ron.dittmer
North-East Illinois
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Joined: 02/26/2007
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BarabooBob wrote:Until 1988, the chassis that was provided did not have a full floating one ton axle, they had 1/2 ton axles with dual wheels that were actually just half ton wheels welded together, they were called foolies by the people that had the RV's. Those foolies would break the axles at the housing and the wheels would fall off. Toyota eventually gave one ton axles to every owner of an RV that was build on one of their chassis to avoid publicity.
The RV's rode like lumber wagons, cornered like a double deck3er bus, and were so underpowered that with a stiff headwind, you could not go over 50 mph. Everything you stated is spot-on. Our 1983 Toyota chassis motor home had those foolie-dualie rear wheels, and I had the rear axle replaced with true dualies. This is what I received from Toyota for free.
![[image]](https://live.staticflickr.com/3185/3730196184_88bca69ed6_z.jpg)
At that time I also had Bilstein shocks and 5000 pound rear air bags installed. It all helped a lot but still wasn't right.....just tolerable. I could NEVER recommend buying "any" Toyota chassis motor home made through 1994.
They were great little pickup trucks, but fell far short for motor home applications. It was asking too much from such a small chassis. The early years were a real nightmare. Our 1983 with 1 ton rear axle added later, was an exception in that the rig weighed 3600 pounds empty, yet it still fell quite short. The later years with true-dual rear axle and V6 engine didn't offer enough improvement. Those little rigs were severely underpowered slugs, and yet they were still all over the road. Not having front and rear stabilizer bars of any kind was so wrong.
Our rig SHOWN HERE would have been okay if it could have been equipped with the V6 engine, 5-speed manual transmission, and heavy duty stabilizer bars. Mirage Of Elkhart went out of business mid 1986 so none exist with the V6 engine.
* This post was
edited 11/30/20 07:19am by ron.dittmer *
2007 Phoenix Cruiser model 2350, with 2006 Jeep Liberty in-tow
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Bumpyroad
Virginia
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Joined: 12/01/2005
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midnightsadie wrote:go sprinter, those old toyota,s had some big problems ,
this reminds me that back when I was first looking at motorhomes, about 94 IIRC, I mentioned that to my BIL who was my guide in these matters. His first words were, "I hope you aren't looking at Toyotas" I admitted I had sat in one at the dealer and quickly crossed that off my list. and 29 years and 90K later I don't think they would be a better idea.
bumpy
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ron.dittmer
North-East Illinois
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Joined: 02/26/2007
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I always thought GM missed out on a huge opportunity to captivate the micro-mini motor home market. They should have offered a heavy duty 6-wheel DRW Chevy Astro, GMC Safari cut-away for RV applications. The SRW cutaway that they did offer fell way short, hence it was short-lived.
* This post was
edited 12/04/20 08:51am by ron.dittmer *
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