Walls moved!

[sipaez]

Hello everyone!
I'm new here. I follow a lot of threads but this is my first time writing.
First of all, I bought an Overlander 67 a few months ago. And like a lot of other older Airstreams, the floor had some rotten places. After a lot of work, and thanks to all the info on this website, I installed a new sub floor.
Now, this is where it got tricky. I'm trying to screw and bold down the "c" channel to the sub floor, but the walls have moved towards the outside.
Do you guys know what could be happening? What should I do?
I made a little diagram so that you can understand my problem better.

Thanks!

[buddy24]

Welcome to the form. I'm no expert, seems to me that the weight of the shell is pushing the walls out since the c channel is not bolted down. I might try and counter act the downward force by lifting the shell above the spot that's sticking out. Just throwing out an idea.
Paul


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[J. Morgan]

There was tension in the shell of the trailer even when it was new, and over the years things have settled, moved, etc.

You need to come up with a plan where you can push everything into shape as you reassemble.

It will go back, you just need a good plan of attack.

[Belegedhel]

A few questions to get a better picture of the situation:

How much of a gap are you seeing? Is it consistent all the way around (ie., on both sides)? Is the shell fitting snuggly at the ends, but bowing out in the middle of the sides? Did you remove all the C-channels from the shell, or leave them attached to the shell during the lift? How did you perform the lift? Did you have full floor pieces to use as templates for the replacement floor?

All that being said, you might try getting some ratchet straps and attaching them from rib to rib on the inside and just pulling the sides together and see if that doesn't solve the problem. You might facilitatee this by lifting some of the weight of the shell, but that all depends on how you did the lift, and ehther your lifting apparatus is still intact.

good luck!

[arktos55343]

Ditto on the ratchet straps. I had the same problem with my '72 Trade Wind when I reunited shell to frame. The most important connection points are the back and front. When you have them in the correct position and secured, use the ratchet straps to pull the sides back into position.

[sipaez]

Thanks everyone!
I used the straps with ratchet and is working! I got the back done!Hopefully I'll be done tomorrow.
Do you guys have any recommendation for bolts to attach the C channel to the sub floor? I wasn't planning on dropping the belly pan. So I don't have access to put nuts underneath.
Thanks again!!

[Belegedhel]

You will most definitely want access to the underside of the bolts so that you can have a nut-and-bolt combination. This is THE critical interface between the shell and the frame, and not a good place to cut corners.

To avoid having to drop the entire belly pan and re-install all of the banana-wrapish areas, some people cut the "center" of the belly pan out, do their bolting, and then patch it abck in place. If it were me, I would just drop the pan.

good luck