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What could have been (here) ...


Derek up North

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Kool :hyper: Thanks Derek!

I wounder where they are manufactured?

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Tiger motor homes use a Ford of Dodge truck to build their 19' 4x4 campers. I don't have the 85-100 thousand to buy one. Besides who wants a camper that does everything its suppost to do. My 92 seabreeze is more of an adventure.

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Here are a couple of stretched models with tag axles. Must be a record for 'Longest Toyota Hilux Motorhome'!

http://www.caravanca...id=12E0A40B1E50

http://www.caravanca...id=12E0A40B1E50

And something a bit smaller (though not Toyota).:

http://www.sydneyrvcentre.com.au/slideshow.html?id=511

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Wow! I like these... Nice and clean looking, and on a Tacoma cab too! I wounder why they use the 4 cylinder 2.7L gas engine though?

I love the rear bike rack and swing-out storage... I might have to copy something like that for mine :)

gc4734534447499120177.jpg

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For the swing away storage idea you might pirate a spare tire carrier from a Chevy S-10 Blazer (or other) as 'base material'. But unless there's some reason, why the need for a swing out design? I can only think of the Sunrader (that I've noticed) with something back there to access. But you could mount a portable generator that way and swing it out to operate at a greater distance from your combustible home.

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Here's another example of what's 'There' and not 'Here' (unless you're Canadian).

http://www.outbackim...le/HD-2963.html

this is inspiring. i think i need to go find an older Sunrader 18 with the non-wrapping windows and put it on a modern taco or tundra... now how much can i sneak out of the investment account without anyone noticing...

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post-385-0-33636400-1297476243_thumb.jpg

I think the 18' sunrader has way too much overhang for a 4x4 vehicle imho. Does the term "removable rear box" mean that the first time you pull into the gas station to get gas the driveway is going to remove it?

:wub: Kidding of course, that's a nice utility box and a very clean looking rig. It's definitely worth some coin. Hope he gets good money for it. Says 22r not 22re replacement? The sunrader never came in efi? The body looks nice as does the interior (tho a bit 70's tbh). I'm just amazed that 20+ year old RV's still exist out there in their original form! And that some butcher hasn't gotten his hands on it and hacked it up. haha.

this is inspiring. i think i need to go find an older Sunrader 18 with the non-wrapping windows and put it on a modern taco or tundra... now how much can i sneak out of the investment account without anyone noticing...
If I could do it all over, I'd just build one from scratch personally with modern composite cores. I'd do a few of these just for the oooo of it, but my body can't handle the chemicals involved in these projects as it could in my youth. My days of building campers are coming to an end with this last project. Would be fun to read about a new project tho! Hey, you can't take money with you! Break into that account! :)
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I took ours (4x4 Sunrader) on dirt roads and to places I can't take what I have now at least a couple times a year. If you want a 4x4 so you can look cool and say "I got me a 4x4" then your just like all those other yahoos with the jacked up street 4x4's and yes Hummers. The majority of 4x4's on the road have never seen a dirt road or a big slab of granite. The reality is a 4x4 Sunrader is not a rock crawling machine. It will take you to places you are not going to take a Toyota winnebago but not extreme trail stuff. They are way to big and heavy. They do not have enough horsepower to weight and especially at high altitude you could easily get your self in trouble. There are limits for every 4x4 out there. One time a guy challenged me to follow the leader. He had a 4x4 Toyota pickup. I have a 71 Ford Bronco. The road was closed due to a large tree across it. I drove down the embankment (pretty close to straight down) around the tree and back up onto the road. The Toyota did not make it. Once he got to the bottom he could not get back up. We had to maneuver him out of the way so that I could drive back down and back up onto the road we came in on, then pull him back up the embankment. If he had been alone he would have been walking, for along time. The cause, he did not know the capabilities of his vehicle or how to drive it in extreme conditions. He was lucky he did not break an axle. Luckily just a few dents under the doors and a caved in door. Lessons be learned the hard way sometimes!

I apologize for the long winded rambling.

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Yeah I just don't get it. Why don't they make pickup based RV's here anymore? With the high fuel and all I don't know why manufacturers don't do it :-(

My guess is that here in the USA its due to the GVW ratings of the pickup. There are some manufactures using Ford F350 chassis and F450. Both available as a pickup or chassis. Toyota makes nothing available in the USA with the same GVW ratings. In fact I don't believe they make anything in the 1 ton rear dual wheel axle configuration anymore. Those Australian Winnys appear to not be 1 ton chassis. The new Earth Roamer is rated at 19,500 for GVWR, its a F550 crew cab. Price astronomical. I looked everywhere even on fords site but can not find any miles per gallon ratings for any of the F250 series up trucks. A guy once said to me that fuel really is not a concern as far as he was concerned. Yes his 32 footer got 8 miles per gallon but then again he was driving around a house because that's the comfort he wanted. But then again that was also towing a crew cab Toyota pickup behind the motorhome. So I suppose 8 x 2 = 16 miles per gallon if you see what I mean. If he drove both vehicles and they both got 16 mpg then the cost is the same.

Earth Roamer

post-1-0-49449000-1297536313_thumb.jpg

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The Toyota Land Cruiser has a GVWR of ~6600lbs and a full floater axle, But there aren't too many who would want to take a Sawzall to a brand new Land Cruiser. The 2011 Tundra has a 6800lb GVWR listed on Toyota's site. I'll only assume it's a full floater.

Here's an unusual list I came across:-

http://www.alphaleas...ver6000gvwr.asp

You might also find some interesting ideas by following the links here:-

http://www.macks4x4info.com/index.php?option=com_sobi2&catid=93&Itemid=153&limitstart=50

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  • 3 weeks later...

This has been around for a while but I just discovered it. Similar to tbe bimobil above, I think this is the closest we can get to a Toy home. Put these on a Tacoma flat bed and you should be good to go :-)

Northstar Escape Pod 750 http://tinyurl.com/4owz2pb

Northstar Escape Pod 900 http://tinyurl.com/4dssqhw

Edited by peacemaker885
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I like the northstar pods. the one thing I'd want to figure out is how to leverage the space in the undercarriage. while that diminishes ground clearance, it also keeps CG low which is very good (and optimal utilization of space). as for offroad capability, most of the off highway camping i've done has been on roads that might requires some 4x4 for traction or a little extra clearance. there are some great sites out in the Sierra Nevada that fit that bill that I couldn't and wouldn't take our 2X 21' Sunrader into, but I'd consider in a shorter 4x4. the Chinook project going on looks pretty interesting for that kind of rig, but i'd want to start with a fairly recent Taco... that would require looking for a compatible 1T rear-end, etc. and a pretty draconian approach to weight management, but what a fun project. And, in the end, a rig that could last for the next 20 years too.

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That Escape pod is a nice looking shell. Very similar to my own build except that I'd like to think my own design has some pluses (besides the price tag) :).

Mostly I don't like how they appeared to have built a flatbed ABOVE the wheel wells instead of AROUND them. This raises the cab a good deal higher than it needs to be. You'll notice a huge gap between the overhead and the cab? Also if the camper were to sit on a flatbed mounted around the wheel wells, the door could have been to one side of the wheel well or another. Granted a low step such as that found on the stock sunrader isn't going to be practical, but at least one that was below the wheel well would be better than that arrangement. Yes, you'd have to lift the shell a bit higher to clear the wheel wells, but once in place, it would be far better in terms of CofG as Andy alluded to.

Of course not incorporating a wheel well into the shell means it will fit a wide range of vehicles and axle to cab dimensions (a true flatbed doesn't have whell wells!). Probably why they did such a thing.

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That Escape pod is a nice looking shell. Very similar to my own build except that I'd like to think my own design has some pluses (besides the price tag) :).

Mostly I don't like how they appeared to have built a flatbed ABOVE the wheel wells instead of AROUND them. This raises the cab a good deal higher than it needs to be. You'll notice a huge gap between the overhead and the cab? Also if the camper were to sit on a flatbed mounted around the wheel wells, the door could have been to one side of the wheel well or another. Granted a low step such as that found on the stock sunrader isn't going to be practical, but at least one that was below the wheel well would be better than that arrangement. Yes, you'd have to lift the shell a bit higher to clear the wheel wells, but once in place, it would be far better in terms of CofG as Andy alluded to.

Of course not incorporating a wheel well into the shell means it will fit a wide range of vehicles and axle to cab dimensions (a true flatbed doesn't have whell wells!). Probably why they did such a thing.

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  • 2 years later...

Went out for coffee in town (Anchorage) yesterday....and saw a gray Earth Roamer (as seen above in Gulfstream Greg's post).

Went inside for coffee and looked it up on the internet....and there are 125 made (since 2002?).

Price for a used one is $325K - $365K.

Wow!

Left the coffee shop....drove over to see a son.....and spied a SunRader parked in an alleyway driveway.

Doesn't look like it's been used for awhile.

What's the going price for a Sunrader these days?

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