 72906 original miles. Manual transmission. $7,900 Runs great. I’ve only had it about 1.5 years, but a lot of the expensive work that comes with age has already been done. The time has come for our family to move, and the new house doesn’t have a space to store it. • Correct 6-lug dually axle. • Electrical system works. • House AC works. • Water, toilet, and tanks work. • Refrigerator works on electric, but never attempted to operate on gas. • The burners on the stove works, but never lit the oven, and the gas has never been updated. • I have never attempted to start the hot water heater, but neither has anyone else in a long time. It probably doesn’t work. • Comes with cover, hitch bag, leveling blocks, water hose and pressure regulator, fire extinguisher and few other odds and ends. Recent Work: • Exhaust system repair (2020). • New house battery (2020). • New tires (2021) • New Leaf springs (Old Man Emu by ARB CS010R) (2021) • New shocks (2021). • New front and rear brakes (2021). • New spark plugs, wires, and cap (2021). • Steering stabilizer kit (2021). • New truck Battery (2022). Keep in Mind: The one thing that I didn’t get around to addressing while I've worked on it during the time I have owned it is the roof and windows. Over the years, leaks have been addressed as they arise with a variety of caulking and rubber sealant paint. To my knowledge, it is not currently leaking. If Interested, contact me through Craigslist: https://janesville.craigslist.org/rvs/d/fort-atkinson-1986-toyota-escaper-rv/7474960377.html Terms of Sale: Cash or bank check only. No electronic forms of payment. Wisconsin guide to private sales: https://wisconsindot.gov/Pages/online-srvcs/other-servs/seller-notify.aspx Wisconsin guide to temporary plates, including out of state buying: https://wisconsindot.gov/pages/dmv/vehicles/title-plates/nolaf.aspx

My mistake with the fiberglass method was probably not getting a good enough slurry and too tight a weave on the fiberglass.

Mine will typically hold 65 without a problem on the interstate as well, I just get jumpy when when a wind gust hits or I start getting buffeted around by the airflow from rigs. Of course, I try to stay off roads during high traffic times as well.

Earlier in the spring, I actually succeeded (on the third try) fixing my black and grey water tanks which were both cracked at the top of the pipe where it meets the tank. There are a few videos on Youtube with recommendations involving a combination of fiberglass and ABS glue. This method just didn't work for me. Maybe operator error, but it would appear to work and then it just wouldn't hold, and I had to clean the area off with a multi tool and start over again. This method just didn't work for me. Here is what did: heat welding. Here's the basic steps. 1. Figure out what kind of plastic your tanks are. My understanding is that this is usually either ABS or Polypropylene. This in of itself is a bit of a trick. See: https://engineering.stackexchange.com/questions/6682/how-to-determine-whether-plastic-is-abs-or-polypropylene 2. Buy a hot air gun style plastic welder. These work best because it's easiest to get the tank and the welding plastic up to a temperature where they will seal together. This one worked fine for me: https://www.ebay.com/itm/254290766066. Do not buy something that looks like this: https://www.ebay.com/itm/311585701819?hash=item488bf47fbb:g:CvoAAOSw7GhelqBr. I tried these, but they just didn't work because it's not possible to get the tank and welding plastic hot simultaneously. 3. Buy the appropriate plastic for the repair. In my case, it was ABS. You will need a sheet of appropriate plastic. I used this: https://www.amazon.com/Pack-Plastic-Moldable-Textured-Technology/dp/B08RXJHJK7/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=abs+plastic+sheet&qid=1623637610&sr=8-2-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExMFM0NFQ2SEJWRUxSJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNzM2MjE0MkhWMVRSVTNEMFBTSiZlbmNyeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNzUzODYyWlFHU1hXMlU3S0lTJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== You will also need some welding rods. I used these: https://www.amazon.com/Matrisen-50PCS-Plastic-Welding-Rods/dp/B08VHLV97S/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=abs+welding+rods&qid=1623637644&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUEzNFRJVjJSTlk1V1dNJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNjQ5NzU5T1NDR0ZQVzFKUkFDJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAxNzA4NjkyNTBNTjlENU1JMjJQJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfYXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ== 4. Heat the tank area with crack. Keep the heat steady and push some of the plastic welding rods into the crack. They should melt quite easily as you push in if your heat is good. BUT, don't get it too hot or you will ruin your tank completely. Let it sit and cool. 5. Heat up the repair area again, and then weld a custom cut piece of the plastic sheet over top of the entire repair area. Let it cool. 6. Melt some more plastic rods into the seam between the custom cut sheet and the tank. Let it cool completely. I mean 100% completely. Then, check your work by throwing a gallon of water in it and letting it sit. I strongly suggest goofing around with the rods and heat gun and do a few practice welds before doing it for real. Also, don't rush. Also, also, apologies for not taking pics or videos.

I just got my 1986 Toyota Escaper out on the road again after replacing shocks and springs. This improved the ride a lot, but of course I still get blown around a bit, and uneven roads aren't fun either. I've made it a habit to not drive faster than 60 mph. I was curious what everyone's typical cruising speed was.

Assuming the temperatures are Celsius here, my guess is that two days very close to freezing isn't going to be a big deal. If your climate is such that this is only going to happen a couple of times through the rest of the winter, a temporary solution might be a Mr. Heater/Little Buddy (self-contained propane space heater).

I know this might seem completely elementary to most folks here, but I've recently discovered the magic of https://parts.toyota.com/ for identifying parts numbers and basic mechanical diagrams combined with toyotapartsdeal.com for actually purchasing them. Also, after ordering the wrong u-bolts for my leaf springs, it seems that generalspring.com has the most logical system for finding what I needed. So many people and websites pushed towards the OEM u-bolts, which of course, I found out don't work because we have a completely different axel on our rigs. Rookie mistake. I feel so dumb.

I just wanted to highlight the great experience I had with them. I'm not the most mechanical person in the world, so the process of buying leaf springs and all of the required hardware to go with it was pretty intimidating. When I called them up, they walked me through my order piece by piece to make sure I had everything that my mechanic would actually need. Then, when I accidently forgot to order two sets of bushings through the online portal, they actually emailed me to let me know I needed another set, and they wanted to make sure that another set got added to the order before they shipped out everything. Shipping was also faster than expected. Awesome people.

Hi All, It's been a few months, but I finally got my 86 Escaper up on a lift at a mechanic willing to work on it. The good news is that he went over everything from engine maintenance to brake systems didn't find any expensive issues that I didn't already know about. He agrees that it needs new leaf springs (Unless there is a reason not to, I'm going with the Old Man Emu CS010Rs from Summit Racing), but he also wants to replace the shackles and u-bolts. Does anyone know if the shackles are just the standard Toyota ones, or is there something else I should be looking for? Similar question for U-Bolts. Also the rear emergency brake cables need replaced because they snapped right behind the y-spring mechanism, but the wires evidently need to be longer than then the ones typical Toyota ones available from the local parts supplier (which makes sense--considering the extension and conversion of the vehicle). Any suggestions here? As always, thank you for any help!

Thank you. It's useful to know that this isn't normal, and I'll add a converter update to my to-do list.

Hello everyone, The family and I took our 86 Escaper out to a state park for the first time over Halloween weekend, and had an absolute blast. I highly recommend it if you have kids. The one quirk we ran into was that even though we were hooked up to shore power, but the house battery completely drained anyway. The plugs all continued to work fine the entire time (We had a small electric space heater going all night, and an electric hotplate worked fine for cooking). However, the house dome lights didn't work the next morning and neither did the water pump, even while still plugged in. Is this normal? Or is this a problem I need to track down? My guess is that the space heater drew so much electric that it was pulling from both shore power and the battery, but the lack of water was a bit of an interesting surprise when we attempted to use the bathroom. Thank you for any guidance here. I'm hoping we don't run into the same issue next season when we run the AC while plugged in.

Not many people drive manuals anymore. I'm a newbie at this as well, but it sounds like you did fine, especially if it was owned by someone who kept up with maintenance and has the records to prove it.

I can't really tell from pictures, and I'm not a mechanic, but the back end looks like it's hanging low. How's the suspension? Just to give you an idea as to what you might be in for, I recently bought a similar rig for $5,800. Now, mine's a manual transmission with no cab air conditioning, but it only has 72,000 miles. I'm budgeting $4,000 for basic road-worthy items that I think are necessary for safety (e.g., suspension, breaks, tires, etc.).

My recently bought rig doesn't have a built-in generator. So, I read through all of the generator-related threads (that's quite a rabbit hole...), and went looking online. One of my searches returned a used Honda EU 2200 for $350 plus tax and $15 dollars shipping on offerup.com. I've never used this site, I have no idea whose selling it, I'm only pretty sure it will run my AC because I've got the small 7,100 BTU Mini Mach Coleman. Supposedly, my credit card doesn't get charged until I receive the item and certify that the item is actually in the same shape as promised...so...gamble. I let everyone know how it turns out. From the website description of policies and timelines, it could be three weeks before I know if everything worked.

Hello Maineah, Thank you for the info. I'm still going to figure out what goes where to label the breakers and figure out where all the wiring goes, but it turns out that this was operator error (the breaker in my garage subpanel tripped).