Stevo

I found the thing that raises and lowers the spare tire and also found the long rod thingee that does that. I used vice-grips to lower it but will see if I can find a square drive that size I could use on my socket wrench. There is no jack with this motorhome so I'll probably buy a bottle jack at Harbor Freight. I assume installing a deadbolt requires some serious shimming since the motorhome door is a lot thinner than a house door, right?

Did you add a second tank or just replace the existing with a larger tank?

Good idea. Thank you Linda.

That layout must be rare as it is one I've never seen before. I'll have to do some digging around to see if I can find an image. Thank you.

Karen - I'm going to build a larger bathroom than the tiny one in my 18' because I can hardly move around in the existing one for a shower. According to the guy in the link I provided previously with the home built compost toilet in his boat and the guy that wrote the book on poop (Humanure), as long as you cover the stuff with saw dust, etc., no fan is needed because there is no smell and the Humanure guy says you don't need to separate the stuff. I will be installing a small opening window in the bathroom though. Did you choose a diesel stove because its less flammable than gas or propane? I'm thinking of going with a simple two burner Coleman camp stove so I can take it outside for cooking when its too hot. I read tons of positive reviews on Amazon about the Coleman camp oven too so I'm pretty sure I'll go with that. Thats a good idea to make the back seat deep so you can use it as a guest bed. I'll probably do something like that too. Does the cushion on the back of the vinyl flooring make it more forgiving of discrepancies in the subfloor? I will probably use plastic laminate for my countertop too since its easy to install and easy to keep clean. Great drawing! Did you use Google Sketchup for that? Thanks

1) Where is that hole in the back of the rig located relative to the spare tire? 2) Good idea about a deadbolt. Do you use the same kind of deadbolt you'd install in a house door or is it some special RV deadbolt? Thanks!

Questions regarding an 18' 1982 Toyota Sunrader please... 1) How do I remove the spare tire from the bracket underneath the motorhome? 2) I don't have a key for the side door. Any suggestions/sources for getting a new key? Remove the lock and take to Home Depot maybe?? 3) I want to buy some really comfy seats to replace my stock front cab seats. I'll buy them used off of Craigslist. Do you know of front seats that fit the front cab of an 82 Toyota pickup with minimal modifications? 4) Can you recommend a source to buy some new rubber gasket material that frames the front windshield? Thank you. :-)

No I don't but I would do a search on this forum for the "put the sawzall down" thread and ask Steve because he did the same thing you are doing.

I wouldn't use 3M 5200 for attaching anything that you might want to remove later. In spite of its give, that stuff is extremely aggressive and will tear apart whatever its attached to later if you try and remove it.

I pulled out that other gas tank last week (finally). I'm not sure yet how I will install it (if I do) but the only place I can see to put it is where the spare tire is (18' Sunrader). If I put it there do you have any suggestions for where the spare tire could go?

You mean the kind of interior thats in a Trillium trailer?

Totem: PORTABLE TOILET: What is the stink factor like with those portable toilets? http://tinyurl.com/q2wwr8h INSULATION: I did a search at Home Depot for "metal foil bubble insulation" and got this: http://tinyurl.com/nmusmjw Is that what you're suggesting or this stuff: http://tinyurl.com/nmusmjw

WME: INTERIOR LAYOUT: Thats a great idea to make full-size cardboard mockups for the interior. Thanks! LED'S: For all self-contained electrical stuff (like LED's) I would use rechargeable batteries instead of throw-away batteries. COMPOST TOILET: I'm not going to buy one of those expensive compost toilets. Instead, I'm going to build a super cheap one for about $30 like this: http://sailfar.net/forum/index.php/topic,2936.0.html. That guy separated the pee from the poop but the guy that wrote the book "Humanure" which I have read says its not necessary. HOT WATER: But instant water heaters use a fraction of the propane that conventional water heaters use because they only run when you want hot water, right? STOVE TOP OVEN: Coleman stove top camp oven: http://tinyurl.com/q4lfxkq Its simple and cheap and if it works then it might be perfect for the rare times I need an oven. Has anyone on this forum used the Coleman stove top oven?

Hey thanks for answering my questions! I'm thinking that to glue the stringers and ledgers to the interior walls that I'd want epoxy for its strength but due to the bouncing around of a motorhome I'd want the joint to be a little flexible. I asked around and looked at reviews and 3M 5200 http://tinyurl.com/ncqeap2 is supposed to be the best. West Marine has a 2 for 1 sale on that stuff for the next few days.

If you were starting over with the gutted interior of a 1982 Sunrader 18' what would you do with it? What would you put in it? What would your layout be like? (Existing layout is house door forward with rear dinette) What materials would you use to make everything? And how would you do everything so it is AS SIMPLE AS POSSIBLE? Here are my parameters... -Full time living and traveling for one human. -BATHROOM: I'm going to build a simple cheap "compost" toilet and I'll have a small sink. The entire bathroom must be waterproof so I can take showers and probably in the same location (behind the drivers seat) since the tank is there. I will install a small opening window with screen to air out the bathroom. -HOT WATER: I'm considering one of these two options: Install an instant on-demand propane hot water heater...or use a garden sprayer with a metal tank and a modified shower head that I can place directly on the stove top to heat the water and paint it with Rustoleum High Heat paint so I can heat it in the sun on hot days. I'll have a spot on the corner wall of the bathroom I can mount the garden sprayer for showering. -COOKING: Counter space to prepare stuff, Storage for eating/cooking utensils, large sink with manual foot pump, BIG fridge (7 cubic ft), 2 burner stove (probably a Coleman camp stove if I can figure out how to make cookies and pizza on a stove top). Drinking water will be in 1 gallon jugs. -WORKING: I need desk space to work and space for my 17" Macbook Pro with a 25" external monitor. -SLEEPING: I'll probably use the overhead for sleeping with a twin and put some light storage forward of that in plastic bins. -HEATING: I'll use one of those little portable propane heaters. (I think its called "Mr Buddy" or "Mr Heater") -BOONDOCKING: I will be stealth city camping as needed but plan on boondocking for extended periods of time so energy efficiency is key and preferably renewable. -FLOORING: If I can make the sub-floor smooth enough I'll probably install vinyl. If not, then probably laminate flooring. -WALLS & CEILING: Thin plywood panels painted with semi-gloss white that can be easily removed to access stuff behind (although I plan on having as little of the hard-to-access stuff as possible!). -INSULATION: Probably some closed-cell foam stuff from Home Depot. -CEILING FAN: Maybe a Fantastic Fan or equivalent?? -LIGHTING: LED and probably individually self-contained with their own little batteries so I don't have to run wires. -INTERNET: I'll use my cellphone as a hot spot when I can and install a multi-directional WIFI signal booster to sponge off of open networks. -MOVIES: I'll get one of those external hard drives with the built in wireless network and load it with a terrabyte of movies so I can watch movies with my iPad. -TV: I might have a UHF antenna to pick up local stations and watch that stuff on my computers external monitor. -FRONT CAB: I want to change out my front seats for something more comfortable that I can buy used on Craigslist. Does anyone know what other seats fit an 82 Toyota with minimal modifications required? -EXTERIOR: I'll probably use reflectors instead of the existing DC wired clearance lights. On the top I'll probably build a low profile aerodynamic lockable box to store surfboards in in with solar panels mounted on top of it. I'm going to spray the entire vehicle with almond Rustoleum paint (i.e. "The $50 paint job"). I've done countless camping trips all over and surf safari's into deep baja so I know how to poop in a hole and live animal style, but for full-time living thats not how I choose to live. So my plan is to have the creature comforts required for full-time living but make their systems as simple and as energy efficient as possible. Anywhooo, a lot of you have used your Toyota motorhomes a lot and have learned a few things along the way so I will greatly appreciate any of your ideas and input. Seriously - anything! :-) Thank you. Steve

A few questions please... 1) Were the pieces of the shower unit the same thickness as the thickness of the fiberglass shell? 2) Regarding the wood scraps used to temporarily hold those pieces in place until the resin cured... Did you use them on the inside too? What did you use to hold those scraps of wood in place? Were drywall screws good enough or is the shell too thin and required you to bolt them in place? 3) what kind of resin? Stinky polyester or epoxy? 4) Approximately how thick is the fiberglass shell? 5) Do you know yet what kind of glue you will use on the inside to attach wood stringers and ledgers? (The stuff you will attach things like cabinets and walls, etc. to.) Thanks

getout - What material did you use to fill the house body openings as seen in the first photo in post #71 on page 5? And where did you buy it?

Hey thats a great idea Karin - thank you!

Karin - Not that I plan on spending much time in areas with room temperatures below freezing but if I did I would just turn the thing off. What happens if its running in below freezing temps? I read that if you operate these as a fridge that you need to pull everything out once a week and wipe down the interior because not freezing causes condensation. Yes thank you, after I posted this I saw those controllers on eBay and Amazon that simplify the conversion. I also read that its probably better to use a controller without a digital thermometer because some of those don't work well with certain inverters. They used a separate thermometer like you suggested and I have a couple battery operated digital thermometers I bought on eBay for about $3 each and they have been working great. Your idea of partitioning a small area as a freezer apparently didn't work on my Edgestar according to experiments done by some at the expo forum but that would be great if I could create a small space in one of these for the occasional pint of ice cream or to make a beer get colder faster. What a luxury it would be to boondock on a remote beach in Mexico or Central America and eat Cherry Garcia frozen yogurt (assuming I can even find it there)! JD - I downloaded backwoodssolar's PDF catalog and will go through it this weekend. Thanks for the link. I looked around online for high output alternators for my 1982 22R and found two kits for a 120 amp alternator http://tinyurl.com/cggjrt8 for $275 and a 140 amp alternator http://tinyurl.com/b3nayon for $350. I called and they said both will work perfectly on my vehicle and will crank out that amperage even while idling. They both use Delco alternators. I called back and found out they carry a kit without the alternator and wire for only $40 http://tinyurl.com/cb4thsq with a list of 5 alternators that will fit on it. This is great news!

Karin - Since I'm going to gut the interior I'll be glassing anything on the sides of the Sunrader shell closed that doesn't need to be open including the front windows. Fiberglassing is easy for me. Its the electrical stuff that gets my head spinning. Those Engels have a good reputation but are very expensive and I already have an 83 quart Edgestar chest fridge but I'd like to have something with more room since I'll be boondocking a lot in Baja and other points south. I juice 4 to 5 times a week so being able to refrigerate produce is important and takes space which is why I'm thinking I'll probably need something at least 6 cubic feet. JD - Hah hah, so your Sundanzer has some character to it now after getting blasted by a 22! Geez, thats a bummer that a Toyota 22R can't handle a high output alternator. Kinda surprised about that too. I'm open to ideas as its important I figure this out now since I'm hoping things will move a lot faster once I start working on the inside. I was also looking at these AC chest freezers at Walmart http://tinyurl.com/bmqkben and specificaly this 8.7 cubic foot Danby http://tinyurl.com/cbwk7fu for only $300. I don't know how much energy those cheap chest freezers use yet but perhaps something like that could work as a fridge with an inverter and a thermostat to keep it at fridge temps of 37 degrees? This guy shows how he runs his AC chest freezer as a fridge: http://johnlvs2run.wordpress.com/2009/10/08/chest-fridge-conversion/

Did you make it to Nicaragua?

Thanks again for all of your information. 1) If I get the Avanti AC fridge then I was thinking of building a cabinet around it that would be insulated with about 5" of foam including the front door. Do you have any idea how much that would extend the charge of two deep cycle batteries running in hot 90 degree weather? 2) Besides the cost, is there any downside to replacing the stock alternator on a 1982 Toyota 22R with a high output alternator? Does the engine have to work harder to turn a high output alternator, thus less mpg? 3) Even though I'm not much for chest fridges those Sundanzers look really efficient. I like the huge 8.1 cubic foot DCR225. Too bad it costs $1400 plus shipping. I set up a search for a used one with the craigslist app on my ipad so we shall see. JD - Your photos of cutting and storing the big ice blocks is cool. With all the energy independence stuff you have going on, I'm going to assume you guys would make good well prepared neighbors during SHTF situations.

I found a non-working 10 year old Norcold DE-461 AC/DC fridge (7.5 cu ft) that I could buy used for $150. I sent the seller some questions and am waiting to hear back. If there is yellow stuff around the cooling unit then forget it cuz that means an ammonia leak that will require a new cooling unit which costs $1000...AARGH! Its replacement, the Norcold DE-0061, is $1300 new but I don't want to spend anywhere close to that on a fridge. So then I called the Avanti company about their 7.5 cubic foot AC apartment fridge/freezer at Walmart for $310 and they said... -Startup: 8.6 amps (935 watts) -Running: 1.7 amps (110 watts) If I added major foam insulation to it and wasn't the type that stands there gazing into an open fridge, how much solar and batteries do you think I'd need in a warm climate to run this thing?

Hmmm, I thought a 250 watt panel with 3 to 4 batteries would be adequate provided everything else in the Sunrader was super energy efficient but now I'm having doubts. Ever since my ex father in laws nice motorhome started on fire (and then burned to the ground) while they were driving I've had issues with open flames on all the time which is why I've been hoping to stay away from having a propane fridge. Is it unreasonable to be concerned about having a pilot light on all the time? It seems like there isn't much to a fridge/freezer as far as the stuff that makes it cold. What do you think about building my own DC fridge with freezer? I have the skills to build a box (was a cabinetmaker for years) with two doors and tons of insulation. Is that feasible? Has anyone heard of plans for doing this?

Thanks everyone for you input. Yes I want a much larger fridge than what is there now and I don't want to spend a fortune. I understand that cold air falls which I assume is why chest fridges are supposed to be more efficient than stand-up fridges, but I question that with all the time spent with the lid open because you're having to dig endlessly through a pile of food makes them anymore efficient than a stand-up fridge. Like I said in my first post, after two months of using a chest fridge I have decided that I just don't like having all my stuff piled on top of each other so I'm going with a stand-up style with two doors that I'll probably have to fish through the back window. I was thinking of something like this: http://tinyurl.com/bmtncyt Its an Avanti fridge/freezer with 7.5 cubic feet of storage and only $310 at Walmart. 22.25" Deep X 21.5" Wide X 56.75" Tall I don't know how accurate those energy guides are but it says it uses 311 kWh annually. I plan on having about 250 watts of solar panels with 3 to 4 batteries. What do you think?