Floor replacement - Day Four

I only had one day last weekend to do work on the camper and I haven't had too much time to update since then.  The roof and box are now separated from the frame and floor.



Six lag screws and four smaller screws appeared to be holding the floor to the frame but once I started removing them I found only 4 good lag screws and the rest were rusted and sheared off.  Bad news is that two of the lag crews were in the rotted floor section.  Basically the whole camper was being held on the frame by weight, copper gas connections, hitch and brake wiring, and two lag screws!



I know it is overkill but here's the floor.

I was able to remove all of the floor missing here using only my hands since it was basically a mulch sponge.

I flipped the floor off the frame so that I could saw it up into smaller strips.  Much easier to handle.  I was surprised to find that the whole floor sheet was continuous and not multiple sheets.




Still looking confident...



The back 3 feet of floor that I removed by hand.

I cut in and installed some 6" speakers while I had the chance.

Speakers from the inside

Later on Monday I took the entire frame over to a local welder to sand down and re-paint.  Thinking about having a hitch receiver welded on the back of the frame for a bike carrier or cargo tray.  I also special ordered 3 sheets of 3/4" marine grade plywood for the new floor.  I am not going to reinstall the plastic sheet that was underneath the original floor.  It just held any moisture inside.  The plastic and vinyl flooring just made a big Ziploc bag.

This weekend I only plan on doing some cleaning of the heater and refrigerator now that I have them out and accessible.  The frame may be all done by this weekend as well.  The plywood is probably not going to be here in town until March 9.

Floor Replacement - Day 3 "Staple Sunday"

This afternoon we picked up where we left off removing the heater.  The flare fitting was hanging up a bit and I had to disconnect it under the floor and push it down so it wouldn't catch on anything.  The wires were connected with wire nuts and covered in electric tape and wedged between the heater and the wall between the heater and the electrical converter.  Those wires had to be fed through the hole into the electric section so I could disconnect them.  I labeled the wires as I took them apart so I know how to reconnect them.

Here's where the power from the hitch plug (Fat cable), battery and brake controller go through the floor.  Since there was already a splice before the hitch plug, we disconnected there and pulled that cable and the battery wire into the cabin through the floor.  We'll re-feed it after the box is replaced.  The brake controller and kill cable was connected by a wire nut and easily disconnected inside.  The gray wire from the brake kill cable had to be cut but it already had a splice.

I don't have many pictures of the next 2 hours since we basically kept finding additional screws and TONS of staples in the wheel wells.  This alone took the bulk of time.  We just kept testing and trying to identify where we had missed a screw or where some screw was covered by something added after the body was built.  Screws were under caulk, hidden by the plug for the refrigerator, under a backer board for that plug, etc. etc.  The people that build these do not plan on taking them apart and may be paid by the staple!

The lifting crew started arriving at about 3:30.  We had 6 people to make sure it held together and didn't flex too much.  The weight was not the issue.  Just bulkiness and trying to keep the movement and framing together.
 

I pre-positioned 2x- blocking to help support the areas that looked heaviest and also to protect the sidewalls which hand lower than the bench and cabinet floors.  I added more blocks and moved these after it was placed on the floor.



I think we were all so ready to see this thing come off that we didn't balance our lifting effort.  It came off the floor pretty easily.  I had previously run a putty knife under all of the parts that had been screwed down so there was only caulking or adhesive holding the walls to the edges of the floor.

The lift went really fast!

You can see the clamps and boards we used to hold the door wall together and we used clamps and the longer table at the back to provide a little bit more support.

The primary damaged spot.

This is a Styrofoam sheet that was under the refrigerator to keep it level I think. I disconnected the flare fitting from the refrigerator and then the one from the Tee that goes to the stove.

The two sections separated.  Will they ever meet again?  I hope so. Trips are being planned.

As you can see here there are many staples in the wheel well.  The ones going straight up were not the real problem it was the ones going horizontal and on the angled section of the wheel well that caused us problems. There were also many screws in each wheel well hidden by a thick layer of black caulking.

Here's the box on the garage floor with blocking.  I moved this blocking around once it was on the floor and added more wherever it seemed to sag a little bit.

Floor Replacement - Day Two

Day two... Much time has passed but the project begins again
The weather has gotten much much colder since I decided to take on this project but the springtime is coming and I have to get going with a little more urgency. Today was warmer with a lot of sun and about 40 degrees so the project continues.

Started by taking out triangle sections with the roof popped up.

Oh yeah, also took the front storage box off too.  It had a LOT of staples that were pretty rusty and obviously put in by someone who never thought of taking this thing apart.

 

Here's a better picture of the back floor damage



The front end roof came off easily but we didn't anticipate the upward pressure on the roof panel by the springs.  The cloth/vinyl strip ripped due to all the staples put in during assembly.

This piece held down the vinyl/cloth weatherproofing.  You should take these brackets and staples off before unscrewing the hinge to avoid tearing the seal.  The hinge is riveted to the roof panel so there is little choice but to remove the front and back panels to unscrew the hinge from the body.

The roof panels are easily lifted by two people.

 

Looking pretty confident.  Let's see how I look when I have to reassemble!

On the back roof section I applied some downward pressure to couteract the upward pressure by the springs.  Worked really well.  As you can see here just as the last screw came out the whole roof section came up evenly.

 

Roof and sides totally removed



As we pulled screws from anything that was attached to the floor we noticed many in the utility area that went straight through the floor.  The photo does not show it well but you can see daylight through the screw hole through the floor.

Rebuilding

Day One - The beginning of the floor replacement is here. Started stripping off various trim pieces and panels to see exactly what I am in for. See the Floor Replacement page

Floor replacement - Day one

Here you see the floor damaged by water leaks and now I have to replace it.  I have determined that the best idea is to somehow jack the body off the floor and then pull the floor and frame out to replace it.  Then I plan to join the two pieces again and re-caulk. Here we go!

I started by removing the trim pieces along the back of the camper

Here's the main area I found the leak.  The bottom strip was leaking at the back passenger side which led to all the screws being a pathway for more moisture flowing along the back curve like a sheet.  Once the floor material swelled the screws loosened more to allow more moisture in.  They were basically screwed into a sponge at some point.



You can see the duct tape residue from where I patched temporarily before doing this fix.



The beginning of the reveal of what exactly is under this panel.



The first look inside the back "hump"

Back panel disconnected but not removed yet.  I cut the wires to each light.  The wires were butt connected and I will probably replace with disconnectable crimped fittings.

Looks like a decent wall thickness for lifting the box off the frame.  I might bolt through the hole for the red running light wires (black).

 Here's the detail of the seal at the top edge seal.  This is a cloth/vinyl (?) material that is over the fiberglass back panel and under the metal strip at the top of the panel.  It is riveted under the hinge on the roof side.



Here's the floor//back wall interface.  You can see the floor is water damaged and flexible.



It looks like the bottom was covered by a fiber reinforced plastic.  That material is balck on one side and white on the other and stapled over the vinyl flooring material.  Ithink this is the same material they use in decorative ponds.

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The floor is moist enough to flex an inch or so away from the wall framing.

The sloped sides of the roof are hinged and the screws are accessible after removing the back panel.  I might remove those sloped roof sections to make the box lighter to remove.

 I had to remove the rear lights to get the panel off.  I will probably re-wire so these could be reconnected if necessary.



 Here's the passenger side with all of the bottom strips removed.