Vanman

Derek up North Yes. Yes. $279 (?). Yes. NO, $289 no tax includes shipping(UPS). YES, set of 4 includes covers for 2 fronts, 2 rears. BETTER, not chrome but look like chrome, stainless steel buffed to chrome finish, if scratched or damaged just smooth, rebuff, wax, good as new. Great looking centerpiece, shiny black with eagle flight letters and pict of eagle. NOT, hubcaps, better, 2 piece stamped units give complete coverage. Bolt on with stock lugnuts, 3 holes oversize, 3 to fit. This is so you only have to remove 3 lugnuts to mount-dismount, no wheel removal necessary. Many of the Toys at the Felton toy-in had these and I had to have em' for ours. I even got new lugnuts as they are an odd size, (23mm),and some previous tire monkeys have barfed ours up. vanman

Just got off the phone to RV Wheel and ordered the great looking wheel covers for our Toys, between him and Eagle Flight they only got 50 total and it seems now that in all probability this will be the end of the line for this size product, says it took them years to get the factory to crank out the limited # of this size, and he's not optimistic about getting any more. vanman

linda s A 195 tire is not needed on your camper. 185 is fine and c load range is fine too. C load range is not a car tire. The only companies that I know of the make a true snow tire in the sizes we need are Nokian and Verdestien or what ever that name is. Here's a link to some onlinehref='https://www.tiresbyweb.com/tbw_tiresearchadv2.aspx?treadwidth=185&profile=&rimsize=14&Winter=1&Pageindex=1&choice2=All' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>https://www.tiresbyw...x=1&choice2=All</a><br /><br />Another option is a good all season tire like the hanhook ra08 and bring chains for when needed. If you go with the snow tires I wouldn't stud them. Need to stud all tires and can't use them many places. I wanted to go with the 195 tires but didn't because they are also bigger in diamater, and the last thing these RV's need is gearing up. I see some of the RV's are using these tires on the front, if so go with the 185 for a spare, that will fit on the front in a pinch. I will convert to the 195's if I change the rear end ratio, which I am now planing to do as I also want a locking rear end, kill 2 birds with one (expensive) stone. When I was shopping for tires,(got the 185 Hankook's) I was told load range D only or look at the load factor in pounds and match to that. vanman

5Toyota' Alarms absolty At wally worled i bought a battery power carbon monoxide detector for 22 dollors may not be rv rated but is a better then none smoke and gas alarms a saf ety must better too be tired then dead. Couldn't agree more, we have a First Alert combo CO and smoke detector for the RV to save space, for the home have seperate detectors, it's cheaper. Anyone know of a 3 way combo CO, smoke, Propane one ???? vanman

I called the 1-800 # on the side of a bottle of Mobil 1 5-30 oil twice, just to be sure, and talked to 2 reps. Both said the same, I should be using the 10-40 High Mileage oil, 10-30 would be OK but since I am using some oil the 10-40 would cut consumption some. They also agreed with the dealer that the Toyota synthetic oil is not for use on older motors, which is why the dealer says he stocks Mobli 1. Just to be sure I am going to drain, replace filter,gasket, and refill. BTW I did notice significantly more engine noise after the switch to the Mobli 1 some say this is normal , espically for older, high mileage motors, others say What??? What say you ?? Vanman

90toydolphin I have a 1990 dolphin. would my converter be the newer kind that shouldn't cook the battery? Would there be info on the converter that would tell me? wouldn't want to destroy a $100 battery. Our 92" Dolphin came with a Magnateck 6325C so yours probably has same or similar. Open the top of the distribution panel and you should see 4 or 5 ckt breakers on the left and a ckt board with fuses to the right. If it's still there the manufactures label inside of the hinged cover will tell you about your converter. See my post above for adjustment advice. To get access to the converter below remove the 4 #4-40 screws on the bottom of distribution panel front cover. Not a bad idea to vaccumm up any dust bunnies whilst your'e there. I found 2 dead mice underneath mine. vanman

Went on the Felton run at 45# ft and 51# rear, set in morning when really cold. Rides really well now , forgot to write down the hot pressure for front, but pump-up was less than 5 #'s with tire hot. vanman

Gulfstream Greg My tires are rated 65 lbs max, so I run 60 in the rears and 45 in the front. I forgot to mention before that one very interesting thing the rep said to me that was a real suprise was when I asked about the plys vs. ply rating he told me that they actually have only 3 plys in the sidewall !!!!! I did notice when I picked them up that the side walls didn't seem as thick as I thought they would be. vanman

'Escapering' I dropped off 4 6 lug "3 hole" new dually rims at discount tire to have some new Hankooks put on them for my axle swap. They called and said that the valve stem hole is smaller than their schrader 413 stem will fit in. My Toyota parts guy found an obselete part number for dual valve stems Toyot P/N 05021 but had no idea what size hole they went into. I am wondering if the powder coaters were just too enthusiastic on these rims, as I have run into that before on other coated parts. Any ideas? We replaced all 7 of ours when we replaced the tires. The Toyota dealer ordered the stems, funny shape due to the wheels. I just measured the diam of the new one the dealer buggered up and it's .379 " slightly over 3/8 ", the metric caliper shows 8.6mm. If you need I can probably find the part # for the stems, replacing them was a waste as far as I'm concered. they were all find as were the O rings, btw the new stems come with the same demensions as far as I could see but the new O rings were red, not black, and even smaller in diameter than the originals, either way very little compression on the O rings so I am assuming Toyota trust the machining on the wheels. What is a " 3 hole" wheel??? vanman

PirateHoratioHey guys &amp; gals,This is my first camper and I was wondering how the rear battery can power all the appliances and does it get charged when the motor is running? Feel free to expand further than these questions! Thanks!<br /><br />There should be a batter isolator, usually a relay, under the hood. When the enging is running an alternator lead will energise the relay which will put the coach battery in parallel with the truck battery, charging both. When the motor stops the relay drops out so using the coach battery won't drain the truck battery. The idiot who installed the stereo in our rig connected the feed to a wire that was only hot when the truck ignition switch was in the run position!!! Bad luck for me with RV's as the previous RV for me was a boat with the stereo wired the same as was this truck. I remember asking the seller of the boat if this wasn't bad for the outboad motor and he said no problem, espacially as he had to recently replace all the ignition black boxes!!!!!! What I did is run 2 wires from both sides of the isolator to a 3 position switch mounted to the right of the hand brake and from there to the stereo. Left is the coach battery, center is no power, right is the Toyota battery. I am too old for this I guess as it took me 5 hours to do a sano job of this with parts I already had. And BOY do I wish I had been smart enough to remove the drivers side seat first!!! I wasn't!!!<br /> vanman

Caper' fresh water comes out of a hose when I stop and go.Can I seal this hose so I don't lose my water - it has a screen over it but no seal. We need more info to answer, I am assuming the hose is attached to the white(fresh) water tank??? The fill fittings I have seen are a flush mount to the outer surface of the RV, the hose from that to the tank is internal??? vanman

90toydolphin' >anyone with a v6 auto that can give me some rpm values at different speed points in different gears. just wondering what are safe high speeds in 1st and 2nd gears. 3rd and OD are not a real issure. thanks. Manual for Mary's 91 says: 1st max is 29 mph, 2nd max is 54 mph. One way to see what the trans thinks is to floor it and see what speed it upshifts at, ours is slightly above those speeds, nevertheless I max it out below 23 / 48 . van,an

I am seeing a small seam in the sidewall from the bead to the tread that I have not seen on any of the many tires I've owned over the years. So I called the toll-free # for Hankook and talked to a teck who said this was a lap seam in the sidewall and was normal, but to take it to the tire dealer for a check for peace of mind. While I had him on the line I asked if he could provide me with a load / tire pressure chart for this tire (RA08) he said he would be happy to e-mail me one. In passing I told him about the Natl RV sticker behind the drivers seat that had all the load info with the recommended 36# ft and 45# rear, which I thought was way too low, this was the response: John, I have had some difficulty finding a digital chart to email to you. However, I have done some calculations based on my reference materials and the loads that you estimate each tire will need to carry. I have come to the conclusion that the vehicle conversion manufacturer has provided you with quality tire pressure recommendations. Front - 36psi (248kpa) = approx 1200 lbs of load capacity per tire (single application) Rear - 45psi (310kpa) = approx 1400 lbs of load capacity per tire (dual application) You can increase inflation according to additional loads and tire wear. Sincerely, Nicholas Tufo Coordinator Quality & Service Team I would really like to get this rig to ride smoother, I am currently using 55# ft and 57# rear what pressures are other Hankook tire owners using ??? Anyone going this low ???

86rader' There is only one reason to need a gennie, IMO. That would be for AC. If you can get by without AC, just buy a decent inverter and maybe upgrade your house battery. You can also add PV cells at a reasonable price which eliminate having to run the engine just to keep the house battery topped off. Our microwave uses more amps than the AC, 10.5A max, the AC uses 5.5A. vanman

'90toydolphin' both are set up to attach a hose to. the fresh water tank has a separate fill behind a door. so i have three places for fresh water, two with hose connection, one on the drivers side the other on the back left of the spare tire, and a third behind a locked door. btw, any ideas where to get the key for the water door which is shorter than any regular key. it doesn't open storage door or battery door, just the water door. weird. ON ours it's a DECO 1 RV key, do a google and you'll find a range of $14 to $5 for a pair. This key opens the white water fill, Electrical cord/antenna door, and a small access door on the drivers side that's an access to some plumbing fittings. These type of locks are easily replacable and easy to find, I'm gonna replace 'em all with the same keyed lock "one of these days", there are 5 keys on our ring now. vanman

'Bob C' I was checking out the isolator on my MH and found a very basic, easy to understand article on troubleshooting a battery isolator. I would prefer to run the coach batt down some, start Toy, measure the voltage drop across the contactors, (need a digital for this), drive rig over some bumps, recheck voltage drop across contactors. Going over a few bumps will show if the contactor surfaces are capable of getting mis-aligned enough to cause a bad connection. On our rig this relay is showing .01 to .02 VDC I would be for replacing this relay if the drop got any higher than .06 or more. Just for grins try tapping the relay with say a screwdriver whilst doing this. it's easy to get the contacts misaligned enough to get some high voltage drops. If you do do this quickly shut the Toyota off and restart it several times. This will allow the relay to recenter the contacts after which the voltage drop should go back to nominal. vanman

vtchris Run, don't walk......that dealership is feeding you a live of bullhockey! There is no way to know except taking it apart and measuring! The manual says to "inspect and adjust as needed" every 60K miles. I too had more than one dealership try and talk me out of doing this with some lame excuse or another because they don't have mechanics with experience necessary. And believe me, even though it isn't all that hard, it needs to be done by someone who is experienced doing it. My first toy was done by an inexperienced mechanic at a dealership and one mile down the road all oooo broke loose......somehow (no one can explain quite how) they damaged the camshaft. And although the towing and the fix was all done on their dime, I was without my home for 10 days! They did give me a loaner car. I could tell they never wanted to see me again. Call around to other dealerships (or independents who have experience with the 3.0) and talk to the head honcho. That is what I did and found a great dealership.Where are you located? San Francisco , Calif, anyone in this area has any reccomendations???? JC

SqueezerBob'I'm loading up my 91 Warrior for the Walnut Valley music festival in Winfield, Kansas. I'll be running my power cord across a busy dirt road, and am looking for some kind of way to protect it from the traffic. I know I've seen others use a durable rubber product, but I haven't been able to find anything online. HELP!!!!!! I do not believe any of the non metallics are durable enough to work for this. I would suggest 1/2 " iron water pipe but first take a pick ax and make a small trench to run the pipe thru then cover it with enough dirt to prevent the tires from grabbing it. That should do it. JC

Will it be in Felton again ??? Wer'e back on the road again. Vanman

Fantastic John, thanks for the ID.Have you any idea where I may be able to close them? I hadn't known of any valve(s) to open/close or area where I can get to in order to change O rings. The picture shows the drain hose under the valves. Look above the drain hoses to find the valves, maybe if you open and shut 'em a few times you can get the leak to stop. Vanman

Upgrading to a full floating rear axle, a place called Front Range Off-Road Fab. has a kit--every required nut and bolt--for 1.5k (a kit without calipers, etc is about half that, but sales rep claims parts from my current rear axle can't be reused, so unless I have doner parts from a front axle, I really need the full kit). Then I guess another 400-500 to install? IS there a cheaper way to go? thanks Don't the Toys that come with all 6 bolt wheels also have bigger front brakes ????? Vanman

I need to get the valves adjusted on my 1993 Toy and the local Dealership reallydoesn't want to do it (my feeling is they lack confidence). Does anyone know of someone anywhere East of the Rockies who is good at this? Hmmm, Mary's 92 V6 has 87 K on it and the Toyota dealer we took it to for much work said they have an "sound test" to see if it needs any adjustment. They said it was fine. How did you know yours needed some shims replaced??? Some of the work this dealer did was of terrible quality so there isn't any trust factor with this dealer. Vanman

Bob C I do not currently have an RV. I am looking at a 21', 1987 Toyota with a 4 cyl and auto trans. Could someone with this type of unit let me know what they get for gas mileage? I anticipate driving at about 55 mph to minimize my fuel consuption. When we went to Hagerman Idaho to get Mary's 92 Dolphin V6 auto it was completely empty all tanks and the only parts inside were the jack and lug wrench. Drove it home to SF in a hurry it maintained 70 on level real easy, got 14 MPG best tank and 11.7 the worst. Loaded it up for last years Felton run and drove it real slow to get best milage and got 10 MPG for trip. After much work,new tires etc. a trip to Burney and Modoc County around 1 K miles we got 11.2 for the trip driving slow. This experience seems to indicate that the load your carrying is more a factor that driving style. Vanman

<br /><br /><br />The small ckt board on the rt side of the Magnateck powersupply is the battery charger and it's output is adjustable. I was getting 14.0 VDC on the fully charged coach battery when plugged into home 110 or on the generator. I rotated the trimpot on the ckt board 20 degrees CCW and now have 12.91VDC. John