Good Initiative - Poor Judgment

[Nashville]

I have been a student of the forum for a couple months now and like many of you I have spent countless hours researching threads and dissecting pictures. I have looked at so many pictures of rotten floors and rusted frames I began to feel like an amateur Proctologist. I swore to myself that when my son and I began our shell off rebuild we would not add our ugly frame pictures to the ever growing pile........ however....I have to share this one with you.
I am in Afghanistan right now and was talking to my son Bret today via Skype as he was pulling up the plywood in the back of our newly acquired 59 Ambassador (289017). I was fully expecting the worse. As he initially described the condition of the frame in the rear and I was getting encouraged...... it was obviously an earlier repair and it was going good until I heard the proverbial...Ut Ohhhh...

I do not believe this is the factory recommended frame reinforcement bracket/plates.... It falls into a category I like to call.......Good Initiative-Poor Judgment. I just had to share this one...

You just never know what your going to find when you rip that old plywood up. Beware!!

[Stefrobrts]

I can't believe some one dug in deep enough to access the area, then chose to fix it that way! Well, looks like it held up well enough, and now you can do it right.

[funkill]

Now that's unique! May this be the last of your surprises.

Laura

[Airslide]

"I am in Afghanistan right now "

Are you over there serving our country? If so.. Thankyou!

Great pictures... never know what your going to find.

Vinnie

[Foiled Again]

The devil made me say it!

That thar's funny.. I don't care what you say. Someone with a git er dun mentality had to do that repair - would have been better with a git er dun RIGHT mentality.

It's very odd damage. The rest of the frame looks remarkably good. That's a WTH moment. Right in the MIDDLE of the frame? Wonder if some genius had a hole in the belly pan for years and neglected it?

Oh well, at least it doesn't look like you need a new frame, just some serious welding on those two cross members.


And yes, thank you for your service. Keep safe and come back soon.

Best wishes, Paula

[Boondocker]

What kind of sap wood do something like that? It really goes against the grain, just leafing it like that. At least you rooted it out.

[ND10CentCan]

And to think my poor husband has been taking welding classes to build us a new frame for the Albatross. Here he could have put his formidable woodworking skills to use and just whittled out a new one. I wonder if it is too late to get a refund on his half finished welding classes?

[SpaceEgg]

How strong are those 2x4s?

Could you tell there was a soft spot on the subfloor before you pulled it up?

My guess is someone fixed it from underneath, without removing the floor. Certainly not up to "restoration" standards, but I think the PO deserves a little credit for ingenuity. Good on you and your son for repairing it the proper way.

[Splitrock]

Most bare frames I see don't have pans on and inside skins. Thanks for posting the pictures. Those are nice trailers when they're all fixed up.

[Nashville]

I have most of the past 30 years in "developing nations" (PC) and have seen many examples of these types of repairs. They were born out of necessity when no other options were available or possible. I wanted to believe this particular "hillbilly welding" job was driven by economic necessity rather than ignorance but I'm afraid the latter is more closer to the truth.

Evidence of such is that the PO that did the "repair" did not understand basic AS design principles. The wheels support the axles which supports the frame which supports the floor with supports the shell and all tied together with the C-channel, belly pan, banana wrap, and rivets.

The rear of the AS had OSB and plywood "installed". The problem is that the OSB and plywood was laying on top of the frame and the edges were not in place under the shell.....so the rear section of the AS was unsupported. This evidence is manifested in stress induced rivet head loss in the rear interior panels. I'm certain with additional inspection we will find other stress and fatigued areas on both the frame and the panels.

The old AS is like an ecosystem....everything is connected and serves a purpose... if one component is compromised it has an adverse effect on all the other components... and like an ecosystem...if the warning signs are ignored...the system will eventually be stressed until it fails.... It's never the big things that initiate system failure but rather the small things that are not always overt...such as a rivet...a shock...a seal...wheel balance.....etc.

It's like the old proverb-

For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

In the case of the AS we can substitute rivet for nail...

In the case of our 59... an initial system failure was exacerbated by human failure... Time to get this 59 sorted out correctly...lots of work ahead...

[Frank's Trailer Works]

I think you should just dump that project. I will PM you my address so you can drop the trailer off there...

I too want to say that even though not correct, that repair gets an A+ from me. How many times have you tried to do something with out knowing how? That is how we learn.

[Nashville]

Frank....you are spot on my friend... the PO gets a solid A+ for effort and the guts to try. The first hint that something was amiss... came from above...and it was not divine...