straygoose

Do those come with stenciling that says "Vehicles in mirror are much farther away than they appear"?

Pep Boys huh? Talked to them a while back about it in another city, and they said they don't carry them. Dolts, they're everywhere. Not you, Pep Boys. Napa is one place I didn't think of, and I also completely forgot about that Ryder site. Think I'll go to Napa. I have painted ones, but chrome sounds tasty. I might replace all four for that price. Thanks everyone.

Not sure if this is the right sub-forum for this, but I didn't see a parts swapper section anywhere. I need a side mirror. The bubble one for wide-angle viewing. Concave or convex, I can never remember which is which, but I think you know what I mean. Anyone got one they wanna sell? I need it for my drivers side. It also needs to have the pipe clamp on the back to attach it to the, uh pipe. Let me know. I am in the Bltimore area right now, so if you're nearby we can meet up or if not, figure out something thru PayPal or something else. I will also be making my way back to Texas end of next month, so I may be able to detour then. Thanks

Ummm...that book is on this forum somewheres in .pdf format. I downloaded from here last winter. At least I think this is where I got it from.

Wow, $2K for a valve job on the six? I am sooo glad I have the 22re. You can do a valve job on the 22 for half that.

Oh it's not that I have a problem with EBay as such, it's just that I can waste an incredible amount of time browsing ont the site. I can go search for the kit and four hours later be looking at rare baseball cards, or something. Funny thing is, I never buy much either. But I sure love to look.

Hmm..I have a similar problem. Mine does the same thing, but it gets even worse when its rainy or real humid. Sometimes I have to crank her three or four times before she will fire and stay running. She kinda fires real hard then stops, then does it again, then starts up running on what feels like three cylinders until she warms. I just changed the cap, rotor, wires and plugs, thinking that moisture in one of those components was the likely culprit. But its been dry the last week or so so I don't know if the problem is going to come back or not. She still idles rough, but I fiddled around with the idle screw and there doesn't seem to be a change. I'm actually wondering if that idle screw is broken or stuck, since a couple of full turns both ways did nothing. I can't do a valve adjustment until I get back home in October, so i guess I'll just have to live with it for now.

Hmm gonna have to look even though I swore of eBay a while back. Dealer here told me that there were only two in the parts system, both in California. They wanted $253 for the kit and I said I would look around first. That's waaaay to much for a jack, handle, and whatever else there is.

I just put fresh rubber all the way around. Went to Merchants and the only thing they had in a 185R14C was the "Thunderer" made by a company called Ranger in Thailand. Did a little research and found some positive stuff so I said WTH, put 'em on. I've put a couple hundred miles on them now and I must say they are well worth the money. No road noise, they track well, and seem to run smoother than the Goodyear LTs I had before. Merchants did all six for about $520, everything included. Soon as I find one of those spare tire extension things, I'm gonna go back and get the spare done too. BTW, I would not risk driving very far with cracked or dry rotted tires. That's a blowout just waiting to happen. Been there done that a couple times.

Anyone know of a Toyota boneyard around the Baltimore area?

Hey does anyone know where to get on of those extension things that you use to lower the spare tire down out of the frame? Had a blowout yesterday and found out that I don't have one. Previous owner lost it or something. Will a Toy dealer be able to order one? And while I'm at it, what kind of jack does this old girl need? Apparently that's gone too, unless its under the vehicle with the tire somewheres.

Yep it seems to be OK now. Gotta drive about ten miles to work this afternoon and if that hose gets torn up again I'll have a problem, but for now it's all good. Thankfully, when I got under there I could see the problem right away. Usually stuff like this is hidden and takes a lift to check out. I bought some extra hose and clamps JIC. If there are no problems I'll probably take the extra hose and do the supply line too. Thanks to everyone for their help.

Heh, this is a nice county park, but it's surrounded by a not-so-nice urban area. I was thinking of calling a cab, but.... I just got under there and found the severed ends, and there was about five inches sheared off the long end. I pulled on her a little and got the long part to mate up with the nipple and clamped it. I started her and ran her for five minutes or so, and no leak, no stalling or anything, so I guess the line is in the right place. It was obviously the return line. I don't trust it, but it should get me to the auto parts store and back, so long as I don't hit a pot hole or something and pull it off again. Good thing the speed limit between here and there is only 30. I can waddle on down the road and hold up traffic without too much in the way of honking horns and middle fingers until I get there. Might even be able to fix it right ther in the parking lot. We shall see.

Heck, I haven't found anything but 10 and 12mm bolts on mine. WTH are the 14s and 16s? Most of my work had been in the engine ompartment. I assume that the bigger ones are undercarriage?

Cool! Thanks guys I really appreciate it. I'm trying to figure out what the hell happened. I did have that blowout, but this is well forward of the axle. I couldn't see exactly what I had in my hands, but it felt like a rat chewed on it or something. I'm gonna get under there first thing in the morning and take a hike to the Autozone. I'm not 100% sure, but I feel comfortable I got it figured out and you guys get an assist on that one. Thanks again!

OK I'm not real familiar with gas hoses. I assume that Autozone will have this stuff by the foot or something right? Is there a standard size or will I have to take the bad hose in for a match?

I located a shredded hose right at the front and alongside the tank. I think that's the culprit. I'm guessing its a fuel return line, since the vehicle runs fine. I can feel where it is shredded, but it was getting too dark to ascertain where it hooked into. Hopefully when day comes tomorrow I will be able to cut off a little of the hose, put it back where it goes and clamp it down. Then I can drive to a parts store and get a new hose and clamps. I'm about five miles from nowhere right now, so its either that or a long morning hike to the autozone. Oops, sorry John I didn't see your post. It seems like its that return line, but, its further down the line, to the right of the pic you have. Looking at your pic I'm thinking I can't just trim the hose and limp to the store. That hose appears to be at least 18 inches long and it appears that the tear is somewhere in the middle of it. I won't know for sure until I can see the whole line. This sucks. I have a five mile walk to the parts store tomorrow and I have to be at work at 1p. I hope I can get this diagnosed real fast and find someone here in this campground that will run me over to the store for some gas money or lunch or something.

Ohh man, I just started her up and ran around the other side to take a look and fuel was coming out of her in a torrent, just forward of where the frame curves up over the axle. This is not good. It this the general location of the fuel pump? I can't see anything that looks like one, so I'm assuming it's tucked inside the frame rail. Am I correct?

i gotta big problem. Yesterday I had a blowout in my right outer dualie tire. I was able to limp her into a shop right off the highway, where we found out that I don't have the special tool to lower the spare out of the frame. Luckily, the guy had a used 195-14 tire to put on her. Anyway, got back on the road, and as I was going along, I noticed that the road noise was getting louder and louder. I was close to the camp site, so I pulled in and got under her and saw that the inner dualie wheel was flat. WTH? Anyway, I located a shop about 3 miles from the campground and proceeded to limp her over to the shop. The guy was just getting ready to close, but said he would fix it. So, he found the pinhole, plugged it up and I'm on my way. So far I'm out $175 and I need at least one new tire, and I need to locate one of these extracting tools for the spare. I went to work, then came back to the camp site later in the evening. No problems, but I'm really taking it easy on her since the roads around here suck and that used tire ain't the greatest. I figure I'll get through the weekend just shuttling back and forth to work and have the tire replaced on Monday. I'm on the road working and my little Toyota is my house and car when I'm out here. Well about an hour ago, I got in her to go to work, started her up and drove off, and noticed what at first I thought was exhaust fumes. I'm like oh great, the blowout messed up my exhaust. But then I remembered the exhaust was on the left side. At this point I looked at the guages and saw that I had gone through a 1/4 tank of gas in a half mile. I immediately puled over and killed the engine. I looked under the hood real quick to see if a line had come off or broken, but nothing there. I then went around to the passenger sice and looked underneath. She was leaving a trail of fuel about 6 inches wide, all the way down the road, and the frame rail on the side was coated in fuel from the passenger door to about where the rear wheels start. It was a mess. Anyway, I grabbed the fire extinguisher and threw it in the front seat with me, immediately made an emergency u-turn and scurried back to the camp ground. Sure enough, I could see the trail I had left all the way back to my site. I parked her and killed the engine and threw a couple of bucketfulls of water underneath her to dilute the fuel. As of now, she seems to have stopped spewing fuel all over the place. I am thinking of starting her up to see if she starts doing it again, and if she does than I figure that the problem is either at or past the fuel pump. Shes also on a slight incline, with her rear end up in the air, so that may or may not be helping. Where exactly is my fuel pump at? Is it an in-line pump on the fuel line or at the tank? or is it one of the old-school ones that runs off the engine? i gotta figure that the blowout either cracked it or a line, or loosened a clamp or something. She was running just fine, so it's not like the line was severed or something. And I don't think its the tank, because it seems to have stopped leaking with the engine off. Anyway, I gotta get her fixed ASAP. I'm losing work because of this and that's not good. Also the guy that fixed the second tire is not cheap and he's the only guy in the area that works on heavy vehicles. If I can locate this leak and fix it myself before Monday morning, I would be way ahead of the game. Anyone got any ideas or know where this pump is at? And are they readily available at a place like autozone? There's one a couple miles from here, and I'm thinking maybe I can bum a ride from another camper to the store. Any ideas or help would be appreciated. It's going to get dark soon, but I am going to try to ascertain the location of the leak before that. I'll keep this post on and refresh whenever I come back into the RV. Thanks for reading. I know it's a long post and I'm sorry. PS..its an 86 Gran Ville with a 22re

OK, so please explain how Toyota MHs are exempt from NADA pricing guidelines. I really want to know, because I just bought mine at right around book value, but if she's really, really worth four times that ($10.4K), then she's going up for sale tomorrow morning. I like her and everything, but if someone wants to give me $9K for her, then she's as good as gone. That's a 10% discount from her "true" value, so let me know if you're interested.

I'm thinking about it. I have the room, as currently constituted. I am also thinking about taking out the enclosure under the sofa and enlarging it to hold four 6v batteries, but I think that the weight issues will keep me from doing that.

That's obviously not the '78 listed in your profile. What model do you have now?

Excellent! Thank you very much. I was going to go to NAPA either tomorrow or Tuesday for some other things, so I'll just add those numbers to the list.

I don't know. Maybe out west they sell higher, but here in the east you get a mixed bag, trending closer to book value. You can see nice units for <$3K and POSs for $9-$10K. I know of one '92 in the Tampa area that's been $12K+ for at least two years now. It just sits and sits. I go to Tampa every March to work and its still there. OTOH, I let one go by in New Jersey last year, an '85 or '86 Dolphin,with a generator, for $2500. It had everything, including an awning. the odo was showing maybe 50Kmi., and the only blemish was a slightly crunched rear right corner. I'm still kicking myself over that one. I would say about $4-5K is the going rate in the east, unless it's a '90-'93 with a 6cyl., then it goes up some. There are a lot of them around too. Not hard to find at all. I still can't justify paying six to seven thousand dollars over book value, no matter how nice the unit is. At $11K they are asking almost four times what the NADA guide says they're worth. Think about that for a minute. If you were buying your ToyHome all over again, and someone told you you would have to pay for it four times over, would you buy? I wouldn't. I love my Toy, but there is no way in hell I would pay four times her actual value to own her. She's a beauty, but she's just not that valuable, in terms of dollars. Her intangibles are worth a lot, but you can't really put a dollar value on that, or every ToyHome would be selling for millions. If we were talking about a new unit in the $100-125K range, then yes, maybe a $6K overpay could be justified. But this is not a $100K unit. It's a 25+ year old Toyhome, which may or may not have been taken care of throughout its lifetime. They're great and wonderful little MHs, but they aren't made of gold. If you want to overpay for one, cut a good deal, and then spend the $4-5K you saved to customize her.

No worries. I think being wasteful is a sin too. But, look at the bright side: Someone will probably come along and use parts of her to give life to another Toyhome. ToyHome "owner culture" (if such a thing exists) seems to dictate that if a unit can't be saved, then it should be used as a donor for other units. That's much better than just shippng her out to the metal chipper. This is one of the things I like most about this forum and other ToyHome communities I have seen. The owners on this forum seem to have a genuine and keen interest, not only in their units, but also in the Toyhomes owned by others. This community generally strives to better it's collective lot by sharing information, materials, and if possible, a little elbow grease. So, when you see a unit that has been abused like that it's a bit of a shock to the system, I think. And, I'm not sure you can say this about all MH owners clubs or communities, except for maybe the ones that cover the more specialized or unique types of RVs. My impression is that some of the communities that correspond to different types of MHs don't seem to have the same sense of mission like ToyHome owners do. A lot of them seem to only be interested in having the biggest and most expensive unit, and making sure that everyone on the forum or in the RV park knows it. True story: I once saw a photo on another forum of a huge, and I mean HUUUUUGE diesel pusher that had a 30' Super C as a toad. Probably about three-quarters of a million bucks worth of MHs, maybe more. The pic was obviously posted just to say, "Look at me. I have so much money I can just piss it away." The couple that owned this monstrosity actually claimed that the Super C was for when they wanted to get of the beaten path and "rough" it. Unbelievable. I don't get a sense of that happening here. Everyone owns pretty much the same unit, with a few variations in layout and mechanicals, so there's no point in bragging about yours. Makes for a much more positive and supportive atmosphere, if you ask me. So, I think eveyone here probably shares your opinion. But like I said, this is also an opportunity for someone to resucitate another sick unit and get her back on the road, so it's not a total loss.