BobBeery

My toy is an 87 Dolphin, 4cyl 22RE with auto. The guy I bought it from had all the brakes done professionally then welded on a hitch to pull a small (12-14 ft) aluminum fishing boat a few times. He got away with it, but that is all I can say, that he got away with it.

Shops must vary tremendously in their charges for leaf spring work. Twoblocked (above) mentions doing the work himself because a shop wanted $700-1200. I had a shop add an extra leaf on both sides of my 87 Dolphin during the summer of 2010. They fabricated new center bolts and u-bolts to the axle and put in all new bushings. I got about 1-1/2 to inches lift at the axle and 3 to 4 inches lift at the rear bumper. Cost was $440. I'm happy and don't have airbags.

I carry a spare under the dinette seat. I have had my toy for two summers now and still have not lost the cap once. That's because I learned the hard way replacing the cap on a Renault LeCar three times.

Some RV surplus places will have refrig at nice prices but you would be limited two ways. First is selection, they only have whatever they have and can't order anything. Second is that most do not ship, you have to buy over the counter. I don't know your location but there are 5 or 6 such places within 30 miles of each other from White Pigeon MI on the east to Elkhart IN on the west. I saw some 10 days ago at Johnson's Surplus outside of White Pigeon for under $500 (if I remember right). Ph 269-483-2249

I haven't tried this on a windshield but had great results on the windows of my house using steam. I bought a steam cleaning unit about five years ago at one of the big box retailers. Price was about $69. Unfortunately there may have been market saturation or something, they were only sold for about a year and I have not seen one in a store since.

Wow! I never thought to check a recycle place as a source for horizontal tanks. When I got my rig last year there was a BBQ tank with a very long hose so I could put the tank on the ground. But I wanted to run the fridge/freezer while driving, so I spent $209 plus tax for a new Manchester 30 lb horizontal tank with guage. ( a 20 lb tank would have been only $10 less). There was also about $15 for a new shorter hose. This 30 pounder barely fits the compartment of my 87 Dolphin and I have to use a mirror to see the guage, but I am safe and I have 30 not 20 pounds of propane. And I didn't have to modify my Toy in any way.

Excuse my ignorance but how many BTU does this unit deliver? Bigger units draw more electricity and can be hard to start each time they cycle. I have heard 10,000 BTU is about normal but many prefer the 14,000 for really hot days. Will you be always plugging in to shore power or using a generator? How big the generator? My unit is only 7,000 BTU and not really comfortable on a really hot day, BUT I can always run it with a 50 foot medium duty cord plugged into an ordinary 15 amp outlet (such as in my in-laws' driveway) and my Honda EU2000i generator has never had a problem cycling the A/C.

I didn't see any of the above posts mention the fuel warning light on the dash. A couple of times I filled when the light was just starting to flicker. Once the light came on just as I was turning into a gas station. All of these fills were 14.6 gals or a little less. Once I ran it until the guage needle was just starting to clear the empty mark on the below empty side. Then I did get in just over 15 gal.

My 87 has had that sound since I bought it March 2010. I'm glad somebody else was smart enough to ask about it. Mine is usually turning right but it has done it once or twice turning left.

In August 2010 I talked to the owner of a Nissan-based rig. He had the eight spark plugs, a manual transmission, and a very small unit that was about three feet shorter than my 87 Dolphin (21 ft 5 in according to the original sales brochure) so he had to be pushing less weight also. I asked him about gas mileage and he said 18mpg was usual. We weren't dickering about a sale and this was at a church mens retreat so there was no reason for him to be feeding me a line of baloney. But I admit I cannot verify his mileage claim. He also had a very nice custom made magnetized cover for the windshield but all he could tell me about where he got that was that it came with the unit when he bought it.

In August 2010 I talked to the owner of a Nissan-based rig. He had the eight spark plugs, a manual transmission, and a very small unit that was about three feet shorter than my 87 Dolphin (21 ft 5 in according to the original sales brochure) so he had to be pushing less weight also. I asked him about gas mileage and he said 18mpg was usual. We weren't dickering about a sale and this was at a church mens retreat so there was no reason for him to be feeding me a line of baloney. But I admit I cannot verify his mileage claim. He also had a very nice custom made magnetized cover for the windshield but all he could tell me about where he got that was that it came with the unit when he bought it.

My rooftop A/C dumps condensate on the roof. The only place there is a seal between the A/C unit and the roof is right around the 14" square hole in the roof. The previous owner had somebody seal things who didn't know what they were doing. He ran silicone caulk all the way around the perimeter of the A/C between the roof and the A/C. That trapped all the condensate and it ran down inside the cold air outlets. I removed the A/C, scraped all the silicone off, and installed a proper foam gasket. No more leaks. Go up on your roof and make sure there is NO caulk going all the way around your A/C.

Loss of control if a tire blows is certainly serious, but there is another issue also. Blown tires damage RVs by flapping or throwing rubber.This past week I saw the body repairs that had to be done to a fifth-wheel that blew a rear tandem on the Interstate at 70 mph. Same day I saw the repairs to a big class A motorhome that blew a rear tire at 55mph. There are also photos somewhere on this board that show damage from blowing a rear tire at highway speed. The repairs can easily cost much more that a full set of new tires. I'm shopping hard now to replace all of my tires. Bob Beery

The usual Hankook RA08 in 185R14D fits rims from 5.0 to 6.0 in width. My local Belleroc tire store (yes Belleroc not Belle) says that the Toyota rims are 5.0 but I have not verified this. If the 195R14 you mentioned on sale at Sears fits a 5.0 rim then I think they should work. I hope these are still on sale because my tires were mounted in 2008 and only have about 6,000 miles BUT the manufacture date is 19th week of 2000 so I want to replace them. Bob Beery

I got some mold in my fridge because I forgot to prop the door open between trips. After washing all down I still had some dark residue that I couldn't get off where the seal fit into the freezer door. Silly me slowly pulled the seal out to wash seal and groove. Bad mistake. I could not push the seal back into the groove on the door, despite best efforts of fingers, screwdrivers, etc. I was a bit sleep deprived so I wanted to take the door apart to get the seal on. But the hinge screws went thru both halves of the door so I took the door off the hinges. Second bad mistake. The hinge is not all one piece and is spring loaded to boot. After washing everything I tried to put things back together. First I stripped out the threads inside the door. Still don't know why, I barely snugged them. Went to hardware store for next size fatter screws. Got door installed and tried it. All fine except not enough spring tension to keep door all the way closed. There was no way my fingers were strong enough to rotate the springs another quarter-turn and still hold the door, hinge, screw, and screwdriver. So I pulled out the spring sockets from the fridge jamb. Then I turned the socket the right amount in the right direction, installed the door and hinges both sides. Last I rotated the socket back to its proper position and snapped them in place. This must have been how the factory did it. The springs hold the freezer door closed just fine. Only problem is that when I removed the spring sockets I broke the locking tab off one of them. That socket will not stay rotated. It backs up and takes the spring tension off that side. It is livable and usable for now but if I can but a replacement socket from Dometic I will do this all over again some time. Moral--wash as best you can, use a bush to get bristles along seal edges,then leave well enough alone.

Glad to hear that your exhaust pipe would slide off. Mine would not. My last resort was to file off the 2 rivets which held the exhaust pipe to the outside flange. I had to bend the baffle some to do this, and the filing was slow and tedious, but worked. Then I could pull the furnace inside. Upon reinstall I have not figured a way to replace the rivets, but the pipe is solidly corroded together and stays where it should. Motor cost direct from manufacturer was the same as from my local RV dealer--steep. $114

Derek is right.

Last October I visited a RV surplus place about 25 miles east of Elkhart In. that had lots of this kind of stuff. I don't remember the name of the place and you can forget about shopping by internet, but the place is three miles west of White Pigeon Michigan on highway US12. There was also another place three miles east of White Pigeon, again on US12. Sorry I don't know where YOU are located.

This thread reminds me that sometime since Christmas somebody posted about adding a rear swaybar. Pics were included. Would a rear swaybar help limit that side-to-side motion?

Yes she did.

Too soon to prefer dates. Hmm...Northern Indiana. On the way back from last year's rally I used Monday to tour a couple RV surplus parts shops in Elkhart. Very interesting. There are also two more surplus RV parts places 30 miles or so east of Elkhart near White Pigeon, Mich. The change of site will cut my driving miles from 500 down to 250-300. Nice.

Last March I bought an 87 Dolphin. The previous owner had removed the air bags and installed the timbren kit. I found the vehicle too low in back. The axle was against the bumper just standing still empty, and the srpings had no arch. I had a spring fabrication shop add one leaf on each side. Now I have an inch of clearance between the axle and the rubber chushion, and the vehicle is just slightly high in back with graywater and black water tanks empty. But this is the only Toy I have driven. Never had one with airbags to compare it with. I just accept what I have and drive. Don't know what Im missing. I had better mention that previous owner also replaced front tires with P195 passenger car tires while rears are the recommended 185C. That may have raised the front just a bit and thereby lowered the rear.

I knew about the isolator preventing the coach from draining the battery under the hood. I didn't know if it would prevent current from the automotive charger going to the coach or not. Sounds like I am ok. Thanks.

My Toy is parked for the winter--snowy Michigan. I did not remove batteries to a warm place or disconnect a cable as some do, events overtook me. I wanted to keep the batteries charged up so I plugged in the shore power to the coach for an hour around Christmas and again last week. But last week I also cleared the snow off the hood and hooked up my automotive 10 amp charger to the engine battery while I was still plugged in to shore power. The good news is that the automotive charger started at 5 and dropped to 3 within 20 seconds, and down to 2and a half within a minute. The question is whether putting the charger under the hood while shore power was hooked up would damage or confuse the converter. I know alternator current goes to the coach. And who plugs in shore power while the engine is running? I must admit that because of deep snow and little time I have not gone into the coach to check anything. And in late February when I charge up I plan to do the two batteries separatly unless you all assure me that both at once is ok. Bob in Traverse City

I dug into the snow pile next to the garage and found a Toy motorhome underneath. Bob Beery in Traverse City, Mich.