When I bought my 845 used almost 8 years ago, it had a slight separation at the passenger front tie down eye area. After 70K+ miles on my truck it is much larger.What's the usual "fix" for this?Note: Going to replace some tape I had over this area to prevent leaks.Thanks,

A large piece of thick aluminum bolted through the bottom into the frame and inside the camper likely will pull this back flatYou have a broken wooden frame member there and need to span across the remaining good frame on bothe sides of the break to support it Good Luck, Mike

As popeyemth said about adding metal structure, but you may need to do it on both the inside and out. You will need to access as much space on the inside in order to install steel that is as long and continious as possible to repair the framework. I ended up removing my water heater and furnace to gain inside access.I had a similar issue on an old camper. I used 2"x2" angle steel at the inside corner with PL-400 adhesive and carriage thru- bolted 1/8" x 2" flat steel on the underside for the 8' length of the side. Below is a drawing cross section of how I installed the steel structure:

Good ideas. Angle iron on the inside would certaily make it strong. Maybe even sandwich some aluminum on the outside to bolt through.

How do you prevent it from happening again ? How did this happen ? Is the fastgun too tight ? OR did that seam leak and water intrusion weakened the wood ? If it was the tie-down being too tight , TL has a video of the propper tensioning. Tie-downs do not have to be very tight , just snug.

On an 845 of that era, I had a 2001 also, previously, inside the compartment shown in the OP's photo is the single 20# propane tank, setting in a three sided plastic box, so somewhat easy access to the area on the inside after removing the plastic liner. Now above that compartment sits, sits the 3 way fridge, with a roof vent. So you have lots of places a water leak can occur and run down into this damaged area. It may just be a broken frame member of 2 X 2 pine with a metal plate on top or it may be wood rot or a combination of both.Either way, I would remove the propane tank and take out the plastic box. Should be easy to see the inside to work on it. With the camper being aluminum covered, it would be easy to peel back and have access to both sides. No matter what the cause , it needs to be fixed. How to prevent? Make sure the fridge drip pan isn't leaking into this area, or water isn't getting in from the fridge roof vent, etc. I would replace the soft pine that Lance used with a good quality of marine hardwood, expensive but will last 25 or so years even if it gets wet. I had to replace the rear skirts on my 845 due to wood rot from water entering underneath the TC from the rear tires driving in the rain, is my best guess.

Separation at tie down eye | Good Sam Community

d3500ram
Explorer III
Aug 31, 2013
As popeyemth said about adding metal structure, but you may need to do it on both the inside and out. You will need to access as much space on the inside in order to install steel that is as long and continious as possible to repair the framework. I ended up removing my water heater and furnace to gain inside access.

I had a similar issue on an old camper. I used 2"x2" angle steel at the inside corner with PL-400 adhesive and carriage thru- bolted 1/8" x 2" flat steel on the underside for the 8' length of the side. Below is a drawing cross section of how I installed the steel structure:
popeyemth
Explorer
Aug 31, 2013
A large piece of thick aluminum bolted through the bottom into the frame and inside the camper likely will pull this back flat
You have a broken wooden frame member there and need to span across the remaining good frame on bothe sides of the break to support it
Good Luck, Mike

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Separation at tie down eye

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