Friday, October 11, 2013

Sunrader Teardown #2, Goodbye Toyota Chassis!

After working hard to get the camper body off the chassis, it was time to sell the chassis to a scrapper and free up the work space.  Thanks to John B. for working a long nite with me to roll the chassis out, it took quite a few moves of the jackstands and hacksawing, but we got it done.


If you are undertaking this yourself I have a few suggestions:

-Get 6 jackstands that are tall, Harbor Freight has good ones cheap, the 6 tons, and a high reaching jack.
-Have a sharp hacksaw as you may need to cut some of the steel bars the camper rests on.  A cut-off wheel can help too but it is tight quarters with sparks flying
-Take the tires off a set of the rear rims and roll the chassis out on two steel rims, to get the chassis as low as possible.

You really need some help for this process, John would pull the chassis forward and I would watch and listen for the issues.  It probably took 20 moves to finally get the chassis out, as one part would hit another or a jackstand would have to be repositioned.  We moved a few inches at a time.


We did have to remove the forward gas tank, cut off the rear bumper, and remove the propane tank, blackwater tank and some associated plumbing.  I am going with a composting toilet so I was not too concerned with it.


By the time we were done I just decided to sell the truck to a junkyard.  After paying to have tires remounted, reattaching the gas tank, and getting the truck titled, I probably would be break even and selling it to the yard got me a small check and my space and time free with one phone call.



I've got big goals for the project by the end of November so stay close. 

Toasting our night or hard work and successfully separating the camper and chassis.  Yes, that is a bottle of Saki, real tough guy stuff.