wanderso

How did it go?

Drive south to visit the lava beds south of Klamath falls. Those are great as well.

Great trip!

Nice. Enjoying our 91 Warrior around Oregon on several trips this summer. Love how it can go to many places larger rigs can't.

At the end of the season, I'm wanting to clean and caulk several areas that can benefit. Windows still look great - spoiled by the fact that the prior owner kep it in his shop for it's whole life. (I am renting space in a pole barn as well). On these warriors, there is a metal strip at the bottom of the sidewalls that runs the entire length of the sandwiched side walls. What are recommendations to do this best and guarantee a good seal? The part to the left and right of te wheel well where they also join at the load floor sure looks like an opportunity for water intrusion as well as on this metal strip. I'm surprised that there aren't any drains in case water gets in there.

Enjoyin camping on the Oregon Coast at South beach State Park. There are a half dozen toy's at the park this weekend. Almost like an official toy-in.

Enjoyin camping on the Oregon Coast at South beach State Park. There are a half dozen toy's at the park this weekend. Almost like an official toy-in.

Great work. It gets lots of us thinking about a swap.

Our 1991 Warrior has the Norcold fridge that is 2-way (LP or 120v, no 12v). Since in most cases I am going to parks that have electrical, I've wondered about installing an inverter and running the fridge off of that when I am driving enroute. The added feature in my mind is that not needing to run LP when on the highway is a nice safety benefit. Has anyone tried this? Yes I could go to a 3-way fridge, but an inverter seems to be a less expensive option that also gives me additional uses provided that it does not put too much stress on the coach, truck battery and alternator. Any suggestions to find out the 'starting amps' requirement of the fridge's 120v heater?

On our 2nd outing, I had an interesting situation where the windshield wipers would not turn off. (1991 Warrior, V6). My young son was sitting in the driver's seat when it was parked and I think he had fiddled with the wiper control. Of interest, they would still run on intermittent in the "off" position. In the intermittent position, they ran on "low". When I adjusted the intermittent setting to the fastest setting, the wiper control returns to normal and they shut off as expected. I can use the wipers on the intermittent setting (one intermittent speed) and on the other settings. Anyone else experienced this? I anticipate that the intermittent control/adjustment is the culprit. I've not yet disassembled the column to inspect.

On my 1991 Warrior, the airbag adjustments are located in the driver's side dualie wheel well. You will see the two air hoses leading to that point and they are simply filled with an air compressor. Per my owner's manual, mine are supposed to be kept <100 pounds. I put 90 pounds in them. One of mine was already at 90, the other was only at 40. In my case, the air bags don't look like the typical "firestone" airbags like Bill shows in the above post. Those are likely a better designed setup. Mine are much smaller, single chambers. Instead of looking like 2 doughnuts stacked on top of each other, mine look more like the size of a 12 ounce pop/beer can. A bit larger than that, but you get the point. In the case of the ones that I have that came from the "factory", the are more about ride comfort and less about ride height. I don't see any height adjustment resulting from filling them.

Should be interesting how this plays out for folks. I'd prefer to stay 'all Toyota' partly because of emissions testing in our area and avoiding the hassle with the state. I sure have to think that the added horsepower and reliability of the 3.4 is a compelling option.

I actually like that these Warriors had the generator compartment without a permanent generator installed unless you paid for the option. That gives me the option to just use it as the only outdoor "basement storage" on these rigs when I don't need a generator at the campsite. If you do, just have a portable one in there, pull it out, plug it in and enjoy! Permanent one probably would have added 75-100 lbs of weight.

Newbie - 1991 Winnie Warrior 3.0L V6. 13.99 on our first trip, relatively flat, using Oregon's 10% ethanol regular fuel. Most of the trip was 55-60, except for about 20% of it at 65 MPH. Accelerating with care. I suspect that I will get 1-1.5 MPG better when I get a chance to gas up in Washington. David - with your rig being so similar to ours, I'd like to hear if you've done anything special to eek out a couple more MPG than I've seen so far.

Thanks - Had the front end inspected upon my return, all of the tires rebalanced and inspected by reputable shop and the front end aligned. I found that the rear brakes shoes had around 2/32 left so went ahead and replaced, flushed the brake fluid, replaced the bearing seals and re-packed. (bearings are in great condition). Front brakes still have a lot of pad left and good rotors.

Greetings - I talked to a company that specializes in rebuilding Toyota engines about performing an engine swap from the 3.0L to the 3.4L. http://www.nwteamyota.com/ They also rebuild the 22R. Here is his reply. 3.0L to 3.4L swap in a 1991 Toyota motorhome It is half the work/cost if you have a manual transmission. Automatics communicate to much with the computer and engine sensors and you could end up with shift issues. Second the hood clearance is an issue, You would have to cut a spot for the EFI plenum and install a hood scoop. On the trucks and 4runners some people use a body lift but that wont work in your case. The hardest part would be fabricating the exhaust x-over. The motor mounts stay in the same location. The 3.4L is much improved over the 3.0L engine in power and reliability (ie the head gasket issues). My comment from above is that sounds like you may have to find a donor vehicle with a 3.4L in it to get the ECU (computer) and wiring harness. In my case, I don't have much desire to move to a stick shift in my RV as I need to keep this "wife friendly".

Result was great time with family. 13.99 MPG overall. A bit of tire vibration at highway speeds. Will check. On the suspension it has some creaks and noises. Can't find any lube points. Amy suggestions?

I wish that my norcold was the same setup. Unfortunately it is a rocker switch for the ignitor. The device relies on 12v to auto ignite the fridge and re-light it if the fridge pilot goes out. Seems over engineered to me and the replacement part is $80.

By the way, I suspect it has been discussed earlier. Some norcold fridges in these rigs are subject to recall if they are in the correct serial number range. The 1991 Warrior for example has the 874EG2 installed. In my case, the serial number is outside of the range. Go to the bottom of the page on this site. http://www.norcoldrecall.com/

Great posts! I will take a look at the ignitor on the fridge and see if it is fixable. I did get a pressure regulator for the water. Great info on the propane tank. I will check that out as well. Loving camping in this rig. It is a huge step up for us from an Apache hard side popup trailer. All systems are working well. I forgot how much faster camping setup is with a motorhome and having instant hot water for dishes is a dream.

Enjoy the time everyone. I'm down in Oregon (not too far away) but the schedule just didn't work out for us to take sufficient time off to be able to join you. That said, we'll be out for the first time as a Toyota RV "newbie" over the same weekend at a great site on the Clackamas river in Oregon. Thanks for putting this together - photos of the rigs and folks afterwards would be nice to see!

Well, I've finally got a free weekend to enjoy the 1991 Winnebago Warrior after buying it several weeks ago. replaced muffler changed all fluids drained water system tested all appliances (see below) replaced coach battery replaced truck battery A few items of 'fun' from the prior owner who had said "everything works perfectly and it was checked out by an RV tech!" Sure would be nicer if they had been honest, but alas not to be as they likely concluded that I would have paid less for it otherwise. 1) Upon pressurizing the water system discovered a massive water leak at the toilet. Had to pull the toilet, replace ball valve and fittings. Probably wasn't winterized properly. I think that the owner cheated when I tested the rig; only turned on the pump to show it working at the sink but had not fully pressurized the system. Newbie mistake - make sure it is pressurized. 2) Fridge has a bad ignition. Unable to locate replacement part. Only way to start it on propane cycle is to have a person inside push the valve in (on gas setting) and light with a match from the outside. Trying a WWW search for the part. (tough to find). Local company believes the part number is 616418 and is NLA. Possible alternate part is 61746122. Owner had to know that this was not working. AC works fine. 3) LP tank will only fill to 1/2 full on gauge (about 4 gallons). Overflow float stops it from filling prematurely. (Not a biggie; will investigate on next refill) Looking forward to the weekend!

I replaced the muffler on my 'new' 91 Warrior with 50k miles on the engine. Unfortunately, that noise masked the reality that there is an exhaust manifold leak on the passenger side. I'm curious if other owners have had this problem and how common it is for this particular engine model. It's not unbearably loud (yet) but I anticipate that it will decay over time. I've had 2 different quotes for the repair. One from a muffler shop for $300 USD and another for $600 from a repair shop that specializes in Toyota. The repair shop would replace the manifold; the muffler shop would have it milled (if required) and re-use.

Here in Oregon, we're forced to use the 10% Ethanol fuel year around due to a mandate from the governor. Basically that means that we use "winter" fuel year around, which potentially shortens the life of engines in the long term and more importantly, makes us have to pay for fuel that results in not as good mileage. In theory, using 10% ethanol fuel results in less emissions into the atmosphere, but it seems that the consumer should be given the choice, much as one can choose to use the bags at the grocery store or bring your own from home.

Has anyone tried this gas to electric hot water heater conversion kit? http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/product/hott-rod-water-heater-conversion-kits/8089 It appears that it simply installs in the drain hole of the water heater. Would add some pain for draining the tank for winter, but I must admit there is some appeal to having the campground pay to heat my hot water rather than running propane. I see that there are new heaters that now are hybrid (gas or electric) versions. Another alternative (expensive) for hot water is to go with a tankless version that installs in the existing hot water heater location. The nice part of that is on-demand hot water with no wait. http://www.gaswaterheaters.com/boatsandrvwaterheaters/RV500/index.htm