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Originally Posted by malconium
If you are intending to set the body completely down on a flat surface after you remove the frame then you would be right that the ends might need some shiming here and there.
Relative to your having double 2x4s along the sides I think it is more than enough. As I understand it the general word here on the forums is that it is the body that is keeping the frame straight at the ends not the other way around. I am adding a photo of what my bracing looked like. The cross-wise bracing is 2x4 and the lengthwise strips are 5/8" plywood about 6" tall.
Do you have any hatch openings along the bottom of your walls that are oposite each other? On my 31' unit there are access hatches direcly oposite each other in the back area maybe 6' from the back. There is also a refrigerator hatch near the front that is more or less opposite the entry door. My thought is this - if you have openings like this you can insert cross members above the bottom of the wall to lift the shell off of the frame. That way you could perhaps more easily set the body down on your flat surface.
Heres another thought - if you can get your hands on some camper jacks you could lift up the body from outside of the shell. The kind of jack that I am visualizing is designed to lift up a pickup camper high enough to be able to drive the pickup underneath. They have a sort of cable lift arrangement and nice wide angle brackets at the bottom that are designed to fit under the edges of a camper. Ideally I would guess that 4 such jacks would be best.
Malcolm
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Malcolm,
Okay, good, I'm correct in my thinking. Thanks for backing me up here.
I'm visualizing the shell sitting on the driveway after the frame is removed. The driveway isn't completely level because I live on the side of a small hill. So the framing must be substantial enough to keep the shell from twisting when the shell is lowered to the ground. Of course I can level the frame relative to the ground with shimming.
Note that the shell will be sitting there until the frame is fabricated. Could be weeks as far as I know. But what I want is for the shell to sit squarely on the frame and the frame to sit squarely on the driveway. From there I plan to use sandbags as anchors. Lots of gusty wind here. It's nice to know, as you suggest, that the shell literally supports the frame and may in fact be stronger than I am assuming.
Lifting via the hatch points is something I hadn't considered but unfortunately I don't have any hatches directly across from each other. Good idea though. Wow, I'd love to get my hands on some camper jacks. I found a set of 4 on the web for about 800 bucks! Maybe some airstream angels will leave a set on the backdoor step when I'm not looking.
Those would work like a charm!
Concerning bracing. Your bracing is interesting because it appears to be braced above the floor channel and I am planning on bracing mine mainly underneath the floor channel. I need to think a little bit more about how bracing above the floor channel would be advantageous in my case? I'm not sure.