Jack mounting plate pulled away from camper - repair?

[unbob]

A car backed into one of my front camper jacks and consequently the mounting plate was pulled away from the camper. Fortunately, no serious damage was done to the camper itself but the mounting plate was bent and needs to be straitened at a machine shop.

So, my question is what is the best way to re-mount the plate such that the attachment to the camper will be at least as strong as the original install? The TC is a Bigfoot with fiberglass exterior.

My plan is to drill out all the screw holes, fill with Gorilla glue and insert appropriately sized wooden dowels. Let dry for several days and then re-drill all holes for the correct screw size and install plate using original screws.

Does anyone see a problem with my plan? Is there a better way?

I have in fact done this same thing several years ago with a rear jack mount plate. It was successful and I've never had a problem. But of course the front jack bears substantially more weight when removing the camper from the truck so the repair had better be rock-solid!

All comments/feedback welcome!

[unbob]

cycletwo wrote:
I spoke with a Bigfoot tech about a week ago at this number. Most helpfull!

1-800-752-9815

Good Luck.

Huh? I need to speak to someone at Bigfoot Industries in Armstrong, BC. The number you gave is for Bigfoot Leveling Systems - totally unrelated outfit! But thanks anyway.

[cycletwo]

I spoke with a Bigfoot tech about a week ago at this number. Most helpfull!

1-800-752-9815

Good Luck.

[mountainkowboy]

If your dealing with wood.......drill it for a dowel and use professional wood glue........that's what its made for. Re drill the holes and bolt the bracket back on.

[AnEv942]

I recently did some work on our camper (framed/filon). Ours does have internal backing plates as most framed campers do. Its a piece of angle. There are lag bolts into frame but also bolts that go all the way thru. I had to remove both front jacks-I can see the backup angle on slide side and noted nuts were welded so happily removed jack plates-last bolt on slide side the back up angle started to move. So I ran a bolt back in thru hole on jack plate that was removed to hold back up in place. Was glad that nuts were welded cause I couldnt get to them-but kind pointless if whole back up falls inside.
Drivers side when I went to remove the nuts werent welded just spun. Ended up pulling water heater. Though the nuts werent welded the angle was screwed to wall? Go figure..
Point is if you or someone cant verify that back up is anchored or integral (embedded to F/G?) could remove one of the lags use a smaller head screw the jack hole will pass by? Or a much longer lag so you can partially pull plate and then insert short lag behind before fully removing.

[HMS_Beagle]

unbob wrote:


Re "Drill a very small hole through the existing pulled out screw locations to daylight on the other side" - nocando - there is no "other side" - only the interior of the camper which is inaccessible. I will drill out the hole but there is no "other side".

There is another side, but you won't be able to see it. You will be able to feel when you hit air though, with a sensitive hand on the drill. The problem with attempting to fill blind holes with epoxy is that air gets trapped and pushes the epoxy back out, or gets mixed forming bubbles. If the hole is large enough, you can put a small tube on a syringe or caulking tube, push the tube to the bottom of the hole, and fill as you back out, displacing the air. But that is difficult in a small hole, and Six10 is thick enough to be very hard to pump through a small tube. Attempting to trowel it in, or push it down the hole with a stick is very messy and the results are suspect.

I have done this - a lot - on cored boat hulls.

[unbob]

bigfootford wrote:
From what I was told, the screws go through the Fiberglass and then into a block of wood/plate. You can confirm that by measuring how deep the actual hole is. The glass in the corners is very thick, maybe 1/8 to 1/4 in.. So if the hole is deeper than that you will know that there is a plate there.

So if they are not helpful then think about doing the following:

The best thing to do in that case is to drill new holes in the Jack bracket and then into the camper.

I would put the original screws back in the holes to hold the plate in place, just in case it is not glued to the inside... You do not want it to become displaced! Make sure you have enough holding strength to do this. If it feels that the plate is loose then you may need to do the following..

Fill the existing holes with West systems resin and filler, then drill them out to put the existing screws back in. Not much holding power but just for looking good.

My jack brackets are bedded in with silicon.

So when you have all your holes drilled I would remount the bracket without the bedding, then remove it if you are satisfied then use the silicon to bed-in and mount the bracket.

Jim

Thanks Jim! Yes, I'm pretty sure you're correct about the backing plate. But I'm really worried now about it being displaced! I had not thought of that before. I just hope the backing plate is glued to the interior side of the camper wall.

I will follow your advice but first I must get the plate "re-bent" since it "wraps around" under the bottom of the camper wall - there are 4 screws through the horizontal bottom part of the plate and 10 screws on the vertical part of the plate.

[Jameydoshier]

Can u use metal spreading anchors were the bolts had been ripped out when my jack stand basically did the splits with camper  like a geraff  bending down to drink water

[way2roll]

You are responding to a topic that's 11 years old. You will probably have better luck posting your question/problem in a new topic. 

[Jameydoshier]

• Both front jackstands at the same time slipped out away from the camper ripping the jack out of the camper on both sides

[unbob]

Buzzcut1 wrote:
Placing a call to Bigfoot and asking them what they would do in this case would be one of my first plans of action.

Good idea - only problem is Bigfoot does not have a USA phone number. And I don't have an Int'l calling plan. I'll have to upgrade my calling plan which I believe is an add'l $10 per month. Seems that Bigfoot is now such a small local outfit that they have very little presence in the US market. I'd guess they've lost substantial market share in the US market during their absence from the market several years ago. Too bad, I think they have (or had) a great product.

[unbob]

HMS Beagle wrote:
If you are going to fill the holes with epoxy, then by all means use the West Six Ten product, it is much better than anything Lowes has on the shelf. It is VERY good for this purpose and easy to use - the caulking tube dispenser allows you to inject it deep into the holes without bubbles. It is thickened enough that it will not run out of the hole, even an overhead one. It will take at least overnight to harden to strength, 24 hours would be better. You can speed that up with some heat.

However epoxy at its best will not hold as well as the original wood and fiberglass. I personally would be reluctant to drill holes for dowels, these would necessarily have to be fairly large and through the fiberglass, exposing more wood to the elements.

I would attack it this way: Drill a very small hole through the existing pulled out screw locations to daylight on the other side - this is just to allow the air to escape as you inject it with the Six10 epoxy. A very small hole (say 1/16) will allow the air to escape but not much epoxy, too thick. That will allow you to completely will the holes with Six10. I would then drill a couple of additional holes in the bracket at the top and the bottom in new locations and add those screws when I reinstalled. These will be into fresh original material, and after all it is the couple of screws at the top and bottom that are doing most of the work. The result would be indistinguishable in appearance from the original.

Good advice! Yes, I'll use the Six10 product. And I'll let it harden at least 48 hours before drilling for screws. I think I'll forgo the wooden dowels - seems to me that the Six10 epoxy alone will be adequate and stronger than wood. I plan to first test this idea using a 2x4 to see how well drilling the epoxy and installing the screw works.

Re "Drill a very small hole through the existing pulled out screw locations to daylight on the other side" - nocando - there is no "other side" - only the interior of the camper which is inaccessible. I will drill out the hole but there is no "other side".

Thanks for your feedback!

[Tarkin75]

bigfootford wrote:

This incident was not just a jack mount failure. Someone ran into the jack.

Dry rot in a Bigfoot is something that has never been a problem.
The Bigfoot discussed is an all Fiberglass clamshell design.
The backing plate for the jacks may be made of wood but there has never been a jack failure due to the mounting on the camper.

Yes, for all wood framed campers though.

Jim

Thanks... I can read just fine... read all that... understood it just fine, and my points still stand.

Later
C

[HMS_Beagle]

If you are going to fill the holes with epoxy, then by all means use the West Six Ten product, it is much better than anything Lowes has on the shelf. It is VERY good for this purpose and easy to use - the caulking tube dispenser allows you to inject it deep into the holes without bubbles. It is thickened enough that it will not run out of the hole, even an overhead one. It will take at least overnight to harden to strength, 24 hours would be better. You can speed that up with some heat.

However epoxy at its best will not hold as well as the original wood and fiberglass. I personally would be reluctant to drill holes for dowels, these would necessarily have to be fairly large and through the fiberglass, exposing more wood to the elements.

I would attack it this way: Drill a very small hole through the existing pulled out screw locations to daylight on the other side - this is just to allow the air to escape as you inject it with the Six10 epoxy. A very small hole (say 1/16) will allow the air to escape but not much epoxy, too thick. That will allow you to completely will the holes with Six10. I would then drill a couple of additional holes in the bracket at the top and the bottom in new locations and add those screws when I reinstalled. These will be into fresh original material, and after all it is the couple of screws at the top and bottom that are doing most of the work. The result would be indistinguishable in appearance from the original.

[bigfootford]

Tarkin75 wrote:
I'd use git rot or some sort of epoxy meant for fixing dry rot. I'd imagine there's been some water infiltration in the bolt holes so a good chance of some dry rot. You can use the git rot epoxy to soak into the wood, then mix it up with some wood fibers to either fill the holes, or use the mixture to glue those dowels in.

later
C

This incident was not just a jack mount failure. Someone ran into the jack.

Dry rot in a Bigfoot is something that has never been a problem.
The Bigfoot discussed is an all Fiberglass clamshell design.
The backing plate for the jacks may be made of wood but there has never been a jack failure due to the mounting on the camper.

Yes, for all wood framed campers though.

Jim