5th wheel rebuild from major water damage
The Before part 2. The duct tape was used to get it home from Oklahoma in January. It is a 2006 5th wheel 32' bunkhouse. Bad repair job from previous owner They used close to an inch thic...
Forum Discussion
We finally decided that the RV had won. It was beyond our ability to know how to fix the problem we had created. We had to call a professional.
Knowing how much time we had already put into the 5th wheel we weren't looking forward to a huge repair bill to get it put all pulled apart and put back together. But we just didn't know what else to do. Around here RV repair shops charge $150+ an hour so it could add up to thousands of dollars really quick. Plus we just hate the thought that we had to give up and pay someone to fix it. Something no DIYer likes to do :(
Also they don't make house calls somehow we would have to get the RV to the repair place while still being torn apart.
Craigslist to the rescue!
We happened to come across an RV repair guy with lots of experience who also made house calls! When he came he said our problem was we were out of square. He recommended we cut back the framing to make it match the angle of the siding. (I should have posted this problem on this board before we made the call as others here have said the same thing)
He assured us that removing this small amount of wood would not greatly reduce the strength of the entire structure. This was partially because there is actually two layers of faming on the sides. The part we were skiving down was glued, screwed and stapled to the wall stud framing directly behind it. He said if it was in his shop that is what he would do. So that's what we did.
The RV pro recommended using an oscillating saw to do the cutting because you could be very precise. Then finish up with a belt sander. Neither tool of which we owned. Our contractor neighbor to the rescue! Side note here, we tried early on to convince him to work on the RV but he basically said he wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole! (smart guy) Thankfully he let us use several of his tools. We feel honored to be good enough neighbors that a contractor will lend us his tools.
Anyway, the oscillating saw didn't really give us the results we wanted, it ended up pretty jagged in some spots. This was mostly because we couldn't get the saw flat enough long enough as there was framing in the way. Perhaps if we would have had a longer blade or maybe not standing on a ladder 6 feet in the air or perhaps being more experienced with said saw. It was so sensitive it had a mind of its own sometimes. Cool tool though, putting it on the list of tools to buy just because we don't have it.
The sawzall wasn't much better. The siding was in the way and we worried about damaging it with the sawzall. So we just did the best we could. If I was doing this again (reality check, NEVER!) but if someone else was to want to do this I would recommend just using the belt sander from the start. It was much easier and gave a better result. Just buy some extra coarse sand paper and grind it all down until you get to where you want to be.
It really did work just as planned! We got the wood to line up with the siding just about perfectly. It looked a little rough in some spots but overall we were happy with the results.
Knowing how much time we had already put into the 5th wheel we weren't looking forward to a huge repair bill to get it put all pulled apart and put back together. But we just didn't know what else to do. Around here RV repair shops charge $150+ an hour so it could add up to thousands of dollars really quick. Plus we just hate the thought that we had to give up and pay someone to fix it. Something no DIYer likes to do :(
Also they don't make house calls somehow we would have to get the RV to the repair place while still being torn apart.
Craigslist to the rescue!
We happened to come across an RV repair guy with lots of experience who also made house calls! When he came he said our problem was we were out of square. He recommended we cut back the framing to make it match the angle of the siding. (I should have posted this problem on this board before we made the call as others here have said the same thing)
He assured us that removing this small amount of wood would not greatly reduce the strength of the entire structure. This was partially because there is actually two layers of faming on the sides. The part we were skiving down was glued, screwed and stapled to the wall stud framing directly behind it. He said if it was in his shop that is what he would do. So that's what we did.
The RV pro recommended using an oscillating saw to do the cutting because you could be very precise. Then finish up with a belt sander. Neither tool of which we owned. Our contractor neighbor to the rescue! Side note here, we tried early on to convince him to work on the RV but he basically said he wouldn't touch it with a 10' pole! (smart guy) Thankfully he let us use several of his tools. We feel honored to be good enough neighbors that a contractor will lend us his tools.
Anyway, the oscillating saw didn't really give us the results we wanted, it ended up pretty jagged in some spots. This was mostly because we couldn't get the saw flat enough long enough as there was framing in the way. Perhaps if we would have had a longer blade or maybe not standing on a ladder 6 feet in the air or perhaps being more experienced with said saw. It was so sensitive it had a mind of its own sometimes. Cool tool though, putting it on the list of tools to buy just because we don't have it.
The sawzall wasn't much better. The siding was in the way and we worried about damaging it with the sawzall. So we just did the best we could. If I was doing this again (reality check, NEVER!) but if someone else was to want to do this I would recommend just using the belt sander from the start. It was much easier and gave a better result. Just buy some extra coarse sand paper and grind it all down until you get to where you want to be.
It really did work just as planned! We got the wood to line up with the siding just about perfectly. It looked a little rough in some spots but overall we were happy with the results.
