nibs

Well, no one around these parts has ever seen an rv door lock like this, it has a male nipple on the door frame & a hole in the lock that it catches on. Does any one know of a source/type or even a replacement door with screen door. I can make a new nipple (hope no one is offended by language) but the lock is a mystery. Thanx Tony

Hey Wayne, we headed for Van Isle in mid Sept, Daughter in Victoria, good friend in Qualicum bch good friend on Galliano island - maybe long beach & up to North end & ferry to Prince Rupert (maybe) where are you? may be grab a coffee someplace. Tony & Susan

Wanna put a motor like that in my sunrader? (now you have experience) Looks well done, how soon for a road test?

A small accumulator tank will quiet the pump quite a bit, also if you mount the pump on rubber feet in addition to the rubber feet it already has, another thing that will help is to replace both the in and out hoses with short lengths of clear braided flexible hoses, it will reduce noise transmission along the pipes. I wouldn't enclose the pump because the motor needs air flow. We never use the city water connection, cause were fussy about what goes into our tanks, and hearing the pump makes us aware of our water consumption. Full timers for 10 years and 8 years in a sailboat before that have taught us quite a bit about RV ing.

There is a new small 3 way fridge for sale in the RV section classifieds at CASANET.NET

The two 2x2's are square tubes with thick walls, they slid in above the grey water pipe we just stitched (6 - 2" welds on each one) them to the Sunraders frame and welded them to the truck frame. Put the receiver tube flush in the center of the 6" bumper with gussets. Made holes in the gussets for the safety chains. Promptly put a dent in the brand new trailer when turning around in the road during the test run. Will extend the tongue of the trailer before heading for Mexico so that doesnt happen again.

Funny you should post this, just this morning I had a trailer hitch added to my 84 Sunrader with a four banger standard trans. as soon as I got home went looking for the steepest hill around with about a 1200 lb trailer, did just fine, pushes a bit down hill, and wont quite climb as fast as usual, had to shift into 2nd a bit earlier. I have driven many trailers including loaded logging trucks on icy hills. The trailer didnt push the toyata around when cornering. Your six cyl will do just fine a standard trans would be better. All we did was put 2X2 heavy wall beams along the existing frames tied in to the truck frame just behind the spring shackles, and put a 2x6 1/4" wall channel rear bumper across the back with the receiver in the center. I had to replace the bumper anyway thanks to a diving error of my boss (she who must be obeyed) Drive carefully, keep the revs up and use the engine for braking as much as possible. You will do fine. Tony

Thank you again, must have taken a bit of work to paint it all, pink would have looked nice eh? ;->

Thank you Mike, I am spending tommorrow under the Sunrader putting on a new back bumper and tow hitch, Will take a look, it is a 6 lug (if Im counting right) and looks right for full float. Is the Toyota diff branded anywhere? I appreciate both the knowledge you have and your willingness to share it. Other topic, what about glassing mounts for awnings to avoid holes, which I plan (glassing) for my 120 watt pv panel, though back in my boat building career we used to make through hull fittings used under water. Tony.

Our brand new (grin) Sunrader has no awning, and there isnt much clearance above the door. We have looked at Shady Boy awnings much favoured by the Volkswagon crowd but it would be too high to reach. The bag awnings would also be too high to reach, any tips? Tony

We have brought in 6 vehicles (1 yr old hiundai, 5yr old mustang, 15yr old chev/pu, 25 yr old bus conversion, 22yr old westfalia vw, 24yr old Sunrader) since 1988 & not found it to be much work at all. Usually takes about 1/2 hr or less. If you go through a smaller port of entry and pick a quiet time the officers are usually very helpfull. Just dont try it at the peace arch on a sunday late afternoon. We have never been dinged for any duty other than gst. As noted earlier if you have to make safety mods to the vehicle make them south of the border. I think that the entry conditions regarding safety issues is not up to the border officer but comes into play when you get the federal/provincial inspections. (I may be wrong here but it is a motor vehicles issue wether or not the vehicle is in compliance, the border officer is not trained/qualified to judge this). So far we have never had a problem. The US customs even waived the 72 hour notice once when we showed up not knowing about the rule change. I think that attitude is an important factor, as long as you are quietly respectful you will PROBABLY be treated fairly.

Thanks Moose, I understand how they work, just didnt know if that year/model had em.

nobody?

I'm sure this is covered somewhere in the Stygian depths but can anyone tell me if the brakes self adjust on an 84 Sunrader one ton floater axle?

Damn, now I have proportional valve envy!

The best deals on PV panels are usually found around quartzite and Yuma. We bought a 120 watt panel made by Sharp for $375 new in Feb 08. Personally Yost, I would put the controller by the battery and bring a wire back from the battery for the lights. The panel volatage will climb (with some loss) until it overcomes line loss and controller resistance, but once you put it through the controller, the voltage is limitted so you will get line loss.

I too am fairly new to Toyota MH's but have tons of experience from logging truck, buses (home is a bus) through toyota pickups and sports cars. Drive is a gearing which couples the motor to the driveshaft at one rev of the eng to one rev of the driveshaft, Overdrive is a higher gear that turns the motor slower than the drive shaft, each of the lower gears turns the motor at some ratio faster than the driveshaft. Basically, for all vehicles, you want to keep the motor running 'free and easy' if the vehicle wont accellerate you should shift down into the next lower gear. Avoid driving with your foot making a dent in the floor. Some of the Toyota Motor home 'Motor heads' can probably give you the MPH to shift at. Try to develop a feel for when the motor is lugging (unhappy cause it isnt running free and easy), and shift to a lower gear just before. The transmission is stupid, it just wants to get into the highest gear it can, you should learn to help it on hills by manually selecting gears, cause most automatics shift down too late to stay on the 'power curve' of the engine. If you are in hill country skip OD completely. Down hill, use the same gear that you would going up the hill, let the motor do the braking, keep your brakes cool for stopping. Having faded (overheated) brakes is quite exciting on a hill (exciting isnt good in a MH). Dont worry about keeping up with the traffic (you cant) just accept your role as parade leader. Tony

Thanks for the reminder about notifying US customs, what we do is get their fax number & fax them a note saying we will be exporting vehicle X VIN # xxxxxxxxxxx then show up 72 hrs later with the bill of sale, & get that stamped. Canadian customs doesnt care about the US Title, just the bill of sale.

As a full timer for 10 yrs now, and for 8 yrs in a sailboat previously, I dont think you can beat propane for refrigeration if you do any dry camping at all. That three amps to run the fridge is 3 X24 or 72 amps per day or 862 watts per day a big (for a toyota) PV panel of 120 watts will only reliably deliver about 800 watts daily on sunny days in the south, then if you discount efficiencies and all the other losses you pretty much need to run a gen set or be plugged in unless you are driving. If you are gonna run a gen set, please dont camp in places where people want to sit outside & listen to birds and breezes.

Thanks for the tip, I kinda forgot about fiberglassing, I havent done it since my boat building days. I looked up lord mounts (new jargon to me), & am sure I can find/make a set. Thanks again, Tony

Running on hydrogen has been done, I suspect that if it really worked the car makers would be using it. The claim that it make the fuel burn more completely is challenged by the amount of unburned hydrocarbons at the tailpipe, a well tuned modern engine doesnt waste much gasoline. More horsepower, ifdeveloped will result in shortened bearing life both in the engine and the drive line. further your alternator may not be big enough to supply the H and will consume some of the extra HP (if any). Hydrogen is not a good fuel although it burns very cleanly it just doesnt have enough btu's. A semi running on diesel uses 160 gallons per 1,000miles On bio diesel 175 galls per 1,000 On Hydrogen 2,000 galls per 1,000 Now that fuel prices have shot up, the snake oil sales people are jumping in with fantastic promisses. Caveat Emptor.

wondered about that, but what the heck are (and where can I get) iso lord mounts? thanks for the quick response. Tony

Newbie question. I have a 120 watt panel 20"X40" that will be going on the sunraders roof, best I can think up for mounting is two 1X2 < aluminum pcs full width 1" leg vertical, cut the 1" leg at the roof edge bend down and screw to sidewalls, will remove 1" leg on sides and let it drop about 6" that way no roof penetrations. will lead the wires down rhe ladder & up through the floor to a second aux batt. any one have a better method? Thanx Tony

We just brought in an 84 Sunrader from Butte Montana, no problems, still havent done the provincial inspection. It is my understanding that 15 yr & older do not require the federal inspection. I beleive that you can bring in any year but have to bring it within the federal inspection rules. If you know that the seat belts will fail, change them in the US, the previous owner trusted the Canadian style more ;-) We too are new to this group, have had our Sunrader for just 2 weeks. Tony