Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

I'm installing the floor on my trailer, an old pop-up. I used 3/8" BC and it appears it was too thin; it flexes too much when you walk on it. I'm wondering if I should buy more 3/8"BC and glue and screw it on top of what's there to give it more stability. Any thoughts?

SC

You could do that or a lighter-weight solution is to screw some 1x2s orientated vertically to the bottom to reinforce the floor. This would be lighter than a whole extra sheet. I would screw (countersunk-type) from the top into the 1x2. I would also clamp in place and pre-drill the hole through the 3/8 into the 1x2 with a small bit the sized of the solid shank of the screw and then oversize the hole in the plywood so that the screw is just loose. Glue and scew the 1x2 to the floor. If you are going to insulate the floor you can put it between the 1x2s and some 1/8 or ¼ on the very bottom to close it out. Follow up with the black goo once you get enough stiffeners that the floor feels robust enough for you. Or leave off the insulation (though I wouldn’t) and just go straight to the goo.

I would have made a sandwich, which would have avoided this problem by providing a lot of stiffness and insulation with low weight by gluing ¼ on top, and 1/8 on bottom with 2 inches for rigid insulation between – closing out the perimeter with some 1x2s. This would be relatively light-weight and it would be extraordinarily robust.

Thanks,
The frame is an old Starcraft Frame with a metal channel for cables running down the center. The plywood is screwed directly to the trailer frame. I thought about reinforcing with 1X2's but I would have to go from the outside of the frame to the center. I'd have to pre-drill holes in the center channel and then run a screw from the inside of the channel into the wood and then run a screw from the outside of the frame into wood.

SC

sleepercatcher wrote:I'm installing the floor on my trailer, an old pop-up. I used 3/8" BC and it appears it was too thin; it flexes too much when you walk on it. I'm wondering if I should buy more 3/8"BC and glue and screw it on top of what's there to give it more stability. Any thoughts?

SC

I think you should have to tear it off and do it over

I think I'd top it with more ply, would be an easy fix. If you have some scraps, lay them down and see how more stable it is. Doug

If it's not a standy, I'm wondering how much "walking" you'll do on it. Is it stable enough to stretch out on and sleep w/o sagging. It's a bed, not a floor. It really doesn't have to "support" walking.

Just a thought..

g

I've got some scraps and will put them down to see if it helps. My 12 year old walked on the trailer and the plywood sagged where it wasn't directly supported. If it sags with the test strips on it, then I'll go for the bracing. If that doesn't work, maybe I'll melt it down into a coffee table and start over.

SC

Is it a standy? If not, like Geron says, it may not be necessary. I just sort of assumed it was based on the size of the frame shown in your album. Doug

Considering the difficulty in putting the 1x2s underneath, the extra plywood sounds easy enough. It will be stiffer and stronger if you screw the two sheets together. You could do that with countersunk ¾ wood screws. The screws will react shear between the 2 sheets and allow them to ‘work’ together. You could through some glue in there as well.

The trailer is not a standy. I had one more idea about mounting joist hangers on the inside rail with stainless steel bolts and then supporting the floor with 2 x 4's but wondered if the joist hangers would rust. If joist hangers are galvanized, I also wondered about a reaction between the galvanized and stainless steel metal. The question about the standy brings up another question that I've wondered about. For a 4' x 8' trailer, the perfect height for balance and appearance appears to be 48". Does anyone have any height recommendations for a 5' x 10' trailer?

SC

sleepercatcher wrote:The trailer is not a standy. I had one more idea about mounting joist hangers on the inside rail with stainless steel bolts and then supporting the floor with 2 x 4's but wondered if the joist hangers would rust. If joist hangers are galvanized, I also wondered about a reaction between the galvanized and stainless steel metal.

OK, the joist hangers probably wouldn’t rust, but you can’t practically weld them, the zinc (I think it is) galvanized coating welds like crap and is toxic (OK it can be welded and I might have done it in an emergency in the past but I wouldn’t do it again). You might could bolt them, but the 2x4s are kind of heavy anyway; so, before anybody gets their panties in a wad let’s consider the problem a bit. First, it would be nice to have a pic so we might help conjure up a bit more helpful solution and as stated earlier you may not really have much of a problem. Trough a mattress on there and see how it actually works. If the deflection/feel is still too squirrely for you, then you can decide on a course of action.

Without looking at you frame it’s a little difficult, but square corner brackets in mild steel are easy enough to make in a vice with a hammer, or just cut off a piece of angle to make a bracket. Brackets should always have 2 fasteners per leg whether they are drilled horizontally (short height, long width bracket) in the bracket or vertically (tall skinny bracket). If the brackets are welded then it doesn’t matter. Anyway, you could put a couple of 1x2s or even 2x2s in the fore/aft direction using some brackets in-between the cross members (I’m assuming that you have cross members closer than the 4 or 5 foot width). Whatever stiffeners you can put on there, they should span the shortest dimension is order to be the most effective. If you really can’t get any stiffeners in there because of your frame, then the extra sheet of plywood is not so heavy and is about as easy to install as anything (assuming that the deflection after the mattress test is still bugging you).

sleepercatcher wrote:The question about the standy brings up another question that I've wondered about. For a 4' x 8' trailer, the perfect height for balance and appearance appears to be 48". Does anyone have any height recommendations for a 5' x 10' trailer?SC

Though some have made a different (taller) profile with the 10 foot length, most of them still have 4 foot width do to material availability (the less special sheets of plywood you need the better off you are). Either way, I’m pretty sure, though the tears can be relatively attractive we are unlikely hitting some ‘golden ratio’ with very many of the height/width combos. A 4 foot height would require a length of 6 foot 5 inches to be ‘golden’ – Maybe Roly’s half Nelson?

I added the 3/8" (actually 11/32" glued and screwed)sheet and now I think it's stout enough; it's almost 3/4" thick. Like Geron said, there shouldn't be much walking on the frame. Thanks for all the advice. Next step, choosing a design.

SC