Bryan C

That is a nice looking set up Jim, I have extensively trolled the web and have read about numerous people running the Honda 2000 with the coleman powersaver, and they all say it will run continuously on Eco mode. The 11000 btu powersaver draws less amp running and on compressor start up than the Coleman 8000 btu polar cub. As as far as the shop, it belongs to a buddy of mine who graciously helped me with my project. I have a shopped my own just like that back in TN, however I don't get back ther but once about every 2 months for a just a weekend. I really miss my shop!

I don't believe that my springs are wore out on my Sunrader, it only has 30,000 original miles and has lived it's whole life in good ol dry New Mexico. It is like a time capsule. Below are pictures of my rockers and undercarriage. I just need a little extra help to carry my load. It pulled the load fine and handled extremely well, I just want it to sit level.

Thanks so much jjrbus! I know I was missing my diesel pusher too, I found myself a time or two looking for the button to the slide out in the Sunrader, that I was hoping that I overlooked I think that I am at the upper limit of mine also. If you will look at the pictures below you will notice that in the top pic there are 4 bolts that you can faintly see to the left, that is where the bumper arms were welded to the Toyota frame, it was one weld on each side, and that looked like that was all that was holding the back bumper on. So I got two pieces of plate steel and sandwiched them on the outside of the upper frame, and the lower bumper arm to make their union a bit stronger. Then if you look to the right side you will see 3 bolts that are holding a strut, which I found online just for this type application because as with most RVs there is just a small weld on each side holding the square tube bumper onto the bumper arms, I bought the "Safety Struts" on amazon. I think that I am going to add some air bags to the back of mine, because when I filled my water tank, and put in the clothes and groceries, the back was squatted pretty good and my mud flaps were draggin! and then if I pulled out early and left the crew sleeping in the back then it was just a little worse then. If you will look at the top picture in my original post, you can really tell how the back is squatted, and the front end is raised up. I was hoping the air bags might level the playing field if you will. Has anyone on here added air bags to help with leveling out their load? Do you have any pics of your box? Did you use a coleman powersaver Mach I 11,000 BTU?

So as some of you know about 8 weeks ago I bought my new 83' Sunrader 18 ft, 22r 5 spd with full floating rear axle. I had owned a sunrader about 7 years ago and regretted ever selling it. So I had been watching this one for the past year and a half and noticed that it had never moved. I finally knocked on the door one day and asked if it was for sale, lady told me she would have her husband call me. He called later that week and told me that it hadnt been started in over three years. I assured him that I would buy it as is, as long as I could get it started. He priced it, and I agreed and bought it. I went over and took a hot battery and put it in and took some starting fluid. I took the air cleaner cover off and was getting ready to prime it with starting fluid, and I thought well I'll try it just for the heck of it to see if it will start without priming it. I pumped the gas 4-5 times and I bet it didn't spin over 4 times before it started up and ran smooth as silk. It didn't rattle, tick, or even sputter. It just sat there and idled perfectly! I looked at the odometer and 30k miles. I asked the owner if that was actual and he assured me that it was, and had service records to prove it. The last time it was tagged was 2011. So I aired up 3 flat tires and drove it 3 blocks home. We have a 37 foot Holiday Rambler diesel Pusher with a Catepillar engine,. It is hard to park in cities and requires pulling a toad if you want to get into town and sight see. So after bringing home the Sunrader, the wife says let's take a big road trip like we did with the old Sunrader. We had scheduled our vacation for second week in August and this was last of June. I told her that I didn't know anything about it, and it had been parked for 5 years. So I told her that I'd do my best to get it ready. We had less than 5 weeks before vacation. So first assessment is as follows. Runs perfect, needs belts, tires, batteries both coach and chassis, wiper blades, dash ac not working. Inside the coach, the plumbing was shot, wasn't winterized and most every elbow and numerous lines split and busted. Water pump not working, fridge not working, leaking faucets, and numerous broken cabinet latches. I had my work cut out for me!!! So I began work in the Sunrader immediarely and with the talent of a buddy of mine we worked on it for about 3 hours every evening through the week. We first started out with two new batteries, 6 new Hankook tires, new belts, radiator flush, and we got the AC working with just a recharge. First 200 mile round trip trial yielded 19 mpg and revealed slight overheating with speeds above 60 and ambient temps above 90 degrees, pulling slight grades on interstate in 5th gear. temp guage would run just shy of the white mark before the red zone, but on going down hill it would cool back off to just below half way. So we changed out the fan clutch and changed the thermostat to one of the Toyota 2 stage thermostats that I read about on this forum. It seemed to do the trick. So chasis mechanicals seem sorted, now onto the inside of the coach. We replaced the water pump along with most of the plumbing. I was dissatisfied with the dim interior lights, so I changed out all of the light fixtures with new led light fixtures, (150% improvement), I wanted roof AC and a generator, so after on this forum reading about the coleman powersaver 11,000 BTU AC, which would run on a single Honda eu2000i generator on Econo mode. I purchased a used Honda with 89 hrs on it which came with an auxiliary 3 gal extended run tank which would run the AC overnight without have in to refuel. Then I ordered the powersaver coleman along with a new dometic 2354 fridge from PPL. The fridge came and I got it installed without any trouble, however the Roof AC was lost in shipping and even though I ordered 3 weeks prior to my trip it was lost by the shipper and PPL didn't get me a new one shipped out in time before my trip. so for the generator, I bought a 24"w X 60" L and 18" high diamond plate aluminum tool box from tractor supply, and a mounting plate with a reciever which mounts like a trailer hitch. We cut vent holes on the side of the box, and a little door in the front to access the pull rope and then used Rachel straps to anchor the gen and aux tank inside the box. I have enough room left over in the box to hold camping chairs for 4, propane grill and coleman stove, a ez-up canopy. Total weight of box and contents is around 200 lbs.. Then I needed a hitch for the box, I bought a step bumper mount reciever style hitch from harbor freight. I had to do some reinforcement on the rear bumper to support the extra weight. we worked up until the night before our trip tidying up all the little loose ends and tweaking. Here goes nothing. My wife, our two children, and I left our home in NM and through AZ, up through Vegas, and on through Death Valley. This is where things got a little sketchy. 106 degrees, dash AC not keeping up so well and the temp problem showed back up. Had to keep going running ragged edge on overheating engine. Had to stop and let it cool a few times. We made it through. We went to Yosemite and camped at 8700 ft ele and drove up over 10,000 ft elevation. Pulled the mountain like a champ in 2nd and 3rd gear! We left there and went to San Francisco, spent the day there, and drove Lombard St AKA "most crooked road". We parked the little Sunrader right on the street at a meter a block away from Fisherman's Warf. We then proceeded up Pacific Coast Highway stopping at the Redwoods and then all the way up into Oregon, camped right on the beach at Gold Beach Oregon, then we went on up to Washington to Mt St Helens, and onto Seattle we ferried the Sunrader over to Whidbee Island, then the next day we toured Boeing Assembly Plant (this was AWESOME!) then we drove through Idaho, and Montana and went to Yellowstone, spent the night there too. Then down through Wyoming and visited the Grand Tetons and back down through Colorado, and then home to Northern New Mexico. So altogether we were on the road for 11 days, through 10 states, and covered 4700 miles. We spent 3 nights in state parks and the rest of the time we boondocked at Walmarts, Flying Js and the such. The generator worked perfectly. The little 22r ran like a champ. We got as little as 19 mpg and up to 22 mpg. We were blessed without a single breakdown. We could cruise at 70 mph most of the time. The little Sunrader was a great success

BTW Back East Don, I hope you are on here tommorow night raving to us about your new Sunrader,. I hope it is everything you are looking for to make your forever Sunrader!!!

I got the old fridge out, yep right again Back East Don, I didn't have to pull the door off, however I did pull both front seats, to prevent ripping my cherry, perfect 1983 toyot seats. Lol. But man it was a bit of a chore with a lot of twisting and turning. However the new fridge did go in much easier as it was a a couple inches narrower all the way around and weighed considerably less than the old fridge we took out. I appreciate everyone's help who are always willing to lend some helpful advice. Many Thanks!!!

Oh no, I told you wrong, it wasn't bridgestone I bought it was Hankook. But I'm very pleased with them. I bought them off amazon for $71 a piece delivered to my door, which I'm pretty sure is a smokin deal!!! Sorry for the confusion guys.

So last night I was attempting to replace the refrigerator in my 18 ft Sunrader. I removed the old one with quite a bit of muscle, pushing, shoving, and well you get the picture. Now it won't come out the 20" side entrance door. I didn't want to pull out one of the big side windows in back and disturb the nice seal on it. So me and my buddy pondered, and come up with a solution. So unless anyone here has a better suggestion, this is what we are planning for tonight's project. We are going to pull both front seats, and possibly the passenger front door, and remove the old fridge through the front cab, and that is the route we will remove the old and place in the new. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. As some of you know I have recently purchased a nice little 1983 Sunrader 18 ft and I am doing a rather extensive overhaul in preparation for a 3700 mile road trip that I am leaving on at the end of next week. To date I have changed all belts, oil and filter change, all interior light fixtures have been replaced with LED, new Bridgestone 8 ply tires, replaced plumbing and new water pump, new batteries, and repaired the dash air, it is now blowing ice cubes!!! We still need to replace the thermostat with the upgraded dual stage thermostat from Toyota, and possibly replace the radiator as well. I have already replaced the fan clutch, but it continues to run at 3/4 temp range on gauge. It only has 30,000 actual miles on it. I have ordered a new Coleman Mach 1 11,000 btu powersaver roof air, and new Dometic fridge model #2354 from PPL in Houston. They are the cheapest RV parts supplier on the planet that I have found. The fridge came about a week later on a busted up pallet and without any protection of any of the guts of it, everything was exposed. The AC which was on the bill of lading also was nowhere to be found. After two days of back and forth between PPL and R&L freight carriers, I have learned that my AC has been sitting on a dock in Dallas since last Thursday. I am going to have to add a new breaker to my power center to accommodate the new AC as well as upgrade the power cord from 14 ga to 10 ga. I also have purchased a Honda Eu2000i that I am going to place in a diamond plate aluminum box attached to the 2" receiver hitch that I am getting ready to mount on the rear.

Back East Don there are several Sunraders out here in the Wild Wild West! There is a 1988 18ft nissan with v-6 and 5spd manual, that should be a little hot rod right there, it is in Spokaine WA and I think there is a 1985 18ft with nissans bullet proof z-24 8 spark plug 4cyl with 5spd tranny. And lastly there is a pretty clean 21 ft in albuquerque NM that I might be abLe to go check out for you but it's an automatic. All are in the $5-6k range.

If I got you better pics do you think you could tell me whether or not mine are wired together and whether or not I could pull the plastic plug out and put in a new breaker?

Well maybe I'm not completely off my rocker but I found a 1986 21 foot SR. on Albuquerque Craigslist with the same lay out as my 1984 21 foot SR, but now I can't for sure remember if I had one closet door or two, (I think it was two)

So I just noticed you called them ITE breakers, I searched for them in Amazon and these are what I found, is this what I need???

So I have been looking at the converter box and I only have two breakers, the top one is a plastic plug, the second one is labeled receptacles and the third is labeled convertor. So unless I am just not understanding it or I am looking at it wrong, (I know very little about wiring) but it looks like I am going to have to take the plug out and place another converter in that hole to wire my new roof AC to, in addition I think I am going to have to upgrade my 14-3 power cord to at least a 10 guage cord. My converter is labeled as a 25 amp box, will that be sufficient with the addition of the Coleman Mach I 11,000 btu power saver roof AC. I have been searching the Internet and I am not having any luck finding a breaker like what I have to add to my box. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Wow! I never knew they offered the 210BK and 210RB, is the dinette that they are listing kind of like a jacknife couch with a table? That would mean that there are Sunraders with 3 beds?

Now that I see a picture of yours, I am mistaken, mine just seemed like it had another closet door, but that extra space is taken up by the larger bathroom with the sink in it. I sold my 21 footer about 7 years ago.

Looks very similar to the 84 that I had, the dinette is in the rear, when you walk in, straight across from the entrance door is the generous size bathroom. And when you turn left your kitchen is on the same side as the door except for the fridge, the fridge is on the opposite wall next to the dinette. Between the fridge and bathroom is a decent size double door closet The two things that I like better about the 21 footer is the bigger closet (21 has a double door closet 18 has a single door hanging closet, and a sink in the bathroom with more stretch room. Does it have a factory generator in a compartment? Also is it a 4 spd or 5 spd. My 18 ft that I have now is a 5 spd and the 21 I had was a 4spd. The 4 spd would really eat up a hill on the interstate, it really took a hard grade before I had to down shift. I even towed a 6x10 enclosed trailer with it loaded with car parts from Knoxville TN to Charlotte NC and back, crossed over Asheville Mountain towing and never had to down shift and at the worst I don't think I dropped below 45-50 mph. I have noticed on a hill with my 5 spd that I have to hunt for lower gears a little more often, but once I get over the hump I can put it in 5th and boogie on down the road at 70. If I ran my 4 spd at 70 it felt like it was wound too tight, so I usually cruised at 65

I currently own a Sunrader 18 footer, the first one I had was a 21 foot Sunrader. If you have 10 ft garage doors even with the AC you will have plenty of clearance. I had 10 foot doors and had no trouble. Your heights clearance should be between 9-9 1/2 ft clearance.

So do you gentlemen see a way that I wire in my new AC when it gets here this week. It is the Coleman Mach 1 11,000 btu power saver so I can run it off of my er2000 Honda generator. I probably will eventually try to upgrade to a newer power source, but right now I am getting under a time crunch because I leave in just under 2 weeks for my big Pacific coast highway road trip. Me the wife and two kids are going. I am going today to buy an aluminum box to mount to my 2" reciever hitch. I am going have to cut some vent holes in it so I can run the generator while traveling so the kids in the back don't burn up being in the grueling desert heat in August in Arizona and Nevada especially. Are either of you running a manual tranny with your yotas, and if so can you cruise at a solid 65-70 without running really warm/hot. Are you running stock thermostat or have you upgraded to the dual temp thermostat. Have you upgraded your radiators, and if so where did you buy them from, I have been through the archives of the site and a few sources of radiators that a few have listed are not available. So here is what I found upon inspection of my power cord

Here are some pictures of my converter box

Thanks jdemaris, I appreciate the help, I hope once I post pics of mine it will be identifiable. Do you know how I can identify the guage of my power cord?

Sure enough it is just white Romex that was folded up nice and nearly between my hot water heater and the back wall of the coach, I haven't pulled the vent yet but I'm pretty certain, (at least I hope) that the other end will be inside the vent hole. The power converter is a bit different than what I'm used, it has these three odd little breakers that push in and out. I'm going to take some good pictures this evening when I get home, and hopefully you gents can give me some guidance, also I am a little concerned that my power cord isn't heavy enough to carry the AC, however it is still pretty big , but it has a regular house plug on the end instead of the usual 30 amp Rv plug and it looks factory. The cord seems to be a decent size gauge, however very small compared to my large cords on my diesel pusher which has the 50 amp service, so maybe the cord is fine, it just puzzled me about the lack of the RV plug end I am thrilled with this little yota and I'm making it my own and it's like a time capsule with the mechanical and the way it drives and the condition of the body. Again thanks for all of your help!

I will try to get some good pictures of the converter box tomorrow. Maybe you can help me identify it. I appreciate your help. Many thanks Maineah!

So Back East Don, the sunrader that I started out with served me well for 4 years or so the. I quit travel nursing and I needed to sell it to get me a gas sipping daily driver car that I could commute 120 mile round trip 6 days per week. I sold it over 7 years ago. The old sunrader was cosmetically worn out and needed completely redoing inside and out, someone had done a very poor job fiberglassing over the front cabover windows and they were leaking and it was just too much work which I neither had the time, $, or talent to fix. I also forgot to mention that it had the 1/2 ton axles and the poorly designed wheels that I had no idea how to fix. The biggest thing it had going for it was mechanically it was awesome. So I rehomed it to a new toyota motorhome enthusiast. I always regretted getting rid of it, and never dreamed that I would ever find another sunrader, especially one as cherry as this one. It's my forever toyota sunrader. I have already sank about a extra $4k over the initial purchase price. I now have more time, money, and resources to invest into owning a toyota motorhome.

I have recently purchased a 1983 Sunrader 18ft full floating rear axle and 5 spd tranny. I have been RVing for past 20 years, Ive had everything from travel trailers, to class Cs and As and currently still have a 37 Ft Holiday Rambler with Cat Diesel Pusher. So about 7 years ago I sold my last Toyota MH, a 1984 Toyota Sunrader 21' with a 4 spd that I had owned for about 4 years and used it for long family road trips and even used it for traveling when I was doing travel nursing. I really liked it since it was all fiberglass and manual transmission, but it was a bit ragged and needed complete restoring inside and out, mechanically it was excellent, but man was it ever UGLY. LOL. With the 4 spd I usually got about 14 mpg running 65 mph. I didnt have the time to put into it at the time so I sold it, however always regretted it. So recently I moved across country and the new town I moved into about a year and a half ago, I noticed the little 1983 Sunrader 18' sitting, and have been watching it for last year and a half, and saw that during that time it had never been moved. So finally I knocked on the door one day, wife told me she would have her husband call me. He called me later on that week, told me that it hadn't been started for at least 3 years. I told him that I would buy it as is and I would be the one to worry about getting it running again, so he made me a more than fair price and I agreed to buy it. So I loaded up my tool box, a hot battery, battery charger, starting fluid and went that way. He had already given me the keys and told me to help myself. I got there, put the battery in, took the top of the air cleaner off prepping to prime with starting fluid, but I thought, just for the heck of it I'll try it first. I got in pumped the gas 4 times, it began spinning over and SHAZAAAAAM, it didn't turn over 4 times and it fired right up and didn't peck, sputter or anything and ran smooth as silk. I looked at the odometer and it was showing 30,000 miles, (I later asked owner if that was original, he stated yes, he had had it since 2000, it had very low miles when he bought it) So I aired up 4 flat tires and drove it about 4 blocks home. So I got it home and began to put some elbow grease, little soap and water and it being a New Mexico vehicle it began cleaning up like new. He had placed cardboard over all of the windows inside so the sun wouldn't fade the interior. Even the dash is perfect, not a crack anywhere. It hadn't been tagged in over 5 years. The interior is in pretty good shape except for some normal wear and tear, and some broken cabinet latches. So my wife asked if we could take it on a big road trip and tour the pacific coast in about 6 weeks. I thought about it for a little bit and decided, you know what I think I can get it together in time and get it all sorted out before the 3700 mile round trip. So first off I ordered 6 new Hankook 8 ply tires off of amazon and got them installed. I drove it around town a few times and then set out on a 200 mile interstate trip. I filled the gas all the way until it began to spill out. We drove it at 70 mph and pulled some pretty good grades, it did bog down some of course. I am at 7000 ft elevation and went to around 5000 elevation and back. It ran like a champ except it wanted to run at the 3/4 mark on the heat temp guage when pulling hills. When I pulled back into the same gas station when I got back I filled the tank spilling over again, it took a little over 10.6 gal for 203 miles, done the math and WOW I got 18.9 mpg. The 5 th gear is apparently the trick, my old 21' Sunrader 4 spd got 14 mpg. The borderline overheating is one of my issues. I have changed the clutch fan, and I still have the same issues I have read some of your previous topics on this and am going to try the 2 stage thermostat next. My antifreeze looks like brand new. As long as I dont go over 60ish it runs 1/2 way or less on temp guage. Other issues I have been sorting is. Refrigerator dosn't cool, so I ordered a new 3 way from PPL, No Roof Air. I ordered a new Coleman Mach 1 Powersaver 11,000 BTU which I plan to power with a Honda eu2000, I already purchased one used (89 hrs on it, like new) it also came with an extended run external gas tank. Water pump won't pump, so I ordered a new Surflo that pulls low amps. The PO didn't winterize it so I am pretty much having to replace most of the plumbing. (hopefully I'll wrap this up tonight. Since the we are leaving in a few weeks to travel the California pacific coast highway (we will start in San Francisco after we stop at Yosemite), its going to be hot. The dash air wasn't working, I got it changed over to 134a and leak tested, and now its ice cold. I am going to buy a aluminum box to put into my reciever hitch, this after I ventilate it properly will house my generator and extended run tank, and maybe a few lawn chairs and small grill, should be well under 200 lbs total. I am changing all of my light fixtures to new led power saving fixtures that I ordered off amazon. So my two issues. Over heating, how many of you are running 3 core radiators, do they help, how much are they typically, and any suggestions where to buy one?, and do the 2 stage thermostats work? Roof air, I found the wiring for the AC in the vent and its just got a bunch of slack under the rear dinette seat, can I wire this up to my existing power converter? did all sunraders have the proper box that will accept adding a roof air later?