cnssanders, Your Bambi looks like its in great condition. When ever you feel like posting more pictures, I'll be looking. Is the trailer all original or have there been updates? Would be interested in lighting in the kitchen area. What does the fabric look like?
Don
Surprise on the way to the South Beach Rally. At 55 mph in the slow lane my wife hollered, "the door is open". What I saw when I looked in the side mirror is mocked up in the photo below. I'm sharing these pictures with everyone in case someone out there has the same type hinge I have. When I inspected the top hinge that separated from the trailer, I found that the rivets were about 50% corroded away. This was in no way evident from the outside of the hinge. So if you have the same type hinge, I strongly suggest that you replace the rivets.
the door blew open on my tradewind on teh way home, be cause the previous owner didn't have the keys for the dead-bolt, and the straps i used didn't hold... :-( very disheartening, i know. the doors are relatively easy to get back into shape, though. i had to brace the frame with a piece of scrap aluminum. the crack in teh frame is noticeable to me... but what are ya gonna do?
as for teh rivets, i replaced all mine in the little trailer, when i put them back on. did your door blow open, or was it hinge failure? my hinges got tweaked pretty good when the door blew open. that would have been enough to blow your hinge rivets... especially if they were already weakened.
these things are never-ending projects, aren't they?
Dang, Don - did you actually almost loose the door? Any collateral damage?
Before we left on our trip to the South Beach Rally I had removed the bottom hinge. The door was dragging on the frame of the door when it was closed. So I reshaped the hinge to solve the problem. In fact the door shut beautifully. When I reinstalled the bottom hinge all new rivets were used. Because of this the door was held on by the bottom hinge until I was able to stop. The bottom hinge was twisted about 90 degrees. I didn't have much choice so I took the door and slowly twisted it back into position. I had a 16" crescent wrench with me. Using the wrench I was able to reshape the twisted hinge. I still don't believe that that worked, but it did. The dead bolt was still extended and in place. Here is what happened. The rivets to the top hinge that connected the hinge to the trailer wall gave way. This allowed the the top back of the door to slowly slip out of place. My guess is that the slip stream was sucking on the outside surface of the door. When a small bump in the road was hit, the back top of the door popped out and back enough to allow the dead bolt to be slid back away from it's striker. Once this happened the front of the door was caught by the wind and flung open. The wind then took the door flipped it open and twisted it down into the position in the photo shop recreation. The amazing thing is that no glass was broken and there is very little damage to the door its self. The most damage happened to the side of the trailer. Most of that damage is already repaired. We didn't realize at the time but we had lost the window screen in the process. The good luck in the story is that on Sunday on the way back we were able to find and retrieve the screen. So there can be good luck in bad luck! The door is sprung out about a 1/2" on the bottom right corner. I thought I'd include a picture of the repairs in a Wall Mart parking lot. I'm sure all of you have been in some familiar saturation at sometime.
Don
I HOPE we're never in a situation like that! Good luck you found your screen. This turned into quite a little adventure for you, being only a weekend trip!
I'm in the process of removing the inner skin for the purpose of leak detection, electrical update, and insulation. I will be down loading several pictures with explanations on where I have found leaks in the outer skin. If something on the forum already exists like this I didn't find it. I thought this information may be helpful to others trying to stop or find leaks in their projects.
This picture shows signs of leaks on the inner skin after it was removed. Inspection of the inner skins is a good way to detect leaks.
This leak in evident by the whitish flow streaks down the aluminum. The leak my have started on the outside anywhere along the outside of this seam and chose to enter the inside at this point.
This leak is at the Bambi Metal lettering that is placed on the outside of the trailer. This one I was able to witness on our last trip. Water hits the front of the trailer runs along the curve of the front of the trailer and directly to the metal lettering. This was a substantial leak.
There are C channel strips that are places around the vent window at the top of the trailer. These are mainly supports for the inner skin and window frame parts. They are riveted to the outer skin form the top outside. In my trailer several of the rivets were loose as seen from the top of the trailer. In my observation this was a weak part of the construction process. I would therefore suggest that you check this area. They could be sealed from the outside with a glop of Vulcaum around the rivet heads. I will be replacing all of there rivets on the top of the trailer. Also my guess is that during manufacture only one person was working on this process. I say this because it appears that there was no support on the inside as holes were drilled and the rivets were placed. The C channel was ofter bent in a way that would happen when the drill punched through the outer skin. The number 4 picture is wrong.
leaks can be seen at the door reinforcement metal plates. I believe some of the leaks were coming through the rivets. Corrosion comment, The hinges are make of stainless steel, the backing plate is of sheet steel, the trailer skin is aluminum. and the rivets that attach all together are aluminum. Three or four different metals joined together where water is a potential leak problem. Sounds like a galvanic night mare to me. No wonder my door decided to go south. I am planning to make some changes here. Any suggestions?
Well, here is an update on my insulation and condensation dilemma. I threw out my earlier ideas and have decided on a "sandwich insulation" plan. The sandwich is made up of an inner and outer layer of Reflectix insulation with a inner layer of Dura-Cool cooler Pad. I have used the cooler pad for several reasons. It is made of a material that will not decay or cause odors. It is coated with a moisture absorbing foam coating. If you are interested their web site is www.dialmfg.com. My hope is that the outer layer will help to control the outside temperature. The inner layer will Help to isolate the inside temps. and the Dura-Cool which is mostly a dead air space Will help to create a buffer zone between the other two areas. Also it is my hope that the Dura-Cool will work as an area to control condensation by giving the moisture in the air a place to condense to and then allow it to evaporate back into the air space when conditions are right. I am considering on installing some instrumentation inside the wall to monitor the conditions. I hope you all see this as a fun adventure and not just crazy. I'll include some pictures so you can see what it looks like.
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