Oldiesel

Looking at an 87 Odyssey that may need a bit of work, does anyone know if the side wall framing is wood or aluminum. My Mini Cruiser that I replaced the entire roof on last year had aluminum in the walls, which was a life saver as the rot from the roof was stopped by the aluminum tubing in the walls. I am hoping for aluminum again, does anyone really know? Don

Had this on our Toyota that i had a stupid spell and sold!Wish i had it back

My sign for tailgaters

I have a wheel for sale over in classifieds and left out one digit in the phone number,8 folks have looked at it but due to my fumble could not call me! I have corrected my screwup,if you are one of the 8 give me a call. 863 675 6761 Don

I have installed one that looks exactly like that in our Mini Cruiser and it works great! I am not sure about that model as i dont remember the model number of mine,it might be the same.Mine is wired ,the only thing wireless about it is the little remote control and i dont see much use for that. The installation was easy as i ran the wiring while i was building the new roof. I think having the display mounted on the rear view mirror is very good it is sort of a normal thing to look there as you shift to reverse.I wired mine to come on with the key as opposed to only being on in reverse and i usually leave it on when we are traveling for another view as to what is going on behind me,the thing works great! it has 1 additional video connection that you could connect another camera to or some other electronic device to. it has adjustment for contrast and color.I just remembered the wire from the screen to the camera was not long enough for our 21 ft unit but a longer one was only a few dollars.I think i might have paid a few bucks more than that price but i am not sure,anyway i find it to be a satisfactory unit and happy i have it. Don

The 90 to 93 5 cyl is a totally different engine from the pre 87 617, it is lighter though still alot heavier than the 22r and more powerful than the old style has hydraulic lifters and no rocker arms and was only sold in the U.S. with turbo and 4 speed automatic. Some other countrys did get n/a versions but we did not. I agree that high revs at low speeds will run coolant temps up and oil temps also to a lesser degree,but you will not see the destructive high EGT that you will in a hard pull for a long period and thats what kills diesels not hi revs. I know very little about 22rs but i do know about diesels! Don

Up until a couple of years ago i had a 98 VW TDI as i recall it was rated 90hp. At that time we had a Scamp 13ft little camper that actually weighed 1345lbs we towed it all thru the mountains of N.C. and like the Toy the wind drag was the limiting factor,on level ground 65mph was about it ,you could go a bit faster but the oil temp started climbing right up quickly and although it was a great little engine i dont see it being a good conversion in the camper.I have read where people have put them in the Toyota 4x4s for off road use and were very pleased with the performance,but thats a very different application from running on the highway against a 20mph wind or a long steep grade in the mountains, ithink either would put the oil temp and egt thru the roof. Don

Since i own two MB diesel cars i have given that idea considerable thought. Took a few rough measurements and formed the opinion that the 5 cyl engine used in the 90 to 93 2.5L 300 D might be able to squeze in to the toyota i dont think the 6cyl would fit without some serious surgery on the firewall which looks to me would include changes to the Heat / A/C equipment on the cabin side of the firewall. Neither of my cars are as new as the one you proposed but i believe the 6 cyl you speak of is the OM606 a modern 4 valve version of the OM 603 that is in my wagon and the engine block is substantially the same length.both the 5 and 6 have the deep part of the sump at the front of the engine which puts it right where it will interfere with the Toyota chassis,im sure a good welder could rework the oil pan to overcome that problem. The gear ratio in the rear axle would need to be changed if the MB trans was used as their 4th gear is direct so equivelent to running the Toy trans in 3rd. Not a great idea with an engine that has max torque starting below 2000 rpm.Adapting the Toy trans to the MB engine would not be out of the question but is not a simple thing to do.( has been done with some of the older pre 1986 MB engines to Toy std trans) but the adaption involves some serious machine shop work and accurate measuring. In the end i doubt the Toy trans would stand up to the added muscle of the modern MB turbo diesel for very long.All these negatives aside if i were 20 years younger and had a shop i could fit my Toy in iwould be out there right now working it!

from my experience some gasoline engines respond very well to SOME chips which is why i posted the question to see if anyone had actual experience with this particular chip in a Toyota hopefully one with a 22re engine. Like most here i regard these sort of advertizement as mostly snake oil ,but i know some do work maybe not up to their advertizing mile age but some improvement if you dont too frequently use the new found power. Don

Has anyone tried the G Force chip in their camper? They claim a great increase in Horsepower and a 4 to 7 mpg increase as well. The HP increase would be nice but 4 to 7 mpg fuel mileage increase would be fantastic! Trouble is these claims all sound too good to be true and we all know how that goes. Any experience with this device? anyone??? Don

It would be wise to use real trans cooler hose,made for the application! Should be on hand at any of the big name auto parts stores and not expensive.Trans oil gets way hotter than fuel ever does. Don

Shaggy I sent you an email about the roof and i do have some pictures but the email bounced ??? Don

Trying to prop it up for a while sounds like a good idea to me or maybe a support that you can leave in place while driving and put out of your way when you need to. Removing the ceiling is a big job and if it is built like most of these Toys you will find that the whole roof/ceiling assy was all glued together before it way put on the house and the whole thing is about 1 inch thick so not much room for reinforcing,when i built the new roof for ours i was able to put 3/4x3/4 square tubing at the fore and aft framing of the A/C opening,but my roof/ceiling assy is total about 2 1/2 inches thick at the center and about an 1 1/4 inch at the walls.My original roof was so bad i cut it in half and took it to the dump. Not a project you want if you can avoid it. Don

Our 86 Mini Cruiser 21ft has aluminum framing in the house body,we were very happy to find it,the roof was so bad it would have been a much worse job repairing walls ect if it had been a woody. How ever not all mini cruisers are aluminum and i have no info on which are not,maybe someone with some info on what years or models were or were not. I dont know if you could tell with a metal detector as there is so much metal mouldings,window frames ect that it might be hard to find out. don

I decided to try turning that screw,i turned it about 1/4 turn counter clockwise,my tiny pilot light flame became larger and now reaches out to the thermocouple and when the thermocouple gets red hot the burner lights.So far so good,what i have now is what looks to me like a small flame from the full length of the burner so i set the thermostat to 300 and shut the door ,after 20 minutes i opened the door and checke the temp of a piece of metal i had placed in there with my ir temp gun and it was at 275 deg i figured that was pretty close so i let it run and checked it at about 10min intervals.The temp continued to increase and finally reached about 380deg where i shut it off. I looks like what i have now is the oven will light correctly but does not seem to control the temperature.The longer it ran the hotter it got.Unless someone comes up with a better idea i thimk i am just going to leave it at that and the wife will have to learn to work with it.

Is this the adjustment screw you refer to?

I have a similar problem,i have an Elixir model 164-80B stove w/oven.Stove top works fine but when i try to light the oven i get a very small pilot and according to the manual at some point the pilot flame will get larger and heat the the little tube so the valve will open and the burner will light.When the oven reaches the set temperature the burner will shut off and the pilot will go back to small until the temp cools down then the large pilot flame again and the burner will light.Problem is i never get the large pilot flame so therefore no burner. I hope someone here has an understanding of what it is that makes the pilot light change from very small to large enough to cause the main burner to come on.Along with that dificulty i have not yet found any place to buy parts for this stove if and when i discover what is needed,any help will be greatly appreciated! Don

I would like to put the instrument cluster that has the tach and trip mileage in my 86 Mini Cruiser. I have seen a couple for sale ,but have been finding conflicting info. Some say its plug and play and change the oil pressure light switch to the sender for the oil pressure gauge.Some say the unit with the tach will only fit 87 & 88 trucks. Does it matter that my truck is automatic and the guages came out of a manual shift truck,my camper has the gear position indicator on the column??? I know i read on here that the conversion has been done. Any help would be greatly apreciated. Don

Would it be possible for you to post some info on how much you spent,even a total would be great,but even better if you could break it down like gas ,camping fees ect?

I found these light strips on Ebay they were inexpensive so i ordered a couple,they have about 24 LEDs in each strip and the best i could measure was about 65 milliamps each strip so would take a long time to have any real effect on the battery.They do make enough light to read by,the light is a bit harsh is the best i can describe it but it wont run your battery down probably not if left on for a week! ill try to attach a couple of pictures. these have a strip of 2 sided tape attached to the back,peel and stick install,just add a switch. Don

you will find info on those trucks on www.peachparts.com as stated they are somewhat rare in the U.S. but they do pop up there occasionally and there are knowledgeable people there who seem to find parts for them. Don

Derek What you posted is exactly what happened to me when i put in the air bags! We drove the Toy about 600 miles home and the brakes were OK,nothing to brag about but for a 6000lb vehicle with 1/2 ton pickup brakes about as good as you could expect.Got it home and did alot of work on it including air bag install.We started out on a 2500mile trip and WOW the brakes were really poor,first place i got to i got out the shop manual and ran the adjustment all the way up and the brakes are back to normal,still not great but OK if you push hard enough.Maybe there should be a "sticky" about this so new members would be made aware of the situation. Don

we have an 86 Minicruiser,just returned from a 2500 mile trip with it and we love it.We bought it without any knowledge of the problems that all of these Toyotas have,didnt find this treasure trove of information until after we bought it and probably paid more than we should have.We discovered after we bought it and drove it 600 miles home that the roof was beyond repair, i ended up taking the complete flat part of the roof right off and to the dump, then built a new one in its place! A good feature is that the side walls have aluminum square tubing frame work with the wall itself built of thin panaling over 3/4"blue foam insulation with more thin paneling with thin fiberglass on the outside all sandwiched together.Because the framing is aluminum we did not have the rotten wood in the walls that so many here have shown wth the dolphins and other stick built models.Water leaks seem to almost the only serious problems for all makes.Other people have reported wooden construction in some of the earlyier RBR campers ,i dont know when they went to aluminum,hpoe youes has it. The roof on ours did have 1x3 boards in the roof with 3/4"steel square tube reinforcing where the A/C unit sat,but the roof had been leaking so long that the steel was rusted thru and the wood was also rotten.What i found in taking it all apart was that previous repairs were poorly done to the point of actualy having holes the size of a quarter corroded thru the aluminum skin because who ever put house roofing stuff never got it sealed and water got between the sealer and the aluminum and stayed there tilll it finally corroded thru making even worse leaks .Examine the roof carefully the weight of the A/C does tend to make most of them sag some and if i lived in an area where i didnt need it i would have left it off.Other water leaks such as around window frame and corner mouldings are not a big deal if you are lucky enough to have the aluminum framing instead of wood The price sounds fair if the roof is good,the little trucks have a very good reputation and the 4 cylinder is easy to maintain and is often compaired to diesels for longevity. Don

I recently installed air lifts on the rear of or 21ft and after that the brakes were poor and did not stop well at all.Trying to figure out why it finally dawned on me that i had raised the rear back to the unloaded height.I have the factory manual so i adjusted the rear brake compensator linkage all the way ,up which increases the rear brake pressure,this brought the brake function back to normal,so keep this in mind as you add air boosters or overload springs. Don

Mainea Thanks, that was exactly what i needed Don