CME

Awesome advice so far thank you both!!

Any advice on axle swapping anything other than the toyo 6 lug rear end? My 17' 5lug has blown a bearing and the diff is not in the best shape either. I've never been happy with the wimpy axle even though it is a smaller unit, it is still pushed to the max. So rather than rebuild the rear end, or just put in new bearings, I'm interested in other options for axles. Thought maybe a Ford truck or Tacoma would be interesting, something with a heavier load capacity. I'd really like to stay away from the dual wheels if possible, but a full floating would be great obviously but single wheel. Ideally something that shared the 5 bolt pattern and I can just use my existing tires. Could be up to 4 inches wider or so than the standard toyo axle... and I'm sure some fabrication would be needed for springs and the driveshaft, but all that is secondary to having something beefier. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Anyone with experience swapping any other axles into their small toy?? I'd love to beef mine up and maintain single wheels in the back. Was thinking about a later model Ford or Tacoma as a possibility. I can't seem to find anyone attempting this. The hunt for a 6 lug dually up here could be troublesome and This has been fine on the 5 lug single wheel since 78'... just not wanting to push my luck after seeing the bearing go. Thanks for your help if you've got some

I'd love to know what you did... I just had a bearing go on my 17' little chief and I'm thinking of replacing the axle with something other than the Toyo 6 lug. Thanks cme

Thanks for the replies. There appears to be a few of these switches on the market... I'd like to have a nice clean install in the dash where the original knob is.

The 2 speed is killing me in the Pacific NorthWest, have to manually flip it in and out most of the time.

I'm needing to swap out the 2 speed wiper switch for an intermittent one on my 78' I've seen a few generic switches and am curious if there is advice out there on this. Thanks Much

Thanks, we lucked out and she came to us! The size is perfect for our purposes~

I'm a little chief owner... you still around? curious what axle you have and if you are running duals or single wheels. I have the 5 lug still with single 15" wheels on the back. thanks

Hi guys, thought I'd share a bunch of things we have done to make life lovely on the road! Totally reno-ed the bathroom after finding my holding tanks were shot and a big rot patch in the back wall. Cut my old square black water box out of the shower pan and re-fiberglassed it flat, painted it and got some thin plastic shower walls to cover the hideous wall paper... that was only behind the shower pan relying on a 30 yr old bead of caulk to protect from water! Had to go. Turned out amazing. Replaced the toilet with a small porta potty which is much more practical for us and leaves lots of extra room for storage. Funny though we haven't used the sweet new shower yet! installed another 110v outlet near the table area as the only one was at the end by the sink. Great and very useful. Also have a small 300watt inverter located in the same area. did away with the single metal post tiny wobbly table, and made myself a sweet cedar one that tucks in the hatch space and mounts on two brackets, plus a removable leg. Just added two attachments on the outside too so that we can set it up in the campsite. Love this mod so much! The metal holes in the floor are now gone and I installed some thick vinyl floating tiles that are super durable and a nice bamboo looking pattern. In the cab I removed the headliner that was flopping around and all the ugly orange carpeting and pleather wrapped trim pieces. Replaced them with a nice white carpet headliner and fir trim, as well as a new pretty plywood hatch. Above the cab there was always condensation under the mattress in colder weather so I put in a 1" hard foam insulation layer with a cutout on the hatch so it is still removable. (lost it's slide function, but we rarely use it anyway. Really made a huge difference and no-more condensation under there! Also in the cab the stereo was terrible, and had only two surface mounted 4 inch speakers. with that engine it was hopeless. In the side walls behind the seats there are two covered vents (78) so I cut out a space and mounted 6x9s in there. Took up no space and sounds great. I originally thought I'd go with boxes but space is tight back there. So this is a good way to go. One other thing that was great was removing a small medicine cabinet mirror from the area above the fridge. There was at least 80% wasted space so I changed it to be 4 open shelves. This is the most appreciated fix for sure. Anyway, thanks for all the tips and knowledge on here! happy cruising~!

Ours is a 78 Little Chief 17-18' Been very happy so far and love the constant tinkering fixing all the little things that you deal with everyday. Had it for about 8 months and love it! We live in BC on Gabriola Island. I posted some pics of the work I've done on the main page.

I heard you can place chlorine pucks by the wheels and that keeps em from climbing up... never tried it though. They can get anywhere if they want to. Quite the gymnasts!

I had one with the black water tank raised up inside it. taking up half the bathroom, and my tank had been cracked, so I cut the box out and re-fiberglassed the unit into a flat pan. Puttied it, sanded and painted it. Turned out beautiful. I thought of a new one, but the original fit too perfectly to mess with! Good luck!

Ours is a 78 Little Chief with a 22R hybrid, 18'. Over about 3500 miles this past winter we averaged around 17.6 Always thinking of upgrading the carb and air filter but $600 buys a lot of gas!

Thanks for the tips! I'll check those things out. ; )