Saga follows. If visually oriented, click on the link first.
Having become tired of dirty carpet, I decided to replace the carpet with linoleum or tile in
my 2720SL. At last, the job is complete. Following is a brief (as can be possible for a
teacher) summary of the saga. Pictures accompanying can be seen at :
http://community.webshots.com/album/80201539jtdYBY (link broken)
Removal of the carpet is not really difficult, once it's been done. But, feeling your way
through w/out instructions makes it tedious.
The carpet is tacked down around the edges with very small staples. The steel rails, upon
which the slider moves fore n' aft, must be lifted high enough to get under the carpet to
dig out the staples. All but the screws closest to the trailer front (holding down the rail)
can be reached from inside the trailer. The last ones require physically lifting the slideout
box high enough to get at them with a 90-degree offset screw driver (better...remove box completely).
Continuing to where the carpet is secured at the fluffy white wx stripping
(entire front edge of trailer floor), remove MORE staples, then remove the carpet hold-down strip,
which runs from the corner of the fridge to entry, and the carpet, with pad, is free!
I used individual self-stick tiles, 1 ft square and 3 mm thick (1/8"). The underfloor is
aluminum, with an open seam, right down the middle. Seam as about 1/8" wide. Centered
the first course directly over the seam the struck a straight line at one edge aft-to-front.
Started from where the removed carpet began, after cutting away some excess factory
linoleum. Three tiles is all that can be laid without cutting tile. Then I started to lay tile,
center - left and right. Finally after only 15 tiles, I was left with the tedious job of cutting
and fitting. It takes an additional 13 tiles to fit around the perifery.
An immediate problem was obvious, even before finishing. The black, rubber sweep seal
did not quite contact the floor any longer - and I had used the thickest tile available. So, I
cut another course of tiles such that they rested on top of the course that butted the fluffy
white seal. The new layer projected aft to the black rubber seal. Worked- but looked....ummmm, not
good. So after pondering for a few days, I found a prefinished(i.e., cheap) molding which
matched the floor tile. The molding worked nicely, in that the black rubber seal rides up and over
just enough to provide a reliable seal from the wind, rain and (especially) the snow. See pics!
(pics no longer available)
Finally I came back to the job and ripped out the factory linoleum and replaced it with the
same pattern used at the front. Pulled up the molding first, fitted the tiles, then renailed the molding.
Replaced the carpet hold down strip with a tile/wood divider strip, added new molding at
the lateral base of the "reefer" (or if you prefer, "the refer") and around the floor-wall
bracket at the entry.
All totaled the job took 44 tiles at .5 kg (1.1 lbs) each - about 45 lbs, since there was a
good deal of scrap after cutting and fitting.
Denny_A