Outriggers

[Nolehoe]

Looks like some of my outriggers on the door side of my '75 31' Sovereign are down. I have about a 1" gap between the bottom of the wheel well and belly pan. Haven't pulled the pan off yet. Has anybody encountered this? How are the outriggers attached?

[Melody Ranch]

The out riggers are welded to the frame. I can't picture your dilemma....got photos?

[Nolehoe]

Unfortunately no and its currently at my parents house. I'm thinking the outriggers bent or the welds gave way.

[Belegedhel]

The outriggers are pretty firmly attached with welds. I would be more inclined to believe that the entire outrigger has rusted away. You won't need to drop the whole pan, as the belly skin panels that go from the frame rails to the shell along the sides are individual pieces, but you will have to remove this section to see what is going on. Prepare yourself for a real horror show.

good luck!

[Nolehoe]

My dad pulled the "side"pan if front of the wheels and said the outriggers were in good shape, the shell has some how come loose from the outriggers

[Belegedhel]

Are you saying that the shell came unattached from the outriggers, or that the belly pan has come off of the outriggers?

There should be a fairly stout "elevator" bolt that fastens the tip of each outrigger to the C-channel that is attached to the base of the shell wall, sandwiching the subfloor between the two. It is not unheard of for these elevator bolts to rust through. You will need to remove the lowermost interior skin, at least partially, to see the top half of the elevator bolt. I'm suprprised that if you see a 1" gap as mentioned in your first post, that you aren't seeing other dramatic signs of trouble--sounds like your shell could be rattling around loose.

[Nolehoe]

Yes, the shell appears to have become unattached from the outriggers and I did have some signs of trouble on the interior of camper, the storage over the bed on that side (mid bed) is unattached on one side and the closet in the bathroom on that side has damage to the top of the door

[Belegedhel]

This disconnection (and falling cabinetry) is a bad sign of bigger problems. If the bolts rusted through and allowed the separation, then you must have some seriously rotted subfloor and a nice leak to go with it. The fact that the separation is occurring near a wheel well also portends an axle issue. If you haven't already replaced axles, then it is likely that you will be doing so in the near future. It could be that your torsion axles have no elasticity left in them, and the hard suspension is giving your trailer a beating every time you take it down the road.

[Nolehoe]

I finally got to look at it myself today, outrigger infront of the wheel is bent a little and the aluminum angle has failed on the end.behind the wheels told the real story, looks like ran over something our put the wheels in a ditch our some other type accident which bent the outriggers. Previous owner didn't bother to repair the damage, didn't even straighten out the pan.they just put another piece of aluminum over the damaged pan and bent up outriggers.

[Nolehoe]

Sorry, that last post doesn't read very well posting with my phone which likes to "correct" what you type