mkirsch wrote:
$3500 Stablelift on a $350 camper???
Hey, my camper cost more than $350! ? … but the Stablelift is more than twice what I paid for it.
Thanks to all for the suggestions, I am half way through the repairs and have integrated several of them.
I was unable to use Unistrut because of the jacks that I have, so I used angle iron instead. Even before starting I found the right rear attach point had a lot of rot, even though nothing was visible before I dug into it.
What I have done is to cut out and replace the rotten plywood on the front left and right rear corners than on all 4 corners added pieces of ¾ inch plywood above and below the original plywood attachment, figuring that this sandwich will be much stronger and will spread the load along the bases of the walls. I also moved the jack pads closer to the corners so the vertical load is more direct.
The biggest challenge was the left front where there was extensive rot because of water entering through the propane compartment door (which was not original or waterproof). I dug out the rotted wood and rebuilt the sill with a couple of pieces of 1 1/8 square metal tubing. The jack pad is now right in the corner with a vertical piece of angle iron welded on to allow me to screw it into the structural wood in the corner.
I also added gussets to strengthen the bases of the walls and to give me something solid to screw into when attaching the angle iron.
Wood that was not rotten, but that had been water-logged, was given a coat of CPES.
Here is the left front corner rot.
Now with the repaired sill, gusset added to the right and the welded on vertical angle iron on the left.
Left rear, the white plywood is my "sandwich".
The right side finished and caulked.
I hope to finish this part of the renovation this week.
While doing the right side I found more rot on the wall between the floor of the camper and the wing, and the wood under the door is really rotton, so that is next week's project!
