straygoose

170a? Man, that thing does have the juice to power a rooftop. $450 isn't cheap, with power like that if it's a reliable alt, it may be worth it. Now, just how difficult is the swap out on the 22re? I'm gonna go look at mine inna minute.

Hey! Things are much better. Still not optimum, but I'm going to back the setting off a little more and leave it at that. I'm still pulling left just a bit, so as soon as I find someone that can make me some new brake hoses for her, I'll swap those out. That should cure the problem. Thanks again to everyone. I may not have kept her if I couldn't get the braking a little more up to snuff.

No worries; have a great trip!

Oh, no doubt. The seller of mine started at $4K and I started at 2200. But I don't think the price I paid is really cheap. Actually it's probably a couple hundred over book value. Nothing wrong with starting high and then settling, but when you start at 11K for a unit that maybe has a book value of 3K, you either have a highly inflated opinion of your Toy, or you're looking for a sucker. I just looked at the ad, and apparently the only real thing it has going for it is the awning. It has a rooftop unit, but I consider that standard equipment and not an option. If you didn't buy it new with roof AC, in my mind you were just being cheap. It's got semi-high (88K) miles too. Now I know that 22re's can go for aeons, but 88K is 88K, and you are probably looking at a timing chain, a clutch (if it's a 4spd) and maybe a few other things pretty soon, if not now. Brakes and rubber are likely to go soon, and I'll bet a dollar to a doughnut there's either an small oil leak, a small rear axle leak, a small trans leak, or all three at that mileage. That's not a big problem, unless it's a big leak, which makes it a BIG problem. Oh yeah, there's the age of the water pump too. In light of recent problems I had with my old RV. I would be taking as good a look as possible at that head gasket, but that's just me. "Selling my 1988 toyota sunrader classic with every option and more." "It has a generator on the back and an awning air bags and so much more." If it has every option, then why doesn't it have an internal generator? And as far as I know, air bags are after market too, not OEM. Apparently not a good idea either, since they seem to screw up your Load Sensing Valve, and fool it into thinking the vehicle is empty, thus screwing up your braking ability. There's a sticky on that subject in the forum. The fact that there is only one picture in the ad just reinforces the thought that the unit is mediocre. If it was mint, the owner would have maxed out the CL pics to attract attention, instead of just saying he had hundreds of them. "It gotten 16mpg this last summer from cheyenne wy to spokane wa." I used to live in Denver. When I was there I used to go up to Laramie with a buddy to catch a football game now and then. The thing that always amazed me about Wyoming is how windy it was there. I live in Texas now, and I swear Texas has nothing on Wyoming when it comes to wind. And guess what? The prevailing wind is from the WNW, which is pretty much the direction you gotta go to get from Cheyenne to Spokane. I know a Toy can easily get 16mpg, but not into that wind. I find that claim highly suspect, although I do accept that his 'rader will get 16mpg, going down wind, at 50mph, just like everone else's Toy. At the very least the guy is guilty of giving a bad example of the vehicle's capability. I've looked at waaay too many of these BS CraigsList ads, not only for Toys, but for all kinds of MHs, which is why I did the fisking job on it. Sorry about that, but its just a habit when I read these things now. Sometimes , if you read real close you can reject a unit based on all the contradictions in the ad. This one's close to that line. I've only owned mine for a month, and it is the first Toy MH I've had, so I'm not pretending to know everything there is to know about them. But I have been shopping for one, on-and-off, for probably almost five years. I've driven at least 40 of them, and crawled all over a few more. The one I found was actually one of the better examples of any I have looked at, which was lucky for me, since I was without a vehicle and needed to transport myself and a few hundred pounds of gear all the way back to Texas. I would have settled for less of a vehicle just to get my butt home. As a person, ahem, "in my prime," I have bought just a few vehicles, both new and used in my life. I know that at 88K, vehicles start, or have already started to do funny things, and that doesn't matter if it's a Toy or Ford or a Yugo. Well maybe not a Yugo, but that's only because there wasn't a Yugo built that made it to 88K. Usually a rear wheel fell off around about 10K. Now that I think about it. I would start at about the same spot I started with my GV ( $2200). It's likely going to need another thousand in immediate work, not to mention titling and reg., and who knows how much more in the first year the new owner has it. If that thing gets sold at 11K I will be shocked. Actually I'll refuse to believe it, unless someone actually shows me the bill of sale. Sorry about the length of the post.

Man, if you are going up to the UP in Man, if you are going up to the UP, wouldn't you need a little more that that to keep warm? I grew up in the lower and I know what it's like up there after October. You better insulate that Sunrader while yer at it.

$11K for an '88 Sunrader? I realize Sunraders are more valuable than just about any other Toy MH, but that guy is nuts. Offer him 4-5K. Damn thing doesn't even have an internal gennie. And I'll bet it doesn't have roof air either, seeing as it's in the PacNW. I just bought an '87 Gran Ville with 32,000 miles on her, in basically unused condition, for $2600. I may have gotten a deal, but the price I paid is a lot more in line with values for that era than $11K. I swear, people on CL think their crap is made of gold. It's like that everywhere too, not just certain regions.

Judging from the car in the pic that was to the left of you, I would say you were more like 4-5 carlengths, somwhere between 60-75'. The pic may be 2D, but it's pretty obvous that's not 150'. What you learned in Drivers Ed about one length per 10mph is true, but only for a normally weighted vehicle with good braking ability, not an overweight beast with inferior braking ability. If I was following as close as that pic suggests, and the semi locked it up and/or jacked at 60 mph, I doubt my Toy would be able to avoid it, what with being blocked on the left by that car. And I just jacked up my bias to full rears too. Too close man. You're playing with fire. It's not worth the 1-2mpg, especially if you have the kids and wife along. Be the turtle.

My question exactly. All I get at 150-200" is a lot of turbulence buffeting me. If anything, I would think it would reduce gas mileage.

Well for me its a matter of being practical. The main reason I own a MH is because I use it to live in and work out of for approximately 8 months of the year. I live in South TX but work mostly in the Northeast, or what the locals call the "Mid-Atlantic." I also spend a month working in Florida every spring. I used to work across three time zones. Back in those days, it was simple to book a flight, rental car, and hotel on line, and as long as you did it far enough in advance, it was cheeeeeeeep. I didn't worry too much about expenses back then because the cost of booking on the web was so low. As an example, back in 2007 I could fly from Denver to Baltimore for $99 or less, one way. Baltimore to Ft. Lauderdale for as litle as $49. Ft. Laud to Denver for like $89, and a lot of times for as little as $49. Very rarely can you find a deal like that now. I used to be able to rent an economy car for as little as $50/week, and sometimes even cheaper, with no mileage restrictions. That's gone too. Hotel rooms were expensive, but what I would do is get a premium room for the first couple of days I was in a new town, then use my off time to scout around for mom-and-pop places that were willing to give me a deal if I paid in cash. They usualy weren't too hard to find. Motel owners love it when you hand them cash. It's very easy for them to keep off the books. So if you hand them a bunch of cash and a list of dates you need the room, they are more than happy to give you a break on prices, plus book the room weeks/months in advance, which is something indy motels rarely, if ever, do. So anyway, once prices started driving my costs up, I decided to experiment with a small Class B that I would just keep up in the Northeast, while limiting my trips out west and down south. I have four cities I can work in up there, so theoretically I could do all my business up there and not have to do any long-distance travelling, except when I traveled up north to start the year, back home to end the year, or whenever I needed to fly home for a few days. I fiugured it would be a three month experiment. The little class B that I orignally bought finally expired last month, some 4 years and over a 100K miles later. That is how I came to be the owner of this '87 Toyota Gran Ville. I needed a new horse, since the last one got shot out from under me on I-68 near in Western MD. BTW, that's the toughest interstate I have ever driven in terms of grade. There may be roads with worse grades, but I have never seen so many steep grades, just one after another. It killed a Ford 351W truck engine, which I did not think was possible. Stay away from it, unless you have power to spare, which does not exactly describe the average Toyota MH. I've learned a lot these past few years. I know for a fact that I can travel the country, never have a problem finding a place to spend the night/nights, and never really pay for much more than groceries, and gas and maintenance on my MH. I still like to stop in at state or county campgrounds from time to time, but I don't realy need to if they aren't available or convenient. And I'll be damned if I'm going to pay $80, $90, $100 or more a night in some of these chain campground/resorts. If I need to do that I'll go stay at the Motel 6 for the night.

Hmmm...I'll have to look into it when I have time, but I have spent enough time in truck stops that I would probably have heard about it already. Are you sure you aren't confusing this with the customer loyalty cards that companies like Pilot and Loves are handing to truckers and RVers alike? Those really aren't any good for anything more than a nominal gas discount ($.02/gal.) and free/cheap coffee. I think if you use diesel you get a bigger discount, but other than that, its just another piece of plastic to carry around.

No worries. The prices are local to Central KY where I happen to be at right now. I'm not sure how much of a fluctuation there is across the country. LP gas is pretty easy to get down here. Pretty much any town over a few thousand people has a place that will fill your internal tanks, as well as exchange your portables. Right now I'm working in a town of about 6000 and I have identified at least four places that sell propane. This doesn't include the supermarkets or hardware stores where you can exchange cyinders. You won't have any problems finding propane, or finding it close to wherever you are at. No need to worry. Go on line to allstays.com. They list places all over the country. They have a great smartphone app that's worth every penny of the $4.99USD you pay for it.

Kind of defeats the purpose of being able to shower off the beach sand before I get in the RV if I have to go into the RV to get the shower hose out. Might just as well use the inside shower and then vacuum the sand out of my carpet.

That's a new one...link? I should pay closer attention to the trucker sites. They aren't very useful to me, but nice to have anyway. And since I work in the East, 24hr fitness won't work either.

This is very cool. I think I need one. Not really, but I'm going to get one anyway.

Yep, but I do have a PF about 20 miles from where I winter, and they are all over the East Coast, where I'm at during the summer. 24 hour Fitness I've heard of, but never seen, so it must be out west, where I don't go often, except for Denver. And every PF I go to is 24/7, even though it's not very likely I will ever be in one much past 9p, or before 6a.

Probably no more than your furnace does. Both cycle on intermittently for a few minutes at a time. The furnace is only heating air, as opposed to water, but the space the water is in is much smaller (tank) than the space the air is in (coach), so it's probably about the same. I've had my Toy for three weeks now and have used the water heater. I topped off the LP tank and for five days, ran the furnace, the water heater, the fridge and the stove on LP. After that I had them top off the tank again and I found out had gone through 2 1/2 gallons. Using all the appliances for five days cost me $8.50, and that was at an inflated LP price. If I would have gone to Tractor Supply it would have cost me $5 ($1.99/gal.). One month of LP @ $8.50 every 5 days would be $51, and at $5 is would be $30. Seems pretty cheap to me, especially since it was cold those five days and the furnace was kicking on left and right. When I topped off the first time, it took 6 1/2 gallons. I'm reasonably sure I have an 8gal. tank, which is probably standard for a Toy. I know that size is standard for most older Class B's, so it makes sense. Yours is probably the same as mine.

It wasn't just Toyota. Detroit geared their cars for 55mph too. The problem with American cars were the big blocks. Even running as efficiently as possible, they still drank too much gas. Everything from that era that was built for US use is geared for 55mph.

Hey stamar, I'm in! I've been doing fulltiming for over a year now and I love it. Screw what the Norms think. I make better money than most of them, and I save more than most of them, so I figure I'm the winner. Plus, home is where I want to be, not where conventional thinking says I should be. Summers working on the East Coast, and winters on the Gulf Coast of South Texas, laying on the beach, playing golf, and going to happy hour. Beats hell out of having a real job. Even the law can't really mess with you, as a MH is considered a residence and as such, they can't just bull their way inside to see what you are doing. Actually, in one town I work in up East, the local cops all know me and where I work, so they make it a point to check on my vehicle late at night when I'm sleeping. Got my own security force! Just obey the local laws and park legally and you'll be fine. I have been spending my summers on the road for several years now, first in a Class B, and now in a Toyota Gran Ville. I finally started fullt-iming it last winterafter getting a divorce and selling the house. Getting divorced was no fun, but there's nothing I can do about that now, so I'm making the best of things. Also, get the All-Stays app on your smart phone. It will tell you where all the free parking, WalMarts, cheap campgrounds, rest stops, and dump stations are all over the country. They have a web site too, but nothing like being able to bring it up on the phone while you are sitting in traffic. It may be the best $4.99 I have spent since I became "homeless." Well, that and maybe the $19.95 a month I pay Planet Fitness for their Black Card membership. Good little gyms in every major city with showers, and $20 a month . Some even have hydro massage machines and barber/stylist shops which are free for Black Card members It is the cheapest membership rate of any gym, by far. No contract either, just a recurring monthly debit. It's so cheap I even keep it running during the winter when I'm nowhere near one. Which reminds me... For those of you who don't want the hassle of a cell phone contract, Virgin Mobile has the best deal going. $40 a month ($44 with tax) and you get 1200 minutes, unlimited data and texting. An Android phone will cost you around $200, but it's still worth it. For those of you who are tech savvy, you can root the phone and turn it into a wi-fi hot spot, and get rid of that stupid air card or dongle. So long as you have 3G you get the google machine on the interwebs. Granted, their customer service is in New Delhi, but whatever. They buy their broadband from Sprint, so you got coverage pretty much everywhere there is anything more than a county road. I've figured out more than a few ways to cut corners. It can be done and you can live well if you pay attention, take care of your rig, and do things right. I have a bunch of info on this stuff for people that are interested. Just need to organize my thoughts in a coherent format. If you work on the road and live full-time or mostly full-time there are certain advantages available to you depending on where you live and where you work. All things considered, i wish I would have done this right out of college, thirty-some years ago. I could have probably retired several years ago. Instead I wasted a ton of money keeping up with the Joneses. PM me with questions and I'll answer them as I can. Goose

THIS IS GREAT IDEA! And I think I know the guy that can do the job. Unfortunately, I won't see him until spring. I could use something like this anyway, since my range cover is missing (don't ask me: it is like the only thing that was missing on the rig when I bought her).

That's what I'm thinking too. Well' I'll find out tomorrow if everything is OK. I have about six miles of state highway back into town to check her out on. I think I'll probably just have to back the valve back a little further and that will be that. I've probably got 300lbs. of personal gear on board. I'm not sure if that's an overload or not. It better not be because I have a few things to add to that and a couple of things that need to be added in the way of amenities, like solar panels, a microwave, beefed-up batteries and such. Maybe a lightweight scooter of some kind.

That's me. Bath and shower are combined. Surprisingly there is a lot of room in there, some of it behind the toilet being wasted space. I think I can get it under that sink and run the lines thru the shower tub and floor. Just seal them up real good, build a box for it and seal that up and it's done. Now that I think about it, maybe the space behind the toilet is where it should go, assuming it will fit. I can probably tie into the toilet intake line and run something to the hot line under the sink. One less hole to seal and maybe I won't even have to protect the whole thing with an enclosure.

No, no air bags on mine. It does have spring helpers though. Will that change things?

Hmmm...I was just looking for place to put it, and while I have a rear bath, mine is on the left (drivers) side of the vehicle. The wardrobe is just forward of it, so its probably the same just on the other side. What I'm thinking is that dead area right beneath the bathroom sink. Nothing there but the toilet paper roll, and I think I can mount it so even that would still be usable. Maybe even mount it vertically, so that it won't stick out from underneath the sink. "You get to shower without filling up your grey water tank. " This is why I want it. I'm going to boondocking on the beach for a couple months. Only trips into town for tank dumping and replenishing water, groceries, and most importantly, BEER. Note to self: Must do a study on personal beer consumption so I know how much to buy every two weeks. If I run out of groceries I can always catch a fish. Anyway, the thread is getting off topic, so I'll open up a new one once I start working on it. Thanks

Yep, exactly what I'm looking for. I've seen them on larger MHs and trailers, but never on a Toy. I going to get in touch with them and see what they have to say. Don't see why it can't be done. Thanks

I agree. Any high profile vehicle is subject to a rollover if you slam on the brakes. I've seen it happen and it's not pretty. Toyota MHs are actually pretty flimsy as far as the structure above the chassis. Somewhere on this forum there is a picture of what happened to one that got into a head-on with a pickup. The driver died, but somehow a couple of passengers in the back miraculously survived. I have no idea how they could have, judging by that photo. The Toy was unrecognizable. Re-read that last sentence. I have a feeling that a rollover or a high-speed rear-ender would pretty much look the same, minus the front-end being shredded. I could be wrong, but I don't want to find out.