Supurcar

I found an upstart body shop that needed some business and gave me a more reasonable quote, it is supposed to be finished today actually so I will have to add to that string later with some pictures.

Wow that is very traumatic, I thought our little fender bender was bad but that looks tragic, so sorry to see that. I may invest in some kind of metal lining for my wheel wells now, maybe some thin galvanized steel or something. I am sure there are glass guys that can rebuilt the shell ( maybe boat repair shops), but man that has got to be expensive. I had a friend in California that was a whiz with wire harnesses, he rewired my brothers van (the entire wire harness shorted, melted, black char) so I am sure it can be done. AND there is some links on this site for the schematic on most of these rigs or at least I thought I saw one for my Sundrader. Good luck on the fix

First quote was for $3800 (double what I bought the thing for), I think they are nuts, the stinken truck sold brand new for $7900 (without the RV convertion) or at least the 8100 series pickup did up until they came out with the Tacoma. I am affraid no one here in this city will give me a reasonable quote to repair it. I will try a few more places before I scrap it.

Well on my heater I had a similar experience. It worked fine for a few months and then would not light. I finally discovered the burner or burner tip was corroded out, kind of like a home gas BBQ grill the burner eventually degrades and needs to be replaced. I have heard other talk of the sail switch or something like that being a culprit as well for these as well.

Well I do not know how the original wheel was lost, but from what I have read the 5 bolt is somewhat dangerous and can fail. It you have a Yodahome the 5 bolt axle needs to be replaced with the 6 bolt axle to be safe. I know there are some toyota parts websites I have stumbled onto. Toyota-parts.com is one we use up here for wrecker parts.

Well I forced the hood open finally, and found the radiator was pushed into the belts, but it is holding water and not damaged. The inner fender well is bent up real bad, and may be beyond my expertise to replace unless I try to bend it back into shape-unlikely. I already know the outer panels will need to be replaced, but it looks to be mechanically sound, just needs cosmetic repairs. I took some photos to see if anyone has any suggestions for the do it yourself-er.

Thanks for all the input and ideas, we have not decided what to do yet. I am looking at all options and was hoping to get perspective from the good folks here at TMH.COM. I have done some restoring myself, I have an old 1972 911t Porsche that is ahead of the Toyota in line and it needs some $$ as well. Once I can get at the RV I will dismantle the front end and see what it really needs, and I am sure I will post in here for more suggestions, I really appreciate the links for replacement parts, especially bargain sites ha ha. Another issue is my neighborhood does not allow projects in the driveway, I have had it in my driveway and no one has complained. But I do not want to push the limits of their patients. One project I was going to tackle here soon was to make an RV pad on my sideyard. Maybe if I can get the bumper off I can park it face first so the neighbor can not see the damage. Again many thanks for the tips and suggestions. Merry Christmas

Okay it is not as bad as the header, but my wife is in tears over this. I will not go into any details of who or how it happened. I am not sure if I will be able to repair it or not, I am torn between thinking I should sell it or part it out, and fixing it. I have looked up the price of a hood, bumper and fender and it is around $500 to $600 for new replacements. I am sure I could shave that down at the junkyard, but then there is the labor of swapping them out. Plus I can see it needs a lot more than just these items. For sure the headlamp assembly, grill, air dam and I have not even opened the hood yet (frozen shut and a foot deep in snow at present). If I was to guess I say a body shop would be looking for $2500 to $4000 to make this like new and that is maybe more than it is worth? Well here is the picture and I guess any opinion is welcome at this point. It is a 1987 Sunrader with just over 70k miles on it, I just replaced all the carpet, and everything works, except the left front headlight and blinker, yes I still have a sense of humor.

Well we may have to get more than a generator now, my wife had a fender bender this evening. I am not sure how bad it is yet, she is okay but the left front fender,bumper,hood are all cracked up. This was a very low speed impact but it was enough to crumple the front up pretty good. We may invest in fixing it, or may end up selling it. I will post some pictures later to get some opinions on repair costs.

You have a good point, but in mine (with a new coach battery even) the coach battery does not last all night or all day. We use the coach battery all the time especially with the lights on I will watch the meter drop to one bar in a hurry. We also have a projector (torpedo) and DVD player we use which will not run on the coach battery. So I wanted a small generator to run plug in items on over night stays. The furnace is propane, but the fan still uses up the coach battery as well. Up here in the NW the heater is going and going (5-20 degrees outside) and usually have the dogs, so we can not shut it off while we are away. So we wanted to have a gen. for safety as well, I would hate to have the coach battery die in the middle of a cold night and wake up frozen, ha ha. Maybe I should run a test to see how long the coach battery lasts with everything running just so I know, it does seem to charge while we are driving and when plugged into to a land line too.

I have read a few posts about people using generators to run the RVs. Even attaching them to the rear bumper, my question is what is the minimum rating for a generator to be able to plug the landline in and have the thing run the furnace,lights, maybe some accesories (TV,radio etc.) or is it even possible?. It would be nice to be able to avoid the RV parks all together on occasion and save that fee, especially on trips where there is not a nice facility or RV park, I would rather boondock.

I replaced mine in my Sunrader, it had a load of sand underneath the carpet and was the source of the musty smell. When the carpet was removed it gave me an opportunity to repair a few things, and tighten others. I sanded and repainted the post holder for the table and used sealer around the bottom of it, I think the dirt may have been come up from underneath thru the hole in the wood for the table stand. I elminated almost all of my irritating squeaks and rattles by tightening all the screw for everything I could find, like the moldings and the siding and frames. I also tightened the wood floor from underneath, all the bolts where loose and it would slap down when I hit a bump. It is very quiet now and I can almost hear a pin drop on the freeway....well maybe not. I actually used indoor outdoor carpet, but a high quality looped so it could handle anything and should last longer. The old carpet just kind of disolved in my hands as I was pulling it up, so that should not happen again with the indoor outdoor. I put some gold edge molding on the top of the steps, but I went with soemthing similar to the original carpet in the truck cab. I wish I would have found some sound deadening material to put under the carpet in the cab, other than that the project was a mild success. I went away from the tac strips, and used some carpet glue and a staple gun and it seems to be holding well, I did not use a ton of glue on it incase I want to redo the thing again in the future. Oh and to answer your question, I got most of the stuff at Lowes or Home depo they had some loose scraps that where more than enough for the smallish interior of the Sunrander and about half price, I think I spent around $100.00 on the whole project I think it was about 14 feet by 3 feet. Good luck wih the project.

I have an automatic/OD in my 1987 Sunrader, if I am on the freeway in say third gear I can get it up to maybe 65-70 and it will go into OD, but fails to pull in OD and will gradually slow down thus forcing it to go back into third. Very rarely can I have it pull in OD, I am not sure if this is common or if OD is for downhill or very flat roads. What I do is if it is shifting a lot I will stay in third and turn the OD off, along the lines of what you both suggested, let it rev rather than bog.

Sounds to me like a loose bolt on the exhaust manifold. My '87 22re sounded like an exhaust leak in the engine compartment. I found the bolt closest to the cab was very loose, I was told I had a bad gasket or the manifold was cracked. But after doing some research it was actually just a lose bolt, but the stud is actually pulling out from the block or head. This is a common problem for older air cooled 2.7 liter Porsche engines for the heads as well. Well I tightened it up once and it got loose again, I tightened it again and so far so good.

Mine has a converter box inside the cabin, right below the kitchen sink. There is a brown cover panel, when I open it there are a few fuses inside and perhaps yours is similar. I would look for it and check the fuses inside. In this picture it is on the lower left side.

Sorry guys, it is a 1987 22re FI 2wd 4sp auto, nothing special, but it is kinda special as it runs like top. Stock exhaust now, very quiet but under powered (like that is news) but I would still consider it snappy for what it is. I guess I should say a little under torque, because I can go close to 80 MPH in it but walk up hills. The vapor lock happened right before Bend, I had read where sometimes rust particles will clog the fuel filter or inlet so I had that thought, but then the altitude thing, and losing overdrive. My best clue is it always seems to get jerky (mild vapor lock like condition) right during the transition of losing the 4th gear (climbing) or it returning (descending); so must be like 3500 ft. altitude. It only totally vapor locked one time, and it was coming out of the hills (Shasta Range) so I had the thought that maybe the tranny got hot and a nearby fuel line got hot and there we have it, but I am guessing for sure. I do not know what I hope to gain with the sporty exhaust, maybe a little more torque and more deep sounding and more fun to drive. Thanks again for the thread and all the info.

Sorry to butt in on the thread here, but I had a question about the flowmaster exhaust. I am thinking of doing something like you did to yours, how much was all the pipes and muffler? Is it real loud (neighbors and all) and I am wondering if it will help at high altitude. Mine has some running conditions at high altitudes, semms to be jerky and one time it kind of vapor locked, when I killed the engine and let it sit it was fine. Maybe the tranny over heated or something. Good thread, a wealth of good information for sure!

Good link and the just type of info I was looking for. We do not put any kind of solids into any of our tanks, so I am thinking the water set in the tank too long, or maybe a rodent crawled into a drain or something like this. I found we have three settings on our fridge, gas, 12V, elec. I think when I reported it not owrking in a previous thread I must have ahd it on the wrong setting, I am more careful now to have it in the correct position.

Since the subject is water I have some input and a question, instead of filling our tanks we carry bottled water in the fridge, saves on the weight while driving and it is easy to get bottled water anywhere. Our fridge has a square cut out in the shelf so we can put a large bottle in there. then we just attach the water hose when we camp for other uses. My question is about the plumbing, we do not use the sink or shower so there is not much in the grey water tank usually. I do not drain the thing until it gets full or at least registers on the guage, we notice this last trip that the drain in the sink smelled awful. Like really bad, so I am ondering if I have some standing water or if this is normal if the tank grey water tank is not drained after every trip. Is it okay to put liquid plumber in the drains or use that treatment made for the toilet to make the drains smell better.

Well when we drove to California we got somewhere between 14-16MPG on the highway and that was going up some steep hills thru Shasta. I have the 22RE FI, but since I cleaned the fuel injection and adjusted the mixture it runs much smoother and gets better mileage. On the 4th I drove it just over 100 miles (flat all the way) and just cruised at about 60-65 MPH and used less than a quarter tank on the drive. I have about a 20 gallon tank so I figure I upped my mileage to the 18-20 range. Last time I made this same drive I used over a quarter tank, so I think the mileage has improved slightly (there are so many variables).

I heard they may bring back the 55 MPH speed limit to help reduce fuel consumption so I had to comment. This is very alarming to me because it would make me eligible to get a speeding ticket. The speed limit around here is 70MPH and I can barely make 75 with a stiff breeze at my back, plus I fear 75+ would overheat my tires or be faster than their rating. But now if the 55MPH is put back in place I could actually go 20+ MPH over the limit HOLY COW! Actually since I cleaned the fuel injection my truck has run smooth as glass and we have enjoyed many recent camping trips in it and it flies up small hills. I used the "Torpedo" I bought, to project movies on the side of the RV, kind of like a small -drive in- movie. The gas fridge gets real cold, and everything seems to work real well, we love this thing. Okay back to your regularly scheduled program.

Thanks for the good info, I was told the hose they ordered would not work because it needs to be custom made for the RV. I could imagine a scenario where they (Sunrader) added the coach battery and rerouted the A/C hose, but I would think someone would carry the hose and it would not have to be custom made. Anyone have any thoughts on this or how to find one, it is a 1987 22re FI Sunrader.

My A/C has not been working, I had it looked at and was told I have a leaking hose and it needs to be recharged and it would be about $400.00. I guess my questions is would it be money well spent to just add the A/C to the RV roof (it is pre-wired already) and could the roof A/C be run while driving? Or does the roof mounted A/C only work when plugged into a land line. I have seen a few systems on the net for around $400.00, but then I need to figure out how to install the thing. I wonder if I have to remove the ceiling paneling to install the A/C or does it mount over the wood paneling. I have an outlet box in one of the storage cupboards in the ceiling and it is marked "A/C prewire" so I need to do some investigating. Is there a thread where someone has done this and posted pictures?

Yes the 22R engine in the Sunrader is underpowered, but very addictive, I drive mine just about everywhere now and my wife and I love it. We mostly notice the lack of power on steep hills, around town it is fine. I also agree with the "Yoda homes" being easy to drive, park, repair etc. And as some one pointed out when on vacation, who is in a hurry anyway?

Sorry to interrupt but I was laughing at the "no power" comment a few posts back, and only passing one vehicle on the whole trip (I assume that is counting wheelchairs too), well I had a similar experience and actually took a picture of the one vehicle I managed to pass LMAO.