This is pretty cool: a 1985 Toyota Rader, a Class C motorhome that has been with just two families since new. The current owners bought it in 1987 off of the original caretakers and it’s safe to say they’ve done an admirable job keeping this one very clean. So often these are trashed and unusable; this one is an outlier. Find the Rader here on eBay with bidding over $6K at the moment.
I’m not sure what it is exactly, but I do like these Raders better than the Winnebago-converted Toyota of the same era. It seems a touch more streamlined, possibly designed just a bit better to fit with the narrow cab of the Toyota. The side glass is also a cleaner look than the Winnes, overall appearing less cluttered. More importantly, the camper portion is holding up extremely well with no evidence of water leakage or body damage.
The cab is quite clean as well, and unlike so many of these small motorhomes, this Toyota comes with a manual transmission. The engine is the venerable 22R-E which will provide years of dutiful service and great fuel economy, especially with only 45,110 miles on the clock. The funky seat pattern is holding up well and there are no obvious signs of dash cracks. As an added bonus, the carpets appear stain-free.
The overall design is quite sensible, with sleeping quarters and lots of natural light upstairs above the cabin. I wonder if any of the other seats inside the living space convert into flat couches or otherwise provide more sleeping areas. Regardless of accommodations, these Toyota R/Vs are rarely this nice inside and the current auction price seems quite low for a reliable cruiser that’s clearly been maintained. Would you buy one?
Not with the 4 banger, I wouldn’t. Any way you look at it, it’s still a box going into the wind. The camper part that sticks out behind the doors, acts as a wind dam. Any economy you might gain with the 4 cylinder, will be squelched by having your foot to the floor all day. Great for local stuff, but any kind of distance, especially the mountains, gonna need more ponies. Certainly not a million 45,000 miles, so maybe the owners, and this is low mileage for a 35 year old motorhome, felt the same way about long travel.
Agreed. I had a smaller ’78 HiLux-based motorhome with the 20R engine and 4-speed. It would top out at 68 mph.
On the other hand, someone accustomed to driving an old VW Westfalia would find the performance of this rig to be more than acceptable.
My VW Westfalia 1998 with 2.5 turbo (130 hp) diesel will do easy 110 miles a hour. So whats your point
Drive this sucker out west and you’ll be driving with your four ways on and passed by Westys.
Ha ha I drive my Odessey that has the 22RE and 4 cyl out west every time I drive it! But seriously yes it’s a turtle going up mountains and you can get 15 MPG on average. I’ve driven from Spokane to Texas to MO to AZ and back to Spokane via CA and other states, and never dropped below 13MPG. I had a lot of wind too, head on and every which way those Midwestern storms blow ya around. I would scoop this up in a heartbeat if I had the financing available to me. It’s a nice one!
A pretty decent interior layout.
This RV will sleep, 5 to 6 adults. The settee table drops down when the support leg is folded up under the table and the locking mechanism at the wall releases when the table is lifted from the leg support area. It then drops down guided by a type of U bracket mounted to the underside of the table and the wall onto cleating mounted on the top edge of the seating not seen in photos as they are covered by the bottom cushions. The seating cushions slide down from each side over the table that becomes the support for a bed. depending on the size of the settee it will sleep one or two adults. The adjacent couch also becomes a bed that will sleep, two adults. The 20 R engine can be hopped up with just a weber carburetor and header giving much more horsepower. All recreation motor coaches are wind resistant including those of today. Gas mileage of any RV coach is not of concern as none get better gas mileage than this one would even with today’s vehicles fuel injection and computer regulated systems. In fact todays RV coaches loose millage due to todays required components that prevent pollution such as Cadillac converters and EGR pumps if equipped. I would have to say this is a nice find indeed given the cost of a new coach of today and the overwhelming cost to have one repaired compared to this older simpler vehicle. Often the basics of technology outway the cost of today’s coaches to purchase and maintain. Of course, this is just the opinion of one reader that knows first-hand what a weber carb and header can do for the horsepower of this engine.
I agree, there’s things to do to make it run, but pretty much out of the realm for most people that buy these. They have the great outdoors and fuel economy on their minds, and are probably surprised when they actually get these out on the open road. Pulling anything, which most folks do, makes it even worse. Like I say, I bet that’s the reason for the low mileage.
This one guy I know did his research and bought the best Cadillac converter he could find. Despite following the instructions down to the last detail he still had a 2002 Saturn when it was all said and done.
a 22r with a manual tranny is probably at least as good as the 89 I had with the 3.o litre v6 and four speed auto which eat head gaskets. looks to be in nice shape
Its about the journey !! not the speed…sooooo can anyone name the “beads” on the seat
Tell that to the trucker riding your tail for the last 30 miles, because he can’t get around you. Beads on the seat can be bought at any Walmart. To me, it’s like what sitting on a bed of nails must be like.
The purpose of the beads is to massage ones back. It w o.o tks. A lot of truck drivers use them…long distance driving, don’t ya know. Had a beaded seat five in my cabover and Suburban. They work. Not like your money’s back massage, but we’ll enough while driving 10 hour shifts.
In reply to my first comment… It works is in second sentence
Not suitable for long distances? Really? I guess if you want to do 80+ you’d be out of luck.
I drove my ’73 Datsun pick-up from L.A. to the ’74 Street Machine Nationals in Des Moines, with a Six-Pack cabover camper bolted to the bed. I kept the wheezy, California-spec-choked-down-for-emissions 1600-powered rig to the then official ‘double-nickel’ speed limit of the day, to save fuel.
My favourite recollections of that trip are (1) constantly being asked what the truck was (no badges) and how economical it was, (2) stopping at every Vintage Tin National Monument my buddy and me on the way, and (3) going over the Rockies, harrying a guy in an MG Midget who couldn’t believe we were going around corners sitting just off his chrome back bumper – we did finally find a place to pass him, going uphill. Remember, I had lowered the truck and tuned the suspension for better handling.
I had a new 1981 Dodge D-50 with 2600 engine, with airconditioningband towed a 1981Alpenlite 19foot 5th wheel from Eugene, OR across the US to Bar Harbor, and down the Atlantic Seaboard to Key West, across Texas and through the Grand Canyon across to southern California up the Pacific Coast heading East to Grants Pass on to I-5 and home again. We got a lot of visitors to our camp sites because it looked funny–with an 8′ wide trailer being towed by such a narrow pickup. The 2600 had about twice the acceleration of the Toyota and pulled the trailer easily on flat terrain. When coming upon a steep grade, I kicked it up to 85 so I could break the top of hill at 50. Getting going like that was necessary to get around guys who were driving Ford 460’s they never got going faster, but rather just applied more gas when they hit the hill-or they would want to pass the rig ahead so they would just pull out at least 8 truck lengths before it was necessary and step on the gas. and encounter me doing 80 attempting to pass the.when I was about to pass them. Very irritating. I averaged 15.9miles per gallon Got 13 going through Wyoming because there is always a headwind elimintating the ability to travel in 5th gear and sometimes had to use3rd gear. Best I got was 20 in flatter areas. The truck got 25 empty.
Friends creepy uncle parked one exactly like this outside his house years back. He lived in it all that summer in the driveway. He ran an extension cord from neighbors house and emptied his “consumables ” into the drain on the curb. ..
Opened my eyes to the unending possibilities of being an adult with a drivers license, and prescription medication.
Oops, almost forgot..
Love the can of air freshener on the dash.
Either the seller just had tex-mex or it must smell like masterpiece theatre in that thing.
lol…….the seventies brown interior always spelled creepy uncle to me
Saw one of these here in Winter Haven
recently. The owners of this poor truck
painted it an obmoxious shade of Yellow,
and added very dark tinting to the glass
in the RV shell around back. Sorry folks,
I know you like Toyotas but this thing
was hideous!! Don’t think I want to see
the inside of it. Probably trashed. Would
love to have one like the feature truck
here. Will try and get pics of Ol’ Yeller
next time I’m out that way. Great find
here!
All set up for your dirt bike to tag along.
Most 1985 and earlier Toyota RV’s were recalled due to the inadequately sized rear-end single wheel rear-end’s that was installed from Toyota. The RV converters used adatpers to mount the “Dual Rear Wheels” on these early Toyota Motorhome’s to overcome/masque the overloaded rear-end problem. Most of these axles were replaced at “No Charge” to the owner by Toyota under recall with a true “Full Floating” Dual Rear Wheel axle.
Starting in late 1986-1987 until 1993 when Toyota stopped supplying these chassis’s to the RV industry Toyota began to supply the RV converter’s with true 1 Ton Toyota chassis’s with upgraded 1 ton front suspension and the “Full Floating” 1 ton rear-end.
The seller makes no mention IF this rear-end replacement was completed and you cannot tell from the seller’s pictures as they have the rear hubcap on the rear axle and other pictures do not show directly the wheel hub.
IF this Toyota RV has NOT been updated it just might be an accident waiting to happen and I would not bid on this unit. Here is a link to just one of many articles concerning the rear-end problem in early Toyota motorhomes.
http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Deadly-Secret-That-Lurks-in-the-Early-Toyota-Motor-Homes&id=4065393
I had an 82 Dolphin with the 22R four banger, it would cruize at 60 no problem until I was heading west on the 10 interstate leaving Palm Springs into a strong headwind, then I realized that I needed to replace the fuel filter. It would get over 18MPG and would go anywhere in the desert if I had enough ground clearance
I hate them Cadillac converters .
I am assuming they mean Catalytic converters.
It is a real nice little rig. When my boys were young my wife and I enjoyed touring in one of these. We put a bunch of miles on it and seldom left Texas. These were great for younger families who could not afford the class A rigs. Yeah it ain’t got a Cummins along with a (ugh) Allison automatic for all you true truckers out there (JK). My personal goal is to read a comments section that does not rip to shreds whatever is listed here on BF. What ever happened to if you have not got anything good to say just shut up. Constructive and objective input is appreciated by all but this constant negativity is out of hand.
Greetings All,
We had one of these.
While it had the 4, it also had the overdrive. No issues, it could go fast enough to get a ticket. Not sportscar quick, but it’s a camper.
Did Woodstock 98? with that era unit. Going through the hills of NY meant shutting off that OD but all in all, a bulletproof engine and inexpensive to run.
put the ’81/2, 250/4.1, in it.
Now I said it…
will U put that in the “should shut up” category
/OR/
the other?
5 min left @ 8,5K $