Bob C

Mine are silver. I have seen gloss black, white, and grey also. When I got my new tires I wanted to get my rims sandblasted and powder coated. The guy that was going to do it for me informed me that it would take 3 weeks to get the rims back. The tires went back onto my silver painted rims. It would have looked good but I was not going to wait 3 weeks.

I do not have a roof A/C unit on my RV because it was so noisy nobody could sleep when it was running. So no reason to use a generator. We have gone through North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Wyoming in 100 + temps and as long as we drink MASSIVE amounts of water, we got through without a problem. I will continue looking at my trip plans. I still have about 18 months before we do it anyway.

There is an '85 Huntsman listed in the classified ads on this site in Venice Florida. The asking price is $8000. The RV does look like it is in pretty good shape.

I am rethinking this part of the trip. I may skip Death Valley. I was looking at the NP site and they day 120 degrees is pretty common in the summer. I will not do that to my wife. I will have to do more research. I have done some research to verify what I thought I knew about antifreeze/coolant. Every article said that same thing-coolant has a higher boiling point and does a better job of cooling than straight water. I will stay with my normal mix of antifreeze/water. A 50/50 mixture of coolant has a boiling point of 257 degrees.

I know that some people travel a long way to get their hands on a good ToyHouse. Don't jump too fast just because the seller is saying that someone is flying in to get it. You have to do a thorough inspection or you may end up having to throw a lot of money at problems that you didn't see because you got rushed by the seller. When I go look at something like this, I take a friend that is brutally honest about what I am thinking about buying. I sometimes overlook flaws because I want the item. Always take a checklist with you and look at everything on the checklist with a critical eye. Where would you put the water tank and pump if you moved i?. There is not much room for something that big.

In the busier parks I can see the logic in the rule. I have seen some pretty rude people dumping all sorts of garbage on the ground and leaving it. In areas with bears, it would definitely increase the danger of bears coming around looking for an easy meal. This results in bears getting moved out of the area and if they come back, they are killed. Kind of harsh treatment of the bears because someone is to lazy to take their grey water to the dump station. In dispersed areas, you don't have a choice but to dump the grey water out in the open. If you follow "LEAVE NO TRACE" practices, you will dig a hole away from any water source, dump your grey water in to it, and fill the hole.

I was at Yellowstone during the summer of 2014 and there was a sign in the restroom that said all grey water had to be dumped into a grey water sink in the bathroom building. That is why I asked about the outdoor shower. I thought at first it was due to bears being attracted to the smell of dish water and shampoo but they said it was to control everything that is dumped on the ground. I live near Devils Lake State Park and spend a lot of time there. They are planning on installing signage to inform campers of the change in rules at the state parks.

I was also looking at installing an outdoor shower but I was told by a park ranger that it is illegal in all national parks to use it. You can't legally dump your dish water anywhere but the grey water dump in the toilet buildings. I asked at Devils Lake State Park in WI and they said the same thing. It is illegal to use an outdoor shower in WI state parks and state forest campgrounds also. I asked where it was in the campground rules and they said that it was not in the posted rules but it is in the much larger rule book at the office.

I would like to thank Greg for a great site and I hope that everyone else will do the same thing. If anyone doesn't like the way it is run, don't come back and make everyone happy.

Welcome to the ToyHouse site. You have come to the right place for help. There are many people here that really are experts at fixing these things. I got lucky when I found this site and I have relied on many of the generous people here. Rad Wolfe did give good information about taking a look at your rear axle. Do a site search and you will find excellent information on the rear axle problems that can pop up.

I now realize that I have an addiction. I was going through serious toyotomotorhome.com withdrawal. I did not realize how often checked out this site until it went down. Normally I get through winter months by thinking about camping, motorcycles, bicycling, etc and two of my favorite sites were down at the same time. Thanks Greg for getting back on line, I will stop banging my head on the wall now.

Merry Christmas to you. I agree that this site makes keeping these RV's on the road much easier. I have save a lot of money with the help of everyone and I have completed projects that I never would have attempted.

You may cut down on engine drag due to the fan but do you gain anything due to drag on the alternator? I want to keep my limited electrical output for charging the batteries and running my 12 volt refrigerator.

Has anyone driven through Death Valley in the middle of the summer? I know that it is hot, but, I will be in the area during my 2016 trip through the western US. My RV is an Escaper with 22RE and automatic. We do not plan on using the A/C to give the engine a little bit of a break. I drive at 55 mph most of the time. I have driven through South and North Dakota in 95 degree days and the RV was able to run at 55 without getting hot. I do not plan on camping in the lowest elevations but will be going to the higher campgrounds. Thanks for the help.

If my RV was not in storage, I would just rely on the Progressive Dynamics charger/converter that I installed. It is perfectly suited for that purpose. However, I store my RV at the county fairgrounds under cover for the winter with the batteries stored in my basement. I use a battery charger with a maintainer built in. I move it from battery to battery every week so everything goes through the cycle every 3 weeks. the first time I hooked the maintainer up to the engine battery from the RV, the charger said that the battery was questionable. After cycling it with the charger/maintainer a few times, the charger said that the battery was taking a full charge and working properly. I will continue to watch that battery when it goes back into the RV in the spring. If it turns over slow even once, I will replace it.

I have sold many things on CraigsList. I demand cash and I meet the buyer at a public location for the exchange. I live in the woods and I don't want anyone seeing what is in my garage because I don't want to have to clean my firearms after shooting the bums. I have never had a problem with people meeting me in public for a transaction.

I just found the Garmin site that I was looking for a couple of days ago. It is called Garmin BaseCamp. It allows you to plan out your trip on your computer and download your plan to a Garmin GPS unit. I will be giving it a try when I get my new Garmin.

I agree with Corbin. I am planning my 2016 trip already and I am driving my wife nuts. I have been getting state & provincial tourism information from CA, WA, OR, NV, BC, Alberta, etc. The trip will be 4 or 5 weeks long. I have heard about a trip planner for using Garmin GPS units. I thought that it was called Home Base but for some reason I can't find it again. Does anyone have information on this kind of download?

I have a fiberglass camper similar to a Scamp, the actual name is LoveBug. On the FiberglassRV.com site, I was informed that 3M 5200 was very difficult to remove once it is cured. Just something to consider.

I would run the new wire in parallel from alt to the isolator. It would give you the best power transfer to both batteries. I would add heavier wires from the isolator to both batteries also. Don't forget to put fuses in line also.

Hi from another Escaper owner. I lover my Escaper. I really like that they installed top end equipment such as the direct spark water heater and furnace. It is nice to just hit the switch and have hot water, no pilot light. My wife and I are planning our next BIG trip for June of 2016. 5 weeks of western US. Hope you enjoy the site and get answers to any questions that you have. Bob

I know that it is not recommended that you tow anything behind a Toyota Motorhome. They are overloaded or close to it when they are built. That being said, I tow a light weight trailer with a light weight ATV through the hill region of Wisconsin. My gas mileage drops to about 12 mpg when I tow the trailer. I had my rear bumper rebuilt because the light factory bumper fell off when I had a carrier bolted to it with a plastic box and 40 pounds of stuff in it on the carrier. I have looked at the rear bumpers of just about every Toyhouse that I have seen and they all look pretty much the same. They all seem to be made of thin sheet metal and are welded to light weight frame extension. You also have to ask yourself if the rear suspension can handle the extra weight 4 to 6 ft behind the axle. I added air bags to my rear suspension. I know that there is at least one member here that carries a motorcycle on his bumper and another one who carries a scooter.

If it is a tank drain, there should be a petcock either somewhere on the tank or in-line on the hose that you are looking at. Mine has the petcock on the outside of the driver's side wall right in front of the wheel well.

That looks like some good eatin'. There are some nice deer in those photos. Our deer season starts on Saturday. I have been scouting a few real nice bucks on my property and hope to get one of them with my 50 cal. black powder percussion cap rifle. Right now it is 15 degrees with a -10 degree wind chill. I hope it warms up a bit by Saturday. I store my Toyhouse at the end of October because I don't want to drive it in the salt but I do use a 42 year old fiberglass camper called a LoveBug (similar to a Scamp.) It keeps me warm and dry but with a 10 ft body length it is a little bit small.

I would start by hitting everything with PB Blaster for a couple of days and then have someone sit in the cab and hold the parking brake handle in the release position. Next I would crawl under the truck and pull on the cable with a ViseGrip at every location that the cable is visible. It may be REALLY HARD to get the cable to move. Start at the front and work your way back on the cable. the last place to release everything will be the rear brake actuating arm. I had to do this with my Ford Ranger earlier this year. After getting it to release, I lubbed the cable heavily and worked the handle to get the lub into the cable housing.