2007 Tango rotten floor source discovered; please read !

[Island_Traveler]

Did some detective work this past week for a sister with a near-new condition Tango tandem axle tow behind with half the floors falling apart from dry rot. I peeled up the lino, peeled up the potato chip sized OSB pieces which fell apart in my hands, and discovered the yellow insulation soaked and helping feed the white fungus which looked very healthy indeed. With that ripped out from sink to bed, I tracked the water marks to the driver side wheel well. Water system has never been used yet, but found all fittings on water pump loose, and not a spot of water under the sink. You could poke your finger through the lino under the sink and then I spotted black and rotten 2x3s holding up the plastic wheel well tub for the two wheels. It seems, after pulling off the outer plastic wheel opening molding and pulling some stubborn and expletive-worthy staples, that a from- factory sag in the middle of the tub looked like Cistern Ditchwater! This water in turn, found its way through staple holes in the vapor barrier and saturated 2/3 of the insulation and of course dissolved 2/3 of the OSB into chips and rubble, and rendered 2/3 of the 2x3s into fire starter. Talk about an on-board water supply! Free! Unpotable, though and feeds the fungus. Once water is in the floor void it says there wandering hither and yon depending what angles you might obtain on your trips. Bottom line is, the wheel tub edges were acting like a gutter on the outside and filling up the saggy section, then overflowing into the undersink floor void and beyond. Someone at the factory on a Friday?... didn't give a , and poked a good-sized hole to enable all this to occur over the past ten years. The trailer is otherwise in new condition. Check for a crack at middle screw on the crappy plastic staple-hider over the wheels, driver's side. Start there and just follow the damage. Check other side too, just in case it "waterfalls" as well! Caulking by the way, must not have been a priority. My boogers are bigger...! Hope that this explains other's water woes somewhat, and we camp, instead of repair! Happy Trails, P.T.

[BobsYourUncle]

This is gonna give me nightmares in remembering the grotesque mess I encountered for my rebuild!

Wish I could zoom a bit on the pics for a closer look.

Are you doing this whole repair from the inside?
Or are you pulling off any outside finish, walls etc?
Kinda tough with the one piece wall system.

Somewhere I have a PDF of a Tango unit, exploded view showing construction of it. I wonder if I can find it for you. Buried in an old computer somewhere....

[colliehauler]

Island traveler- to think all this could have been prevented with a wheel well liner.

[Island_Traveler]

Let'
Click For Full-Size Image.s try this again...

[Island_Traveler]

Shots from the 'shroom hunting trip. I hit the jackpot!

[Ralph_Cramden]

If you look closely at the areas around wheel wells on any RV you're more likely than not to find numerous areas that are open to water intrusion, and a lot of times you'll find raw wood be it framing on a stick and tin or the substrate layers on a lam trailer, the edges of the subfloor, etc. At best you'll find a halfassed caulk job where a lot is missed or improperly applied. The RV manufacturers follow the out of sight out of mind method of manufacturing.

[Island_Traveler]

This is one piece of lumber that still qualifies as firewood...

[Island_Traveler]

This is where the water on top of wheel tub was able to start heading rearward, taking out a good foot and a half of floor under sink and counter so far, all the way to the rear wall but not rotting under tub because its supports made for a good dam. Bone dry under bathtub, thankfully. The end wall 2x3 by bumper is black and still wet. You can see swelling going on under luan until about 6 inches up on outside all the way to right side. Oh nooooooooooooooo.... But the rear bumper is dry as the desert. That's bass ackwards ya know.... More coming soon. Don't be camping in tornadoes, floods, hurricanes or beside volcanoes, by the way! Stay safe, PT.

[Island_Traveler]

Click For Full-Size Image.

[mikakuja]

Nothing will stand up to water soaked insulation in the underbelly bathtub.... We ended up replacing the front 6 ft of our marine grade ply floor (basically the entire bathroom), and the entire front wall of our 5 year old DF Toyhauler back in 2010.... At the time I was lead to believe they were one of the best built toy haulers on the market, and the price reflected that... The repairs turned out well, and better than factory, but some of the poor workmanship from the factory was extremely disappointing to say the least.

[myredracer]

Wow, that's an RV horror story for sure. Def. a "10" on the Alfred Hitchcock scale... :E Work in progress photos would be interesting.

Beware of mold, which surely has to be there.

Vancouver Island can get up to 260 inches of annual rain on the west coast to little rain at the south end. If the TT was from the former, that would surely aggravate water intrusion!

I lived on the Island for 20+ years and used to work with a P.T.

[westend]

I'd bet you're going to find other areas that are those mycelium farms, too. You may end up removing either the outer skin or the inner wall panels to get at every spot. Like Bob says, repairing the frame isn't the bad part, moving all the builtins is what takes time. If you're going to use them again, then they have to be stored out of the weather.

FWIW, prior to purchase of my Starcraft, I knew I was going to gut the trailer so finding one that was older and may have leaked was my objective (I knew I wouldn't have the heart to destruct a good looking unit). Being able to put my arm outside through the kitchen wall was just a bonus!

[BobsYourUncle]

That's really unfortunate.....

Most units out there are reasonably trouble free with minor issues.
Then once in a while someone gets this kind of horror show.

I feel for you, I really do. I've had my share of rebuild work too.
I once did a very major rot rebuild of an 81 Citation TT. It was very rotten.
Fixing the rotted wood isn't that bad of a chore. What really takes 95% of the effort and time is getting everything out of the way so you can do that work.

Can you post any pictures of it?

(typo edit)

[Island_Traveler]

Bad news today. To get at bottom outer 2x3 rearward of the drivers side plastic wheel tub "well-tub in my case!", I undid 4 screws holding up the bottom trim piece and in behind that pulled some more swear-worthy staples, dropped the lag screws which held the 2x3 in place, and peeled back the moisture barrier. Horrors! It had done its job well, only backwards. It was holding it IN, like a bathtub does! I'm wondering if sloshing noises were ever heard around corners when on the road travelling to campsites! The yellow batting had younger versions of the previous mycelium that I had found earlier. White ickies were everywhere over and under the batting and sliming up all the underfloor lumber which was soggy and piecemeal when grabbed. Now I'm at the marker light corner and its screws were attached to air! The wood looks just like soggy charcoal, and by the way it seems, is headed to the other side of trailer. People always say "check your tail lights etc." but now I wish I hadn't! It appears that any tilt, whenever, just sent the water to a new address underfoot beneath the lino'd OSB (which loves H2O). I haven't pulled the sink or its cabinets yet, hoping rot hasn't made it that far inland or to bathtub supports. I now know what "opening a can of worms" signifies, unfortunately! As well I am now a "rot" hound instead of a rock hound! Oh well...though I would much rather find gold than mold any day! I shall keep plugging away at this till I find the end, eh, so happy trails and safe trips! P.T. CEO Rot-Get ...kidding !!!

[Island_Traveler]

This is a May 2007 build, a Tango 266RB, Oreo cookie walls with foam of course , dry as a bone there... no space for water intrusion or soaking up. It's a shame quality control wasn't watching the dude with the air stapler. All staple spots had six or seven shot in one spot, "more is better, eh," said the dude as he shredded the 2x3 as well as stapling vapor barrier to air in many spots. He heard air stapler so that's what he did, stapled right through till he hit some air! Some skookum deck screws would have been so much better. He totally ruined the bottom inside front corner that hides under the pretty plywood wheel well box under the sink. The 2x3s there are black and crumble like burned wood. The 2x3 attaching outer wall to floor there is toast all the way till half of the main bed. Rearward past sink I can't see yet. Major rippage apartage to expose that one. It's a shame, really. People should give a ---- when building to sell to Joe Camper. There are tons of RVs out there with the same crappy job done on the floor,
which holds up all the other amenities in your unit. Go figure. If it was theirs to buy, more care and better materials would have come into play. Bottom line is don't ever put OSB, which uses water soluble glue, near any sniff of moisture in something mobile that sees rain, snow, sleet, semi truck spray, I could go on...

but I won't! You get what I mean. Camp safe, drive safer. PT

[BobsYourUncle]

Interesting find.

As one who us quite fond of the Tango in that era, this catches my interest.

I've done a lot of research on these units and have wanted to buy one for a long time.
In that run, the early Tangos, the attention to detail and quality was very high.

I had the good fortune of conversing by email with the original founders of Pacific Coachworks.

The company was sold in 2010, I think it was. The new owners changed course on the direction of the company. Long story....

What model is yours?
I have looked at a number of them and I very much like the 306RLSS.