A new adventure!

[MrShuford]

Just scored this little gem! Flew to Seattle to get her. Now the adventure of driving south for 16 hrs. Wish me luck!

[thisismatt]

Sweet!  Too bad about smog.  Needs an LS 😄  

[MrShuford]

Ok, quick update. I'm 300 miles in and about 700 more to go. 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I have a ton of ideas for that camper truck.

 

None of it is bling.

 

Stronger stuff underneath = safe driving

 

There was a viral video of an early Toyota 4x4 camper that had an insanely bad crash at highway speed. The owner and passenger are lucky to be alive. The truck was underbuilt which I believe led to the crash.

 

If you'd like to hear my two cents, let me know. Beware though. It's going to require welding.

[MrShuford]

Everything has been pretty good so far. Next challenge will be the Siskiyou Mountain Pass!😳

[thisismatt]

18 minutes ago, MrShuford said:

Everything has been pretty good so far. Next challenge will be the Siskiyou Mountain Pass!😳

I bought my 521 in Seaside, OR and drove it back to Santa Barbara. Bunch of rain in Oregon, lights quit working, disintegrating fuel filler neck was clogging up the fuel filter and engine started cutting out, I believe on that same pass. Luckily I made it to the top and got down to Yreka for some new filters. Good times

[MrShuford]

Yeah i'm trying to get to a task Atascadero ,tonight. That's home fore me.

[thisismatt]

32 minutes ago, MrShuford said:

Yeah i'm trying to get to a task Atascadero ,tonight. That's home fore me.

Good luck.  I stayed the night  in nor cal since I didn't start driving from seaside until midday

[MrShuford]

Yea I left Sedro Woolley last night around 830. Then took a little nap near Vancouver. This hotrod is anything but but fast! Almost to Redding and a fuel stop.

 

[RyanC]

Cool unit.

 

I would love have this as a fitout project so many good Ideas for the fitout, and include strengthening frame and running gear along the way.  

 

Make a great diesel conversion 🙂 Isuzu 3.0 Turbo diesel or similar but doubt there are any 620 campers here down under.

[MrShuford]

Well it got me home safe and sound! Just took a lot longer than anticipated. 

[]2eDeYe]

Awesome. Road trip from my area down to my family hometown. 

What is the plan for this fine machine? 

[MrShuford]

After the holidays I will start a full gut and remodel. She is going to get a full face lift as well. It won't be a fast project, but neither is she. We decided to name her ChiChi Nooks.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Chi nookie?

[paradime]

13 hours ago, MrShuford said:

After the holidays I will start a full gut and remodel. She is going to get a full face lift as well. It won't be a fast project, but neither is she. We decided to name her ChiChi Nooks.

 

What a fantastic project! It looks like a Brady Bunch Mobile in the best possible way. I LOVE IT.

 

Back in the 90s I did a complete gut remodel on a lime green Baja style 73' Westfalia. I built custom solid cherry cabinets, dark green carpet and upholstery, high end Alpine stereo with Harm & Carden speakers, AC power inverter with dedicated battery, LED lighting, modern RV hookups, and when the 1.7L crapped out, I swapped to a 2.0L. Her name was Booger and my wife and I did many 2 to 3 week road trip with her. I bought it for $4,500 and sold it to a kid from Arizona for $12,000 who sent the money sight unseen. I sent him the pink slip, and he flew out pick it up a few days latter. I still regret it. 

 

 

[thisismatt]

I did it all for the nookie...?

[Fetch]

Well done! I saw it on CL and thought it would be a good project.

Sounds like you have a plan. Take lots of pictures.

[MrShuford]

By chance, would anyone know where I might find an owners manual for this thing. I thing I searched the WHOLE internet and must have missed it. Or even a copy of one would be great. Thanks for any help!

[MrShuford]

On 12/3/2023 at 11:07 AM, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

If you'd like to hear my two cents, let me know. Beware though. It's going to require welding.

I am open to ideas. Safer always sounds better.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

4 hours ago, MrShuford said:

I am open to ideas. Safer always sounds better.

Ok, well, the rear axle for starters.

 

First thing I notice is the rear overhang. It's massive. Putting tons of leverage over the rear axle and suspension. Those rear axle shafts and bearings are taking more than their fair share of the load, even unloded. Load the camper up with 1000 lbs, as people are wont to do, and that poor rear axle is just screaming under the pressure.

 

Potential fix? Different rear axle. A full float axle, with bearings like a front wheel hub assembly, can take much more load than a semi float axle. One immediate benefit to a full float axle over a semi float axle is that if an axle shaft breaks on a full float axle, you don't loose your wheel. There are full float dually Toyota axles out there, and even Nissan duallys came with full float setups. I don't know where I'd start searching for a full float dually axle...maybe car-part.com?

 

That's just one option. There are other full float single wheel axles out there. Toyota FJ80 used them, and they have the benefit of rear disc brakes. You could have a custom housing built using FJ80 outers and a centered diff of your choice. I'd do Toyota 8" or even 9.5", or why not a Ford 9"? The cost of a built 9" is about half of a built 9.5" Toyota.

 

Next is the rear suspension. I would at the very minimum, install air bags. You could install overload springs, but these don't activate until you hit a certain ride height. Air bags are in use the entire time. I would also consider a rear sway bar, and for that matter, a beefier front sway bar. Good gas shocks all around too.

 

Last thing is tires. Don't run comfortable car tires. You need a truck tire with heavy sidewalls. You would be surprised how much body roll comes from squishy sidewalls.

 

Take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I build custom vehicles for a living and heavy mods are my day to day. But don't discount my opinions, that the rear of the truck is underbuilt, undersprung and waiting to go off. I keep thinking of the Toyota camper crash I referred to earlier. The two people in the rig were almost killed. The truck was so very cool, but cool in the way a hipster thinks. All flannel and beard but no real substance. With some thought, engineering and welding, that crash may never have happened.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

On having another look - if time and skill were available, I'd move the entire rear axle back about six inches. That rear overhang is massive.

[datzenmike]

The L520 and L521 (J13) were rated at 1,000 Kg or 2,200 pound payload. The PL521 (L16) was half that but I suspect the same springs were used just the paperwork was altered.

 

All 620s are rated at 500KG (1,100 pounds) and the '79 E code Cab/Chassis is deliberately not listed. The Cab/Chassis option has no box and was for commercial use where a custom work box, flatbed or camper was intended to be installed. It would have upgraded springs, cooling system and only came with a 4 speed. It was the only '79 other than automatics to have the 4.375 differential. The axle, other than gearing, is identical to all other 620s.

 

The '80-'82 720 E code Heavy Duty (Cab/Chassis) were all rated at 770Kg or 1,700 pounds payload. From '82 and on there was a single tire H-190 (700Kg/1,546 pounds) and from '83 on a dual tire C-200 770Kg/1,700 pounds available. I suspect the C-200 had the floating axle but the guy to talk to is wayno.

 

 

 

 

[FrankRizzo]

Welcome to Ratsun!!!!!!

 

oh wait a min.......I already said that!!!

.

[frankendat]

2 hours ago, Stoffregen Motorsports said:

Ok, well, the rear axle for starters.

 

First thing I notice is the rear overhang. It's massive. Putting tons of leverage over the rear axle and suspension. Those rear axle shafts and bearings are taking more than their fair share of the load, even unloded. Load the camper up with 1000 lbs, as people are wont to do, and that poor rear axle is just screaming under the pressure.

 

Potential fix? Different rear axle. A full float axle, with bearings like a front wheel hub assembly, can take much more load than a semi float axle. One immediate benefit to a full float axle over a semi float axle is that if an axle shaft breaks on a full float axle, you don't loose your wheel. There are full float dually Toyota axles out there, and even Nissan duallys came with full float setups. I don't know where I'd start searching for a full float dually axle...maybe car-part.com?

 

That's just one option. There are other full float single wheel axles out there. Toyota FJ80 used them, and they have the benefit of rear disc brakes. You could have a custom housing built using FJ80 outers and a centered diff of your choice. I'd do Toyota 8" or even 9.5", or why not a Ford 9"? The cost of a built 9" is about half of a built 9.5" Toyota.

 

Next is the rear suspension. I would at the very minimum, install air bags. You could install overload springs, but these don't activate until you hit a certain ride height. Air bags are in use the entire time. I would also consider a rear sway bar, and for that matter, a beefier front sway bar. Good gas shocks all around too.

 

Last thing is tires. Don't run comfortable car tires. You need a truck tire with heavy sidewalls. You would be surprised how much body roll comes from squishy sidewalls.

 

Take my suggestions with a grain of salt. I build custom vehicles for a living and heavy mods are my day to day. But don't discount my opinions, that the rear of the truck is underbuilt, undersprung and waiting to go off. I keep thinking of the Toyota camper crash I referred to earlier. The two people in the rig were almost killed. The truck was so very cool, but cool in the way a hipster thinks. All flannel and beard but no real substance. With some thought, engineering and welding, that crash may never have happened.

There are many people who would pay good money for advice like  Stoffregen volunteered here

[EDM620]

This is the concern - a little 620 while cute as a camper wasn't engineered for the task, and people have an incredible tendancy to overload (my wife will load up everything) and this is the result.

 

Same general problem here, WAY too much overhang, plus a bucket load of extra weight (2 e-bikes on the rack even further out) was far beyond the weight capacity of the 3500 regardless of what any salesman said. For that huge heavy camper the guy needed a Ram 5500 - a 2 ton truck.

 

Your 620 has a fully boxed frame which is a bonus, however the rear axle & suspension are hurting bad. Deal with those issues & enjoy the mini-motorhome!