help with travel trailer floor repair

[tommu56]

My wife noticed a soft spot in our floor it is a 2002 Flagstaff Shamrock hybrid.
I drilled a hole in a compartment to see how the floor is made.

Vinyl floor, 1/4" luan ply wood, 1" Styrofoam (white bead type) some type composite on bottom about 1/4" thick.


I took up the sheet vinyl in the area and there is a water stain (gray water Roof vent was broken in spring and I fixed it then ) stained area is dry.

No apparent "joists to use a term loosely that I can see except were 2 pices of luan were joined with staples.


It is only a 18-24" square area in the cross road's right in front of dinett and frig and straig in the door in the middle of the trailer.

tom

 

[MESSMAKER]

Sounds like they are using the three materials to form a torsion box of sort. It gives great strengh without mass. The foam would need to be glued to the 1/4 inch material on the top and the bottom in order to get full rigidity. The foam also helps to insulate.

 

[PILOON]

Cut out a nice square area that is greater than the damaged area.
Add 4 strips, say 3"wide on the underside and screw and glue them in place.
Make an accurate patch with same material as the floor and screw and glue as done with the strips.
Cover with the flooring and it'll be as strong as new.

NB use flooring screws as they pull tight and plywood is best for the strips as they won't split when drawing the screws tight.

 

[Bill_C]

Sadly, I have now realized that most RV's are built as cheaply as possible. Water leaks are a common theme; the only owners who say they don't have water leaks...just haven't found them yet. And when water leaks into the frame, the wood seems like it rots instantly. And don't get me started on the frame--oops too late...

My travel trailer is a 2002 Fleetwood Mallard 25 footer. I bought it used, it was maybe 2 or 3 years old and seemed to be in perfect shape, barely used. The next year I noticed a soft floor on both front sides, sure enough water had already intruded from the top roof seam. I repaired that...then last year repaired a water pipe (cheap plastic tubing in reality) and replaced the bath faucet, gawd those fixtrues are cheaply made but terribly expensive.

Then the kicker: a month ago i pull into the driveway, back from Florida and a thousand miles of driving. I notice the tires on the TT were askew--WTF? Turns out one of the spring hangers had ripped from the frame. The frame, which I assumed was a light I-beam, was actually a fabricated beam, consisting of three 1/8 thick pieces welded together. The hangers were welded directly to the 1/8 thick flange, no reinforcing gussets or anything. It appears the welding was poor too, no penetration...Google "Lippert RV frame cracks" and you'll find myriads of complaints (apparently Lippert makes most RV frames).

So, to make a short story long, I can empathize with your plight. Repairs can be troubling: take the easiest approach and fix it "like it was", realizing it may not last, or try to "do it right" which can snowball into a complete trailer rebuild.

 

[tommu56]

Here is the plan so far

Cur out the luan top layer larger than soft area.

Route out 3/4" slots across the trailer in the foam to the lower floor panel leaving it intact.

Make these slots about 6 apart and route under existing good luan at edges of the hole

Make "joist's" out of good plywood 3/4 wide cut them as tall as foam was.

Epoxy the joists to lower panel and fill gap between them and foam with epoxy..

Cut new luan to fit epoxy it to foam and joists and screw edges to new rim boards

Put vinyl back down or rip rest of it up and put engineered wood floor over luan


Tom

 

[herd]

Tom, sounds like a good plan. You may know this already, but it is my understanding that if you put down wood flooring, it should be of the ''floating design,'' and regidly secured, as in nailed/glue tongue and groove flooring.