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My boyfriend and I bought a 1979 Toyota Chinook last week, very excited about our new little camper!! We purchased it in Southwest Colorado and with an oil change drove her back to the Front Range with absolutely no problems. She's a four speed manual and runs really well and is so fun to drive.
We decided to gut the camper portion and start from scratch for a myriad of reasons - mainly it was really gross and there were wasp nests EVERYWHERE!
Once we gutted it, we noticed that the wood floor is pretty warped and it is rotting near the sides. There was carpet when we bought it, but I want to replace with laminate flooring and ideally will have a floor without a wave to work with!
I'm wondering if anyone has replaced their floor in their chinook (or similar) and if it's possible/more complex than it seems? The floor that is in there now is original and I'm worried about hurting the integrity of the fiberglass shell if we tear it out, and then also getting a good seal between the fiberglas and the wood when we replace. We also talked about leaving the existing floor and reinforcing. I tried to capture the "wave" in the floor looking back from the passengers seat but it's kind of hard to tel (plus my dog would not get out of the picture )
My main concerns with leaving the current one is that it will continue to rot and eventually fail and if we are putting in all this effort to remodel the inside, I don't want to spend the money and make the changes if the floor is not going to hold up down the road.
My boyfriend and I are very enthusiastic outdoors people and we spend almost all of our weekends skiing, mountain biking, climbing, hiking or kayaking and we want to make this camper our second home!
That's actually not very bad floor rot, as far as floor rot goes...but I hear you. No point in putting a bunch of nice new stuff on top of a rotting floor. Toyotmotorhome.org will have the best info, aside from what Robb posted. I had a Chinook for a while, too, which I gutted almost as far as you, and it had a couple spots of floor rot. It was beyond what I was willing to tackle...
Thanks Zach! We dug a little further today and the floor is rotted all the way through to the point we hit whatever the base below the plywood is made of. But you're right, it's not terrible. I think right now our plan is to work around it - haven't come up with a definite solution yet.
Thanks for the links! I have definitely noticed the following - working through the floor plans as we go. We haven't decided on a name for her yet - I think we need a little more time behind the wheel to figure out personality Continually thinking about it though!
I'm not sure we're going to go as far as in floor heat (maybe just a rug ) but that is an awesome set up!
Below is the worst spot that we ended up having (after cleaning everything up). It was underneath the refrigerator, which was original, and it looks like it just leaked and rotted the floor. The rot is about 2ftx1ft I think we've decided on purchasing some WoodEpox from Abatron and fixing the hole and patching the other couple spots that have rotted and try to keep the original wood platform.
Thank you guys for all the links! They are definitely helpful and I'm sure I'll be posting about something else soon I'll post a picture of the finished product if it works out!
I sold my Chinook and bought a trailer. My trailer has rot around the fridge, too. Not that bad, but it's all squishy there when I walk around. I will eventually need to take care of it. But for now...not high on the priority list.
Are you pulling the appliances and everything?
me and a buddy are slowly fixing up his 79 dolphin and the floors need attention.
My advice is to pull out as much as you can to fully assess the rot and replace more than you think you need to. whack some spots with a hammer and get under the chassis to see the bottom and plan out how you will minimize seams on the outside once the new floor is in. Besides the vintage appeal of some of the interior items, you can find or build much more efficient appliances and shelves etc.
Ive done a lot of residential remodeling so to me these toyota motorhomes always look under built. But weight is a big issue especially with a little 2.2L motor. If you have access to a welder or can get some affordable steel, I think it could be worth reinforcing some areas with some C Channel or something.
im no expert on these things but Ive seen a handful torn apart and put back together with varying degrees of success.
Sounds like you found a good one if you drove it home through the mountains! Congrats
I was always shocked at how well the little 20R did in my Chinook. I mean sure, I was sometimes going 45mph, 3rd gear up mountain passes, but I'm doing the same thing in my 98 Tacoma with a 3.4L V6 when I'm pulling my trailer. On flat ground I could get the Chinook up to 70mph no problem. Someone had swapped a 5 speed in at some point.
My issue was that it was severely overweight for the chassis. Way overloaded. Should have been a dually, should have been a one-ton. Scary to have to emergency manuever or emergency brake.
May 25, 2020 | 05:36 AM
Toyota Chinook Floor Replacement
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