Bowing/Buldging Walls

bigfoot knows of this problem Ive had one sent back to BC fixed and returned at company expense. another I brought back several weeks before to went bankrupt then ,they only did cosmetic repair that fell apart in a couple of weeks use. and ive had to fix 3 more with this .

RamblinAnne

First of all I would look for a plumbing leak behind that fiberglass shower stall. Maybe the shower tap water lines? Those lines are always pressurized to the shower taps, even if you don't use them much. Both of your bulging/ separating issues are walls the shower stall backs onto which makes me suspicious. Did you have the sink out to do the flooring?...or maybe the sink plumbing got jostled during the process and is now leaking?....those walls you are showing in your pics are just Luan over light spruce framing members. The wall between the settee and shower might have some plywood in it.

I have owned 2 Bigfoot campers, and a Bigfoot trailer, and have never had any structural issues.
Yes I know, never say never, but I would start looking at the more simple things first.

Is the wall in question and exterior wall or an interior (partition) wall?

On a Bigfoot, the top and bottom halves are molded from fiberglass, about 1/8" thick. This is too thin to be stiff enough to build a camper out of. They then laminate foam to the inside of the fiberglass using a contact cement, with solid wood reinforcing in various places that will support interior and roof items. Then 1/8" luan is laminated on the inside of that, again with contact cement. The foam used to be extruded polystyrene but in later years it is expanded polystyrene "bead board". The resulting sandwich makes the panels stiff enough to survive as a camper. This is only on the exterior walls. The interior walls are stick built like most campers, light weight solid wood framing covered with 1/8" luan, usually stapled and sometimes also glued in place.

If an exterior wall has the panelling buckling, it is delaminated from the foam and is - or can turn into - a structural issue. If it is an interior wall coming loose from the lightweight framing, it could be warping from moisture, or stress from some of the causes postulated above, but it is not likely to be or become a structural problem. Figure out whats pushing or warping it, then staple it back in place.

I wonder if the the floor is rotted. It hangs normally when your on jacks but crushes up when you put weight on it. JM2C

look at the flange around the skylite on the on the roof, you will probably find bulge in the flange and maybe even an separation of the flange and the roof and it will develop a leak

Is your truck bed flat? some have a crown in the bed that needs addressed. If it is say higher or lower at the truck bed opening it could cause the camper bottom to bow. I would check that and maybe support the camper on something I know is flat and see if the problem gets better or goes away.

Hmm.. I think I may go ahead and take her into a dealer since I'm now in the PNW (Bigfoot country). But to clarify- I've never lived in the camper while it was just on the jacks, except for maybe an hour here or there in between loadings. I've always had some support underneath, utilizing both the jacks and the x-braces I built, never just the jacks or just the x-braces. The camper did sit on the jacks alone for a few months before I ever moved in but that was over a year ago and this is a more recent issue. 90% of the time, the camper has been in the truck.

I know condensation can be sneaky and go unnoticed but I'm fairly adamant that it was never enough of a threat to cause delamination. I could be wrong but I feel like I would see signs of this elsewhere. I have a humidity monitor inside and I've never seen it go above 70% even on the rainiest of days. It's usually much lower. Frost is impossible, as I've never been in below freezing temps. I looked inside that gap by the sink and see no signs of wood rot or any moisture. Again, I can't say for sure but I would be very surprised if this were caused by condensation or a leak.

Since this issue "fixes" itself when I raise the camper up a bit off the truck bed support, it seems to me to be more of a structural flex thing than a moisture thing. I just have no idea what the solution could be or if it's even a problem I should address.

It'll be good to take the camper in and have them look everything over. I'm just concerned about the cost and if they're going to try to tell me things that need to be fixed that don't really need fixing - like when you take your car in for maintenance and the dealers make up issues that don't really exist. I'm fairly knowledgable but I don't know everything and I'm a prime target for sharky salesman. I guess it's a risk I'll have to take but I appreciate all the responses to help arm me as best as possible. Still curious if any Bigfoot or northern lite owners have ever actually had this issue, fixed it and what your solution was.

I would email Bigfoot and explain what is happening. I've emailed back and forth with the owner. You may not get anywhere, but maybe take a shot at it.

RamblinAnne wrote:
This would make sense. I really do notice a good deal of things shifting depending on whether the camper is on or off the truck... even the angle at which I'm parked. Sometimes if I don't level out, things seem noticeably out of place.

Think it's something to worry about? I want to intall some shiplap in this dinette area and I'm worried all this flexing will be a nightmare with an upgrade like that. Hmmm...

My friend doesn't seem to worry about it, nor does he know what to do about it (and he is quite handy). He never takes it off the truck and his camper experiences the interior "bowing".

He claims that there is some exterior deformation too. I don't remember exactly where (he showed me) but think it was the space between the truck cab and and the camper.

My only guess would be to take it to a BigFoot dealer and try to get it assessed (and I would listen for comments like "we've seen this before").

My friend doesn't worry about a lot but he refuses to consider putting any more money into it - he's already done a lot of upgrades over the years and feels that is enough.

I am not too familiar with bigfoot construction principles, but as far as I understand, it is a two-piece fiberglass shell (upper and lower). The fiberglass is reinforced with wood (I think) for stability, as it is fairly thin and lightweight and does not support all of the weight on its own.

The walls of your camper have an outer hull - the fiberglass - and an inner hull, with insulation and reinforcements in between. Water/moisture can collect in between and cause trouble without evidence of a leak.

Condensation can and will occur in a camper in winter. When warm, moist air enters the space between inner and outer walls, it will condensate at the coldest points - which are the outer walls. Even without an external leak, a lot ot water can collect that way. Once it is within the wall, it has a hard time getting out again.

Frost can excarbate the issue. When you have moisture trapped anywhere and it freezes, it expands and can create major damage. Often, delamination can occur as a result - that is the de-bonding of surfaces glued together.

Was your camper just on the jacks or was there additional support under the floor? Were the jacks up or down? Having it just on the jacks for an extended time causes a lot of stress on the jack mounts due to camper sway. Also, without floor support, the jack mounts need to carry all the weight alone. Together, this puts a lot of stress on the camper structure.

Is this a problem? Yes! You need to find out what is wrong. If some of the inner reinforcements of your camper structure have come loose or have a wood rot problem, you need to address this. Right now, the fiberglass hull takes a lot more load than it was intended for. As a result, it may buckle, develop stress cracks, or break. None of this will make repairs cheaper or easier. It will not get better if you leave it unaddressed.

Truck campers are not really intended for permanent residence. While it may work fine depending on circumstace, it may not work so well in other cases.