Solid axle swapped Toyota Sunrader Motorhome

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extremetoy1

extremetoy1

10 Year 15 Year
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www.maxx-racing.com
Here is the beast that will soon receive an FJ80 solid axle swap.

It is a 1983 Toyota sunrader 21 ft motorhome with a 22R and 80,000 miles on it. interior is what to be expected from a 30 year old ride, Previous owner began renovating it and didt finish- I have a clean slate for rehabbing/updating everything.

The sunrader was the best motorhome conversion by far due to its 2 peice clamshell design, it is less prone to leakage as some of the other 18-19 motorhome companys that did Toyota motorhomes.

mtrhomtoy.jpg
 
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I will definitely be following this one.
 
I have the 80 series axle already, I am havind a hard time sourcing a custom large 6 bolt dually wheel.

I wouls like to run skinny dually rears and a skinny front, BFG All terrains.

transfer case will have a low gear set (4.7 to 1) installed, no need for dual cases lol, I wont be rock crawling but it will make it easy on the clutch when in low range when parking or manuvering trails.... having the clutch grab and jerk around all my fine china inside wouldnt be a good thing now would it!!

As for the 22R I love the engine and if a swap has to happen I may just go with a 3RZ. you would be shocked how well this gets around for its size, I am sure I will be hating life driving in the mountains with a carb- maybe propane and a dual fuel set up is something I may consider later.

a solid axle swap would probably be better on a 18 foot Sunrader but the ground clearance on my 21 ftr is scary when going over a raised railroad track.... not that its a big deal but in some places I hunt access is through farmers property with RR tracks and what fun would it be to watch your own truck hit by a train?

plus dually tires suck for traction off road, for now I am gathering all I need to do the swap-

I just ordered some BFG 195/75/14 load range D tires for the rear duallys (cute little ATs!!) that I will run all winter til I rip into the suspension for the solid axle swap(will run skinny 32s when I go solid axle). I will post up interior renovation pics too.
 
Interesting:hhmm:. My Father-in-law ran a Toyota mini motor-home for about 10 years back about that vintage, not sure if it was the Sunrader or not. Might be able to tell after you post some interior pix. Does it expand up? He took it back to the East Coast at least twice and all over the place. For road agility, his, pretty much, went like a bat out of hell. Surprised me how well it went. You might want to re-think the skinny tire approach. Try it, you can always change tire sizes. Isn't the OEM axle a FF? I've seen farm rigs and some semi's that should have been running duals, but actually have a wide single rim & tire setup in the rear and go not quite as wide in the front. Better flotation and weight bearing, I guess. Good luck with your project :cheers:
 
It is a full floater rear end, the dual part is about safety more than anything, thats alot of weight to blow a tire on the highway and have to carry 2 full size spares. you can drive on 3 rears in a pinch and load carrying and handling are so much nicer with the wide foot print.
With that said, this will see no "trail' use, off roading etc. this will be for maybe an occasional hard to get to place to camp or hunt, the ground clearance will be nice and once in awhile a little snowy road or dirt track
 
Yeah, after reflection, a single spare that would go front or rear makes more sense and the rear duals would probably be safer in a pinch. In your pic it's kinda hard to tell, but it looks like there's a joint in the skin that would allow you to crank the top up for expansion for more head room. Is that the case? You mention 2-piece clamshell design and just wondering.
 
update to this one, head gasket went- putting back my swap and rehab of it

had engine apart and it seems it has been bored .050 over before (it said so engraved right on top of the pistons) head was junk so as luck would have it I ahd another head so it is up and running agin and I threw the factory carb away due to it wasnt responding to a rebuild well. I put on my 38 MM weber.. it does go, and so does the gas- looking for a 32/36 for now until I source a 3RZ for it

I have added SR5 4WD gauges and wired the tach so now that part is done.

sidenote, did you know that a 2010 Rav4 steering wheel will bolt right up? way cooler than my old spindley ass 83 wheel was and soft too (looks way better as well) so as you guessed I added a Rav4 wheel

I have the axle stripped down of all the 4 link bracketry and ready to weld the spring pads on.
I installed the shackle tubes in the frame of the Sunrader and used a 1 inch longer tube to offset the springs out 1 inch on the axles to fight against the extra 4 inch's of leverage the landcruiser axle will have combined with the weight of the RV.
I will have a shackle with a spacer as well. will post up some pics later this week.

I am prepping 4wd fenders for paint right now to put on and going to be getting another set of rust free doors taken apart and some tabs welded inside to reinforce where the BIG mirrors mount, it has taken its toll on the current doors. I will be adding vent window doors as well.
 
Pictures or it didn't happen... please. :-) < = mobile smiley
 
Sweet, I am doing a 4x4 SAS to my Toyota Bandit camper too.
https://forum.ih8mud.com/79-95-toyo...4x4-sas-1986-toyota-chinook-camper-build.html

I am about to get back to work on mine soon. Still a little cool and wet outside.

That FJ80 axle up front should be a good match once you put on the super off set dully wheels. If the front rims match the rear then you will only have to carry one spair.

Can you tell me the GVWR of your rear duel axle? I am wondering what the load capacity is compared to my rig.

If you can I would swap engines now before you get your tranny in. A 2.7L or 3.4L engine swap will require a 151F manual tranny or an auto tranny. So since you need a 4x4 tranny any way why not go all the way now if you can afford it. As long as you are going to the trouble of an engine swap why not go with a 3.4L v-6 engine instead of the 2.4L?

I was also thinking of the 2.4L but I decided when the time comes it will be a 3.4L for me. I may change my mind by that time but now that is what I am thinking. More power for hills and towing.

I like your Steering wheel swap. Maybe I will swap my extra 1992 steering wheel into my camper, or my extra one from an FJ60.

I like manuals because of reliability and MPG but I had a chance to drive a friends 27" v-10 ford motor-home with an auto and I liked not having to worry about shifting when driving that big of a rig. An auto might be nice on my camper down the road.

I look forward to seeing pics of the front suspension and how it comes together.
 
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toyotamotorhome.org has a bunch of info on your bandit/o, they would enjoy your build there.

I am using the 80 series axle becauze of teh fact my dul full floater is 61.5 inches wide and an 80 series is 63.5, now consider the dual wheels each set in/outboard of the WMS and it is a perfect fit (better than a 54 inch wide front with a 61 inch wide rear)

I can always do the engine swap after the solid axle swap, I can just hold of on the front driveshaft being built. the reason I am using a 2.7 3RZ is that it will bolt in and is very light compared tho the 3.4 as well as my 83 engine compartment wont take that v6 without hacking stuff apart. if I would ever want to return it to a 22r I could (sunraders and chinooks are becoming more rare- even more rare than a 1985 SR5 solid axle 4Runner) so I dont want to hack it up for a motor swap.

the 2.7 gets as much torque at 1500 rpms as a 22R does at its maximum amount of torque, perfect RV engine (Toyota RV)
 
I recently purchased an 85' sunrader which unfortunately has the 5 lug axle. I found a 6 lug on craigslist that came off a 92' one ton pickup, should all of the bolt patterns (aside from the lugs) be the same between the two axles? Or more specifically should I be able to swap these with no fabricating?
 
Kurt87 said:
I recently purchased an 85' sunrader which unfortunately has the 5 lug axle. I found a 6 lug on craigslist that came off a 92' one ton pickup, should all of the bolt patterns (aside from the lugs) be the same between the two axles? Or more specifically should I be able to swap these with no fabricating?
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DOn't try to change a 6 lug to a 5 lug or viceversa. It isn't worth it and may weaken it. It may be possible to change the hub, but who knows what fits on what other axle. Just keep a spare tire for each lug pattern and rim type you end up with or keep the tools around for swapping tires on wheels.

What does the end of hub on the craigs list 6-lug look like? If it bulges out from the wheel mounting face a few inches, the swap is well worth it. If it is flush, keep what you got as they are roughly equivalent. If it bulges out only an inch or so, then it is worth it, but not ideal. Somewhere I posted a link to a PDF file with the lowdown on the 6 lug 1 ton floating axle that was the recall replacement for the originals.

Note: I'm making the assumption you still have duals in the rear with the original axle. That means the fronts were originally setup for dual wheel rims too. If the front or rear wheels are not dual rims, then all bets are off as to what you need. We'll need pictures to figure out the current status and what you may need.

If you do switch from duals to singles on the rear, make sure the tires and wheels can handle the load. If you switch to singles, going to 16x8 or so wheels opens you up to all the load range E tires that full sized US pickups use. The issue will be locating a 6 bolt rim with enough load capacity, but I know they exist. You could then also switch the hubs in from to 6 bolt ones and have the same wheel/tire combo on both.
 
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