Are the belly wraps attached w/ bucked or Pop rivets under rub rail?

[Mixter]

Can't remember the way it was, and dont have any pics...

Thanks!
Mic

[DryFly]

Pop rivets on mine.

[Belegedhel]

Pops

[rippie]

Ok, I'm confused. It is my understanding that the belly wraps (assumed to mean banana wraps) are part of the buck sandwich that forms the structure under the lower rub rail. So the layering at the rail would go from inner to outer as follows: hold down plate(where applicable), c-channel, upper edge banana wrap, lower edge of outer skin all bucked together with the rub rail then pop riveted over to hide/cover the seam. At least that is how I am planning to fasten things. Please correct me now if I've got it wrong.

[Belegedhel]

The order you describe may be better in some ways, but that isn't how the factory originally put it together, at least not on my trailer. Instead, from inner to outer, I had the C-channel bucked to the outer skin, and then the banana wrap pop riveted on, and then the rub-rail popped on over that. When I did my shell-off, I only drilled out the bucked rivets along the sides of the trailer. The curved C-channels, because they don't wrap under the subfloor, were left in place.

The advantage to your order would be that water would be less inclined to run down the body of the trailer and then into the upward facing seam created by the banana wrap. I put a healthy bead of vulkem on my banana wrap to try to keep some of the water out.

But, banana wraps are very soft aluminum and prone to damage, so if you buck them between the skin and the C-channel, you will never be able to replace them in the future, if need be. Plus, they are quite thick. I would imagine it would be pretty awkward getting them in place as you describe.

Good luck!

[rippie]

Belegedhel-
Thanks for the clarification. I began thinking that future access to the belly would be more limited by bucking everything together. So it makes sense to think in layers AND stages of riveting. So it's bucks for upper skin/channel, then regular pops for skins, then blue pops for rail? Do all the rivets end up penetrating the c-channel? What is the approximate recommended distance between each buck rivet?

[Belegedhel]

Lemme see...It seems like the typical recommendation is 4-6 rivet head diameters between bucked rivets. It will be the same frequency as is used everywhere else on the trailer, so just take some measurements of your other rivet lines.

The pop rivets will penetrate everything, so you don't want to go overboard with them, as they make lots of potential leaks in the trailer. I only pop riveted my banana wraps once every 4-6 inches or so, and that seemed to be plenty. I also tried gooping in a little shot of vulkem before setting the pop rivet, and then sealing the head afterwards as well. I installed all these rivets with the inside skins off, so I also made sure everything was sealed from inside as well.