The deadly secret lurking in early Toyota motorhomes
To most people, a Toyota motor home built in the 1980s looks like a cute and charming RV. And for the most part this is exactly what they are. But there was a fatal flaw built into these early 1980s RVs that caused heartache and disaster for hundreds of people.
As the size of the motor home expanded to over 18 feet, the original Toyota truck chassis, which was only rated at 1/2 ton capacity, simply wasn’t up to the job. Specifically the rear axle began to fail. When this happened, bad things happened to good people.
Completely empty, these little campers have marginal carrying capacity for people and possessions. This meant that the typical motor home left the driveway probably in an overloaded condition. This was normally not a problem because the performance of the motorhome ensured that slow speeds were maintained on the trip. The hundred-horsepower four-cylinder engine wouldn’t be moving around the house three times at a very fast pace.
As the size of the caravan increased, it was not long before the rear axles began to fail. Caravan manufacturers compensated by adding a second set of wheels on the axle. This created a double set of tires on each side. However, this did not correct the problem. The problem lies in the fact that the bearings and the shaft itself were not strong enough to carry the load.
The excessive load caused the bearings to overheat, fail and then disintegrate with disastrous consequences. Victims of this problem reported that the wheels would come off the truck. This was such a serious problem that the NHTSA got involved and issued a recall on certain Toyota motorhome models.
There was no way to predict when the shaft would fail. Some units failed almost immediately, some units went thousands and thousands of miles, and some units have not failed yet. However, any Toyota motor home without the heavy-duty axle should be considered a suspect vehicle.
There is an easy way to tell if your Toyota RV has a secure axle. First of all, all Toyota RV models built after 1987 were built with the improved safe axle. All Toyota motorhome models built in 1984 and earlier are required to have the upgraded axle due to the safety recall. In 1985 and 1986, some models were made with the improved safe axle and some were not. Therefore, it is up to you to be careful when inspecting the axle of any Toyota motorhome you are considering purchasing.
A simple inspection of the axle itself will tell you if it is safe or needs to be replaced. The safe axle will have six nuts, the unsafe axles were made with five nuts. The secure axle will also have a protruding center hub that has a ring of nuts around the outer edge.
If the axles on the Toyota RV you’re considering only have five lug nuts and the center doesn’t stick out and you have a ring of bolts on the center hub, keep looking for another camper to buy.