Assessing water damage in wooden camper
Hi all, brand new 1966 Travel Queen waiting for full assessment. Jacks on order and plan is to get it off the truck once they arrive, but shipping time means it won't happen this weekend. I've read...
Forum Discussion
Yes, I am so currently occupied I am not working Lil' Queeny right now - must wait until later in summer or perhaps another winter.
Regarding tiedowns - since you are ready, I'll spill my beans. Here's my plan.
All four corners have interior access. In my case, only the right front is "in the room" (dinette) the others are buried in cabinetry. In cabinetry locations, regular bolts and nuts are ok. In the dinette corner I plan to use a captured nut, welded flush into a bracket (so as NOT to dig into your butt when sitting at the dinette).
All four exterior corners receive a normal style "angle" bracket. Basic normal length (16" I think) and wide enough on sides and on back/front walls to extend beyond structure framing to allow a bolt pass through into an interior bracket, but not so wide as to interfere with water fill, marker reflectors, etc. You'll have to evaluate your own camper distances in these corners to position an exterior bracket. Aluminum angle will be used on mine and I have planned exterior accessories to accommodate the bracket sizes.
Keep in mind I am building a corner jack mount and tie-down combo. If you only need tie-downs, you might need to adapt the idea.
Now to the interior. Same idea, interior angle (alum or iron, probably iron for welding reasons). This bracket is sized to match up to the exterior bracket for through bolts and nuts.
But for tie-downs, onto this interior bracket is welded another angle iron (1.5") to fit around the previously mentioned 2x2. So vertical angle iron is upright and in corner of the interior wall, horizontal angle iron is wrapped around 2x2, ends of vertical and horizontal meet and are welded. New bracket is now an L shape.
Final step is to weld in a gusset. This gusset is a triangular piece of iron in the elbow of the L shape. Just maintains a 90 degree L shape.
The lower part of the L (horizontal) extends long enough forward (or back) from the inside corners to place a proper tiedown location. In my case it is only about 6" (so angle is 7.5" or so).
I got my 6" based on exactly locating my camper in the truck (in my mind) and finding a spot on the truck bed rail that was appropriate to proper tie-down angle for my tie-down product (I use the "frame-mounted" Happi-jacs because I dislike the "hang-lows" of the other brand - and mostly because my campers are light weight enough to do so).
Then a tie-down eye-bolt can drop from the camper framing through the bracket, the 2x2, the wing plywood, with another sandwiching below the wing (maybe a 3"x 3" x 1/4" alum plate"). And the dinette bracket then has captured nuts welded in both vertical and horizontal members on the correct side of the bracket to prevent damage to cushions, etc. and of course bolts are cut to proper length and ends are smoothed.
What this all does is connect the tie-down force to the camper full corner framing (wing, side-wall, back/front wall) with bolts and nuts instead of lag screws into framing). Same with a jack mount. AND places the tie-down not just in proper position front to rear, but extending out far enough on the left and right without adding leverage to destroy the wing by connecting to the Travel Queen under grid jack mount assembly.
Remember, tie-downs are snug, but not OVER tight. There's a science here! Gravity holds the camper in, Tie-downs just keep it from shifting. The truck bed must be allowed to flex some without flexing your camper apart. So depending on your truck, I'd use the "spring loaded" style in some form, not simply a traditional rigid turnbuckle design.
Don't forget to search for "camper magleby report".
Good luck!
Regarding tiedowns - since you are ready, I'll spill my beans. Here's my plan.
All four corners have interior access. In my case, only the right front is "in the room" (dinette) the others are buried in cabinetry. In cabinetry locations, regular bolts and nuts are ok. In the dinette corner I plan to use a captured nut, welded flush into a bracket (so as NOT to dig into your butt when sitting at the dinette).
All four exterior corners receive a normal style "angle" bracket. Basic normal length (16" I think) and wide enough on sides and on back/front walls to extend beyond structure framing to allow a bolt pass through into an interior bracket, but not so wide as to interfere with water fill, marker reflectors, etc. You'll have to evaluate your own camper distances in these corners to position an exterior bracket. Aluminum angle will be used on mine and I have planned exterior accessories to accommodate the bracket sizes.
Keep in mind I am building a corner jack mount and tie-down combo. If you only need tie-downs, you might need to adapt the idea.
Now to the interior. Same idea, interior angle (alum or iron, probably iron for welding reasons). This bracket is sized to match up to the exterior bracket for through bolts and nuts.
But for tie-downs, onto this interior bracket is welded another angle iron (1.5") to fit around the previously mentioned 2x2. So vertical angle iron is upright and in corner of the interior wall, horizontal angle iron is wrapped around 2x2, ends of vertical and horizontal meet and are welded. New bracket is now an L shape.
Final step is to weld in a gusset. This gusset is a triangular piece of iron in the elbow of the L shape. Just maintains a 90 degree L shape.
The lower part of the L (horizontal) extends long enough forward (or back) from the inside corners to place a proper tiedown location. In my case it is only about 6" (so angle is 7.5" or so).
I got my 6" based on exactly locating my camper in the truck (in my mind) and finding a spot on the truck bed rail that was appropriate to proper tie-down angle for my tie-down product (I use the "frame-mounted" Happi-jacs because I dislike the "hang-lows" of the other brand - and mostly because my campers are light weight enough to do so).
Then a tie-down eye-bolt can drop from the camper framing through the bracket, the 2x2, the wing plywood, with another sandwiching below the wing (maybe a 3"x 3" x 1/4" alum plate"). And the dinette bracket then has captured nuts welded in both vertical and horizontal members on the correct side of the bracket to prevent damage to cushions, etc. and of course bolts are cut to proper length and ends are smoothed.
What this all does is connect the tie-down force to the camper full corner framing (wing, side-wall, back/front wall) with bolts and nuts instead of lag screws into framing). Same with a jack mount. AND places the tie-down not just in proper position front to rear, but extending out far enough on the left and right without adding leverage to destroy the wing by connecting to the Travel Queen under grid jack mount assembly.
Remember, tie-downs are snug, but not OVER tight. There's a science here! Gravity holds the camper in, Tie-downs just keep it from shifting. The truck bed must be allowed to flex some without flexing your camper apart. So depending on your truck, I'd use the "spring loaded" style in some form, not simply a traditional rigid turnbuckle design.
Don't forget to search for "camper magleby report".
Good luck!
