Proper wood for trailer repair
Ok I believe that I still got a good deal on my TC but now I get to experience repairing the drivers side front corner where the support jack is. While my torklift fastguns were fastened down I notic...
Forum Discussion
Hi Rich. You'll probable find many benefit arguments to both hard and soft woods, and dimensional lumber or plywood.
I like soft woods due to less weight and more forgiving, easier to work, (hard wood can split easily when not pre-drilled correctly). Even so, in parts of my resto-mod I chose hard wood over soft in some places for cleats (where I wanted more of a steel-like strength feature - back wall to floor region).
I like to cross-cut and rip my own soft wood pieces. If I need a "1 by" I generally will rip it from quality 2 by, for example. That way I can choose the portion for good grain and no knots, splits etc.
In many applications, the cris-cross pattern of plywood is a much better choice than the "potential failure along the grain" of a solid board. More strength in a smaller dimension, often required by the camper realities. But plywood edge might be a lousy choice for lags, where splits can start and the board separate. Personally, I will never follow the manufacturer example of putting lags into the edge of walls 1.5" and smaller. And I don't think campers come bigger than that. And probably 99% of campers are this way, so I'm in a minority there.
I don't preach the benefit of marine plywood over regular good structural (sub-flooring) plywood, but again, cut your pieces from good portions of the sheet. Reject crushed corners, voided edges, etc.
In your corner rebuild you want non-existent voids; pieces cut to fit right and to fill fully.
Don't be afraid to beef it up. The extra wood won't add much weight, but it will give strength and support to the arguably weakest areas designed into a camper.
I prefer interior access to the corner, so I can use bolt/nut fasteners instead of lags. There are also flush mount "capture nuts" available at the hardware stores. The interior just has the visual, but it's flush. Then you cut your bolt to length for flush. In that case, don't use a hardened bolt. Unless you have magic cutters. And thread-locker can be added if it feels like the connection looses over time, but lock washers would probably suffice.
Once the front/side/bottom (wing) wood is all firmly attached to each other (and I'm finding staples are maybe preferable because there are lots of fastening points with little damage or removal of wood), try and get the tie-down mount location supported into all three surfaces, like you are describing with the aluminum, and perhaps with small fitted brackets that connect stuff in much the same way a Happijac system ties the front tie-downs to the truck frame. Brackets, bolted or welded someway.
But you are on the right path I think. For the corner like that I'd probably use 1 by or 2 by (depending on your structure depth and existing materials) on both front and side walls with the plywood for the wing. You can even sister the build, add (where available space) interior wood that supports the existing structure. Good luck.
I like soft woods due to less weight and more forgiving, easier to work, (hard wood can split easily when not pre-drilled correctly). Even so, in parts of my resto-mod I chose hard wood over soft in some places for cleats (where I wanted more of a steel-like strength feature - back wall to floor region).
I like to cross-cut and rip my own soft wood pieces. If I need a "1 by" I generally will rip it from quality 2 by, for example. That way I can choose the portion for good grain and no knots, splits etc.
In many applications, the cris-cross pattern of plywood is a much better choice than the "potential failure along the grain" of a solid board. More strength in a smaller dimension, often required by the camper realities. But plywood edge might be a lousy choice for lags, where splits can start and the board separate. Personally, I will never follow the manufacturer example of putting lags into the edge of walls 1.5" and smaller. And I don't think campers come bigger than that. And probably 99% of campers are this way, so I'm in a minority there.
I don't preach the benefit of marine plywood over regular good structural (sub-flooring) plywood, but again, cut your pieces from good portions of the sheet. Reject crushed corners, voided edges, etc.
In your corner rebuild you want non-existent voids; pieces cut to fit right and to fill fully.
Don't be afraid to beef it up. The extra wood won't add much weight, but it will give strength and support to the arguably weakest areas designed into a camper.
I prefer interior access to the corner, so I can use bolt/nut fasteners instead of lags. There are also flush mount "capture nuts" available at the hardware stores. The interior just has the visual, but it's flush. Then you cut your bolt to length for flush. In that case, don't use a hardened bolt. Unless you have magic cutters. And thread-locker can be added if it feels like the connection looses over time, but lock washers would probably suffice.
Once the front/side/bottom (wing) wood is all firmly attached to each other (and I'm finding staples are maybe preferable because there are lots of fastening points with little damage or removal of wood), try and get the tie-down mount location supported into all three surfaces, like you are describing with the aluminum, and perhaps with small fitted brackets that connect stuff in much the same way a Happijac system ties the front tie-downs to the truck frame. Brackets, bolted or welded someway.
But you are on the right path I think. For the corner like that I'd probably use 1 by or 2 by (depending on your structure depth and existing materials) on both front and side walls with the plywood for the wing. You can even sister the build, add (where available space) interior wood that supports the existing structure. Good luck.
