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Hello, all. I have a 1986 Nova Star with the fiberglass shell. If I use FRP, I am creating a second vapor barrier, correct? Does anyone have suggestions for other bathroom wall materisls to avoid moisture and mould growth, especially from condensation inside the wall? Is this even something I should worry about?

I have Direct Ignition Model on my 91 sunrader. It says in the manual to 1. turn on the remote switch (I did that) 2. If switch light stays on longer than 15 seconds turn off and wait 5 minutes (It stayed on forever after blinking once). So I turned it off and went to step 3. Repeat Step 1. That ignited the system, the WH indicator is off now and the water seems to be getting hot. Questions: 1. Do I have to turn off the switch after I use the water and relight it every time I need hot water? Or does it keep water hot all the time and I just leave it on? I assume this second option would drain my LP gas more quickly, right? 2. Do I have to be plugged in to power to light the hot water heater? I have some other questions about power sources/draws, etc... but will post in the appropriate forum.

From the pictures looks like a nice model. Rear dining area is desirable. No specific info on that model from me but a few general considerations as an owner of a non fiberglass unit and owner of numerous other campers: - Coachman was a reputable brand then and made quality campers - I am envious of the manual transmission and think that is a big plus. Clutch replacement is more manageable than automatic transmission replacement if ever needed. My understanding is the gear ratio on the manual transmissions work well. - Hunt for leaks in the camper ceiling by looking in cupboards, corners, and the overhead bed compartment. Inquire about what current owner did to repair the leaks and plan on researching ways to address and prevent leaks; all non fiberglass Toyota motorhomes leak at this point unless the owners have been incredibly diligent. Touch and press on spots in the ceiling that look unusual, discolored or wrinkled to determine integrity; is the wood firm, soft, crunchy, etc... - fridge is a pricey item, be sure to inquire about function in all 3 ways; gas, electric, dc. Look at the propane tank and see whether the valve is open or closed. If the valve is closed ask why so you know about propane leaks. Ask about all camper appliances and heater. Look in water heater area for water damage; not just the outside compartment, but inside as well. - the 22re motor was designed to not leak any fluids. Look underneath the engine for drips of any fluids. Leaks will have to be addressed promptly. Ask the owner whether the motor has ever overheated while they owned it. Take it easy with it if you buy it for a few until you can be sure the cooling systems are working properly (radiator, hoses, fan clutch, belts, pulleys, temp gauge in the cab). Ownership of these is a labor of love. Plan on needing to repair and maintain the vehicle no matter what the owner says about it due to age. Overall, very reliable once you address aged components.

I have a 1990 star lite for sale if that would help you

I have a 1990 Star lite for sale

i believe can't remember left twist is for rotating hook machines and right twist is for oscillating shuttle if you use the wrong one often times the thread will get frayed and tangle your new machine should have a manual specifying thread type.

Well this is a certified scale at the county dump. The top receipt is the accurate one from the official scale on the way out of the facility and I had it signed and it's acceptable by the DOT. The bottom one I asked the person on the way in to weigh it and she was kind of new. So she missed the front axle weight. However, you'll note the total weight on the unofficial scale at the dump agrees to within 40lbs (less than 1%) of the official scale on the way out. And the rear axle was exactly the same to the pound. Now keep in mind this was as empty as any Sunrader could POSSIBLY be. Dry black/fresh/grey tanks, a quarter fuel, my manual tranny is lighter than autos, the dinette cushions and the sleeper mattress and sleeper's wood section were missing, it only has a single battery, no jack or tools, propane half full, plain roof vents, single occupant. So I purposely weighed it to capture that super low weight which nobody will ever see on a 21 foot unless you spent hours emptying your vehicle of literally every item not bolted down. I wanted the weight to see down to the pound how much my remodel adds to the Sunrader. Anyhow, you'd be surprised how much the detritus of life can weigh if you went through your entire RV.

Nice. Great time to be out West. Our 21 ft manual tranny with no supplies, empty tanks n missing settee cushions weighed 4920 for comparison. I hope to have our Sunrader finished in May. If you come through N Idaho instead (out of your current route) reach out n stop for a sandwich on your way through!

I've been going round and round with Airxcel tech support on this subject and am getting a bit frustrated with them, so I thought I'd drop the question here: I have a Coleman Mach roof A/C unit that's ~10 years old. It works well generally and is controlled with a mode selector switch as well as a manual thermostat dial. My unit has a simple, add-on heat strip which comes in handy for cool weather camping, and the heat function is activated by turning the mode selector switch to "Low Heat." The problem is that, when using the heat strip, the thermostat dial doesn't seem to have any bearing on its function—the unit just blows warm air constantly and always pulls about 12A, regardless of the thermostat setting and regardless of the ambient temp in the RV. That can get real toasty, real fast, in a tiny RV! And that is not how it was designed to work; the thermostat is intended to turn the heat strip off and on, in order to maintain a set temperature of course. The question is, "Why is it not working correctly?" If you look at the highlighted portion of the attached wiring diagram you can see that, in Low Heat mode, the hot/black wire is always connected to the Heater Plug. Then, when the thermostat is calling for heat, the white/neutral supply wire makes a connection to the blue wire, which is the other side of the circuit at the Heater Plug (in other words, it's designed to switch the neutral off/on, rather than switching the hot). I have tried completely replacing the thermostat, which didn't help at all. I then tried pulling the blue wire completely off the thermostat, left it dangling... and the heat strip still continued to burn merrily away! Bottom-line, it appears that the heat strip circuit is being completed via another path, bypassing the thermostat somehow and making it irrelevant. Which seems dangerous. How does this happen and what's the fix?

Tuesday, December 12: Got the 2nd piece up and somehow it also took over an hour of fiddling to get the part the right shape, the notches for the beams in the precise right spot, the puck light holes, the puck light wires laid into a melted slot in the insulation, etc. Quite the bummer the contact cement was not compatible, as I have to wait a full 24 hours for each panel to cure before moving to the next piece. I got 8 puck lights and hope that's enough. One right inside the door, three down the hallway, and a pair over the dinette. I think one over the bed and one in the bathroom will do it. I will have 4 dimmers for each of these 4 zones - the manual spinning knob type. I'm not a fan of any of the digital light controllers as I'm too impatient. I'd rather walk in, grasp a knob and turn it instantly to the desired brightness and walk on without breaking stride. When I see these YouTuber van builders stop, click through a menu, turn a light on, press and hold until their brightness is set, I chuckle to myself. I say the old form factor was better and I'm sticking to that. I will also have a couple hidden low LED strips under counter edges to have a red night light setting for those 3 a.m. bathroom trips. Getting old is not for the faint of heart! And wouldn't you know it, after working all summer on a home improvement project around 4 different types of saws, I nicked my finger with the jigsaw tonight. So, I've managed to contribute 2 of the "blood, sweat and tears" that a truly magnificent project often engenders. Hopefully no tears on this one. I also picked out the material for the dinette, and spoke with an upholsterer who will make the cushions for me. Glad I'm a bit of a planner, as they are booked out through March! So, I'll get a diagram to them, receive an estimate, and pay the 50% upfront fee as soon as I can. I'm a little nervous about the estimate, as I have never in my life paid for upholstery work and I've heard it's frightful now after the pandemic caused labor issues. I'm also on the hunt for ceiling fabric to put in the cabover sleeper. Brought home some high end white fleece to show my wife and we both agreed it looks cheesy. So I'll likely order a more traditional choice - marine hull liner.

been having issues with my rear brakes, 7 years after changing them out so revisiting my own thread here, got 1 side apart yesterday and found they still looked basically brand new, found my star adjuster is completely seized and was not adjusting the brakes properly! I expect to find the other side completely cooked Going to try and soak it for a while in PB Blaster to get it to free up Adding Toyota part numbers for rear 1-ton brake star adjuster here RH Side- 47405-30020 LH Side- 47406-30020

if anyone is interested, there is a factory service manual for sale on e bay--- about $100

Linda, I am having trouble locating a tab for the "Files" section in this forum, to find the Dolphin manual you mentioned.

Ha! Great screen name!!! So, I just rolled in from 150 mile roundtrip run in the Sunrader. Perhaps it's first trip of note in decades. I went to my buddy's shop up near Priest Lake, Idaho where he has a nice bending machine for the roof beams. I wanted to use a manual one to carefully control the bends, stop and check them on the roof, bend some more, etc. The machine was perfect for this and I got 11 nice beams to use. They'll be 10" apart except for the 14" spacing on the two vent holes. Here's a video of me doing one of 3 trips through the bender each required: IMG_5014.MOV The drive was a riot. The tires are old and were flat spotted when we bought it and have not improved. After about 50 miles they did round out some, but a random curve would cause a couple to be in sync for a bit and it was like being on a horse. No blinkers. No license plates. No heat (dash fan not working - I haven't even looked at it), and with all the holes back in the living area it was like driving an old leaky church organ with all the various frequencies of wind howl. I brought ear plugs, expecting this, so I was relaxed. Ran like a champ, and I loaded the fuel up with SeaFoam to help clean anything up awry in the fuel system. It did seem to have more power on the trip home. 38 degrees in the cab with cold drafts whipping around me. I brought proof of insurance and the title in case I got pulled over, and have never been irresponsible with license plates like that, but I totally spaced registering it as I was planning for it to sit at the house while I gutted and rebuilt it. By the time I realized it on Friday, DMV was totally booked for the day. At a gas stop, not one, but TWO people came over to look at it. The guy had a Toyota pickup same year back in the day as his first vehicle, and the lady had a family friend with a Toyota motorhome when she was a kid. So here's an interesting Sunrader data point. Ever wonder just how much the furniture, fridge, etc weighs? Well I found out today. I weighed it before I took anything out and the entire vehicle weighed 4920lbs with empty tanks, zero gear, and missing the dinette cushions and table. Rear axle weight was 3120. Today, with nothing left inside the living area except the wall panels and the empty bathroom stall, it weighed 4200 and rear axle was 2360. That's a whopping 720lbs! I'm sure I will add at least 850lbs back into it with the furniture I'll build not made quite as lightly, plus a larger fridge, heavy kitchen counter, adding a microwave, the heavier 1 ton rear axle, etc. But wow - had no idea that pile I tossed out the door as I tore out the interior weighed that much. Onward and upward.

Type in factory service manual in the search box. You'll come up with a bunch, some still good, some defunked. Linda S You guys got to start learning how to use the search function. Us old farts could drop dead anytime and then who ya gonna ask

anybody know where i can download one?

Ouch! 10.5 mpg out of a 4Runner? I have 3 of them,… the closest I get to that mileage is with my 87 22-RE, 5 speed manual, on 36” tires at about 12mpg. My 85 22-RE automatic on 31s gets around 16-17 mpg lastly my 93 3vze manual again on 31s with a burned valve on #3 still gets between 13-14mpg! Of course my 19 Tacoma is the best at 21mpg…. (Yes I currently own 5 Toyotas) So, I’m taking it the mini cruiser is 22re, and the 4Runner is 3vze? Youre absolutely certain it’s electrical causing the poor mileage? my 93 had the tensioner bearing go out on the timing belt and it slipped a couple teeth,… still ran fine, but completely crapped out for power. I didn’t drive it long enough to see a change of mileage…. (Literally just home then diagnosed and repaired)

On the automatic trucks the ones that came with the Turbo 22RE were a bit beefier, I imagine the same will be true on the manual ones. This is a slightly obscure question, but I bet there is a chart/lost around somewhere. Google this: 1983 Toyota pickup 4spd to 5spd swap (No sarcasm or snarky meant by that lol)

Hi folks. Spent some time scrolling through various threads but life is short. So, I will jump the line and ask my question. I have a 1983 shorty Sunrader with 22r and a 4spd manual. The rest axle is out of an 87 and has a 4:88 rear end. I would like to swop in a 5spd. What are the options beyond the L52? What years of 4Runners would have comparable transmissions? The more options I have (years/vehicles) the more likely I can find one locally.

Hi folks. Spent some time scrolling through this threat but life is short. So, I will jump the line and ask my question. I have a 1983 shorty Sunrader with 22r and a 4spd manual. The rest axle is out of an 87 and has a 4:88 rear end. I would like to swop in a 5spd. What are the options beyond the L52? What years of 4Runners would have comparable transmissions? The more options I have (years/vehicles) the more likely I can find one locally.

First 2 have been taken from the Toyota camper IO group. You will probably have to join to see them, toyota-campers@groups.io | Home 86-SunraderOwnersManual-Cover.jpg (groups.io) INST NT 12 16 20 S 204031 5-17-06 REV B.pdf (groups.io) More appliance manuals at Bryant RV manuals Service Documents and Manuals (bryantrv.com) Have no newer Sunrader manual but you can see it doesn't have much info anyway. This person has been selling these CD's for years. Some people have been happy with them. Surorised they haven't upgraded to digital. Who has a CD anymore. SUNRADER MOTORHOME OPERATIONS & AC FURNACE MANUALS for Toyota RV w/ Appliances | eBay Linda S

Hi, Linda - I'd love to get my hands on this Manual Set as well - but the link doesn't seem to work for me (even logged in). Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

So, I guess this is the right time to introduce myself and my project. I'm 62, live in N. Idaho with my wife and kids, and we bought the Sunrader on almost a whim Memorial Day weekend 2023. I saw an ad, looked up what a Sunrader is and thought "so THAT's what those all fiberglas Toyota campers are called." We found it forlornly in the trees up on the side of a mountain with the ceiling wood hanging down, no cushions in the bed or dinette, and it clearly had simply been sitting for perhaps decades. My wife and I couldn't make up our minds, and sat on the bare wood of the dinette talking. Oddly, I am Mr. Car Project and I said no - it's much more work to tackle than I'd thought. My wife said maybe. So we took it for a spin figuring that would be the deciding factor. It drove great, but we told the owner we would pass. He mentioned $1500 would take it as he turned to walk back to his door, we looked at each other in surprise and the rest is history. I am a former product planner for GM, as well as Lexus. A big Toyota fan, we have 2 LandCruisers, just sold an 88 Supra I restored in 2022, and currently vacation all over British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, and Washington states in our restored 1988 Volkswagen Vanagon Wolfsburg Weekender. We love getting away in a self contained capsule - stopping when and where we feel like it. I was forbidden to touch the Sunrader until I completed a home renovation project, which took all summer. Finally, two weeks ago I finished that, and last week I turned to this project. It has an incredible 32,326 miles on it and mechanically seems excellent. The cab is pure time capsule - completely unmolested just as you'd expect from a vehicle owned by older folks. First order of business was to locate a proper 1 Ton axle, which I did last week. Hoping the salvage place calls me tomorrow as I've had the trailer hooked up for several days expecting to come pick it up. It came from a Dolphin with 45k on the clock, and I'll swap my third member into it to keep the proper diff flange, and of course to use a diff with only 32k on it (!). They let me go out in the yard to laboriously disconnect the parking brake cables as I was afraid they'd cut them, and as it's a manual tranny model (yay!), I will want stellar parking brakes. My Cruisers have full floater 1 ton axles, so I'm familiar with the seals and repack process though I understand there are a few differences I'll discover when I perform it. I don't yet have a welder in mind to properly move the spring perches, but hope to figure out the proper location and bring it to a friend in Priest Lake who's a talented fabricator. I believe this axle was a later recall installation as the black paint on the ends looks like new, so I suspect it got new recall axles and was parked soon after. The axle even has cool covers over the protruding flanges that are embossed with "National". I took those off it in the yard just in case whomever pulls the axles either accidentally breaks them, or leaves them behind. I suspect they're a bit of a "collector" item among Toyota motorhome types as I've never seen these in all the research I have done. What's the plan, you ask? Well, I am going to make it into quite the little luxo-cruiser actually. Many of our friends have bought larger RVs but we prefer to motor around and explore for our getaways where they prefer the set piece method of arriving at an RV camp and sitting in one place. We love that, like our VW, we can park the Sunrader in ordinary parking spots right in the little towns, trail heads, and hiking destinations we prefer. So with a little pride in my heart for those times we're with those luxo-barges, I'm going to use my product development background to make this a bit of a show off build. The kitchen will be either a composite or marble top, new appliances with a larger fridge, leather dinette, solar, huge electrical capacity, and a cool paint job all frame my intentions. I'm going to reinforce the roof so we can sit up there, pull kayaks up, and of course have solar. We are also boaters and I've been on some boating sites looking at the interior materials the marine industry uses. I plan to use some of that in the interior, such as the walls and ceiling in the over cab bed. Sequentially, I'll completely gut it leaving only the bathroom (love it!), replace the sagging floor, lift, reinforce and re-arch the ceiling/roof, then build out the cabinets, kitchen and such then install the new dinette and appliances. That should take most of the winter. Then in the spring, I will remove and reseal the windows, and paint the exterior. Somewhere in there, the 1 ton axle will be swapped and I'd like to go to single wheels if I can find the right wheels. Kinda bummed the fronts will then be 5 lug while the rears will be 6 lug. Oh well. I'm also a lighting fanatic, so it will receive high quality forward lighting as well as full perimeter lighting similar to the system I installed on the Vanagon. One touch full perimeter lighting is great for peace of mind when you boondock and hear a bump in the night. We all it the "Zombie switch" as instantly you have full visibility for 50 meters into the dark woods in all directions. I'm posting tonight because in the last few days I got to mess with her a bit, culminating in her first oil change. I weighed her on a scale as this is as light as she'll ever be with empty tanks, missing dinette upholstery, empty cabinets and a quarter tank of fuel. Scale says rear axle is 3120, front 1800 for an all up empty weight of 4920. Honestly, the 22R and 4 speed manual move her along better than our Vanagon, so I am surprised and impressed with the powertrain. Turns out our 22R is also the model they only made for 3 years with the double timing chain and all metal guides, so it's up to the task of our often mountainous journeys. I expect I'll add 250lbs with my remodel as there's no way I'm going to build an interior as light as this stuff. It's really a marvel how they built these cabinets to reduce weight. So that's it, I guess. I've read everything i can find on this site and met many of the excellent folks who provide the great advice that makes for a nice forum environment. Thanks for that nice welcome and advice so far - get ready for a ton of questions. I'll be documenting the project in the weeks to come with pictures. Here's one from the day we drove her home. It was not without drama as I stopped to fuel her up and dumped about 4 gallons onto the ground before discovering mice had chewed a hole in the rubber section of the fuel filler. That's replaced from Rock Auto. She's a rear dinette 21 foot model. Got lucky on that - didn't even know there were different floorplans until we got her home. Several other vehicles will be keeping her company - extra points if anyone can figure out the vehicle next to her.

I owned a toyota van 1988 and a lot of similar parts. Hoping soneday i will fin owner manual, even in japanese!

I don't think a lot of them were made. Finding actual manuals from 45 years ago is a stretch. Manual didn't have very much info in them anyway. Has yours had the axle upgraded. Kind of important. For specific questions we can usually help. Anytime Linda S