Topic: Because one cannot have too many projects I started another

[Bankerdanny]

While I am in the process of rebuilding the transmission for our tow vehicle, I also started the interior repairs to the camper this weekend.

We have a 2008 Rockwood Roo 233 hybrid camper. It looks like a conventional camper, but the beds fold out to the exterior of the camper similar to beds on a popup. So it actually has 2 queen size beds, one at the front, one at the back, and one that folds out the side near the back. It has a regular kitchen with a 3 burner stove and oven and a microwave. The empty weight is about 4200lbs and the GVW is about 4800 lbs.

When we bought it last fall we knew it had some damage to the floor. The seller said he had a pipe freeze and crack then leak all over when it thawed. One of the Spring projects is to repair the floor, which turned out to be a larger job than I had anticipated (who could have guessed that).

The floor damage in the front 3rd of the trailer is pretty extensive and I going to have to replace most of it.

The Roo is very light due to using a lot of aluminum and having a floor made of a sandwich of 1/4" plywood and styrofoam board. There is also a sheet of water resistant cloth that runs along the whole bottom of the trailer. Between the aluminum floor joists, and on top of the cloth is a glued together plywood/foam/plywood sandwich. Then there is another layer of plywood that sits on top of the joists and is glued to the sandwich pieces. Once the floor gets wet the plywood starts to delaminate and you get soft spots.

The only way to really fix it is to remove everything down to the cloth and make new replacements. The pain in the ass part is that the cloth is adhered to the bottom piece of plywood and so removing all the top layers is easy, but it leaves the bottom behind and you have to scrape the remaining wood off the cloth or else you are just leaving wet wood behind to damage your new wood.

I can get replacement cloth from Amazon, so i think i am just going to order some and cut away the old stuff and not bother trying to scrape it off. This will save me hours of work. Plus I plan to coat the bottom piece with a roll on rubber waterproofing membrane intended for use on shower walls before you put up tile. I think this will make the wood much less likely to get damaged in the future.

The first picture is our camper. The other 2 were pulled from the internet to show the beds open.

[Bankerdanny]

We pulled up the vinyl on the floor and here is what we found.

[Bankerdanny]

Yesterday I started to remove the wet floor. I am including a picture of the sandwich too.

[grcamna2]

Good to see that you're ripping that old floor out'a there
I don't see the sandwich 

[Don R]

 Truck bedliner might work well on the bottom too.

[Gurp]

This title really describes my issue. Trying to solve it.
Good luck to anyone else who constantly does this to them selves.

[Bankerdanny]

I am close to finishing the floor project.

The original construction was a 1/4" layer of plywood attached to the bottom of 1 1/2" square aluminum tubing floor joists, then 1.5" of Styrofoam insulation in the cavity, then a 1/4" plywood top layer over the top of the joists attached to the joists and foam via contact cement. A layer of waterproofing fabric was bonded to the bottom of the plywood under the trailer. So slightly different than what I described in my earlier post.

On my trailer various leaks over the years had saturated the top and bottom layers of wood causing them to soften and rot resulting in soft spots in the floor. The damage was significant in the front of the trailer, so I replaced everything in the first 3 sections of floor. behind that the floor was mostly solid, so I did spot repairs.

Because I don't have the ability to put full size sheets of plywood on the bottom of the joists what I am doing is attaching angled aluminum to the joists with aluminum rivets and then setting the bottom layer of plywood on those with some construction adhesive to help provide strength. I am using 15/32 ground contact rated pressure treated plywood for extra strength and water resistance, then 1" of pink foam insulation (denser than the white foam originally used glued to the plywood with contact adhesive, so should improve the feel of the floor) then I will top with 1/4" plywood over the top of the joists like it was originally. I will also run a bunch of 2" construction screws down through the floor to pull all the sections tighter together.

I should also mention that one of the joists was cracked in 2 places. it has 3 foot wide, 1/8" 1.5" angle aluminum attached on both sides of the joist. It should be stronger than original now.

Finally instead of sheet vinyl we are putting down click together waterproof vinyl floor, which will add some weight, but look better.

Yesterday I completed the bottom 2 layers of the three full width sections and most of the prep for two approximately half width sections. A 3rd section was completed a couple weeks ago. Sunday I will finish the 2 open sections, install the top layer and hopefully begin to put down the new finish floor. We are planning to bring the camper to Michigan next weekend, where it will stay for the Summer. So it is definitely crunch time. Once the floor is down the furniture needs to be reattached, the water system put back together and then it need to be tested.

[grcamna2]

Danny,you plan on vacationing in Michigan with the trailer ?
How's your Envoy transmission ?

[Bankerdanny]

With fuel prices through the roof we just decided to park the camper at a campground we really like near LawrencevilleLawrence/Paw Paw.

The Envoy has been on hold while I get the trailer finished. I will end up towing it up with the pickup I borrowed last Fall when we bought the camper or with my brother-in-law's Suburban. I will sort out the Envoy in June when I don't have to worry about the camper so that it will be available when it is time to bring it back to Chicago at the end of August.

[ekpent]

No Ville in Lawrenceville just Lawrence. Dang Chicago people ! 

[Bankerdanny]

No Ville in Lawrenceville just Lawrence. Dang Chicago people ! 

LOL, I caught myself when I said Lawrenceville when talking to a co-worker yesterday and missed it when I did my post here. I am planning on coming to Gilmore for the show next month. Since the camper will already be close by I will just trailer the bike up then ride over Saturday and Sunday. My girlfriend will likely come one of the days with the pugs.

[ekpent]

No Ville in Lawrenceville just Lawrence. Dang Chicago people ! 

LOL, I caught myself when I said Lawrenceville when talking to a co-worker yesterday and missed it when I did my post here. I am planning on coming to Gilmore for the show next month. Since the camper will already be close by I will just trailer the bike up then ride over Saturday and Sunday. My girlfriend will likely come one of the days with the pugs.

Maybe we can all get together for a little longer ride this year Danny.

[Bankerdanny]

No Ville in Lawrenceville just Lawrence. Dang Chicago people ! 

LOL, I caught myself when I said Lawrenceville when talking to a co-worker yesterday and missed it when I did my post here. I am planning on coming to Gilmore for the show next month. Since the camper will already be close by I will just trailer the bike up then ride over Saturday and Sunday. My girlfriend will likely come one of the days with the pugs.

Maybe we can all get together for a little longer ride this year Danny.

Definitely. I will reach out to you and Sean the week before the show to set something up assuming the bike is running right. I have some maintenance to do on it.

[Bankerdanny]

Finished getting the subfloor down yesterday. Tonight and tomorrow night will be about getting the new top floor installed. Then hopefully Wednesday reinstall the furniture and hook up the water lines and test everything. Lots to do in a short time. The piece at the top of the photo had to be cut into 2 pieces for me to get it in, but I don't think it will have a negative impact on strength.

[Bankerdanny]

Got a big chunk of the final floor put down last night. hopefully the rest goes down tonight.

[grcamna2]

Got a big chunk of the final floor put down last night. hopefully the rest goes down tonight.

Danny,I know this doesn't have anything to do with the floor(that new flooring looks good !)but I want to ask how's the springs/suspension in the camper:leaf springs,does it feel nice and firm when you're walking around on it ?
I ask because I've walked around inside a camper/trailer before and it felt like the whole trailer was moving around.
I imagine yours has those jacks on the corners of the trailer ?

[ekpent]

 As to that question one thing I have learned in the past camping  is 'if the trailer is a rockin' don't come a knockin' !'   

[Bankerdanny]

Danny,I know this doesn't have anything to do with the floor(that new flooring looks good !)but I want to ask how's the springs/suspension in the camper:leaf springs,does it feel nice and firm when you're walking around on it ?
I ask because I've walked around inside a camper/trailer before and it felt like the whole trailer was moving around.
I imagine yours has those jacks on the corners of the trailer ?

We bought it at the end of last Fall and moved it right into storage, so we haven't camped in it yet. But my experience while working on it is that it definitely does move just walking around inside. The corner stabilizers are more to deal with up and down movement than back and forth. I will be using wheel chocks to try and limit fore and aft movement. They also make chocks for double axle trailers that work like scissor jacks fir in between the tires to also limit movement.

Once we have a weekend under our belts we can see if we need something more than standard triangle chocks.

[RAFster122s]

If you are going to park it all summer you may wish to put a set of substantial jack stands under all four corners and with the tongue on a block to support it. Basically get the tires off the ground. It will take a more substantial jack to do that, but you will be much more solid without the give… Just don’t try to do acrobatics in the trailer and knock it off the jack stands… haha

So, no swinging from the rafters, alright?

It is a good idea to cover your tires to prevent UV damage as well. Even Michigan has UV damage to the tires eventually. Down here the sun bakes the plasticizers and the ozone kills the rubber on tires that sit, then the heat does the job of finishing them off. That’s why my Vstrom didn’t get over 4000 miles on its original tires because the storage building would see 140-160F on hot days and we have had two record summers baking the snot out of my tires and motorcycles.
The sun here is brutal year round. No humidity outside of a rainy day , rare, or during monsoon season then the heat and humidity of 50-60% is awful. No humidity or moisture in the air to absorb the UV and you get burnt to a crisp easily by the intense sun of the southern latitudes of the SW AZ desert.
Fortunately, I have adjusted like most to avoid the sun and seek shade, so other than moving in day when I got a burn 2.5 years ago at the end of October ‘19 I have only had a mild sunburn maybe 2 times since.
Siesta and planning your day around avoiding the peak heat are the way to live in extreme heat and intense sun. I can’t stand visiting Phoenix when it is 120+ and it was those kinds of temps a lot last year.  Here we had over 100 days of 100+ heat and I forget how many days of 105 or higher consecutively, records were set. Shaping up to do the same. I am trying to acclimate to the heat more this year and they think it is going to be scorching and dry for several years. Last year we had some record rain fall but is was all had in two months that were not consecutive and the ground doesn’t absorb a lot of water, so lots of flash flooding and runoff when we have heavy rains. Guess it is the price we pay for so much sunshine and nice weather in winter.
I’ll trade those things for what we have, having lived in temperate snowy regions of Ohio, NE TN and W NC for many years I prefer the hot dry heat.

Glad to see you working on the trailer and getting it prepped and repaired. Don’t be afraid to use Elastomeric roof coating on your exterior roof as it does a nice job reflecting heat and holds up for about 5 years for the cheaper stuff and can hold up longer for the more quality stuff. Helped friends apply it as we predominately have a lot of flat roof structures/houses and it is a common coating to use. White reflects the heat and it works well. Tile roofs are popular as are metal roofs, but the cost and expense of both… the bats can make homes under tile roof and it is a serious problem that is expensive to fix.
Ah, life in the SW…I love the desert.
Without a cooling vest 90F and above wouldn’t be possible  to ride in the summer.

David

[Bankerdanny]

If you are going to park it all summer you may wish to put a set of substantial jack stands under all four corners and with the tongue on a block to support it. Basically get the tires off the ground. It will take a more substantial jack to do that, but you will be much more solid without the give… Just don’t try to do acrobatics in the trailer and knock it off the jack stands… haha

So, no swinging from the rafters, alright?

It is a good idea to cover your tires to prevent UV damage as well. Even Michigan has UV damage to the tires eventually. Down here the sun bakes the plasticizers and the ozone kills the rubber on tires that sit, then the heat does the job of finishing them off. That’s why my Vstrom didn’t get over 4000 miles on its original tires because the storage building would see 140-160F on hot days and we have had two record summers baking the snot out of my tires and motorcycles.
The sun here is brutal year round. No humidity outside of a rainy day , rare, or during monsoon season then the heat and humidity of 50-60% is awful. No humidity or moisture in the air to absorb the UV and you get burnt to a crisp easily by the intense sun of the southern latitudes of the SW AZ desert.
Fortunately, I have adjusted like most to avoid the sun and seek shade, so other than moving in day when I got a burn 2.5 years ago at the end of October ‘19 I have only had a mild sunburn maybe 2 times since.
Siesta and planning your day around avoiding the peak heat are the way to live in extreme heat and intense sun. I can’t stand visiting Phoenix when it is 120+ and it was those kinds of temps a lot last year.  Here we had over 100 days of 100+ heat and I forget how many days of 105 or higher consecutively, records were set. Shaping up to do the same. I am trying to acclimate to the heat more this year and they think it is going to be scorching and dry for several years. Last year we had some record rain fall but is was all had in two months that were not consecutive and the ground doesn’t absorb a lot of water, so lots of flash flooding and runoff when we have heavy rains. Guess it is the price we pay for so much sunshine and nice weather in winter.
I’ll trade those things for what we have, having lived in temperate snowy regions of Ohio, NE TN and W NC for many years I prefer the hot dry heat.

Glad to see you working on the trailer and getting it prepped and repaired. Don’t be afraid to use Elastomeric roof coating on your exterior roof as it does a nice job reflecting heat and holds up for about 5 years for the cheaper stuff and can hold up longer for the more quality stuff. Helped friends apply it as we predominately have a lot of flat roof structures/houses and it is a common coating to use. White reflects the heat and it works well. Tile roofs are popular as are metal roofs, but the cost and expense of both… the bats can make homes under tile roof and it is a serious problem that is expensive to fix.
Ah, life in the SW…I love the desert.
Without a cooling vest 90F and above wouldn’t be possible  to ride in the summer.

David
David

Fortunately the spot where we will be parked for the summer is very shady, there will be almost no direct sunshine on the camper. Even though the roof doesn't leak, I did plan on giving it a clean and a fresh coat of rubber. But the weather this spring was just #$%*. Cold and rainy and the time just didn't align for me to do a fresh seal on the roof.

Tire covers are definitely on the list of things to do. I should have put them on when I put into storage last fall.

I have a stand for the tongue already. I may opt to add the screw up jack stand style stabilizers on the corners to supplement the built in ones. I would really like to upgrade to Strong Arm reinforcing supports, which are like panhard bars for camper jacks, but they are pricey and my budget this year just won't support it after all the money I have spent on the transmission for my tow vehicle. I do plan to use some of my scrap pressure treated wood to make a support for under the bottom step so that I can relieve the stress of the stairs on the frame floor. I am not a featherweight any more and even with the added support I built in they still flex more than I would like. You can buy adjustable struts for that, and they aren't expensive, but I have lots of scrap so there is no good reason to spend money.

[Bankerdanny]

Here is today's update.

Last night my brother-in-law convinced me to fix the first few rows which I had put down backwards. I had caught the mistake 3 rows in and most of that part of the floor was going to be under a couch, but there was an obvious gap right inside the door and a slightly raised edge that would eventually have chipped (see the circled parts in the photos). So everything came back up and was reoriented the correct way and put back down. Now the joints are nice and tight, especially inside the door where traffic will be high. I have the whole front 1/2 of the camper floor down and just the back half is mostly hallway and the bathroom, but there are some tricky angles. I did a test fit of the furniture back in place too.

[grcamna2]

Danny,that looks good parked in the woods;away from the traffic and back to nature 

[Bankerdanny]

Danny,that looks good parked in the woods;away from the traffic and back to nature 

It is a really nice campground. Family owned and very well maintained. Super clean bathroom/shower house.

The past 2 years it has been mostly adults when we were there and at most 50% occupied. It will be interesting to see if it is busier this year.

[Bankerdanny]

More work last night. I didn't finish the floor yet. I had to pick up a couple more boxes of floor, which is a Home Depot house brand. I bought them at a different store than where I bought the other 4, and when I went to use them it was a shade darker with a much more pronounced grain. I returned them this morning on my way to work at my local store where we had bought the previous boxes and picked up replacements. I brought a sample with me just to make sure it matches perfectly, so I will finish tonight. I think I only have one complex cut left to go around the bathroom door frame and the rest of the floor is just straight lines.

I also managed to get the drain plug out of the water heater using the air impact. Unfortunately the anode rod that came with the camper turns out to not be the correct thread diameter and of course the short RV size anodes aren't available at the local home improvement store. There are several RV supply places in the Chicago area, but none are convenient to get to and most close at 5pm. I will never understand businesses that serve the general public rather than the trades that are open during standard office hours. Who do they think their customers are and do they think customers have no issue taking time off from work in the middle of the day to come to them? /end rant.

I will leave the plug in for now since it won't hurt the heater to not have an anode for a short while and order what I need.

[BenelliSEI]

Looks good and you know it’s done right.