We are partway through the fixes on Goldy and things are going well. Turns out that we had 3 related issues:
- The street-side, forward part of the wood floor frame had dropped relative to the front wood floor frame (see photo). It took us a while to understand this part, and we felt it was the most serious. This part is not described well in earlier posts because we confused it with issues 2 and 3 until we got a look under the plastic covering the exterior floor frame.
- Also along the street side, the forward part of the lower shell wall had pulled upward relative to its original factory position (so the floor frame had dropped and the side wall had come up). This has been experienced before by others and we now have a good idea of how to fix it.
- The street-side forward part of the lower shell wall is also going outwards (more towards the street). This has also been experienced before by others and we have a good idea of how to fix it.
This post is only talking about the fix to the problem 1. We were most concerned about it because there seemed to be nothing support that side wood frame member because it had broken through whatever screws had been holding it to the front wood frame member, and it’s very close to all the stress associated with the lift arm and torsion bar bracket.
For problems 2 and 3: we’re holding off fixing them for now, partly because we’ve been doing a lot of other fixes and adjustments. Also holding off because we’re concerned that some other TM owners have seen the other 2 problems migrate when they’ve been fixed in one area. We aren’t ready to start down that road until we understand the consequences more, but at least we now have a good understanding of what would be needed to fix them. We did also replace all four rubber bumpers to prevent more stress on all these components.
If you aren’t having something similar to problem 1, you’ll probably want to stop reading now; it’s pretty boring
Fixing the dropped wood floor frame member:
Custom RV in Los Angeles gave us some advice, although without seeing it in person I realize they’re limited in what they can offer. They also offered to repair it, but getting to LA and back would be a real hassle, especially without knowing how long it would take to fix. This is a 15-year-old trailer so well beyond any reasonable expectation of warranty.
They had suggested putting a plate on top of the floor to pull the wood floor frame member back into line. Because it’s a slide model, we had trouble thinking through how to keep everything going with the slide, so instead we put the plate underneath the wood floor frame. We did the fix preemptively on the curb side as well because it was sagging a little and we were worried it would eventually happen there.
Step 0 Remember that the curb and street side are a little different because the torsion bars brackets sit a slightly different distance from the front. So, anything you do on both sides should be measured on both sides (ask us how we know).
Step 1 Local machine shop cut two triangular 3/16th-inch thick steel plates. We painted the steel plates white and purchased extra lag screws like the ones holding the torsion bar bracket in.
Step 2 Before starting: Take many close-up pictures and mark everything you can think of for its original position. Measure the exact distances of the torsion bar brackets to the front edge of the trailer. Also, use a sharpie or something to mark the front and back boundary of the torsion bar bracket up a tiny bit along the side of the trailer: Once the steel plate is covering the bottom you won’t be able to see any marks made on the bottom.
Step 3 Support the upper shell: With trailer open, carefully support the upper trailer shell on the target side using 2x4s and a jack following this description
http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=19181
There is only about 1/4 inch of lifting that will support the upper shell before the torsion bar hits the top of its hole.
Step 4 Raising the wood floor frame member: Place a second jack (with a 2x4 to spread the force) a little rearward of the torsion bar bracket. It should be enough rearward of that bracket so that when it’s time to install the steel plate, the jack and 2x4 won’t interfere with that corner of the plate. We also had a third jack right on the torsion bar bracket just as extra support for that part of the wood floor frame. We rotated through raising each of these jacks up slightly until the wood floor frame was back up to its proper level, and the shell was again being supported by the jack and not the torsion bar bracket. We carefully lowered the jack directly underneath the torsion bar bracket for the next step.
Step 5 Mark and drill holes in steel plate: Unscrew and remove all the lag screws from the torsion bar bracket. With the bracket loose, slide the metal plate between the bottom of the trailer and the torsion bar bracket. THIS IS KEY for marking the bracket screw holes: Don’t just hold the bracket up against the metal plate, it does not naturally align with the holes once it is loose. Use your previous marks and measurements to make sure that you’re holding it at the proper position along that side of the trailer. Mark the holes for the torsion bar bracket screws onto the plates, holding the plate flush against the front corner of the trailer. Drill holes into the steel plate where the torsion bar bracket lag screws will go. Drill some additional holes spaced along the remaining corner edges of the steel plate that will hold it in place against the front part of the wood floor frame.
Step 6 Attach steel plate, hold breath, cross fingers. Attach steel plate to the underside, screwing all lag screws into place. We did this without using the original lock washers because that would partly compensate for the depth of the steel plate. Then, with one of us spotting, the other person slowly lowered and removed the shell jack and then the other jack. Then we repeated the process on the curb side. See the last picture for the final product.
Choices we made: The original lag screws had lock washers on them. We removed these to compensate for the space taken up by the steel plate. We’re checking them regularly to make sure they stay tight; I think we may either go back to lock washers or to some other solution. The 3/16th-inch plate is bending a tiny bit, but for now I think it was a good compromise.
We kept the original lag screw length and diameter. We could have gone larger and drilled out larger holes. Also, if we didn’t have the sofa slide we could have gone through the floor frame and used bolts and large flat washers and nuts instead of screws, but that might have meant opening up the wall besides interfering with the slide.
Outcome: We have since taken her on a vacation to the San Juan Mountains. The steel plates are holding and it looks much more secure. Coming at this from tent camping, it was wonderful to collapse into the recliner and couch after a long day hiking, and just as nice to feel snug and comfortable through many hours of rain later in the trip. She really is wonderful, and this fall and winter we’ll be enjoying her even more.
Thanks to the forum we’ve also worked through replacing the front and rear rubber bumpers, raising and leveling the front shell, caulking the front and rear shell roofs, solving a door alignment problem with just some with slight levelling adjustments, and getting the interior set up so that we can go on nearly spontaneous trips.
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