1984 Toyota Chinook 4X4 Camper, pop top, straight axle

Description

Up for bid is my 1984 Toyota Chinook 4X4 camper. The chassis is a 1984 Toyota 4X4 long bed with a 4 cylinder 22R motor and 5 speed transmission. The camper body is a 1976 Chinook pop-top.
Engine and chassis
The engine has 187,333 miles on it, as far as I know it's original and has not been rebuilt. It has new belts, new cap & rotor, new plugs& plug wires, new battery, newthermostat,air & fuel filters, valves recently adjusted and a recent oil change. It had a new clutch and the transmission rebuilt when I bought it, probably only 3500 miles ago. It runs, shiftsand drives great. It has AC but needs to be re-charged. The front axle (straight axle) is factory (4:10 gearing), I rebuilt the knuckles completely with new bearings and seals, also new calipers, pads and rotors. The locking hubs were rebuilt as well. I swapped the rear axle out for a V6 axle (4:10 gearing)out of an 1988 ToyotaPickup, it is 3" wider, has thicker and beefier axle housing and beefier brakes. Ialso flipped the u-bolts and re-mounted the shocks for improvedunder axleclearance. The front bumper hosts an 8000lb winch. I built the rear bumper, it has corner protection and hosts a home made bicycle carrier. There is a full-size spare wheel and tire.
Cab
The cab is in excellent shape with no rust except a little surface rust spots on the bottom of the door and a small spot on the hood, NO ROT. I had a new windshield installed professionally. The interior of the cab is in great shape, there is a crack on the dashboard on the passenger side, that's the only damage I can think of. It has a cd player. The seats are grey cloth andhave no rips, there's rubber floor mats. I cut out the rearwall of the cab (including the rear window) to make a fullcrawl through cab like the original Chinook camper. Imade a custom seal to seal the camper to the truck body, it is not perfect but works pretty well and looks factory. Itallows the camper to float over the cab in order toallow the chassisand camper to flex off road. The factory manual, jack and tool roll are also included.
Camper
The camper has been gutted and rebuilt from the ground up. Once mounted to the chassis I installed 1" blue foam insulation on the walls, re-wired and cut new wall panels toreplace the old worn out ones. I built a tube strengthening frame that mounts through the floorand walls of the camper tomake it more suitable for off-road travel, ithelped tremendously. Ibuiltnew cabinets out ofveneer plywoodwith purple heart accents around the doors and drawers. The drawers are mounted on heavy duty ball bearing sliders. Thecountertop ismarine plywood and hosts the sink and2 burner stove. Two power outlets are located next to the counter, one a usb outlet, the other a cigarette lighter outlet to plug in the 12V cooler. The camper comes with a 12V Coleman cooler.All thesink plumbing was replaced along with a new hand pump. Thefresh water tank holds 5 gallons, there is no greyor black water tanks. Imodified theseating area to hold a swing up platform thatisused as the lower bed, it's easy to flip up and turndown the legs when ready for bed.Ire-upholstered all the cushions with Sunbrella marine fabric, Iinstalledzippers in each cushion so thatcleaning iseasier. I also made a privacy curtain for the front and back, pantry curtain andcovers to hide the strengthening frame. The second sleeping platform is a bunk bed style cot that unfolds if you have a guest (or child), it is really easy to setup and can hold a medium sized adult comfortably. Ialso have a second cot that goes with the camper (both are a very rare option in Chinooks). I rebuilt theshelves in the back to be a little more beefier. The floorhas been covered in waterproof engineeredrubber floor (looks like wood). I replaced all four of the interior lights with LED fixtures. The heater is a radiant style that came with the camper, the thermostat doesn't work (or I cant figure it out), basically the heater is either off or on HIGH. I only used it a couple times, I would recommend replacing it with something safer. There is an auxiliary battery that powers thecooler, lights and power outlets. I wired in a relay between thetruck battery and camper battery which allows the alternator to chargeboth batteries when the truck is on but won't kill the truck battery if camper batteryruns down too low. The electrical components are fused at aBluSea fuse box. There is a removable table. The vinyl sides of the popup are in fair condition, they do not leak and work fine but the zippers on the window flaps don't work and the screens are shot. The bungee cords that hold the vinyl walls in while the roof is being closed need to be replaced (easy project), the straps that keep the roof closed should be replaced (hopefully with a simpler setup).
Overall impressions, suggestions, outlook, etc.
When I built this camper I had only a few things in mind: simplicity, reliability,and capability. I wanted to stay true to a Toyota platform, the solid front end, leaf springs, manual shift transmission/transfer case, manual locking hubs created the perfect foundation for a simple, reliable and capable platform.The bestgas mileageI've gotten is 19mpg, but normal is 15-16 which for a camper is pretty darn good. It's alittle gutless going up the grades but on a normal flat highway it will do60-65mph. Off-road itisa beast, I've done the"Fins and Things" jeep trail in Moab with it, traveled Montana backcountry without a hitch and spent numerous nights in the woodswithout a worry. I've traveled all over the west with this camper, from Montanathrough Yellowstone, down toUtah. I drove all the passes through the rocky mountains in Colorado and all the way out to Oregon. This summer I took it to British Columbia. A couple things I would consider upgrading would be the following: new leaf springs - the old ones are worn out and are not rated for the weight of the camper,although they are fine and still capable it's just something I would change, a better fridge/cooler - the cooler works fine for overnights but for longer time off the grid a better arb or similar fridge/cooler would be better, solar setup- for those week long off-the-grid trips, bed setup- so if you are single or traveling mostly with your buddy or your son or just your dog the bed setup is perfect, but if your significant other wants to cuddle at night a more suitable setup should be figured out.By-the-way, there is two sets of extra seat belts in the back.