165 floor

rewcamper · 10-06-2015, 05:04 PM

well,26 hours, and finally all the bad stuff is out. I had to leave the small amount of original floor to work from. I nicked the underbelly plastic in a couple of small spots, but only along the metal frame where I had to cut. the original floor didn't have any seams. not bad for using a skil saw, sawzall, and razor knife. I've decided to use 5/8 pts for the floor. jn the pics you may see where I've cleaned all the way out to the outside wall. i'll screw to the trailer frame. reinstall the bottom outside mouldings with new putty and new screws, then screw up through the bottom into floor and wall as original. I've seen a lot of videos and not one about pulling all the floor out. most cut flush along the wall and leave the old edge under there. that can't work very well IMHO.that was the worst part. see the pic with the plywood that I had to lie on. I did the entire perimeter this way ..got a decent price online on ebay for the moulding and floor screws. about $11 for a pound of each, around 140 of each type. hope to start the floor this week. then re assembly

rewcamper · 10-06-2015, 05:06 PM

the corner sot shows how the ploor swelled from 5/8 to thicker than my hammer 1 1/4 plus in some spots

Jake · 10-07-2015, 10:42 AM

Am I correct that the bag of screws on the right is the self tappers to go into the steel frame. I used a similar screw to help my son in law install 5/8 PT plywood on a snowmachine trailer , and the frame was aluminum, but we broke many screws (self tappers because he had bought a cheap kind, we reused some of the old ones and found they were better quality and could still cut thru. Also those silly Philips heads strip easy, ideally they should be Robertson head ....good luck

rewcamper · 10-07-2015, 08:13 PM

yes those are the screws. they work good, but I think a small diameter pilot hole is needed on the jayco frame

exjay1 · 10-24-2015, 06:27 PM

Any updates?

rewcamper · 10-24-2015, 10:57 PM

yes will post pics ..floor replaced after a lot of tedious work to get the floor out from under the walls. screwed up back twice, being in weird positions. am covering floor with new sheet vinyl flooring, but keeping it 6'' or so out from edge to monitor for leaks again. got all new screws, putty tape, and plastic screw cover inserts for mouldings. plastic hammer in rivets for shower too... floor had to be pieced to correspond with metal frame underneath. entire body shifted over to one side when I tried to jack it up from one corner..a lot of pushing to center it again. I even got the plastic underbelly sheathing wrapped back around the plywood edges ( used 5/8 pts ), then lowered the body down on top of floor...more to follow

tugboat95 · 10-27-2015, 09:14 AM

I've been away from a computer for over a month and just wanted to check in on your work. Can't wait to see your finished product. After seeing all your work, I'm glad I elected to sell mine (got a really good price too). I don't think my carpentry skills are up to that task. Good luck, I'll be stalking your posts your future posts

rewcamper · 10-28-2015, 08:20 AM

here are some pics. I know it looks pieced, it is . that's the only way I could get the pieces to land on something solid, and at the same time insert them under the wall. I had to carefully jack up the body, as it had settled a bit and crushed the wet OSB floor. I made loose cuts and caulked the seams to help with the floor squeaking. plus the pieces are screwed down. two places needed a thin metal strip that I epoxied in,i have yet to sand them.... as they landed in places with no support. all due to the fact that I couldn't fit the pieces under the wall, around the various pipes, wheel wells etc., and do it with one large piece. next step is to attach all water related devices and check for leaks before re assembly. still can't tell where the water came from to ruin most of the floor.

rewcamper · 10-28-2015, 08:33 AM

in case you think I'm crazy with all the small pieces.. my main concern was to get the entire perimeter sitting on the floor. this meant sliding the new plywood under the wall and at the same time pulling the underbelly plastic back over the plywood edge. I used large needle nose pliers to do this. if I tried to do larger pieces, I couldn't get the sliding under, pulling on the plastic over, and balancing on the piece so as to not go through the plastic. also the vinyl floor was stapled onto the original floor UNDER the wall, and there were screws in from the side moulding, and up from the bottom into the aluminum wall plate...point is there was always ONE MORE THING JN THE WAY...

ALJO · 10-28-2015, 08:45 AM

The way those units are constructed it makes it hard to replace a floor.
The completed floor goes on the frame first then the vinyl and then the walls. They use on the outside some leg bolts through the frame to secure the whole unit.

"Thumbs up for you to tackle this project"

**Crabman** · 10-28-2015, 09:06 AM

Nice job! Keep is updated please.

rewcamper · 10-28-2015, 11:25 AM

yes, thanks I found that out they could get sheets of almost any length. also, the frames to secure to aren't always consistent due to the black and grey tank locations. I learned a good lesson when I jacked it up...I raised one corner, all the screws were out, and when I got the body up it shifted to one side about an inch !!! I let it down, it came back to where it should be, then i put a thin board along the back and under the wall plate, but in the middle. I went up slowly and lifted the whole back evenly. if this were inside, I may have considered raising the whole body off the frame about a foot or so, then I could have removed the floor. propane lines would have to be removed from below. luckily on this trailer everything but the propane lines are above the floor.

tugboat95 · 10-28-2015, 05:41 PM

Awesome! Minus a lot if sweat equity you are gonna have a nice camper for very little money.

exjay1 · 11-03-2015, 06:20 AM

Nice job and way to keep at it! Now....... wanna come over to the beach and do mine? Went into the 165 yesterday to check on things and found a soft spot to the right of the toilet

I knew there was a small one there but seems as if it grew a good bit over the summer. Uggg

rewcamper · 11-03-2015, 02:05 PM

haha not really in the mood for another one EVER . I think you should check all four corners closely. the floor is in , we had one rainstorm and all 4 corners were wet again ! granted I didn't repair the outside because I wanted to wait to see what happened. all the mouldings with new putty and caulking will be done this week. where I removed the screws and mouldings around the bottom of the body, there were no leaks. where I left the corner mouldings on, there were. I have a tarp over the roof , and down about 2 feet all the way around, to eliminate that possibility. all that's left is leaking corners I hope. also look along the top of the wheelwell trim. don't be afraid to admit the floor is soft when you check it. I started that way, and look how far it actually was. under the heater and the fridge was gone too. that was the last spot I could get to by removing everything and lying down to reach under the cabinet, and clear out the bad stuff. I was actually thinking of heading south if I finish this little adventure before any bad snow ( we had 9 feet last year in a very short time ). then I would head across to see my son in san diego.. money and time will ruin that plan I'm sure.....

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