Help with C channel crushed -- dry rotted plywood

[Tony S]

Hey folks,


Well no shortage of challenges getting the frame prepped for the new sub floor.

In a couple of places up by the galley the c channel has “crushed down to about ½” opening and in one place lower portion crack where it made contact with out rigger. This happened I surmise when the plywood was dry rotting.

I have not found a previous post on this although I suspect there is some. Has anyone dealt with this before. I figured I could chamfer the plywood a bit, forming a wedge and pound it in and hopefully open it back up. May be a stretch, no pun intended. Any thoughts or suggestions would sure be appreciated.

Thanks

Tony

[Bill M.]

I have done that on small area patches of my floor. seemed to work fine. wood does not dry rot. it rotted because it was wet for a long period of time. so be sure you fix the leaks that caused it. the c channels seem to collect and hold water.

[Tony S]

Dry rot is a misnomer. It requires high moister,as you indicated, to grow and decay and destroy wood. It is fungi.

Here are a couple of pics

I hope to slightly wedge the plywood edge and pound in, like I said. It seem like part of the cause is a slightly high out rigger.

Any body deal with this before? Any good ideas?

Tony

[Dixie722]

I am in to a 69 safari.. Mine does not seem to have this channel..I have no space for plywood to go under the c channel.the aluminum sides come down to the floor, cant jack it up to get the plywood under it.. am I seeing something wrontg? thanks, Richard

[Kyle401]

Originally Posted by Dixie722

I am in to a 69 safari.. Mine does not seem to have this channel..I have no space for plywood to go under the c channel.the aluminum sides come down to the floor, cant jack it up to get the plywood under it.. am I seeing something wrontg? thanks, Richard

The older trailers don't have the lower channel that the plywood fits into. I'm not sure when it was added.

[Dixie722]

I could not figure out how this was going to work. it was either lift the body or create something.. now I can attack and just butt the plywood to the channel. yay...

[Tony S]

Do you have pictures you could post?

Tony

[Dixie722]

I still cant figure out how to post pictures, but I took some this morning,, I can email them if you think that o k..

[DanB]

This past weekend I removed the rear floor that consisted of 5/8" flake board in the C channel. It was EXTREMELY tight.

The flake board was actually rabbeted down about 3/16" of an inch to fit in the channel by the factory. I suspect I'll be doing the same to get the new in. Time to pull out the router.

[Tony S]

Dixie722
After you hit reply ( or a new thread) You have the title then message and below additional options you will Mange attachments click on that a box will open and then you need to choose your file that contains the picture you want to post. Click on it than it goes back to the box and you can do it again up to 4 times. You then hit upload and wait. After done you can repeat and do another 4. It can take a little while. A problem, if you have done this, could be the picture size is too big.

Anyway I am no expert but that might help.

Tony

[Kevin245]

Originally Posted by Dixie722

I still cant figure out how to post pictures, but I took some this morning

Here is a link to a post in the How Thread that should help.

Forums 101 - posting, accounts, basics - Airstream Forums

Kevin

[Protohyp]

Posting pictures for dixie722

[Tony S]

To follow up with what I did after the sanding, grinding and Por 15 of the frame.

Did have a bit of a struggle getting the plywood in the c channel. It came out well in the end.

I ended up rabbeting an 1/8" off the 3/4" figure this would be just fine since some trailer have 5/8" though out. I also broke the corners a bit. Ended up having to brace the outer wall of trailer to keep it straight while we pounded the plywood in. I did soak the end grain with MAS epoxy as well as some of the perimeter in varying amounts depending on location. I will probably be soaking the whole floor with penetrating epoxy.

Also notice the 7/8 half lap joint. I did as much of a full spread with Titebond three glue as I could get a one inch brush to do. It is stronger than the wood itself, flexible, and water proof.

Now comes lots of prep. (and money) to install Marmoleum. I have surely found out once you invest time and money doing a thing right you can't stop going down that road. I am way deeper than I thought but there is a great deal of satisfaction and anticipation in the work.

Tony