ShadboltFan's 1992 Toyota Liteace Camper of Skylights and 3Y Lushness

[TimShadboltfan27]

Gather round for a sharn boys

Me and the ol miso soup went for a trip around Northland at the start of the year and camped out of her old mans AU wagon which was lush. While it was a robust and practical Australian sports car, it was cramped and not a functional camper. We caught the bug for camper life and started browsing trademe with mild enthusiasm and wild pinterest-fuelled dreams. 

The first takeaway i got from van shopping - fuck vans are expensive. In our budget all we were hoping for was a flogged out ex-tradie L300 with 500xxxkms. 

Until one night this bad boy popped up on trademe - the skylite roof piqued my interest immediately. It had everything we needed: fully self-contained, electric cert, wof and reg and a boot full of camping gear and was in our budget!

I enlisted the service of fellow 3Y enthusiast @HighLUXto go kick a Kelly 70 for me, and confirmed it went hard for what it was. So we made a spur of the moment decision to go pick it up from Rotorua the next day. 

Its a lush spec import Liteace with pop-up skylite roof and is well specced up the front with monsoons, power windows and steering and a fully hektik JVC headunit run straight off the battery in true SCA carpark installation fashion. 

The 3Y-EU injected 2 litre donk actually doesnt disgrace itself on the flat, though it dislikes maintaining reasonable speed up hills. Suits me though, wagon time ain't no crime. Have taken it to TGA for a weekend since buying and it was smooth and comfortable but by gum it drinks 91 like Sumpson at Nats 13. 

It is an ex-backpacker rental van which explains why everything has been done legit - no doubt its seen a fair few dogging spots in its time. The interior was setup for a single with a tiny bed, which needed to go. Other amenities include a sink unit with water and waste, a compostable toilet and electric chiller. 

The electrics setup is pretty lush - battery and inverter setup with adventure kings solar panel thing, along with power point for camp grounds, complete with RCD and 3 pin outlet to run the breadmaker. There must be nearly a grand worth of electrics alone in this thing, stoked. 

I then set about the task of building a double bed, adopting a @Beaver approved design from his Vanette. A slat bed with additional pull-out frame so can be used as a single seat during the day, and pull out for double bed at night. I made it out of decking timber and ripped down some fence rails, as it turned out to be the most economical solution amidst this nationwide timber shortage. so its a little chonkier than i would have liked. I had an uneven number of slats so had to double up on long bois. Still, for a bumpkin with fuck all carpentry skills im sure Stevie Wonder would approve.  OCD trigger warning

I dismantled the old bed and left the electrics in-situ and then when i built the new frame had to play electrician and figure out how to put the RCD and gear back together. Tidied up a few cowboy spec installation foibles while i was there. Pretty stoked with its functionality, and still some room underneath for storage of bits and bobs. 

Next mission will be to build a storage solution on the otherside of the van to maximise space in this compact little rig. will be sure to document that too. The hugs and kisses is currently making some lush 70s floral print covers for the mattress squabs to give it a nice lil retro vibe. 

Then what? go dogging i guess

 

 

 

 

 

oh and maybe slam and wheels hehe

[Beaver]

Shit yeh good stuff. Advice for the bed, get something hard to lay on top of it under the mattress, like 2 sheets of MDF or something so your little white boi hips don't get reamed by the planks through the mattress.

[ajg193]

You'll never cry with a 3Y.

 

Random fact, there is some significant ECU difference between these and the Hilux version. Base timing is 12 deg for this and like 8 deg on Hilux, setting timing to 12 just results in mega pinging

[HighLUX]

3Y/Townace barrying inbound..

 

 

Have you given it the ol E1 TE1 treatment yet? 

https://www.troublecodes.net/toyota/?amp

Id say its got a chooched O2 and or water temp sensor so the ECU is just dumping fuel in as a failsafe.

And yeah they do like a bit more advance on timing, if its got EGR block it off plus gutting the cat will make it a happier less thirsty slug

Theres a commercial spec townace with bigger front brakes which is a bolt on job from memory, the swaybars from a 4wd townace are the same shape but a couple of mm bigger
 
I had this pesty piece 10 years ago

 

[TimShadboltfan27]

@HighLUX yea after looking at the exhaust tip after a while it’s definitely running rich.
Had that coolant warning light flicker on randomly the other night ... should prolly check that smeg in the reservoir 

keen for cat delete and 4wd sway bar 

3Y the world 

[tortron]

we had an identical one, except for peeling paint on the roof

turning overdrive off uses an extra half a tank between opotiki and gisborne lol

[ajg193]

I was pleasantly surprised by how little fuel our Hilux uses. With bullbar and farmer tray on it it still manages just under 9 L/100 km on open road and about 10.5-11 with around town driving (5 speed column shift, aircon and power steering). Surely the van isn't too much worse than that?

[TimShadboltfan27]

11 minutes ago, ajg193 said:

I was pleasantly surprised by how little fuel our Hilux uses. With bullbar and farmer tray on it it still manages just under 9 L/100 km on open road and about 10.5-11 with around town driving (5 speed column shift, aircon and power steering). Surely the van isn't too much worse than that?

Haven’t done full roman MS paint graph extrapolation but 750 kms used 1 and a half tanks and I think it’s a 60L..

so about 12L/100km overall? A lot of traffic wombling in tga/mount.

It’s bigger than lux and full of camp shit so greater consumption to be expected

[87creepin]

freedom camping is definitely lush

I did it in a shit arse C23 SR20DE Serena, must be extra lush with the high spec cool van though.sa

Sure beats working. That's for sure. Much jelly.