Jack Bracket Mounting Repair
So, I've been thinking about how to deal with an issue for a while, and the short term solution seems simple to me. But I'd like to bring it to you guys and see if you have any other recommendations.
I don't have a lot of time, or insight of camper construction. I just know what's there now and that if like to sturdy it up a bit. Not fully and permanently repair it at this time.
Here's the issue. My truck camper is in my signature below. The four jacks on it are the Reico Titan hydraulic pump models. The passenger side front one seemed a bit loose going on and off the truck. So far, it's only gone on and come off about three times, so my experience level is still very green. But that jack in particular was causing some weird shifting and wobbling.
I checked it out and my first thought was to get scared and I thought, oh no, this corner is rotted. Through all of my research plus with the refrigerator being there and the camper being so old it seemed very possible. When I checked into it and really looked it over closely, I figured out what happened. It looks as if something was hit by a previous owner on that side and scraped against the whole side of the camper. In the process of this happening, it looks like the jack took some pressure from whatever was hit. I say this because it seems like the screws aren't holding on that side like they should be. I've taken a socket and tightened them up as best I could for now and we will see how it does the next time I load the camper. If your familiar with the brackets, it looks like an "L" shaped piece of angle and it's screwed into the corner with about a dozen large sized wood screws.
While tightening, a couple of them felt like they actually weren't biting into any meat.
My obvious temporary fix is to see if I can find some larger, maybe tiny bit longer screws and see if I can crank those in there.
Any experience on this? Any opinions on a fix? Suggestions?
The big, permanent fix would be to pull the thing apart and completely replace the piece of framing in question. It's just not feasible for me to do at this time. Safety being a number one concern, I don't see why a quick repair like I've mentioned would cause any worry. It's not huge damage, and like I said, took a little bit of an investigation to come to the conclusion that I did. But at this time I really have no reason to suspect water damage. The camper is in very good condition and was decently taken care of.
I don't have a lot of time, or insight of camper construction. I just know what's there now and that if like to sturdy it up a bit. Not fully and permanently repair it at this time.
Here's the issue. My truck camper is in my signature below. The four jacks on it are the Reico Titan hydraulic pump models. The passenger side front one seemed a bit loose going on and off the truck. So far, it's only gone on and come off about three times, so my experience level is still very green. But that jack in particular was causing some weird shifting and wobbling.
I checked it out and my first thought was to get scared and I thought, oh no, this corner is rotted. Through all of my research plus with the refrigerator being there and the camper being so old it seemed very possible. When I checked into it and really looked it over closely, I figured out what happened. It looks as if something was hit by a previous owner on that side and scraped against the whole side of the camper. In the process of this happening, it looks like the jack took some pressure from whatever was hit. I say this because it seems like the screws aren't holding on that side like they should be. I've taken a socket and tightened them up as best I could for now and we will see how it does the next time I load the camper. If your familiar with the brackets, it looks like an "L" shaped piece of angle and it's screwed into the corner with about a dozen large sized wood screws.
While tightening, a couple of them felt like they actually weren't biting into any meat.
My obvious temporary fix is to see if I can find some larger, maybe tiny bit longer screws and see if I can crank those in there.
Any experience on this? Any opinions on a fix? Suggestions?
The big, permanent fix would be to pull the thing apart and completely replace the piece of framing in question. It's just not feasible for me to do at this time. Safety being a number one concern, I don't see why a quick repair like I've mentioned would cause any worry. It's not huge damage, and like I said, took a little bit of an investigation to come to the conclusion that I did. But at this time I really have no reason to suspect water damage. The camper is in very good condition and was decently taken care of.
