86rader

Every single Sunrader roof I have ever seen has a slight concavity to it. Why the hell they didn't do the opposite escapes me. As for putting large beams inside to hold it up, like 3x4s?, yeah, I 'spose you could, but SRs are kinda lacking in headroom already.

I have an '87 midwest built Sunrader. It is uses a crappy wood framed outside door with a fiberglass exterior skin that does a horrible job of matching the coach. Left coaster SRs use a much nicer molded fiberglass door that actual does match the exterior. Does anyone know if they are swappable? If they are, I would like to find a west coast door. The other option, I guess would be to gelcoat my existing door. Not sure how that would go.

I have had the same thought about using the underfloor area aft of the differential for a battery bank with an access hatch. It is a large area. Others have made a good point though, that it is best to keep large weight additions as far forward as possible as our rigs are already tailheavy. I am likely going to go to a dual battery setup and have considered the area above the wheel well. I would still like to utilize that area behind the axle. for bulky but light items such as folding chairs, bedding, empty water containers, etc. I would make a fairly good sized hatch in the floor. This would work very well for my rear dinette layout. I would also keep the spare tire there. This would free up the rear bumper for another storage project, an enclosed bike storage.

I hate the separate tiny showers in toyhouses. If I was doing a remodel like in the pics above, I would make a new shower pan that covers the entire bath floor and make it a nice big wet bath.

I have given thought to building a rear bumper mounted storage box that would be big enough to hold 2 mountain bikes and the spare tire. My plan is to make it full width and mount rear lights/license plate on it. I would make it from thin plywood reinforced with a few layers of fiberglass. Such a box is light and very strong.

My new to me 87 Sunrader has a Dometic Royale RM3500. It is different from the fridges in my last 2 rigs in that it does not use a push button start and there is no gas/electric switch. It just has an on/off switch. According to the instructions inside the door, you simply turn it on. It will automatically try to start on gas and if that fails, switch to electric. It does start. I get a nice steady flame, but after maybe 30 seconds, it goes out and it does not switch to electric, as best I can tell. I have a steady flashing red light on the front. There is a green light as well, but it never comes on. Any thoughts?

July 14-16. Some are arriving earlier or staying later. It is at this place....http://freeportmaine.com/department.detail.php?page_id=98 Supposed to be very nice. Right on the bay.

I would like to do something similar to my Sunrader, but it will be removable. I want to make it a little taller than that was and slightly deeper. I would like to have a dry place to keep a few bikes. My plan is to make it out of thin plywood with a fiberglass coating. Should be strong enough, weatherproof and hopefully look like it belongs there.

This past weekend I sat in a Nova Star with a pair of old MR2 seats. Very comfy. I put old Prelude seats in my first Sunrader. I was very happy with them. I have an '05 Focus ZX3 that has very comfy seats. You might want to look for them. I have heard that Subaru seats are very nice as well.

Yes, he did. A lot of work. He is a very talented guy. Have you seen the interior since Joanie's reupholstering job? Absolutely amazing. They make quite a team. Any chance you can make the Maine Toy In? I am going to give it the Zep treatment after I finish getting years worth of mildew off. Larry did say, make sure it is absolutely clean because once you cover it with the zep, it is there for eternity.

Maineah, I am not certain, but I do believe simply changing voltage at a quick enough rate is sufficient to have it induce a current on the secondary. For instance, you could have a sinewave signal that varied from +5 to +20 on the primary and I do believe it would be seen on the secondary. If I remember my basic electrical theory, it is the change in voltage, that you need, not necessarily a change in direction. Of course, for practical purposes, we are talking about actual alternating current as that is what is produced by an alternator. BTW, I saw your old Nova Star this past weekend. You left it in very capable hands. Larry and Joanie took what was already a pretty darn nice rig and made it into an absolute work of art. Didn't think you could make 30 year old fiberglass shine like that. I will be parked next to it at the Maine Toyin, I better get the buffer out so mine doesn't look too bad.

IMO, a tach is unnecessary. With the 22R and auto, I use 30/50/70 as max speeds in 1,2,3 gear. Sounds like this is still a long ways from redline, but why bother? Also, when in hilly areas it is a good idea to downshift before you have to. For instance, lets say you come a fairly steep hill in 3rd. If you let your speed drop off until it downshifts on its own, it will have a tough time pulling the speed back up. If you manually downshift somewhere around 40-45, you will be right in the meat of the torque curve and it will hold 2nd with a very light throttle and even accelerate. With experience you will know when it is best to just keep a light throttle and let it spin rather than clawing your way back to third, only to have it fall on its face again. On the really step stuff, the same applies for 1st/2nd gear. I learned this pulling Tioga pass going into Yosemite from the east. It would not hold 2nd, but would pull 28 mph in first without breaking a sweat. As for mileage and general overall engine/tranny health, you will learn to drive with a light foot and generous use of the OD lockout and downshifting. Leaving it in OD and letting it lug is a bad idea.

Because I have a half dozen or so sitting in my basement. These UPSes are used to power computers used on the TSA's xray systems. My day job, when I am not piddling around with old RVs is to maintain this equipment. For reasons that escape me, my company has decided to replace these UPSes when they fail rather than change the battery. Your tax dollars at work, I guess! These small onboard batteries, (2) 7Ah 12VDC, are sufficient to keep these computers running long enough to power themselves off. I have watched a number of YT videos where similar minded cheapskates have wired in a pair of deep cycle 12V batteries which will allow these units to run for extended periods. I need to play around with this idea a little. It would be nice if these UPSes ran off a 12 V battery. Does anyone know of a more efficient way to achieve truck electrical system charging of a 24VDC battery than 12VDC>120VAC>24VDC via the UPS' charging system? And please don't say use a step up transformer as one youtuber claimed he was doing. Didn't even finish watching that video. About the only thing 12VDC can be transformed into with a transformer is smoke. I suspect he was using some sort of solid state DC converter and just figured it was a "transformer".

My 87 Sunrader has the POS magnetek boat anchor. It no longer just cooks batteries, it has completely failed. I could use one of the more modern units, but I have a different idea. I have a number of APC Smart UPSes kicking around. I have been watching yt videos of folks that take these things, hook larger external batteries to them and use them as inverters. Seems to me that such a unit could serve dual purposes. It could work as an inverter when unplugged and a converter to keep the house batteries charged when plugged in. There is just one catch. The 750 uses a pair of 12VDC batteries in series for a total of 24VDC. This makes recharging the house batteries from the alternator a bit tricky. I was thinking that by adding a second inverter to make 120vac from the truck 12vdc, you could charge it that way. Of course such a system wouldn't be very efficient. Another issue would be tapping into that 24VDC bank for 12VDC. I guess you could set it up so that coach 12v system loads used one battery or the other. Any thoughts?

Anyone hear any more about this? I was looking at an LT1 6 speed equipped Z28 on CL and thought, damn, that would be a nice drivetrain in a shorty sunrader. I would even guess that driven slowly enough, it might get pretty reasonable mpg.

Sorry Fred, you lose that bet. That pic has been floating around the toyhouse fb page for a few months, at least. Cool as hell, isn't it? And I bet it does very well with the slant 6 drive train. I had an '85 D150 with that drivetrain. Pretty sure it was the last year of it. That thing ran like new. I did carry a few loads that were likely made it near as heavy as a toyhouse and it did fine. This mod appears to have been done well, although I would really like to see a pic of its belly.

yeah, wish this place had the traffic of the fb toyhouse page. That place is hopping. The problem is, the fb layout makes it difficult to look something up after a few days. I need to start pushing this place harder over there.

I think the answer to both your questions is yes. Odds are it drove perfectly until the frame snapped. This why you need to keep these things away from snow as much as possible. They are as prone to frame rot as any old toy pickup is.

Will they bolt directly in? Found a pair from an SR5 forerunner.

Turns out, I have a bad alternator, or possibly a fuse. I found the culprit. The heavy gage 12VDC that supplies the coach is zip tied right above the muffler. Well, 30 year old zip ties tend to snap, as did this one, dropping that wire right onto the muffler. It eventually melted through and is likely the reason my wife saw "sparks fly out" from under the camper as she followed me, right before the trouble started. Will trouble shoot it soon. The solution was to buy another battery (didn't have time to re-charge the other one. Then I drove it the 60 miles home. Drove like new. I managed 68 mph on a slight uphill in 3rd gear and it had more left. I think I have a runner, here! Hopefully it is a fuse or fusible link that went out. Anybody know why I am not getting an alt light? Don't even have it with the engine off, key on.

Attempted to drive home my "new" 87 Sunrader today. First half of the drive was uneventful. It was running like new. Then I got an intermittent check engine light. Then I started losing power. Once it started losing power, OD lockout stopped working and the flashers wouldn't flash. Gave it 10 minutes sitting on the side of the highway and it seemed to recover fine....for about 3-4 minutes before the symptoms returned. After another 10 minute rest, it started/drove fine again. By this time, I susected a ground problem, so while it was still running fine, I turned the headlights on and it immediately started stumbling. Turn them off, it was fine. I limped it into the next rest area and parked it. I am going back in the morning. Hoping I can get home Ok. Will run minimal electric. No lights, no fan blower. Once I get it home, I will go through all the grounds. Anyone have any thoughts/recommendations?

Still could be an 85. Many have either swapped out the front end or installed the adapters. Having an Aluminum frame is certainly an advantage, as it means when weather gets in, it will resist structural degradation better, however, it does not address the underlying problem that weather will find its way in and cause damage. Going with a Sunrader or maybe Nova Star, addresses this by having structures that are very resistant to weather getting in, in the first place. Just gotta keep an eye on roof vents.

Is it FI or carb? 85 can be either, I believe.

Wayyy too much money for that rig. It does appear to be in nice shape, but not that nice. I just bought an 87 Sunrader with 37K that looks like new on the inside, and very nice out for 5500. I did need a new fuel tank, pump, filter installed to get it running (another 650) and it needs new tires, another 500 approx., but still under 7 grand.

I found some reviews from the UK that were actually quite favorable