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Vanman

Toyota Advanced Member
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Everything posted by Vanman

  1. Before I discovered this board I went to camping world and they had several books on RV'ing. I got The RV handbook and it's great, there are many others thou. Not too much $ for a lot of information. Good luck.
  2. When I had the Toy painted he caulked everything and it looked great. Now I am seeing dirt buildup on all of it, some minor and some really terrible. Different kinds of caulk looks like. Tried a small paint brush and some mild soap and got all the green mold and the cleaning on the rest varied. Is there some kind of caulk sealer / paint that I can apply with a small brush??? I really suck at applying caulk neatly and don't want to remove any of it as it seems to be sealing well and it looks even and smooth, much better than I could do. TIA John
  3. I don't know if this is mentioned in the pinned post, but replace the flexible part of the front and rear brake lines. They do degrade after enough years.
  4. Or dead-ends but the magic box says the road goes on, this happened to me on the subaru.
  5. Are you using the same electric cords in both instances?
  6. I second "Love the Odyssey Americana", but they are hard to find.
  7. Replaced mine with good quality stainless steel hose clamps. Springs wear out, I have broken the OEM spring clamps when I was putting 'em back on. New clamps cheap, better safe than sorry.
  8. "and switching to LED's" I got these, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VLFENE/ref=pe_175190_21431760_M3T1_ST1_dp_1 like them so much got a bunch more and did back-up and turn signal lites as well. I did add a resistor across the rear signal lamps sized so I can now run LED or bulb any combo just in case, adding a resistor is necessary as the LED's don't draw enough current for the flasher relay to work, just buzzes real loud and lights. But not a problem as the LED's have been there several years now, no failures.
  9. Except for the foam that looks just like our '91. I have carefully measures the inside and I think it might fit. If it doesn't I think the sticking point might be the inner trim strips. I would also like to know if anyone's done this successfully, it's a substantial increase. The main user of the propane on ours is the heater, the fridge will run a long time on the gas. Another way to increase the useful life of the propane would be to get a more efficient heater, ours blows reasonably warm inside the RV but the exhaust outlet is where most of the heat goes. Needs a much more efficient heat exchanger in the heater, nowadays I hope somebody makes something that would fit either as a new unit or just a heat exchanger retrofit ???? I guess while we're at it a quieter more efficient blower wouldn't be too bad either. What model is your Dolphin??
  10. What I have been told is that by the time you notice performance loss the exhaust valve/valves are already starting to burn. So much cheaper to replace the shims early. When I had ours done all the intakes were fine, in the middle of the clearance range, all the exhausts were real low, some down to just a few thousands of an inch. This was at 89K miles, a friend had a Toyota car with a V-6 at similar miles and it developed a "burble at idle" as he said, and a mechanic told him what it was so he donated the car as wasn't willing to spend that kind of money on an old car.
  11. Re: M+S See http://blog.tirerack.com/blog/bens-blog/what-is-a-mud-and-snow-tire and, http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=33&affiliate=HJ7, which doesn't seem to address the date code ??? The new Michelin M+S Premiers I got for the Subaru have a tire compound that lowers the tires working temperature for better cold traction , but I think this is more for cold wet driving than heavy snow. The rubber compound for a real snow tire will overheat and not last long in warm driving conditions.
  12. One thing I did not like on my Hankooks was that when slowing or stopping they make squealing sounds on any paint or molded labels on the pavement, this seems to bother some pedestrians. I had chalked this up to an RV thing until I got a pair of Hankooks for the front of my Ford and they do the same thing. I have tried different tire pressures and within my range of pressures sameo sameo . I will put the Hankooks on the back of the Ford and get something else for the fronts. Do the GoForms do this?? and how's the traction, especially braking and wet traction ???
  13. Back East Don I will say up front that I do not know any of this definitively but one question I have is what is the fuel burn rate on the Toyota at idle? I know my home generator running everything doesn't run particularly lean. Fabco makes a continuous 2500 watt generator head that will run off of the truck motor at about 1000 -1200 RPM. While fuel consumption comparatively might be a net loss, it is lighter than separate gas powered generator. When I ran my ONAN whilst camping, for the AC, I was surprised how much gas it took out of my Toy's not so large gas tank. Maybe I should look at that Fabco before I spend the money to got the Onan fixed.
  14. ...Not much has changed since then except that newer transmissions with lock-up torque-converters make a lot less heat (when locked-up). Under what conditions does the TC lock up?? If you are climbing a hill in 2nd or 1st gear and the motor revs are high will it lock up ??
  15. Isn't that structural damage next to the hood hinge in the pict showing the battery isolator which has a bare lug crimped wire just hanging near the isolator coil connection? I would go over it from underneath with a flashlight very carefully. I'm no expert on prices for that one, but sounds high unless condition is very good. Condition on these is everything reguardless of age.
  16. I saw I think, on slashdot, a link to 3-D printing of stainless steel and titanium. If the cost of that rig ever gets down to an affordable level I will sure like to get me one. Course that would probably entail a 3-D scanner and CAD software as well.
  17. Back East Don Looks like they are getting close though. I'd get on the list early GE 3D Printing Many years ago, before smog controls, one of the majors built and tested plastic motors. Was on the cover of one of the magazines I subscribed to, was supposed to be the next big thing.
  18. Guess I got "lucky" with my Mom's old Dodge Caravan up in Washington state. They were starting to chew all the rubber lines under the hood, left the brake lines at the wheels alone. I spent an entire day wrapping that hard plastic spiral tubing protectors around everything in the engine compartment. Didn't cost too much and it worked My back hurt for a few days is all. These were the kind that has a bushy ended tail, never did see 'em but you could see all the brush strokes in the dust. The damn ones that would get inside the house would eat anything, even the wiring for the alarm sensors. Finally gave up and went wireless for all the sensors.
  19. "One observation I've always made with older vehicles that you don't see with more modern engines is exhaust smell. " Doesn't the catalytic converter for smog have a lot to do with this????
  20. Well the chrome was good and now the bezel is new so the aluminium inside that's got corroded spots now stands out. So after polishing it some I painted it with the aluma-paint used on my home stair railing. Looks good will look great after the second coat tomorrow.
  21. Thanks for the post I just ordered mine. Exterior is now finished .
  22. Drove down the hill today and noticed the Sunrader I see parked there all the time had been vandalized. Stopped and took a look and someone had torn the door off the propane tanks cover and left it in the street. Pushed it under the RV so it won't get run over and damaged more. That kind of theft/vandalism had become an epidemic around here lately, so sad.
  23. I always wondered about that. I have to use a mask and gloves to handle it, but the rodents rip it up to make nests of it???
  24. Hi see http://toyotamotorhome.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=7398, I went with the Hankooks and liked em so much I put 2 on my Ford, but a different size. With the RA08's on the RV I run 55# rears, 48# in fronts, much higher than the reccomendation of Dolphin. It rides better with lower rear tire pressure but I did not like the small space between the rears when they flatten out. Above 55# the flatting out and thus the tire gap quit changing. YMMV
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