MontanaChinook

Those "half moon" gaskets on the valve cover seal much better if you use a little grey rtv on them. Mine don't leak. This is the toyota r series engines.

I had an 87GL wagon with 4 hi and low, and now have a 93 Loyale. It gets me wherever I want to go. Subarus always leak oil. The ea82 engines get stuck lifters, plus all sorts of other things. But yeah, they keep going. Mine is also just a winter car. And some summer backpacking trips where I need to drive three or four people, my dog and our gear. Otherwise I drive my 83 4x4 Toyota all summer. I have never driven anything, except a snowmobile, that handled better in the snow than my Loyale, with 4wd and studded snow tires. Around town in the winter (they aren't much for plowing around here and don't use salt), its unstoppable. I love finding unplowed parking lots at trail heads, or the edges of roads where the snow is over a foot deep, and driving through, getting snow to come flowing up over the windshield and roof. Great car. It takes my abuse pretty well, but I'm only mildly abusive of my vehicles. I baby my toyota trucks. The Subaru wagons have always been for rallying...

I used to put 20,000 miles a year, at least, on my Toyota. That's just daily driving, with two weekends a month getting out of the boonies and into a city to visit friends, plus a couple summer trips to the desert or a national park. Do that for 10 years, with an occaisional cross-country trip, and you're really racking up the miles. Would still take some time to get to a million, though. But I don't really care. Toyota's are great, and reliable, and I know how to work on them. That's enough for me.

I only know my experience. I was old enough to drive in the early/mid 90's. So my experience is mostly with 80's model trucks & cars, other than the 78 Chinook and a couple 90's Toyotas and Subarus. The 80's and 90's Hondas I've seen are the longest lasting (non-diesel) vehicles I know of. But I don't know everything, unfortunately. Being around internet communities of Toyota pickup owners, I have a good feel for how long they last, and at what level of abuse and maintenance. I know Subarus in the same way, but to a little lesser extent. They're quirky and problem-prone, but if you know their quirks and problems, they are really long lasting, with just regular oil changes. Anyways...I think the OP can be confident that the entire R series of Toyota motors are all very reliable. The only difference with the 20R is that it's got a bit less horsepower, but it my opinion it makes up for that with a longer lasting timing chain. Though it's not a bad idea to go with a fresh headgasket and chains around 100,000 miles, just for insurance.

Yeah I'd say Honda beats toyota by a little in the longevity and reliability department. My only first hand experience is with my 22RE 86 4x4 pickup. 240,000 and either the headgasket went, or the timing chain finally ate a hole through the cover and dumped coolant into the oil. Probably if I had done better on the maintenance, I would have got another 20 or 30 thousand out of it. I would consider timing chains and head gaskets to be routine maintenance. I drove it to NY and back from Utah when it had just over 200,000. Since then I haven't kept one vehicle long enough to test the high mile mark. And that truck was not hauling around 1,000lbs of extra weight all it's life. But there are plenty of 2wd and 4wd pickups out there with 20Rs in them with really high miles. I'd call at least 200,000 miles common for any R series motor which has had regular maintenance, before needing a rebuild. I don't know what to call common once they're permanently loaded down with the camper weight.

Hopefully you'll hear from someone who really knows, but what I'm seeing on the inside of my Chinook (not too different from a Sunrader) is that yes, there is a small frame, like small studs, on the inside of the fiberglass shell. Like 1"x1" little studs. The wall and cabinets and headliner are all anchored into these.

Nothing beats a Toyota. I've had them all my driving life. I know how reliable they are, I know what their typical problems are, and I know how work on them. I'm not an rv kind of guy...or so I thought. I was looking at little coleman popup campers and stuff like that, but feeling like even that was a little excessive. I mean I can sleep in the back of my truck very comfortably, or use a tent. But there are certain things I do in the summer where I'm not really camping...or at least camping isn't the point of the weekend...it's just that to do those things, camping is involved. That seemed like a great situation for some sort of camper. All I wanted is something with a real bed, an actual table to sit at, somewhere you can stand up and sit up straight and hang out if the weather is bad or you need a break. Nothing big or fancy. I kind of gave up on the popup idea for a while, figuring it's excessive and I don't need to go there yet. But then I saw a Toyota Chinook...and just couldn't help myself. It's a Toyota. It's small and practical. It's got style. It's got everything I really need. Great gas mileage. My Chinook is pretty new to me still, but I drove it from Seattle to Montana the day I bought it. It could use a tuneup and a little carb work, and my best mpg was 20, worst was 17. I'm guessing once I do some basic tune up work, it will average just over 20mpg. And mine is the "full size" fiberglass Chinook. The slightly smaller pop-top Chinooks would have to get even better gas mileage than mine. I would believe, on nice open highway, a well tuned pop up Chinook could get 30mpg.

Oh, and my town is at 5,000ft.

One thing I will stress, beyond all that info from jdemaris, is that you must state whether you set the timing with your advance connected, or disconnected. The proper way is disconnected and that's where my number comes from, but you never know...some people just stick a gun under their hood and read what it says and say "my timing is set at xx".

The timing on my 83 22R is slightly advanced. Can't remember where I put it, but it's not at 5.

Thanks!

Yeah, I guess there's a big difference between going with a tried and true kit that is known to work for general purposes, and really understanding this stuff and piecing something together to fit my exact purposes...

Talk about overwhelming! I could definitely recommend this thread to anyone wanted to get talked out of getting a solar system set up : ) I'm sure there are some basics which once you understand, makes this all less confusing, but this stuff seems complicated! I'm not in the market, but I would like to add some panels to my chinook eventually. Looks like I'll need to do a LOT of learning and a lot of research before I do anything.

This is not true. 8" third members come in different gear ratios. That way you can regear without swapping axles. A v6 has a different ratio than a four cylinder, but the third member is the same size. For 4x4 people, regearing is a really common thing. 4.10 was stock for most four cylinder trucks, but when people go with bigger tires, they swap 4.56 or lower gears, and all those fit into the same 8" differential housing/axle. Anyways, the above post is partially true, but you cannot expect that by grabbing any 8" third member, the gearing will match your front differential, if you have a 4x4. It won't exactly mess things up if you have a 2wd, but if you just grab any differential, you may end up with a different gear ratio. The only time things will break is with a mismatched front and rear ratio, once you try 4wd.

I'm definitely having to get used to this 2wd truck...my 83 4x4 has enough space under it to get under there and do about anything. I've done the transmission more times than I'd like to admit...but I'm still having to remind myself that with this 2wd, there are a lot of things I can't do, unless i carry four jack stands around with me...

Since the op doesn't care that we're off topic, I'll jump in... I grew up outside of Syracuse. Which is central ny, but since moving out west, yes, I just call it upstate when people ask. I do miss the adirondacks. But the west is just better! In my opinion. Labatt blue seemed to be the everymans beer of choice when I was there, too (which wasn't quite so long ago!) Good luck on your tire search. My tax returns will take me as far as I can go on new tires all around, new wheel bearings all around, and any brake work that needs to be done. Right now I'm tearing into the interior...

Nice work! Looks much better. I can't wait until you paint it...

So...am I the only one who sees Odyssey by Chinook on the side of it? So it is a Chinook, Odyssey model, which means he isn't wrong. That would explain why it does clearly look to be the same exact mould used by the old Chinooks.

I'm assuming you mean Alberta!

I am jealous of your skills. I've got a 78 Newport Chinook (non pop top style) and an 83 Toyota 4x4. With my fab skills...never shall the two be one...

Indeed

Yes, you win! Chinook is also the name of the warm wind that comes howling out of the Northwest in the winter, melting all the snow. Can be -10 degrees one day, then a chinook comes in and it's suddenly 40 degrees out.

Oh yeah. And youtube, any streaming audio or video, any email other than outlook...the list goes on.... I'm a state employee, so anything that the public could consider a waste of taxpayer dollars has to be cut out. I'm allowed to stare at the wall for an hour...but I can't look at youtube.