John A

Well all you Toy owners, I just today sold my little jewel, a 1993 Dolphin with 34,200 miles and like new just about. Probably one of the nicest available. The new owners live in Mesa, Az., and they drove down here to East Texas to pick it up. I had mixed emotions about selling it, but Kaye and I have a diesel pusher and did not really need two.............John A

I have a 21 foot Dolphin 900 V6 automatic with overdrive, best I have gotten is 14.8 holding the speed to around 55-60. The discussion about streamlining the front, pans under neath etc will help a little, but the big drag problem is caused by the squared off rear end which does not allow the air to reattach smoothly after you pass through it, causing a multitude of vortices which hold you back. If you could solve this you could greatly improve performance. The drag coefficient increases with the square of the velocity, it is not a linear function, so as speed increases the drag increases rapidly.

Mine is a 1993 Dolphin 900, 21 footer, V6 Auto trans with overdrive, I get 13.8 MPG. I see a good bit of discussion about wind drag, however probably the greatest drag is caused by the back of the box.The air in front is made to seperate to go past the front of the vehicle, you are pushing a column of air, but the rear of the vehicle being a box does not allow the air to reattach thus creating a bunch of vortices, creating a lot of drag. And the drag coefficient increases with the square of the velocity. If it was practicle to streamline the rear the drag would be decreased tremendously. The rule of thumb for streamlining is the length has to be three times the width. Impracticle

My wife was once in the upholstery business, so I would recommend visiting an upholstery shop in your search for foam. When she was in business you could order different size sheets and different thicknesses also of foam. The best quality of foam back when was called super foam, but she was in business several years ago, I suspect the name might have changed. You could buy foam sheets large enough to use for a mattress.............Good luck..........John A

Good morning: I am familar with an Onan genset, but have not ever owned any other. An Onan has its own fuel pump and it is low pressure. It is not feasable to tie into the fuel supply to the engine for several reasons. If you have a motor home that was generator ready, I would bet somewhere on your existing tank there exists an outlet that is deadended. You might have to remove the tank to find out. Someone who owns the same toy that you do should be able to take a look at their tank and tell you where the fuel line for the genset comes out. Mine is a Dolphin.......Good luck

There is another possibility about why you water heater won't light, there is generally a thermocouple wired into the gas control relay that will not allow gas to flow if the thermocouple needs replacing. You can generally light the pilot light briefly but it will not stay lit until it gets an impulse from the thermocouple. John A

Be careful when you are selecting a generator to power up an A/C, most of the generator ratings you see are surge ratings, not steady state ratings. For example, the Honda 2000 is only rated at 1600 watts steady state output. John A

I can't speak for all Toys but here is how my Dolphin works; The generator control is mounted on a panel at the end of the sofa, where the kitchen cabinet begins. It is electric start, you push a start button, and when you get ready to turn it off, you push a stop button. There is an hour meter located on that same panel to show how many hours the generator has been run. There is no automatic switchover system, so to power up your motor home you must have the shore cord (so called) electrical hookup plugged into a receptical located in the compartment where the power cord is stored. The fuel comes from the same tank the engine runs from. You can run the generator going down the road, and run the overhead air to cool the motor home if you need to. Good luck finding a Toy, I have one for sale listed on the classified section of this web site. John A

I would take a good look at the electrical requirements for your A/C, a Honda 2000 is really a 1600 watt continuous duty generator, with a 2000 watt surge capacity. My Dolphin has an Onan 2.8 (2800 watt) built in which is a little noisy but it will provide enough electrical power. My A/C is an 11,000 btu unit which is just less than one ton, (one ton being 12,000 btu) and my microwave is 700 watt. They are the primary users of 110 volt A/C. Good luck John A

I have a 1993 Dolphin 900, my couch makes a bed by lifting the bottom cushion (the sitting area) and pulling it out toward the center of the aisle. the back cushion will slide down and make a flat sleeping surface. I have looked under my couch at the mechanism that allows this coordinated movement and cannot see any hinges that could be removed. If part of the mechanism was removed the whole system would be disfunctional. Tomorrow in the daylight I will look at the unit closely and see if I can find a manufacturers name, that might help you find parts.

The typical fridge in a motor home is an adsorption type cooling system. You cannot add freon, it does not use freon. It uses a mixture of water, ammonia, and sulfuric something or the other. If you are not cooling it likely means you have developed a leak in the cooling system, do you smell ammonia, or do you see a sulfur residue around the propane burner. More than likely you have lost the coolant charge. It is possible the problem could be in a pc board also. If you have lost the charge, you can purchase rebuilt cooling units and if you are handy with tools you can replace the cooling unit yourself. If you need a rebuilt cooling unit there are web sites you can order from, or you can order from a RV repair place.

I stopped at Toyota, Plano,Tx today to order a rear side marker light and got in a conversation with the parts manager. We were talking about gas milage with the V-6, and driving in or out of overdrive. Someone on this forum said not to drive in overdrive as the constant up and down shifting made less gas milage, this guy said if you were driving with OD turned off, the tranny did not lock up and your gas milage would suffer, he also suggested changing the final drive gear ratio, he said I probably had a 4.10 now and going to a 4.58 or so would likely improve the gas milage. I have not checked yet to see what rear end ratio I have. Any one out there had any experience with rear end ratio change?????.......................John A

I just recently bought a Magellan Roadmate 1200 and find it very useful, I can find Wal-Marts, gas stations, eating places, points of interest etc. I paid $149 + tax, about $162 total,on sale at Staples, about $100 off. It comes with a pre programmed card that has something like a million and a half of data points. There are more expensive models that have several million pre programmed points of interest. John A

danaatthecape: Typically, a motor home like the small Toyota has a device that is called a battery isolator, it has three terminals, the center is usually an input from the engine alternator, and the other two are outputs to the two batteries, and there are sequenced so that they charge the truck battery first and then switch to the house battery. Also typically, a motor home has a converter which converts input 120 volt AC to output 12 volt DC. These units usually have something like a selenium rectifier that keeps the house battery charged when the motor home is plugged in to an external electrical outlet,and when the on board generator is running. This converter is usually contained in the fuse panel/circuit breaker housing. I own a 1993 Toyota Dolphin but I have not had it long so I have not checked out the electrical system totally to familiarize myself with that motor home. That is why I prefaced this with "Typically" John A

Thanks Allen.............John A

How and where do you find the decals stating that no OPD valve is installed.....Thanks... John A

I was told by a gentleman who sold the Toyota Dolphins in Dallas, Texas that the manufacturing of the small motorhome was stopped because Toyota quit providing the chassis to the manufacturers......John A

I discovered today when I took the propane tank out to get a refill that the local propane place refused to fill the tank. I suspected the tank did not have the new OPD valve, it did not, and it also installs horizontal instead of vertical. Any one out there who has had the same problem and found a solution I sure would like to know what it is. I do not believe the tank can simply have a new OPD valve and still work in a horizontal position but I do not know that for a fact. The motorhome does not have enough space to replace the horizontal tank witrh one that is vertical...........Any suggestions or solutions..???? John A

I am courious if any of you Toyota motor home owners are getting gas milage similar to what I am. I just bought this unit last week and went on a 200 mile check out trip this weekend, my milage disappointed me. Just about exactly 11, and this was driving 50/55 in overdrive. I live in east Texas so the terrain is relatively flat. The engine runs smooth and seems relatively powerful considering the weight and wind drag. We had no water on board, the holding tanks were empty and two people so there was no overload. We encountered a terrific rain storm during the night and no leaks so that was a positive. All of the appliances worked great, another positive. If I understand the injection system correctly, it is a throttle body system. I have not bought any books on the Toyota chassis yet. Any suggestions.

I just purchased a 1993 Dolphin with 32k miles, V6 Auto. It is almost new, apparently the previous owners (only one) kept it inside. After I bought it I discovered that one of the primary wire bundles (right side of firewall) had been visited for lunch by a rat. The wires had been repaired by splicing and the whole area had been retaped with black electrical tape. All that seems to be ok, except on careful examination after I removed the tape I found two wires that weren't spliced. One is solid gray (which I believe is a ground, but I don't know for what) the other is brown with a white stripe. I have purchased a wiring diagram for a 1992 Toyota (which is correct for the motorhome chassis) but as yet I have not located a brown /white on any of the diagrams. Anybody have any idea what this wire may be. This is my first Toyota though we have owned 5 other motor homes and still have an American Tradition diesel. The other interest I have is identifying the service bulletins that have some modifications for the V6 engine. (Head gaskets etc.) If anyone has that info I would appreciate your sending it to me by e-mail. jokaadams2@goinghot.com Thanks..John A