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I demolished my 1985 2wd 22re toyota dolphin. I am turning it into a flatbed pickup. I am looking to put a new cab in since the current cab was a walk through. I understand it's an 85' so its a second generation. I am trying to gather as much information as I can before I continue this project. I am hoping to find an extented cab to install if I can do so with little difficulty other than that associated with a cab swap. It sounds like the rear bolt mounts will not match and some new ones will have to be installed. Other than that will there be any other compatibility issues if I get a 2nd gen ext. cab? Will the current fenders fit if I get a cab that is 2nd gen cab of a different year? If I find a 2nd gen cab from a different year without door will my doors fit (say I get an 86' ext cab will my 85' standard cab doors fit)?

I recently leveled my 1985 Toyota Dolphin and am turning it into a flatbed truck. I am interested in swapping the 4 speed low geared tranny to one with a 5th gear for better fuel economy. I am hoping that it will be an easy project, but I've never worked with transmissions before. So far I've removed the entire motorhome down to the original framing, cut the frame just over 3 feet shorter (so it's now just over 16'), and fixed my tow hitch at the cut with some lag bolts. The vehicle is significantly lighter at this point and I'm thinking that I will get an increased fuel economy with a 5 speed transmission. I'd imagine the lower geared tranny is unnecessary at this point. I do not plan on doing much heavy hauling either. It was a 1985 Dolphin with a 1 ton dually axle. 22re engine with a 4 speed manual. Will this transmission swap be a worthwhile project? Can the job be done with minimal tranny experience (and having the mechanics book for this rig)? Will a 5 speed of the same year even fit properly or will I need some other parts to make it fit? Any advice I will greatly appreciate.

On my 1991 Dolphin the panel over the cab (frontmost part of the side panel) is peeling away. Anybody have experience on repairing this? What is the ideal fix? Thanks in advance!

Ok my 92' dolphin 900 has the factory Generator and I was told it "used to run but won't" so I haven't even bothered trying it knowing it needs at least fresh oil and a new plug. So, if you've dealt with a 20 year old generator that's sat unused for a couple years at least, can you give me a primer on what other items I might want to look at? Carb rebuild? Etc. Thanks in advance!

Hello & thank you for looking at my post. I'll cut right to the chase: Without knowing much about it, should I jump at the chance to buy a running 1987 Toyota Dolphin MH for only $3400??? I have been looking for a small Toyota MH for quite some time & I see many being offered for sale b/w $10-12K. Granted most if not all of the campers in this range claim to have had many 'upgrades'/parts replaced, but at only $3400 that would give me quite a bit of wiggle-room for any repairs that need to be done. Here's what little I know. The 87 Dolpin has ~84K miles on the fuel-injected 22RE engine, with AT. It has been advertised for at least a couple weeks & now the price has dropped from $4300 to $3400. I went to see this in person but it was hard to get a lot of information, as the seller is Russian & his daughter was trying to translate. They told me the fridge doesn't work & that they don't know about the roof ac because they never used it (they've had the camper for less than a year I think). She said it does NOT have a generator & that they used their own generator, though while inside I saw a "Generator" indicator/switch, so that should mean it's wired to have an external generator I would think. I also noticed that part of the wallpaper in the upper bed area was coming off which could possibly indicate a roof leak problem, and the stereo & speakers had been removed. So again, I'm hoping that I can get advice from experienced ToyMH owners & mechanics whether $3400 is a price I should jump at, not knowing exactly what repairs may be in store. I mean even if the engine needed a little work, roof needed re-sealing, fridge & roof a/c needed repair/replacement, & I need to have a generator installed, wouldn't I still be coming in at well under the $10K mark that many of these campers are selling at? Thoughts? Again, thank you for your time reading & hopefully giving your input to my post. Cheers & Happy Holidays! Todd

tell me everything you know about 78 toyota dolphins Ok so I've been reading through the forum and I've learned a lot, some great information. I hate crashing forums for answers but if any of you take the time to help me out it will be much appreciated. I've found a 78 dolphin with 74K and asking price of 1500. I've read about particle board water damage but how that doesn't apply to some model years. I've also read about 5 vs 6 lug rear axles, and something about a recall on the head gasket I believe. I'm fairly skilled mechanical wise and first thing I'd do if I bought it would be to replace all the suspension, new plugs wires rotor and boot, check and replace the cv axles if needed run full synthetic in the transmission and rear differential, do the fuel filter, air filter, oil, and radiator flush, possibly new radiator depending on the look of the old one. So mechanically I'm not super concerned but I'm oblivious to what I need to look for in a 30+ year old camper other then the plumbing, fridge, stove electrical all work but that's about it. I have a connection with a rino lining company would rino lining the roof solve any leak problems? What kind of price am I looking at in doing a 5 lug to 6 lug conversion? any answers would be awesome thanks in advance

Hello Folks, I'm new to the RV world. I just bought an 1983 Dolphin RV from a neighbor. I flushed all the fluids, new sparkplugs, and wires. I tried to call the manafacture which apparentely is out of buisness for hope of getting ahold of the manual. Does anybody know where I could get a chilton-type manual for this beast? I noticed under the hood that there are two batteries. Does the battery that doesn't run the engine; run the refridgerator, auxillary air conditioner and water pumps? What do the different color tanks signify? How would I test if all the water pumps work? Where is a good place to find parts? i.e. skylights, appliances, roof racks, ladders, new air conditioning cover Thanks in advance Anson

A couple of weeks ago my wife and I just got our first RV / Motorhome - 1986 Dolphin. The engine is in good shape and just needed a tune-up, hoses and belts replaced and the fuel filler line. The hoses and line will be done early June and I already did the tune-up. It needs new tires and found some 185/R14 tires for about $600 (for all six) online and found a place to mount and balance them for $15 / tire. The inside is a little rough, I think it must have had a leak at some point and the cabover and rear have had some surgery done. As far as the inside, they did a horrible job re-paneling the walls. the carpet was hideous and they only appliances that were working were the burners and the fridge off of AC (or so we were told). The water heater is there, but I'm not going to try and hook it up again. It's set for bypass and the hot water lines are cut.. since the shower is gone I don't think we'd use hot water anyway. I started checking out the appliances and after confirming that the fridge works on AC, I totally blew it out with some compressed air and was able to get it working off of LP as well. The guy said the furnace never worked (they only owned it 2 years) and wasn't even hooked up. I got all the manuals online and started checking it out and it LOOKED like it was OK, just didn't have the thermostat hooked up.. which was disconnected and just laying in one of the upper cabinets. I figured out where to hook that up and fired it up (with LP off).. the fan came right on.. good sign. I turned the propane on, it tried three times to light and didn't. I turned it off and back on again and it lit on the first try and within a couple of minutes we had nice hot air coming out! All four burners and the oven work.. don't imagine we'll ever use the oven though. The electrical outlets work off of AC and the DC lights seem to work fine as well. Toilet is there and works, but rear sink and shower are gone.. there's a closet where the shower used to be so I built some shelves in there. So far we've replaced the floor, made covers for all the cushions, added shelves, fixed drawers, made some window coverings, got the furnace working, got fridge working on AC and hung a toilet paper holder (saved best for last). We have a few more things to do before we take it out, mainly the hoses and tires and we plan on taking it out for Father's Day weekend. Over the winter I'm going to gut it and replace all the walls and ceiling, as well as build some additional cabinets. I've created a site if anyone is interested in looking at / tracking the progress: http://86dolphin.blogspot.com I have some before and progress pictures and I'm trying to update it at least every other day. I'm on the Yahoo Toyota-campers group, but just signed up for this site as well and it looks great! Thanks.