86rader

We bought the Sunrader 3+ years ago. A PO decided toyhouse showers were overrated and yanked out the pan, put down plywood and vinyl. We've used it as is and for the most part didn't miss it. Now, after stumbling across a 90 Odyssey a few weeks ago, I have decided to put our beloved sunrader on the block at feebay. i am selling it with the inderstanding there is no shower. ofcourse, i've gotten a few questuions about putting one in and am throwing around the idea of doing it. trouble is, i can't find a drop in replacement pan. so i am considering a few options. option a: make a mold and take a shot at making a fiberglass custom one. option b: Put down a good quality vinyl floor and put in some epoxied baseboard, silcone the oooo out of everything and put a drain in it. i think it will work OK. This is afterall an occasionally used shower, not a bathtub. it doesn't need to be designed to hold a foot of standing water. option C: Use a piece of epoxied on all sides 3/8 plywood. lat strips of varying thicknesses under. Srew it all down with brass screws and epoxy over it again. the varying thicknesses should allow for proper grading of the floor for proper draining. i would use the epoxied wood baseboard and silicone with this as well. anyone have any experience with this? or maybe know where i might find a proper fiberglass premade one? the bath is about 38x27.

the kank is a beatiful place. can't think of a better place to do it.

wasn't really looking for one. just happened to take a look on craigslist the other day and came across this.... http://hartford.craigslist.org/rvs/1721357164.html hmmmmmm, I thought to myself. i gotta go have a look. so, i did. i did a bit of research and found that it had been listed a couple times over the last few weeks. i wondered what could keep it from selling. the economy? does it have absurdly high miles? it has 120K on it. runs beautifully. a slight bit of an exhaust leak. sounds like it's at the manifold. the house is solid as a rock. no indications of leaks, past or present. all systems seem to work fine. he says he hasn't run the water heater in a few years, so he couldn't make any promises about it. my feeling is that the owner is being pretty honest about it. so, why hasn't it sold yet? well, ken has 2 very friendly labs that have enjoyed the odyssey along with him over the last 7 years and 45K miles. let's just say that there is no doubt about this thing being a "dog house". it really needs a good cleaning and new carpets. i will likely go with laminate flooring. i think this thing with a refurbed interior might be worth 7 grand or so. don't know yet if i will flip it or put my trusty sunrader up on the block. we shall see. anyone got any good tips on getting rid of dog smells other than baking soda and water? pete

I seem to recall a few years ago someone mentioning that the 5 speed was not as stout as the 4 speed which could lead to issues.

so long as your voltage regulator is functioning correctly and not overcharging the truck battery, you'll be fine. i will add this though, as i am sure many already know. if you leave your camper plugged into shore power in the yard for a month and do not disconnect the house battery, your house battery will be fried to a crisp. it cost me an almost new interstate battery to discover this. i know this is because i have the old original magnetek battery killin' inverter. rather than replace it, i think i will install a switch between the battery and the inverter for when I am plugged in for extended periods.

what are these leaks you speak of? -sunrader owner not that i can tell much from that pic, but the exterior looks like it was well cared for. i could have sworn that the cab was a newer one at first. good luck and don't forget to go to the yahoo toyota MH group site. It is laid out badly, but has much more traffic and lots of very knowedgable posters. good luck and welcome to toyhome ownership.

I doubt there's enough clearance to get the seat to swivel. The toy cockpit is not the most spacious one around. I do like the idea of flipping the seat around backwards. Ideally, it would be nice to have it mounted so that you could quickly unhook it and flip it around.

well, i went and looked it up. the 22RE torque peak is 3400 rpm, which is a bit higher than i would have expected. so, maybe it does make sense to let'er spin away.

not sure i agree completely with this. The power curve probably does peak somewhere around 4000 rpm or so, this does not mean that running at 2000 is "lugging". The 22R is perfectly happy at these rpms. Does anyone know the torque peak of this engine? I think this is a better gauge of where the engine is at it's happiest and most efficient. I would guess it's probably around 2500 rpm.

I use my OD most of the time on secondary roads where speeds are generally kept under 50 mph. On such roads lumbering along at 40 mph on flat ground, my drivetrain seems quite happy in OD. At the slightest hint of a hill though, I usually shut OD off before hand to try to build up a head of steam. On the interstate, it depends. If I have a tailwind or am going down hill or if I'm just not in much of a hurry and am content with 50 mph, I'll might leave it in OD. If I want a little more speed or am in a headwind, OD is off. A pretty good rule of thumb is if you find yourself giving it much throttle at all, you probably should be out of OD. As for the altitude switch, mine is connected and will probably remain that way seeing as I am a lowlander (east coast). If I were out west though, I would disconnect it for sure. When we did our big road trip a few years back, driving around the rapid city, sd area in OD was annoying as oooo as it is at the altitude where the switch activiates. Nothing more annoying that putting along happily in OD and the tranny keeps kicking down and up for no apparent reason.

is 120 amps pretty much it for alternators that can be bolted to the 22RE? the reason i ask is i've always thought it would be pretty cool (no pun intended) to be able to run the house AC while rolling down the road. A 2500 watt inverter should handle the job. The 120A alt along with a few good deep cells would probably suffice if the AC ran 50-70% of the time. If the alternator was up around 160A it might handle it all the time. as for places to mount batteries, I have my spare mounted on the rear bumper which opens up a huge space underneath where the tire usually lives. You could probably hang a few batteries there.

i think a lightweight trailer is a much better idea. the problem is not the 230 lbs. that's just one well fed person. the problem is 230 lbs cantilevered off the back. i am thinking of picking up a lightweight trailer from harbor freight. a brand new one can be had for under 200 bucks.

something would definitely have to be done with the blackwater plumbing. I think the vent pipe could be handled with a few elbows. the more i think about it, the more i think i'll just make do with my cozy cockpit.

'86 sunrader 21 ft. it has a rear bed rather than the usual rear dinette/bed. haven't seen another like it yet. wish i had the dinette, although the huge storage area under the bed is handy. the sunrader and we live in ellington, ct.

Haven't been on this forum in forever. nice to see it's still going. My 86 sunrader has the head directly behind the drivers seat which means i have bolt upright seating position. Sure would be nice to be able to lean back a bit and i was thinking that moving the entire bath rearwards a foot or so sure would be nice. It would also allow me to extend the overcab bed a bit. doing so would shorten the bench seat which is between the rear bed and bath, but, it's not long enough to sleep anyone bigger than a 4 year old anyway. I suspect this is way more of a pain than it's worth, but, thought i'd ask about it anyway. thanks, pete

we are thinking of doing a trip to va. beach this summer. anyone up for a toyin there?

hi maineah. i am in ct and would be very interested in a maine toy in this summer. where in maine are you?

1200 bucks WITH new rubber? You know what they call that? Grand theft auto. Assuming this thing has no major issues you just stole yourself an RV. Congrats. How 'bout some pics?

greg, i don't understand the temp situation you have. i could see it dropping a bit due to increased airflow through the cooler, but, not the huge drop you are seeing. there is one possibility. maybe the tranny's thermostat never opens at lower speeds? Getting it over 60 might just raise the temp enough to open the thermostat and bring the cooler into the mix. 220 seems like a pretty high temp for this. You might wanna have that looked at.

You have the A340 auto with lockup torque converter. V-6 pick ups have the same one although they may be set up to shift at different speeds. It is possible that your tranny is fine. If you are worried about it shifting at higher revs than you would suspect, I wouldn'y be too concerned. Remember, you are driving a ridiculously overloaded toyota pickup. Higher shift points are OK. Where are you? The guys at hi tech transmission in E. Longmeadow, Mass did work on my sunrader and I was extremely happy with them. If you are anywhere in Southern New England, they are worth the drive. Good Luck Pete

upon further review, I believe that is a tach. Looks like you are spinning about 4300 rpm. Seems a bit high for OD, but, maybe not. I really need to get a tach.

motoyhome, what is that gauge next to the speedo? 78 mph is pretty good. i have seen that speed in my 86 sunrader.... with a bit if gravity assist. If you did that on the level, I suspect you either had a nice tail wind or you were flogging it mercilessly in 3rd gear. I have seen 70 in third, maybe 75. Does anybody know what one of these things will do in third? I'm not brave/dumb enough to find out without a tach installed. I guess it doesn't harm anything to wind them out a bit. Lugging them probably causes more wear.

what he^^^^ said. 300 lbs tongue weight is different from 300 hanging off the bumper attempting to twist it off. Torsional force, is what smart engineer types call it. I won't even trust my bumper to hang bicycles off. I actually have 3 bikes on a bike rack mounted there, but the majority of the weight is carried by rope I have going to the roof rack. So far the roof rack has held up fine. Don't even entertain the idea of hanging a MC off the bumper. Get a light trailer.

5500 for a v-6 sunrader? assuming it is in decent shape, you stole it!!! congrats. get one of those cheap lightweight trailers from TSC or northern tool or where ever. They are under 150 lbs and will carry your ktm easily.