Uhhh ohhh did I get too thick of metal flooring?

[TucsonAZ]

This year I'm doing a tiny (5x10) enclosed trailer and I'm not skimping, it's getting a shower, sink, stove, microwave, ac, converter, 460 watts of solar, 5,500 watt battery bank and I'm clearly stuffing a lot into this thing.

I don't like chemicals and didn't want the plywood floor so I yanked that and was trying to figure out what to do. I love working with metal so was thinking aluminum but it wasn't structural enough in a price range I could afford. I decided on steel (with a simple carpet over, maybe a wood later) and was planning on 14 gauge but wanted to be safe versus sorry so I upped it to 12 gauge. I get the the metal supply place and they have 3 sheets of 4'x5' in the remnants area for half price but yeah um, it's 10 gauge, 5.5 pounds per square foot! Since my life motto is "anything worth doing is worth doing in excess" and I love saving money I pull the trigger but now I'm wondering if I went too far as this stuff is hard core!

I'm not "too" worried about weight but the trailer sticker says not to add more than 1,940 pounds, I'm guessing that's with the plywood flooring accounted for which would have weighed 90 pounds versus the 275 this steel weighs so a gain of 185 pounds.

Advantages I can come up with (please help me justify):

1) Lower center of gravity (I flipped the axle)
2) I can cut out areas and box them in to drop the floor for things like the water tank (I don't think 14 gauge would have been strong enough)
3) I can screw things down to it with some certainty there's plenty of threads to hold

Any additional things I could be missing?

I was also thinking of welding the metal flooring to the bottom of the framing to gain a couple inches in some interior areas. Any thoughts on this plan, I would have to run like 50 feet of bead to do this but that's fine with me.

[Philip]

10 gage is 1/8" thick. There is not much thickness to thread. I would use weld nuts instead of threading the plate for mounting points.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#weld-nuts/=176xyhv

14 gage would have given you beer can sounds when walking across it. It would have required more cross members to keep those sound effects under control.

Your talking about welding on the bottom side of frame for more inside room! Never seen this done. How are you planning to run cross members. Those would turn into trip hazards inside. Installing them under the frame lowers ground clearance.

[TucsonAZ]

10 gage is 1/8" thick. There is not much thickness to thread. I would use weld nuts instead of threading the plate for mounting points.

https://www.mcmaster.com/#weld-nuts/=176xyhv

14 gage would have given you beer can sounds when walking across it. It would have required more cross members to keep those sound effects under control.

Your talking about welding on the bottom side of frame for more inside room! Never seen this done. How are you planning to run cross members. Those would turn into trip hazards inside. Installing them under the frame lowers ground clearance.

I mostly meant if I needed to screw something in place more than like a tap and die type application but yeah for sure you're correct.

As for the bottom side, remember this is only 5x10 and most of that is taken up with a bed leaving only a 3x4 foot area for walking which I would cover with something leaving me with a 2 inch gap for wiring and such. There are cross members every 2 feet, I would weld to those so forces would be more pulling down than pushing down on them if that makes sense. I have a lot of ground clearance and the frame is 3 inch the cross members are 2 inches so I would more so be welding to the bottom of the cross members and around the sides, front, and back an inch up from the bottom of the frame (hopefully I'm describing this correctly).

[Philip]

As for the bottom side, remember this is only 5x10 and most of that is taken up with a bed leaving only a 3x4 foot area for walking which I would cover with something leaving me with a 2 inch gap for wiring and such. There are cross members every 2 feet, I would weld to those so forces would be more pulling down than pushing down on them if that makes sense. I have a lot of ground clearance and the frame is 3 inch the cross members are 2 inches so I would more so be welding to the bottom of the cross members and around the sides, front, and back an inch up from the bottom of the frame (hopefully I'm describing this correctly).

Ok your talking just kind of a recessed floor. That would work. Lot of welding. It would make for a very strong trailer frame. With 2" centers 10 gage wouldn't move around much if any with full welds all the way around.

For bolt down items. Try to plan them going into the cross members or just weld a 90 degree bracket to the floor and bolt to it.

[McDave]

Well, you may have gained a few pounds but you also gained some height, 1/8" vs 3/4" = 5/8" net. And it should be REALLY strong, and water resistant, and fireproof, and rodent and pest proof. Heck, I could think of a dozen ways to justify one of my unconventional ideas. Hell yes, Own It, be proud of it, brag about it a little.
Too much is never enough!

McDave

[TucsonAZ]

Well, you may have gained a few pounds but you also gained some height, 1/8" vs 3/4" = 5/8" net. And it should be REALLY strong, and water resistant, and fireproof, and rodent and pest proof. Heck, I could think of a dozen ways to justify one of my unconventional ideas. Hell yes, Own It, be proud of it, brag about it a little.
Too much is never enough!

McDave

Thanks McDave, I like your style!! I'm feeling rather overwhelmed with this build at the moment, so many ideas bounding around in my head. First and foremost I'm making this myself to be chemical free and that adds a challenge e.g. how do I avoid rust without using paint or some other solution? I did make some progress, I have a life size mock up on my front slab that I chalk lined out and I've been working with which has helped a lot. Today I did another one and flipped things taking into account adding a small side door (I have only the large swinging back door now) and by doing this I saved myself a lot of troubles and gained some space. It's all the little details that are killing me though, roof rack, insulating the flooring, going with 1 or 2 inches of insulation, micro under the sink or bed, and things like this that really I guess I just need to try on for size.

[Rainier70]

Being chem free and no rust is hard. I would caulk and paint the outside of the metal. For the inside, if you can't paint at all, I would use a very thin film of mineral oil rubbed into the metal. Or you could do a wax.

[MtnDon]

Just to nitpick, 11 gauge steel is 1/8"; 10 gauge steel is thicker at 0.140", about 9/64

FYI, if thinking of drilling and tapping a hole you need three full threads of engagement to gain full strength, so that pretty much limits fasteners to small diamter and fine threads. Just thought I'd mention that.

[John61CT]

rivnuts