Repairing Floor Rot by the door on an Argosy

[Argosy man]

I had put off repairing the soft floor on both sides of the door in our 22' Argosy for a couple years. We are planning on attending a rally before Memorial Day next year and I figured people falling thru the floor during an Open House would probably be frowned upon -so now was the time to dig in.

Doing a frame-off or some major deconstruction that would take years to complete was out of the question. After spending years working opposite schedules with my wife we are now just getting back to using the trailer again and plan to continue.

This posting is not in real-time. I am well into the project and as I catch up in the forum to my actual work- the postings will slow down. I didn't want to post real-time because I had no clue what disasters I may unlock; and I had no interest in advertising total failure to the world

As it turns out, I was very fortunate in many respects- and I will note those as we go.

[Argosy man]

Here was my first look at the actual rot as I tore up the vinyl and exposed the subfloor underneath. I knew at this point that the one side of the dinette and the Refrigerator on the other side of the door would need to be removed.

[Argosy man]

Ripping out the rest of the vinyl and underlayment....

[Argosy man]

And here is the actual issue I am dealing with- It's pretty bad.

[bibbs]

I've seen worse. I know it is an overwhelming prospect to do a shell off. Butttt---in the Big picture it might be easier and quicker. If that area is that bad I would be surprised if there weren't any other problems. Although You could just patch that area for now, and plan on "the big job" some other time. Just put a cheep or nice but reusable floor down for now. I love those argosy's!

[Argosy man]

Since I put down the last floor- I can only blame myself for the hundreds of underlayment I'm still pulling

[Argosy man]

Next I pulled the side of the dinette next to the door. It was a puzzle figuring out how to get it apart- It turned out the front aluminum piece (that frames the drawers) can't be pulled out unless you pull out the other side of the dinette too. This is because the rivets are head side down and no way to drill them out. So obviously at manufacture the whole dinette center piece that covers the water tank was dropped in in one piece.

If you were worried about me throwing out what was left of the classic original carpet; there is still some of that beautiful stuff under the other side of the dinette.

Found a cool brochure that fell behind the water tank from a campground when this trailer was only 5 years old (1978). If I could still stay there for those prices now; I think we would have to sell the house

[Argosy man]

As I pulled the Refrigerator and the Dinette- I saw the extent of the rot; and fortunately 95% of it was contained within the 4' sheet of plywood centered perfectly on the door. That meant that when I cut out the rotten piece I landed on an outrigger for support on both sides for the new piece. That was a huge fist pump for me!

I set the circular saw to 5/8" deep (the thickness of the plywood) and cut a straight line beyond the rot about 17 1/2" into the trailer.

I knew from reading on the forums that the base floor fit into a channel around the outside of the trailer. I had waited so long to fix this, that removing the old floor from the channel was no problem- it was so soft it just pulled past the bolts and screws.

[Argosy man]

I had full intention when starting this that if I ran into rusted out outriggers- the trailer would be taken to my brothers for some welding. When the floor was opened up I was happy to see the frame and outriggers were solid. There was some pitting from rust- but nothing I was concerned about affecting the integrity of the trailer.

I wire brushed all the exposed frame and vacuumed it up. I have some POR 15 on hand- but the instructions really stress how clean the metal has to be (using their cleaners and conditioners). I had no intentions at this point (with all the exposed insulation) of introducing any water to this area- so I just wiped it down and gave any exposed frame/outrigger a good coat of Rustoleum.

When looking around; there was a broken spring hanging in the cavity- turned out to be the spring that locks the outside step in place when it is pushed up into travel position. For the past 15 years or so I have been relying on gravity to hold the lock in place- now its fixed

I am in the flooring business and had a 6"Wx28"Lx3/4" piece of solid maple laying around. I bolted that with 4 small carriage style bolts to the underside of the frame. Then I shimmed the other side up to frame height with strips of vinyl plank flooring, then ran long drywall screws thru the plywood and maple to brace up the center of the trailer floor. It worked so nice, it feels like a concrete floor- no give at all.

[TG Twinkie]

Looking good. When i was faced with a similar problem with my Argosy. I put a drain in both areas to let the water drain out instead of creeping across the floor causing rot.
As far as i could tell the water got in around the door and the door frame. Could have been a combination of the door leaking and the roof vent.

[Argosy man]

Wow- Great minds think alike Twinkie. While I had it opened up; it rained, and I noticed water creeping across the belly pan and standing in the section by the door -towards the front of the trailer. So it seemed to be a low spot in the belly pan where water would gather and soak the insulation. So like you- I put a drain in that section. Then I cut up a curve section of a plastic coffee can and fastened it over the drain to where the water was creeping in, so it no longer could get the insulation wet.

Of course the optimum solution would be to figure out how that water is getting on top of the belly pan; but I have been re caulking this trailer for the 20+ years we have owned it and haven't found it yet.

[Argosy man]

Here is the section re-insulated. I took special care to make sure the channel under the door was completely cleaned out of all debris and I cut off a couple staples that were sticking into the channel with cutting wheel on a 4 1/2" grinder. When the trailer was constructed you could tell that the wall panels were put on after the floor and they were curled up at the bottom where they hit the floor. When I pulled out that section of floor- the extra wall panel dropped about 3/16" down- in the way of the channel. I trimmed this up with tin snips and the cut off wheel.

Also, on a different subject- notice the section of floor that was under the refrigerator in the earlier pictures and now- that whole section and the wall was covered in road dirt/silt that was so thick I was scooping it up with a putty knife. It always bothered me that the vent for the fridge is wide open when traveling, sucking dirt into the trailer and coating our pots and pans in the next cabinet. For now, I washed it all down and coated it with Rustoleum Wood Saver. I will address the open vent later.

[Argosy man]

This was not my initial choice for what to replace the base floor with; but my original choice was not available in my area in a 5/8" thickness. So I settled on a smooth one side underlayment grade plywood. I cut it at 19" long so it would extend about 1 1/2" into the channel. I then cut notches in the side that was going into the channel to go around the door frame bolts and a couple screws hanging into the channel that I didn't feel right about just cutting off. I then took a belt sander and rounded the bottom edge of the board to ease the slide into the channel.

I could tell the channel had a bow to it and the tolerance was so close that I would really only have one shot at this. If the board only went partially into the channel; I would likely have to destroy the board to get it back out and start again.

Next I epoxied the top, bottom and all edges of the board. Now it was better than original. The original board lasted 44 years. If this one only lasts the same; I will be 101 years old. At that point, I will hire somebody else to do it

[Argosy man]

And here we go!

I used a tapping block and a light 16oz hammer and kept working it into the channel... and WALLA!

[Argosy man]

My solution to the always open refrigerator vent blowing road dust all over the trailer-

The Refrigerator sits on an iron platform about 3" tall. It has a toe kick on the front. I am remaking the toe kick anyway because it is in terrible shape. This time I will make it removable. I will label or write by the gas spark starter inside the fridge to "open the vent".

When we stop to camp, I will pull off the toe kick, reach underneath and slide the vent open.

I trimmed in the opening. Made a door out of heavy duty foam core board with a handle. The little piece of tile in front will keep the door from sliding open while moving.

[Argosy man]

The Dinette is reassembled.

I am waiting for a new electric thermostat for the refrigerator (about 3 weeks) before I can proceed further.

[lilsheepdog]

Totally unrelated and nothing but jealousy speaking but, I'd kill for those stairs for my Argo! She looks really good btw!

[Argosy man]

Since we have owned the trailer, the refrigerator has only worked on propane. I never made an attempt to fix it, because I knew it would need to be pulled out to work on it. Well, now was the time.

First let me say that- how the electric part of these old refrigerators work is REALLY simple. It is basically just 2 switches- (main (On-Off) switch and the thermostat) and a heating element. The fully encapsulated heating element reminds me of a soldering gun.

After years of being bathed in fine road silt and moisture from the always open refrigerator vent; it is no wonder that the electrical components died many years ago.

First thing I checked was the main switch- infinite ohms on and off. Replaced that.

Much reading on this forums lead me to believe the next target was the heating element. Very hard to find; since most people just buy a new refrigerator. I finally found one- installed it and it still didnt work

Last part left to replace was the thermostat. None to be found like the original; however, very easy to find a generic one. The only difference is that now the thermostat will be adjusted thru the rear access instead of inside the fridge.

It Works! Now the fridge gets reinstalled.

[Argosy man]

Catching up on my posts-

Foam underlayment installed. It is a thin memory foam pad with an attached moisture barrier. This is used under the floating, interlocking flooring we chose for the trailer.

I also ended up removing the end caps on both sides of the center couch/bed and the end cap on the other side of the dinette. This was to make the trim work on the floor a little easier by running the floor slightly under them. I wanted to use as little 1/4 round as possible to give it a cleaner/larger look.

[Argosy man]

This major project is done. We can use our Argosy at the Tin Can Tourist Rally at Camp Dearborn in May, then a week on the West Coast of Michigan in July. Next Fall/Winter I can jump into another one of the many projects I want to tackle with this trailer