Anyone interested in 83 Pace Arrow Tear down and Rebuild?

Looks to me a brace like an X could be used in a few areas. chevman

More work from today. Getting the passenger side and rear scaffolding in place.











Yes, before someone asks, I cannot get in the door with the scaffold there. I do have access through the large LR windows though. Actually had to use that feature already. Lol.

Since I am out of time tonight, I can't post some of the other pics I took today, so I'll try to get them up tomorrow.

PastorCharlie wrote:
So thus far the structure and any added weight by occupants will sit on 24 horizonal screws spanning 24 feet?

Well, when you put it that way, it sounds horrible! Lol.

This is just the beginning. I am not done supporting it yet. I wanted to get things in place all around the rv, and then finish my support structure.

Actually, I am glad you brought that up. That gives me an idea for a little test, on the strength of Kreg screws. May be a couple of days til done though.

Putting things into perspective ..... (drum roll please)!

Let's say we have 24 screws, and between the lumber and a person up there, lets say we have 600 lbs. 600 / 24 = 25 lbs per screw for a shear strength.

Since that weight won't be spread out over all 24 screws, if I am in the middle of the 8 footer or the 16 footer, we would have 16 screws. 600 / 16 = 37.5 lbs per screw for shear strength.

If we put all 600 lbs directly on top of 2 of the 2 x's, now we have 8 screws. 600 / 8 = 75 lbs per screw.

For shear strength, that doesn't sound all that excessive.

According to Rockler's website, shear strength has been tested on pocket hole joints - " Independent testing found that a pocket screw joint failed at 707 pounds when subjected to a shear load". That's from their web site, HERE.

So, with that in mind, I will test this within a few days, (I hope), and post the results.

Thanks for bringing that up.

So thus far the structure and any added weight by occupants will sit on 24 horizonal screws spanning 24 feet?

Finally I screwed the plywood to the top of the 16 foot long truss. That means I now have 24 feet of truss on the drivers side. I still need to add some additional bracing on the legs, but overall it's pretty stable already.

Then I added the second 16 foot truss, held up at the other end, and I screwed both of them to the end of the 8 foot long one.

Since I work alone, I needed 6 hands, but only had 2. I did manage to secure the first truss to the side wall of the coach, at the pilot's window.

Red arrow shows he 2 x 4 between the truss and the side wall, and the blue arrow is the clamp. Made things nice and sturdy. Wahoo!

Next was to add the first part of the 16 foot long truss. Since this is so long, I figured I need to "build" this in place, because of the weight, if this was assembled like the 8 foot long one.

As a result, I added the first truss, with a leg on the near end.

Ok, next up, is the beginning of putting up the scaffolding, so I can work on the roof.

This section is the first 8 foot section that I put together last night. I have 6 foot long 2 x 3's holding this up. One thing to note, I originally used 1-1/4" long screws through 1/2 inch thick plywood, to hold the plywood to the truss, and was not really happy with the results.

I then switched to 2-1/2 inch long screws, which went through the plywood and completely through the 2 x under the plywood, with only a little bit sticking out. That worked much better and seemed much more solid.

So, here's the first one in place.

Another wonderful rainy day, off and on today. I did finally manage to put a piece of plywood on top of a pair of my trusses and the platform is a very nice stable piece, just like I wanted.

Now the fun part comes, in trying to get a base underneath them, so the whole scaffold is nice and stable. Yeehaw!