I really miss my Mini Cruiser, what next???

[thewanderlustking]

First off the best thing about owing one of thee little Toyota Motorhomes, is all of you guys and gals here!  Linda especially has probably rolled here eyes at possibly more than once, yet still gives awesome help and rarely beats me up too badly!  LOL!  And I defiantly deserve any grief she may have given me!  -=wink=-

 

Linda really hit one home though.  I had too many projects, and too many unrealized ideas on the Mini Cruiser.  For me, it eventually became too much.  The mechanicals, I enjoyed.  But rebuilding the interior and restoring the damaged roof correctly was just too much and it became more of a chore than a joy.   

 

It taught me a lot though, and I absolutely fell in love with Toyotas!  Getting an older 4x4 became my dream.  Last year Hurricane Ian really changed my perspective and priorities.  I knew after that, I HAD to have a 4x4.  I had been looking for a while, but until I decided I was done with the Mini Cruiser, nothing really happened.  Then it all fell together and I managed to pick up a 1994 4Runner last December (2022).  I literally drove the Mini Cruiser over to my best friends house, and we left from there to go pick up the 4Runner and bring it home.   

 

It was clean, and CHEAP.  So of course it came with some issues.  Some of the odder ones I even solved with some help on here! But mechanicals I can manage even on a bad day.  Like today I discovered the storm had done some whacky stuff the the electrical system.  As tired as I was after work, I enjoy it enough that I was able to force myself to go work on it.  And got everything sorted out pretty quickly.  

 

Anyways, enough waffling about on that, moving to something else...

 

The "wanderlust" is still there and I do miss the "RV" aspect of the Mini Cruiser.  The wife wants to get another RV, or some other contained "camping" option.  She wants brand new, but might be convinced with a squeaky clean used example.  I've also tried to impress on her that brand new is almost as bad as Vintage in the RV world.  The ownership experience of the Mini Cruiser taught me enough that I am pretty comfortable looking at another used RV and intelligently picking out/finding its flaws.  I also work on lots of trucks and more than a few RV's all day long.  I don't do a whole lot on the house side of things, but the chassis and mechanicals are easy.  

 

I see three paths in front of me.  Most important factor though is I don't want a big set of burdensome projects to tackle with any of these.   

 

1)  Overland the 4Runner.  It is already more than halfway there.  SUPER comfortable road trip vehicle, other than being SLOW.  Like seriously, the 4cyl Mini Cruiser had more power!!!  Granted, I put the work in to get it that way...    I'm sure I can get the 4Runner performance up a bit with minimal work too.  It already has been outfitted with bigger KO2 trail tires, a snorkel, and a SLEW of other parts that make it a pretty capable trail/offroad truck.  

 

I am not sold on doing a rooftop tent though...  Too much weight up high, and not easily removable.  I can do a simple removable bed/platform and it looks like I can actually fit a Full size mattress back there.  This doesn't leave any real space for anything else though.  If it was just me, a smaller mattress and a slide out kitchen setup would fit nicely.  

 

I don't have any ideas that would make it self contained and comfortable, without the rooftop tent.  And first and foremost this is now my daily driver, no point in carrying around a bunch of extra weight unless it is being used.   

 

2)  A camping trailer of some sort.  There are a few options out there.  The 4Runner supposedly can tow 3500lbs with a 200lb tongue weight.  Not sure I believe that, but whatever lol.  Light weight is going to be key and the lower I can keep it, the better.      

 

Plenty of pop up trailers at almost nothing prices.  Some even free.  While a project for sure at the lower end, probably small enough to be manageable.  But a pop up isn't much more than a tent with a camp kitchen in it.    

 

A 13' Scamp is a VERY interesting choice, and they can be ordered brand new.  I LOVE how they look.  And  with the bathroom option they are almost livable longer than a weekend.  The 16' Scamps I would even consider long term usable.  The Scamps are essentially the Sunraders of the trailer world with there one piece fiberglass shells.  At only 1500lbs, the 13' might be comfortable to tow with the 1993.  The 16' is 1900lbs dry.  The 13' is a little more realistic to tow though I suspect.  

 

Three are other options in this category.  Some of the "canned ham" trailers are extra nice.  One of those could even be built from scratch.  I think that falls into the "too big of a project" category though.  I would rather get on the waiting list and pay for a Scamp.  

 

3)  Prices are coming back down to more reasonable amounts for our favorite Toyota RV's.  I think the RV boom created by the pandemic is finally tapering off to more sane levels.  I found a Dolphin for $10k that looks like it is nice enough to not be too big a project.  I also found a nice Sunrader for $30k.

 

I don't know what realistic prices for other RVs were in B.P. days.  But they are currently kinda stupid.  I am not seeing a lot of options below my ideal limit of $30k that I would really consider.  And anything above about $5k would probably need to be financed.

 

I really want s fiberglass type of option, like a Sunrader.  Anything else would HAVE to be clean and leak free, and I am not sure there is a Dolphin, Winnie, Mini Cruiser, etc that can live up to that.  

 

I think I am leaning the most towards something in the option 2 range.  Like a brand new option like the Scamp 13" that I can finance and do payments on.  For the right price I would pick up an older Castia or similar, even if it needed a little work.  

 

If a Toyota Sunrader came along cheap, I would snap it up1  If I could figure out a plan that didn't involve selling the 4Runner to get it...   

 

Edited September 1, 2023 by thewanderlustking

[thewanderlustking]

Well we have been looking for a while now, and actually went RV shopping today.  We found a Winnie we lREALLY liked on a 2007 dodge/mercedes chassis.  But it was $50k.   We liked it enough that we seriously considered getting it on the spot.  We refuse to do such a large purchase impulsively though, and spent the rest of the day looking at options and REALLY talking about it.   

 

As we really seriously looked at the options, she mentioned a couple times that we probably should have just farmed out the repairs on the roof/interior of our old Mini Cruiser.  10-12k there would have been manageable.  But we didn't and I think there are some better layouts in some of the other options.

 

We are both leaning heavily towards a 13' Scamp.  There are a good handful close enough and in a price range we can manage.  She also loved the 18' Sunrader's we looked at online and if we found the right one at the right price would be willing to stretch to that.  Scamps though are pretty awesome and very few negatives to owning one.  I am still concerned with towing one with my 1994 4Runner, and I have never towed before either.  That would be a slight learning curve.  The 4Runner needs a front end rebuild, swaybars replaced (currently have, but not installed), and shocks upgraded.  The anemic 3.0 engine is also a concern, but some of that issue was recently fixed with replacing the ECU.  It still needs a bit more power unleashed though.  

 

The conclusion we both came to was any overloading type of setup contained in the 4Runner itself, was unlikely to be comfortable enough for us.  Still a possibility since essentially free and already on hand...  A small class C like the Dodge j23 would be ideal for longer trips, but very hard to justify the price if not used constantly.  But a Scamp hits somewhere in the middle and if it only got used a couple times a year, would still be worth it.  And a Scamp is much less of a long term commitment.  

 

I say it counts as a "Toyota RV" if towed with the 4Runner and Heritage style stickers are made up for it.  Anyways the plan is to move forward with a refresh on the 4Runner suspension so towing with it becomes an option.  My buddy has a pop-up camper we might take for a weekend to try towing and camping in it out.  It is likely light enough I could try it out before the suspension refresh.