centralman

1987 Dolphin. Our hometown is Vancouver, BC, Canada. Picked it up May 2009, loved it very much, it's dependable, reliable the only downside is it travel at a significantly slower speed than most other MH and the fuel economy (and hence, range) is not as good as expected. It served our family well, and hopefully it will bring a few more years of faithful service to us.

What is the purpose of the altitude cutoff?

Hi everyone in the past Christmas I took my 87 Dolphin MH from Vancouver down to Los Angeles. If you are familiar with Interstate 5, you know when going down there you need to pass 2 summits one on the border of Oregon/California and the other just before Los Angeles. Those summits are 4,000 plus feet elevation. I drive my MH with OD on all the time. I have a big ATF cooler up front and I use Eneos Synthetic ATF. I don't however have a temp guage on the ATF. After passing each summit the tranny seems to NOT able to engage the OD for a period of time, does this mean the tranny is overheating? I tried to drive the MH at moderate speed. How does the fuel economy affected by using OD or not? Many thanks.

Would be most appreciated if you could illustrate your setup (with photos and description if possible), thanks! I have no idea where to put the extra house battery (The house battery space only holds one group 24 battery). Again, many thanks! I also thought that the blue tops optimas are deep cycle batteries, and the yellow tops are for starting purpose?

Hi thanks for the info. Do you use two yellow top optimas as house battery? I am wondering because the battery compartment can only take in one group 24 deep cycle battery. Another thought: Can 2 batteries be placed parallel under the hood as start battey and wire them to the inverter?

Many thanks for the info. I will watch out on Costco then. By the way, if I only have one group 24 house battery, would it be better to use the start battery for inverter use?

Thanks Maineah for letting me know, I have a 87 Dolphin MH too, do you happen to know of a good inverter rated 1kw or above?

Thanks Maineah, please let me know if you have found the part #, thanks.

Thanks my 1987 Dolphin uses 22REC engine though, but thanks anyway.

Couldn't find the kit, any link? Thanks.

Where can I get a good one for a good price? Thanks

Hi there, I saw your post and ordered the 80amp converter and the fusebox. I have a 87 Toyota Dolphin and the old converter setup looks similar but not exactly the same. May I request the following info from you: (1) Could you give me more info on the part you cut the plug off from the new converter and set it up with a new breaker? More text description and pic would be highly appreciated. (2) I have a problem with the new converter placement as my old converter was placed on the floor next to the wheel well so I really couldn't find extra space to fit it, any ideas? Many thanks.

Since most like your tranny will take a severe beating everytime it works, I recommend changing the ATF together with the AT filter every couple of years, I use Eneos AT Fluid, and in conjunction with an AT Fluid Cooler, my 87 Dolphin has thus far work like a charm. Here's the product link to the ATF I use: http://www.eneos.us/product/6

Update: After a couple of weeks in the garage and a record breaking repair bill for me, I got the following done: (1) Mobil 1 5W50 Oil Change + Liqui Moly MoS2 Oil Treatment (2) Timing Gear Kit Replaced including Timing chain, gear, tensioner, gasket (3) Head Gasket Set (This should include all those intake, exhaust, valve cover ... etc gaskets)replaced along with Head Bolts (4) Oil Pan Gasket replaced (5) Aisin Water Pump replaced (6) Napa Medium duty ATF cooler added (7) Thermostat and gasket replaced (8) Coolant flushed and replaced with Toyota Long Life Coolant (9) Eneos Synthetic ATF flush along with filter and AT Pan Gasket (10) KYB Gas-A-Just shocks replaced for front suspension (11) Aisin Oil Pump replaced (12) Whole floor replaced with hardwood panels (13) Bosch O2 Sensor replaced (14) Bosal Header to Catalytic Converter exhaust pipe replaced (15) Napa Fan clutch replaced I know the car has this and that problem before and hopefully after all these I will be able to drive it for another 60,000 miles. Took it for a spin today, roughly 120 miles. Engine temp will stay at 1/3 on the guage now when the speed is lower and will climb to 1/2 when climbing slope and above 65mph. Huge improvement from before. Also the MH doesn't tend to swing that much now after the front shocks replaced.

Thanks, my MH is at 90,000miles and it is at the mechanic shop to have the timing chain done along with head gasket, water pump, oil pan gasket, valve cover gaskets etc ... So, it's gonna be expensive everything added up together, so I think due to budget constraints I have to go with KYB Gas-A-Just (can't afford Bilsten:() I hope after this major work done it can last another 5 years ... then I'd be happy!

Thanks for your suggestions. I don't know if it has a steering stablizer, I check the KYB catalog and finds that there's only one (steering damper) for 4WD pickups, will that fit?

Many thanks. I have put the car into the garage for maintenance and will ask for the thermostat replacement, too. Will let you know once I have gotten it back to see if the symptom still persists. Oh, by the way, there's one more thing I'd like to ask. The steering of the MH is not stable, I don't know if there's too much freeplay on the steering wheel or some other thing but when the MH is on the highway (especially higher speed) it tends to swing a bit when there's crosswind and hard to control the MH to keep it straight, I wanted to fix that too because it's kinda dangerous, any ideas?

Hi there, I have a 1987 Toyota Dolphin MH. It has a 22REC engine and 4 speed automatic transmission. As you know the coolant temperature guage has a wide normal area (indicated by within the white boundary). My question is this: My MH usually stays only 1/3 of the guage when operating in moderate speeds (below 40mph). Once it gets faster than that the temperature needle begins to rise and if maintained at around 55mph the temperature guage will be at around 2/3 from the top. If it maintains at around or above 65mph it will go right up to the maximum operating temperature range (That white boundary on top), it won't go into the red zone, but it'll stay there. The car had a major tune up last year and as far as I can tell everything's running fine except the behavior of the engine coolant temperature (It's most certainly different that from an ordinary passenger car, which will always be around the mid mark and stay there in any driving condition. So, is this normal on a toyota MH? Could there be any underlying probelm? Many thanks for your reply and assistance.

For your cigarette lighter, my suggestion would be to check the ground wire attached to the lighter socket. See if that helps.

Is it an online sale? Or do you have to buy from their retail shop?

Oh I see you mean the compartment that's between the potable water tank inlet and the shore power hookup. I never thought of it as the generator compartment because the previous owners puts the water hose, sewage hose and some other stuffs like wheel blocks in there. It's got a divider in the middle as the previous owner put the potable hose on top and the sewage hose in the bottom. I don't think the generator will fit in there.

Will the generator retailer have such box as an accessory or I have to buy it somewhere else as aftermarket stuff? Many thanks.

Thanks for your comment. I don't think I'm skilled enough to put in a generator myself but I have heard good things about the Onan generator. You are absolutely correct that I do want a quiet unit so the EU2000 comes into mind, plus, it's weight is manageable (the EU3000 has more than double the weight). So if I do buy a EU2000, and go dry camping, where should I put the portable generator? (Seems like a stupid question but I wonder if I put it outside the MH where the shore power hookup is would it be safe enough (I guess probably not overnight cos it may get stolen), but then again there won't be air conditioning overnight then.

Hello there, I am in the process of deciding whether to buy a new generator (Honda EU2000 or maybe some other portable ones) or a used one for my 87 Dolphin. I have seen ads that mentioned how many hours those used ones has been running. May I ask: (1) Does the portable generator has a "hours used" counter built in? (2) Anyone has experience/comment with the Yamaha 3000 ISE portable generator? Many thanks.

I have a 87 Dolphin. The specs on it says between 20-60 PSI.