Forgetting what on last sheet (bath out) reassembly?

[Wabbiteer]

The list of things done is many - anyone been down this road care to share your 'should've' moments with me?

I think I am ready to reassemble the rear bath floor section - clean-up and POR-15 done, new wood fitted, but before I tack it down any hints on what I am forgetting? I plan on doing outrigger repair when new flooring is tight to get alignments right

Here's $85 of marine grade 3/4" plywood awaiting 4th coat of Vinyl Ester resin - coat 1 & 2 thinned 20% with MEK. It's still soft plywood so gouges really show but otherwise looks like dipped in Plexiglas. Old floor made 35 years, this should make another 35.

[bigeasy63]

Looks great wab. The topic is over my newbie head, but looks great. The only thing I could say is I have read that you souldn't use treated wood, but you said it wasn't, so no worries there. Good luck.

[Wabbiteer]

Boatdoc PM'd me asking if I had applied glass-cloth when I applied the VE resin... So in my best "Foghorn Leghorn" cartoon rooster voice ....What's the big, I say what's the big idea of a PM? Don't stand there gawkin' son, speak up!

No I didn't use glass cloth - the end grain was the important part, sealing against tabelspoon quanities of water bound to eventually appear in the wrong places. Since the majority of the floors surface in a rear bath is covered by counter, bath tub, HW tank, etc. what little floor will see traffic will be covered in laminate or carpet or both. I'm not expecting someone to spill a box of bricks on it.

After removing damaged flooring (pictures on request) a thin coat of resin is cheap insurance against future SMELLS getting impregnated in wood pores, the tank deoderants and whatnot getting spilled or leakages announcing Ode de'Loo untill the end of time. The funnest part was mixing up small batches and glazing the edge cuts untill filled and smooth as glass, one side up at a time so it would puddle nicely...

[Jim & Susan]

Wabbit, that looks good. Mine has a lot more holes in it than that back in the bath. I cut all of the holes and then treated with epoxy (hope I got them all in the right places).

Jim

[Wabbiteer]

The bathtub trap cutout is marked, as are the vent stacks and 2 of 3 of the water line spaces but I don't want to commit to anything until the minute I see how things are lining up - I may have a creative moment or two and re-route things.. I am omitting the battery locker; drilled out its door frame this morning and will 2024 patch over the section and add in a wanna-be C-channel over the gap..

The left over plywood yielded a five inch X 4-foot piece I will use as joiner backing plate, it got nearly same resin treatment..

QUESTION: The spar immediately forward of the BW tank box was not fastened into the floor in any fashion by the factory; looks smart if omitting them helps tail-dragging events by providing a larger circumference shell-frame rail structure attach points to absorb flex moments reducing deflection memory & fatigue.

Install or not to install? The repair manual neglects details on flooring in general...

[Jim & Susan]

I'll check mine tonight and report back, but from memory, the only thing not fastened to the floor were the two triangular shaped outriggers either side of the BW tank. I'll let you know.

Jim

[markdoane]

I believe the last two outriggers are attached to the floor. I'm looking at a picture of mine and I see two holes in the outriggers. They also show up on the floor picture where I used leveller to fill the countersunk elevator bolts.

Then again, I'm not sure I understood the question. The structure circumference moment fatigue deflection thing has my head in a spin.

[Jim & Susan]

OK, I just checked my old pictures. The floor is and was fastened to both the spar and the outriggers in my '73. Don't know why they weren't in yours. Weird.

Jim

[DPeakMD]

Wabbiteer-

I have no idea about spars and deflection moments, but the floor was definitely not attached to the outriggers or the bottom of the shell on my '75 Safari.

Picture's worth a thousand words, so see below. The curbside rounded section between the battery compartment and the rearmost part of the shell with banana wrap removed.

[Wabbiteer]

Indeed it looks worse than it is... (the writing that is)

Slam the skid pads hard into pavement on a driveway apron then drag it sideways and stuff has to move - the flex moment is energy dissipated into the whole assembly aft of the axles we want to return to its prior state / location...

If the pair of C-rails of the ladder frame are going somewhere, even millimeters or centimeters of movement, does one want that ONE floor section locked tight to that ONE spar or should four feet of plywood be the length of the allowed motion or float, maybe factory had seen snapped floor screws there or other damage because I can't think of any other reason to drop those 5 screws.

I seem to remember reading here long ago about this one spar (see attachment) being unfastened on others trailers; my outriggers closest to the bumper had been bolted into flooring but corrosion had them toothpick thick & snapped when floor was torn out...

[DPeakMD]

I see your point...regarding moments.

Who knows what the correct answer truly is!

If they didn't want it tied down, why drill the holes and put the bolts in?

The rear shell/floor/frame mating area has got to be the #1 problem area of Airstream design. Why did they not come up with a fix for this over time?!?

[Wabbiteer]

Thanks for the replies. I've posted a little too fast on my last two, you folks can't know observations I made last fall thus I need more background in this post...

A spar bridges across ladder beams, the outriggers anchor plywood edges.

It is the spar shown in attachment that was left unattached - all the spars are pre-drilled with perfect spacing on this trailer but actual self-drilling screws used as bolts do not line up with any of them.

The reference to larger circumference goes back to monoque construction principles; spreading loads out to the edges.

The last floor section is not connected to any spar - photo attachment shows it was screwed into a backing board w/ the corrugated steel joiners hammered in every 12", but completely misses lining up with spar so no floor bolts into last sheet except for two on the trailing outriggers.

With floor being cutout for battery, the shell notched for HW heater & battery locker, and floor being tied just into that wood backer and rear shell anchor points my first instinct is to nail it down tight, but it looks like someone went to a lot of trouble to keep it loose - or am I giving too much credit?

So - last call for suggestions before floor gets bolted down???

[DPeakMD]

I vote for putting it back tight and solid. But I'm a doctor, so take that as an uninformed opinion!

Before you notch out for the battery...have you considered eliminating the battery storage compartment? You could have more than one battery and put the weight over the axles, or up near the tounge instead of hanging off the side of the trailer behind the axles. You'd have to rewire the dc circuits to another common point, or run a larger guage wire back to the rear.