1st post - Looking to buy - Advice from pros

[mkii]

Hi all,

Hoping for some friendly advice. I won't be too needy.. just trying to not re-invent the wheel. The knowledge is here, and if you don't mind sharing, would appreciate it.

Considering an '86 Seabreeze with 76,000 miles. Automatic.

Seller says this... "One airbag has a pinhole in it and doesnt stay full. The battery for the box has trouble keeping a charge. There its some water damage on the drivers side above the loft bed at the corner of the ceiling and the wall."

Besides that, it seems to be clean and in nice condition from the pics.

Questions:

1. How big a deal is this airbag issue... fixable? better to just replace? how expensive?

2. What are some of the main things we should check for? Common gremlins?

3. Is the automatic tranny a dealbreaker? There seems to be a pref here for the manual?

Will stop there for fear of drawing wrath... hoping I can contribute at some point, but thanks in advance for any advice.

Mike

[Gary_M]

Hi Mike, I'm not a pro but my toy has a similar set-up I think....

1.Leaking air bag - How long does it stay inflated? I have a pinhole leak in mine and it stays inflated for a couple of days. I keep a portable air pump with me and fill it when needed. I figure I can live with it till it gives out totally...

2. Tires - How old are they? Coach leaks? Appliances working? Just to name a few.

3. Automatic tranny - Assume you have the bullet-proof 22RE engine. If so the A43D tranny should get you to 150,000 easily if was maintained properly. BTW, you want an auto tranny with these overloaded toys. ;-) My preference totally!

[waiter]

Mike,

Welcome to the forums, A couple recommendations, Browse the different subject areas, i.e. General, Electrical, Engines. You might also try the "search" in your browsing.

There are many regular contributors to the site, and every post adds to the experience and knowledge base. Sometimes when you ask me what time it is, I tell you how to build a watch. :-) This happens a lot, so if your not a detail person, just mark the post as read and move on.
Also keep in mind, the question you ask, others are probably asking the same thing, This also includes the answers or followup posts,

IMPORTANT - Always do a follow up, if a problem is solved, please post it so others can see. and Photos, remember, a picture is worth a thousand words. get an inexpensive digital camera, use it, and learn how to post photos up here.

OK, On to your Questions / Answers

1) Your air bags may be different, so before you start ordering stuff, climb under there and verify what you have. Mine were about $250, took a couple hours to replace. Others have used the "Goo" or "Slime" to varying degrees of success,, I like to try the $5 solution before I commit to the $250 solution.

Anyway try this link for my experience with Air Bag replacement:

2) Important deal breakers, Full float rear axle, water damage, tire age, appliances working, truck mechanical condition. I know this is very general, but these will be the key, high cost items.

3) When I started my search, I was looking for a manual, I'm glad I got the auto, There was a thread here recently about Auto Tranny, tail shaft bushing I believe thats something you need to look at. Its not a "problem area" but the cost of repair can be high, so look at it.

Climb under the truck, look for tranny leaks around the tail shaft, wiggle the tail shaft, there may be a small amount of side to side play, but it shouldn't be more than about 1/8 the thickness of a dime. If there is any play, it may be worth doing the bushing replacement ( I need to do this on mine)

Make sure the tranny has a aux cooler (somewhere around 86, 87 they were standard) This seems to be related with the tail shaft bushing problem, Older trucks without the aux cooler suffer a higher failure than those with the cooler.

JOhn Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

[sdboltdude]

Welcome!!!

Your going to have to see how bad water damage is

knock on walls see if sound solid or hollow

lift up bed see how frame around all corners(remember water travels)

look at outside seam's check & see how good the seam's are. going up each side(left right corners)look for cracked or missing caulking..

look underneath cabover/truck roof to make sure 100% sealed not sagging should look flush (knock test)

My Toy had some Bad Water Damage the cabover was completely rotted out in bed and outside cabover seam

the leak was from the left corner seam near roof and destroyed the left & right side of bed & dropped down the cabover seam over a inch.

was a lot of work to fix we had to open up rv like a tin can and take bed & truck roof(under bed) completely off.

good luck with search!!!

just take your time looking...

also look at tires make sure in great shape and check date on tires..

even if they look good & are old tire you could have weather cracks..

new tires are $700 you could use that to drop down $$$ same as any damage rv has...

[Skydancer2992]

Sounds like a normal Toyota motorhome. The water damage needs to be investigated further. Look for pooling under the mattress. The wood may be rotted.

Nothing you listed sounds like a deal breaker. But you need to be happy that your purchase price has taken any repair issues into consideration.

Both you and the significant other need to look at the camper as pictures often fail to capture details such as dry rot and surface impacts.

If the significant other is female, then the different perspective will be useful. Especially if that person is expected to spend a lot of time in said RV.

Without airbags or helper springs, my experience has been that the camper tends to "bottom out" - the axle hits the rubber bumper on the frame making for an unpleasant banging noise inside the camper. Not so noticeable up front but people in the back notice, particularly significant others.

I'm currently using coil helper springs in place of air bags and am satisfied with the performance - this was an easy and cheap solution.

[Boots]

Hi

So the first thing to do is to avoid any unit that has a single rear wheel installation, in other words, buy only a unit that has four wheels (dualies) in the rear. The original design used single wheels and they eventually all failed, leaving the owner with a serious problem (usually while on the road) and at the mercy of the towing companies, repair shops and other service people.

Next determine which engine you want; the RE22 (four cylinder engine) is a tough little guy, very reliable and well built, however, it is underpowered, and this presents problems in mountainous or hilly country) Good gas economy though. The V6 (six cylinder) is the engine of choice, however, it has notably concern. The good news is that there is a fix to the issue. Some of the engines have a problem with head gaskets, and will let go (blown head gasket) - now the good news, Toyota is aware of this and has a secret warranty to fix this issue and if your engine qualifies ( I believe the qualifying engine build date 1987 - 1994), area of origin etc.

Toyota will, at their discretion, replace the head gaskets, repay the repair costs you might have incurred, or give you a new engine. In my case, the head gasket went while on the road, we had it rebuilt, and Toyota, on proof of repair (invoices etc.) handed us a cheque for the full cost.

The next piece of advice is to CAREFULLY examine the roof, a lot of sealant might mean there is a long term leak, replacing the roof is, for some, a good investment. For others, who are, shall we say, frugal it is a non starter. If you live in a four season county, where rain is a regular event, a leaking roof will quickly and permanently degrade the value of your investment. The other indicator is mould and wood rot, which in its self is a problem, but for some folks, it can be very unhealthy!

Batteries, specifically coach batteries, take a beating, and usually fail prematurely, due to poor maintenance, improper charging and improper use. There is quite a bit of discussion on types, sizes, charging techniques etc., suffice to say if you are having ongoing problems, take it to a battery shop first and depending on the verdict, replace it or improve the charging.

Firestone makes an excellent airbag called Ride Right, and they come in a number of configurations, including load levellers, individual levellers, on board air compressors, and in cab adjusters. If you are having trouble with one, you might be able to replace that unit, however, I would recommend replacing both of them.

Finally, an inspection of both front and rear brakes, to ensure they are in good mechanical condition, do not fool around with brakes, your life and the life of others (not to mention your financial well being) depends on these systems. Out of precaution, if the fronts need replacing, carefully check the discs to remaining thickness (life of disc) and replace if it getting close to the end of the useful life. In the rear, the disassembly and rebuild takes another more technical turn in that the brake design is more complicated and requires replacement of axle seals if the brakes are being worked on. I would have the mechanic flush and replace all of the brake fluid.

finally, check the certification of the propane system, age and condition of the tank etc. In some areas, you cannot get insurance (or maintain valid vehicle insurance in case of an accident) if there is an accident and there is not current certification.

One last thing, replace the radiator fluid (flush system first), replace all of the transmission fluid, change the engine oil, and replace the rear axle differential oil, so you will start out with all new fluids.

I could go on, but start with ensuring that the unit is well sealed, and weather proof, if it is not, the problems are endless and could cost thousands of dollars.

Boots

[MontanaChinook]

Great post, and I'll only nitpick a little. Sorry The Toyota engine is a 22R or 22RE. And the axles didn't ALL fail, but Toyota recognized it was enough of a problem to do a recall.

I would be surprised if the V6 3.0 recall was still valid; any more than the axle recall is. You cannot still get a free axle upgrade, and I'm guessing the window of opportunity has also passed for the headgasket recall. When did you get yours paid for?

Both engines have their +s and -s, but the 22R/RE is without a doubt more reliable, easier to work on and cheaper to have repairs done on. V6 gives you slightly more power at the expense of a few miles per gallon, and more cost in general. But it's absolutely worth lookng into for that little power gain in the bigger RVs. The trade offs wouldn't be worth it in my little Chinook, though.

[WME]

Toyota recalled the V-6 for the head gasket problem.

Toyota DID NOT recall the rear axles. The RV mfg overloaded the rear axle and the faux duallys were result. The RV makers were forced to do the recall because of THEIR bad designs. Most of them went out of business instead of doing the recall.

[zero]

Toyota may not have recalled RV rear axles, but it did give them out free of charge to many people with problem RVs. I can't say if their free rear axle upgrade kits were based on altruism or fear of liability . . . but I suspect the latter. My neighbor had a new one still in a crate from Toyota when he died - that he'd gotten for his Dolphin. I wish I'd been smart enough to get it when they had his estate auction.

[mkii]

Thanks very much to all for the thoughtful replies. Lots to think about.

Will keep you posted on updates.

Thanks,

M