Price for floor replacement and frame repair

[ankornuta]

Oh, that's a pretty good idea Bill. I could probably bolt the studs to the rivet holes left open by the skin being off and then screw them to the floor... that would prevent the body from torquing too much.

[wkerfoot]

Originally Posted by ankornuta

Oh, that's a pretty good idea Bill. I could probably bolt the studs to the rivet holes left open by the skin being off and then screw them to the floor... that would prevent the body from torquing too much.

Andrew,

Or you could screw the steel studs to the aluminum ribs. That way you could cross them over the entire length and remove and relocate as needed.

Bill

[59toaster]

Originally Posted by wkerfoot

Andrew,

If you wanted to secure the shell without the inside skin, I suggest using steel studs, used in interior commercial construction and available at Home Depot or Lowes, as cross braces to keep some structural integrity. Uwe used them when he pulled the body off of his Overlander.

I am interested in 59toaster's reply as my Liner is kept about 25 miles away and brought home for work. I am staying off the freeway and keeping the speed under 40 mph while in transit.

Bill

You have to pull the lower inner skins to get at the bolts that go through the U-Channel into the ends of the outriggers. Those are some of the most important bolts in the whole coach.

[ankornuta]

Nice photos... I was concerned about lifting the body that way because of the potential of bending the aluminum. I see that you placed the supports under the ribs though. If you hadn't, would it have bent the U-Channel and outside skins?

What I was thinking about doing is (with the interior skins off) placing a carpet-padded 4x4 post inside of the trailer laying long-ways with three eye-hooks, one under each vent opening (with vents removed) in the cieling and then attaching ropes to the eye-hooks and hoisting the body up that way... That is, if I do this at our barn.

[malconium]

That sounds like it could work. I would suggest though that you consider adding some side to side bracing near the bottom to help the body hold its width around the bottom. You could use something like 1x4 or 2x4's across at 4' to 6' apart. Just put some screws through the side ribs into the wood strips. Please feel free to let me know if I am not making sense here.

Malcolm

[markdoane]

Originally Posted by ankornuta

. . . What I was thinking about doing is (with the interior skins off) placing a carpet-padded 4x4 post inside of the trailer laying long-ways with three eye-hooks, one under each vent opening (with vents removed) in the cieling . . .

In addition to what Malconium suggests, I would like you to spread out the support at the top beam. I say this because the ribs are joined together at the top, I don't think you should support all the weight on those joints.

In my '59, the ribs are joined with a joining channel about 8" long with a dozen rivets. If you place the beam in the center, all the weight of the shell will be trying to shear those rivets.

If you lay some 1×6s across the beam to distribute the load across more of the width, I think you will reduce the stress on the joints. Just my 3 cents.

[Deano69LY]

What did you do to the frame and how. Some of the rear portion of the I beam is rusted out and a little bit of one of the outriggers. What type of steel did you weld in. I am having a friend help me (who is a welder) but would like to tell him what type of repairs others have done? Some one also expressed concern about adding weight in the back, I look at it as just replacing metal that has rotted away. Did you add new support for your black water tank??
Thanks for any reply

[TooMuchTin]

I am sorry to say I will be joining the club. I just picked up the Crusier, and the floor is a checkerboard of bad repairs and rot.

I am lucky to have a warehouse, and was hoping to run something through the windows, and lift it with pulleys from the warehouse roof structure.

Any ideas of what the shell should weigh for my 25 footer?

I replaced over half of the floor in my Silverstreak Clipper without taking off the shell or belly pan, and it is a pain. The Clipper has a severe full circle so extending it in all directions at once is impossible. I cut the circle into 2 pieces, one third, and the other was the remaining two thirds. I cut the piece with a bevel on the larger piese, and added some extra metal supports for bolting. It all worked out.

We shall see how this one does.

Bruce

[59toaster]

Originally Posted by ankornuta

Nice photos... I was concerned about lifting the body that way because of the potential of bending the aluminum. I see that you placed the supports under the ribs though. If you hadn't, would it have bent the U-Channel and outside skins?

What I was thinking about doing is (with the interior skins off) placing a carpet-padded 4x4 post inside of the trailer laying long-ways with three eye-hooks, one under each vent opening (with vents removed) in the ceiling and then attaching ropes to the eye-hooks and hoisting the body up that way... That is, if I do this at our barn.

Actually if you look closely the support that go to the outside of the body don't touch the body. The piece screwed to the rib about 8 inches up is where the body is supported from. Then the short verticals are screwed to the long piece that is holding the weight. You don't want to put any weight on those lower edge of the body.

Also if you look there is a 2x4 screwed across the door frame to keep it from trying to bend at that point. It was very solid actually and it stood up to several good windy storms.

Really the body does not weight a lot. Two people can handle a 22ft by the ends. There are pictures of this from Airstream. I figure with the skins in and how my coach was in those pictures it was maybe 325-350lb.

A sheet of skin 4'x12' I seem to recall is 22lb. Takes 4.5 sheets to form the main body or a 22' coach then the end caps and interior skin. The problem is not the weight its just the size of it.

You idea will work as long as you are braced at the bottom to keep its shape and lifting from the ribs. There are some pictures here where a 29 or 31 was lifted that way with a front end loader.

Unfortunately that body was not secured to the ground and was picked up by a wind and rolled over a couple times. Never heard if it was ever put back together.

[59toaster]

Originally Posted by ankornuta

Well, my intention with this project is to restore the trailer back to completely original condition. I really feel that the only way to do that is to re-lay the tile the way it was done originally... and that means laying it down on the floor before the body is put on. If I wasn't concerned with that then I could probably just patch the small rot areas. There are only three spots that are bad, the largest being about six inches square.

Thanks for the help too! It's nice to hear from someone who's been there

I keep meaning to make comment on this. The tile on my coach was put in after the body was on.

The original tile was 9x9 on ours and usually 9x9 is Asbestos filled. When they did away with Asbestos is when they went to the now standard 12x12 so that people knew it was Asbestos free. Take precautions.

Its easy enough to cut down 12x12 into 9x9 but I would be sure to document is some way that this is asbestos free so when somebody in another 30 years is messing with it they know there is no asbestos in it.

[TooMuchTin]

Thanks Guys, but as always, a few more questions.

I took out the shower today and of course the floor was worse than I had dreamed. Oh well, at least I know I will get my moneys worth.

Sounds like the lifting it off will be ok without too much weight. Pretty sure my roof will hold the weight, if not, then the trailer won't be my top priority.

You say above that the inside panels have to come off to get to the "bottom plate". It also looks like the bottom pan is rivited to the outer skin all the way around the floor line. Is this the sad truth? If so, I guess I better read up on rivet removal and replacement.

My inside panels are all screwed in. Any tips on the fastest way to get them out?

Thanks, Bruce

[ankornuta]

Originally Posted by 59toaster

I keep meaning to make comment on this. The tile on my coach was put in after the body was on.

The original tile was 9x9 on ours and usually 9x9 is Asbestos filled. When they did away with Asbestos is when they went to the now standard 12x12 so that people knew it was Asbestos free. Take precautions.

Its easy enough to cut down 12x12 into 9x9 but I would be sure to document is some way that this is asbestos free so when somebody in another 30 years is messing with it they know there is no asbestos in it.

Ahhh hah! That's why it's so hard to find 9x9" tile. Now I know this sounds crazy, but the old asbestos tile isn't THAT dangerous, is it? I was really hoping to find an old stash of it somewhere to lay down. It just seems literally impossible to match this pattern in the "Straight Grain Excelon" Armstrong tile that was originally put in my trailer.

[malconium]

Originally Posted by TooMuchTin

Thanks Guys, but as always, a few more questions.

I took out the shower today and of course the floor was worse than I had dreamed. Oh well, at least I know I will get my moneys worth.

Sounds like the lifting it off will be ok without too much weight. Pretty sure my roof will hold the weight, if not, then the trailer won't be my top priority.

You say above that the inside panels have to come off to get to the "bottom plate". It also looks like the bottom pan is rivited to the outer skin all the way around the floor line. Is this the sad truth? If so, I guess I better read up on rivet removal and replacement.

My inside panels are all screwed in. Any tips on the fastest way to get them out?

Thanks, Bruce

Bruce,

I am a bit suprised that your inner skins are attached with screws. They were originally installed with pop-rivets. Did someone remove and reinstall the inner panels or did you maybe not look close enough? If they are pop-rivets you would just drill them out with an 1/8" drill bit. This is actually pretty quick and easy except for the ocasional rivit that just spins in place instead of drilling out. For these I used a sharp thick bladed putty knife to cut the head off. There are plenty of things said here in the forums about rivet removal so do a bit of searching or ask more questions if you are stumped. If they are in fact held in with screws then I suggest an electric screw driver.

Someone else will need to comment on whether or not you have to undo all the rivets holding the body to the bottom channel. My 1973 unit is different than yours. What you really need to do I think is to detach the banana wrap and belly pan from the channel. These are the parts that are below the channel. The gotcha is that they may be attached to the bottom channel underneath the upper part of the body. Worse than that I think that some of these parts in older models are bent over the top of the channel. If you take off the inner panel along the bottom you can better asses how this connection is made.

I hope this all helps some at least.

Malcolm

[TooMuchTin]

Malcolm,

This is a most curious, and distrubing delima. Yes, every single fastener inside the unit are screws. I thought that maybe that is how they did it back then, or at least on this model.

I thought it looked pretty original. The idea that someone would remove ALL the rivets just to put in screws is too crazy.

Anyone out there who can shed some light?

[wkerfoot]

Originally Posted by TooMuchTin

Malcolm,

This is a most curious, and distrubing delima. Yes, every single fastener inside the unit are screws. I thought that maybe that is how they did it back then, or at least on this model.

I thought it looked pretty original. The idea that someone would remove ALL the rivets just to put in screws is too crazy.

Anyone out there who can shed some light?

TooMuchTin,

Interesting, on my 1954 Liner the front and rear caps are fastened to the channel by screws, but the interior skin is fastened with pop rivets. Here is a picture of the lower screws:

Bill

[scoxx30]

Originally Posted by ankornuta

Nice photos... I was concerned about lifting the body that way because of the potential of bending the aluminum. I see that you placed the supports under the ribs though. If you hadn't, would it have bent the U-Channel and outside skins?



What I was thinking about doing is (with the interior skins off) placing a carpet-padded 4x4 post inside of the trailer laying long-ways with three eye-hooks, one under each vent opening (with vents removed) in the cieling and then attaching ropes to the eye-hooks and hoisting the body up that way... That is, if I do this at our barn.

I lifted mine similar, i used two 4x4's side ways cut to match the curve and lifted her up nice and slow, pulled the chassis out, then set her down on the ground, placing the u channels on 4x4s. i wouldnt leave her hanging up there
good luck.