Exterior lower wall separated from frame

Driller · 09-16-2016, 10:52 AM

The lower street forward side wall has separated from the lower frame. It appears to be mounted with 4" screws from below into the lower part of the wall, which seems to be wood.

This is a 2008 3124KS that I purchased last year.

Anyone seen something like this and repaired it? Thoughts are just use longer screws, but would l need some kind clamp to take the pressure off before replacing with longer screws. Or clamp and bigger screws?

Thoughts?

**commodor47** · 09-16-2016, 04:55 PM

By any chance is the separation on the same side as the unlevel slide? The thread you posted with photos showing the slide lower than the wall of the trailer box? If so, the separation you are seeing explains why you saw that side of the slide lower.

There is a fix. My dealer, MCD, on Cape Cod worked with a TM engineer (before the company was bought out) and came up with a repair. I also have a slide and both the street and curb sides were starting to separate in the same location as yours. I was able to have it repaired before it reached complete separation though. The repair is visible from the outside as it involved a series of screws driven parallel to the ground. It might be fair to assume another piece of structural material was added in which to anchor those outside screws. Once secured, it was easy to re-install the lag bolts used to attach the torsion bar support.

Unfortunately I was not present to see the repair and cannot offer any more detail. If you are not too far from MCD, you might consider contacting Debra and Deric to arrange for the repair.

It is too dark now to take a photo of the repair. I will take a photo of each side and post them tomorrow.

Added pictures of my repair.

Dick

LoveToCamp · 09-16-2016, 06:14 PM

Without me being there to look at the situation, and just using your photos:

It appears that the corner of the floor/chassis is settling. From what I can see in your photos, it appears you could use a floor/bottle jack and raise the floor to level, which would put the floor flush with the wall, again, as far as elevation goes. You would still need to push the wall towards the center of the trailer to get all parts aligned.

Trouble is, if the screws pulled out, it could be because the wood got wet, and lost its body. New screws may not hold any better than the old screws, even if you used larger-diameter screws.

Hard to get into much detail, without looking at the trailer, and being able to ponder about the situation, and look deeper with light.

Good luck!

GolfingDebby · 09-16-2016, 08:51 PM

This happened to our 2008 3326 too. 3 years ago the factory sent us 2 pieces of L-shaped of aluminum to install. After repairing it with different sized screws 3 different times my DH finally bought a piece of aluminum sheeting and attached it to inside of the trailer through the L-aluminum to the outside with carriage bolts. Then had to do the same thing to the curbside rear also. This has stabilized it for the last year. The trailer is in storage right now but I can take pictures next week when we get it out for the next trip if needed.

Driller · 09-28-2016, 02:08 PM

Thanks for all the help, and pictures of repairs are welcomed! (Golfing Debby)

Dick (commodor47) you are correct, this is the same problem. (My other thread) http://www.trailmanorowners.com/foru...ad.php?t=17163

I have the TM stored as my HOA will not allow RV's, so my time to work and repair are limited. When digging into the problem I found that the slide out had not dropped at all, but the exterior wall was high. It is not that the floor needs to be raised, as the framing and supports all look correct and are solid. The torsion bar supports are solid to the floor, only the wall on one end is high with the gap.

The screws that I pulled out were very rusted, so it has been like this for some time. I was able to get a 5" lag screw attached from the bottom up into the wall, and I torqued the screw down tight without the wall lowering at all.

My next thoughts are to get a couple of 5' bar clamps and see if I can pull the wall and floor together, and then use lag screws to hold it.

My question now is with the bar clamps, will I damage the wall by putting that much force on the top of the wall with the clamps? And how can it be that the wall must be warped as it is flush with the flooring at the rear of the wall (towards the axle) and separated and raised from the flooring at the front of the TM?

Thanks for all help.

GolfingDebby · 09-28-2016, 07:55 PM

We found that by jacking up the rear of the trailer on the same side as the separation brought the front side wall down into proper alignment with the floor. We are getting the trailer out of storage on Friday and I'll post some pictures of the repair. DH tried the 5" lag screws with temporary success. They also eventually pulled out. The sheet metal, L brackets and bolts he installed seems to be a permanent repair. We also reduced the amount of weight we were carrying in the rear storage compartments. I think that added too much stress to the front of the trailer.