Month: April 2017

I continue to make progress on Sparta’s subfloor.  You may recall that I am pulling and replacing  those sections of the floor with water damage.  Those areas not afflicted by dryrot and/or insects are remarkably solid and can be left alone.  Others where slight damage occurred I treated with “Rot Fix” and appear to be in good shape (as covered in detail in an earlier entry).

To summarize, I did the following:

1.  Pulled the damaged flooring and old insulation.
2. Painstakingly pulled all the machine bolts which affixed the old floor to the frame (many were stubborn).
3. Throughly swept the belly pan (as far as my small broom would reach) free of decades of accumulated dust.
4.  Wire-brushed the steel sub-frame of rust damage (it was slight and superficial).
5. Sprayed the frame with Krylon – Rust Converter to protect against future corrosion.
6. Affixed 1 X 4″ pine strips to frame to provide a base for new subfloor (these were treated with Copper Green).
7. Carefully measured and cut a 3/4″ thick piece of decking plywood for patch (also treated with Copper Green.  Hey, I’m in this for the long haul).

To follow are some pictures of the forward left corner where total replacement was necessary:

Slightly rusted steel tends to accompany water-damaged floor. Both need attention.

Before I attempt the difficult task of squeezing the tombstone-shaped piece of plywood in between the frame and the aluminum body (which literally sits atop the wood floor), I must make a decision about floor insulation.  To be continued…

This stuff smells nasty. Be sure to apply in well-venilated area.

Good day after Easter,  Passover or whatever you happen to observe.  I am looking forward to a couple day’s off and am heading down to Sparta to continue the process of buttoning up  the floor.  I will have much more to report by week’s end.  In the meantime,  let’s remember why we’re doing this and what the end goal is:

I love it! Box camera, beach ball, fashionable swimwear – all viewed from the observation deck of the Spartan to the upper right.

Yes, the ladies love trailers.

So, back to the trailer.  Having satisfactorily tested my triple-tank fresh water theory and cleared a path for their installation, I had to think about securing these 21 gallon vessels.  Once filled, the tanks will weigh 174 lbs. each and clearly cannot just sit atop the belly skin with little to support them.  So I purchased 20+ feet of heavy-duty water heater straps and fashioned slings draped from the steel cross members.

Now I should mention here that there was a fair amount of preparation required to get the spaces under the old sub-floor ready for these tanks.  For one, the top side of the belly skin was extremely dirty.  Sixty years of road grime and dirt, kicked up on the dusty trail, had accumulated.  Check this out:

An 1/8″ thick layer of dust breaks up like an Arctic ice floe during a Spring thaw.

Once this grime was removed,  I found jagged screws pointing up from the belly skin where it had been stitched together.  Obviously,  these had to go, lest my carefully nestled water tanks get pierced,  leaving me dry and parched in the wilderness.  So they were repaced with nuts and bolts which I dropped down from the top of the skin.  Problem solved.

Pointy screws. No bueno for plastic tanks.