Cool Mods - Thread restored 10/18/2012

Tvov wrote:
Excellent! You had what looks like the exact same "problem" I have with my step, and your fix is what I figured would be required. One of these days I'll get around to it.

(I edited the re-post to make my response a bit smaller)

The issue I had was that when I inspected the trailer (twice), I failed to try the metal steps because they had a wooden deck and stairs in the way. When I brought it home, that's when I noticed that the steps were a bit springy on one side. As I used them more and more (4-5 times), it got worse. That's when I had someone step on them while I looked underneath to see what was happening. What I saw was a piece of 2 x 3 being pulled down by the bracket, pulling on the plastic water-shield tarp thing. What had happened, was that there was a major leak in the wheel well beside the door, and it rotted the floor above the bracket. So a bad thing (flimsy bracket and flexing main frame) turned out to be a good thing because I was able to catch this damage before it spread too far, as well as not camp inside a trailer full of mould and even fungus!
The thing is: you have to address both sides of the frame: a good bracket on the outside, and something to stiffen up the frame on the inside.

The costs are a bit high:
I got very lucky with the stair brackets: the modifications only cost me 50 bucks. Well, I'll be dropping off a bottle of Gibson's finest as well. :)
The underfloor support cost the most. The 4 brackets cost me over $100.00. I may have been able to reduce the per bracket price if I purchased more of them.
The Unistrut bars, fittings, nuts, and bolts etc... were about $80.00 as well.
The aluminum sheet cost me about $95.00, so the total cost around $300.00 in for the floor support parts.

I think I got this all done for just under $400.00. I can't imagine what it would have cost me to have a company do this for me, because there was a fair amount of labour.