Quote:
Originally Posted by Ed--swGA
I realize that this message is posting on a thread 11 years old, however, the situation with my 2013 3124 is in need of some ideas.
Over the last 5 years, 3 of the 4 black brackets that the torsion bars pass through have pulled loose from the frame--the bolts having given way. My RV repairman has reattached them with more larger and longer lag bolts, and in one case, a metal bar running several inches along the underside of the TM, with additional lag bolts going into the frame for additional support. He says that this is only a temporary fix, and is convinced that the wood is decaying from dry rot, rather than water damage. He says that the only way to arrest this problem is to replace the wood framing the box. My question is....how does one go about this? I can't decide whether to trade or have it repaired. How about some thoughts on that, too.
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Hi, Ed.
If you are referring to the torsion bar bar support brackets near their their outside ends (at the TM floor outside edges, a few inches before the bars themselves are given a 90-dgree twist to go up and into the lift bars) then I know what you are talking about - I have both comments and ideas, although I have not experienced such a failure in my much older (and less weight) 2619.
I am not an expert concerning dry rot', its possible recovery, or future prevention. In addition to your current points of failure the presence of such weakness at so many edge locations might possibly be spreading to into the middle as well, with issues for supporting the fridge, the tub, and numerous other areas of high weight on the floor.
The bolts on these 'torsion bar support brackets' becomes stressed when the shell is raised, and vertical pressure comes as shell weight on the lift bars (4 bars per shell). The weight pushes the end of the lift bar into the ground, and it is resisted by the bracket and its mounts into the floor.
The bracket consists of thin relatively metal, with a 90 degree angle between the longer (taller) descending portion and the much shorter side (1-1/4" wide in my older 2619 ) providing the mounting face against the bottom surface of the TM floor , with 5 relatively thick, relatively short SS bolts attempting to hold it tight against the tension for the torsion bar in lifted position, trying to pull the "torsion bar support bracket" assembly away from the underside of the floor. The foor attachment "mounting face onm my 2619 is about 13-14 inches long, the ends are angled.
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If longer or wider bolts into the TM floor would have been more effective, TM might have simply used "bigger" bolts in the first place. But if a lot of floor areas is not rotted, (inwards fro the edge) or if the bottom side structure of the walls is somehow not yet affect by "dry rot", you might have a couple of options for strengthening this attachment:
#1 long deck screws at the outside edge of the floor, up and into undamaged vertical wall edging.
The lower box sidewalls are (or previously have been defin itely including my my 2006 year) built with at least 1" of wood edging (and maybe more) between the two aluminum plates along the "lower edge" before the beginning of lightweight insulating styrofoam between the plates.
I have very recently used that to attach 1/4" L bar segments (2" width, 1 foot long) into the bottom of my own TM - right next to the OEM 'torsion bar support brackets', for the purpose of supporting slightly lower forces (perhaps 120-200 lbs, being imposed on that plate by by add-on "lift assist gas struts".
In pre-drilling pilot hoes for a larger number of 4" long "deckmate" deck screws to hold my my L brackets against the edges of the floor, I found that pilot holes for the thinner deck screws did not cut into styrofoam forthe entire length of the pilot holes (it was wood all the way up, except for the two thin layers of flooring aluminum.)
These deck screws need to go up into the exact middle of the 1" thick sidewalls, sidewalls, the pilot holes are closer to the outside edges of the floor than the OEM support bracket mounting holes. You would need more of them (at least 10), and a segment of 1/4" steel bar (perhaps 2" wide, minimum) would have to be placed underneath the OEM support plate floor attachment portion to hold the OEM support in place.
It sounds like your repair guy already tried added a bar in a manner similar to this, but maybe used wider and shorter bolts in less quantity, and maybe didn't place it all the way the edge. (So his additional bolts went into the no-good floor, rather than the possibly helpful sidewall.)
My idea won't help if the lower sidewall edges are also rotted.
#2 Widen my "floor underside" portion of my added plate from #1, to at least 2" wide (and maybe even more maybe). Along the inner portion, add bolts and all the way through the floor into - into large washer and nuts on the top of the interior floor.
I actually cut extra pilot holes for my "assisting strut" mounting brackets" to support this, the TM underside side for one of them is 3" wide and the other is 2" wide. I did not extend those pilot holes through the TM floor and into the interior, because my outside "deck screws" were alreasdy strong enough for my struts. But the concept is, a fairly large washer (perhaps 1") on the interior TM floor before tightening the nut on to the bolt from below spreads the force over a larger area of the aluminum floor, so that it doesn't cut a hole through the thin aluminum.
From underneath the 1/4" steel plate of course needs to additional washer for strength purposes. Only the TM interior side would need the washer. This scheme could be soemwehat effective even for the case of a partly rotted subfoor although I wouldn't be inclined to continue using a TM with a badly weekend floor.
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For reference, I attach a photo of one my "TM underside" L-Bar strut support pieces, as installed. You could maybe get by with a flat plate, rather than an L-bar, but an L-bar resists bending better. (And I needed to "vertical side" for attaching the actual strut support mount bar into the TM L-bar, the second photo shows that complete lower assembly).