When the raised roof was installed on my van, the original roof was cut away, except for a bit above the driver and passenger seats. That bit now forms an interior loft, for storage or for a child bed. pretty typical, I think.
what worries me is that the original roof sags down in the middle. When I got it at had a little sag, and after a winter of travel it has more sag. I only put lightweight things up there, but it's a large space and the lightweight things add up.
It's a little hard to see what's going on in this picture because there are a lot of layers. The worst sag is the headliner, and you don't need to worry about that. But the first layer below the level, the corrugated metal, is the original van roof. You can see it's down about an inch from level, and it used to be probably an inch above level. So it has come down a couple inches.
Do I need to do something about this? If so, what should I do?
1. Put a piece of 3/4" plywood across the whole loft floor? That would add a lot of weight up there, but would shift the load to the edges of the loft near the side walls.
2. Put a vertical 2x4 post next to the passenger seat? I could make sure it is supported under the floor, and add blocking between the loft layers.
3. Get a welder to build a metal arch for support? This would be a lot of hassle due to allergies -- and possibly expensive.
4. Something else?
Thank you all for your advice!
what worries me is that the original roof sags down in the middle. When I got it at had a little sag, and after a winter of travel it has more sag. I only put lightweight things up there, but it's a large space and the lightweight things add up.
It's a little hard to see what's going on in this picture because there are a lot of layers. The worst sag is the headliner, and you don't need to worry about that. But the first layer below the level, the corrugated metal, is the original van roof. You can see it's down about an inch from level, and it used to be probably an inch above level. So it has come down a couple inches.
Do I need to do something about this? If so, what should I do?
1. Put a piece of 3/4" plywood across the whole loft floor? That would add a lot of weight up there, but would shift the load to the edges of the loft near the side walls.
2. Put a vertical 2x4 post next to the passenger seat? I could make sure it is supported under the floor, and add blocking between the loft layers.
3. Get a welder to build a metal arch for support? This would be a lot of hassle due to allergies -- and possibly expensive.
4. Something else?
Thank you all for your advice!
