Teardrops n Tiny Travel Trailers

A lot of the plans call for 5-6 3/8 inch carriage bolts per side for the floor. Man that seems like overkill. I was going to use 8 - 1/4 per side and 3 for each of the ends and 4 cross supports. That even sounds excessive. Any reason the for 3/8s that you all know of?

I was going to use stainless steel but wanted to ask if you all think galvanized painted would be OK, I’d loctite the nuts.

I've never used more than 4 per side (on an 8'-10' long body), and I use 5/16" x 2" elevator bolts instead of carriage bolts (e-bolts have a flat top, not the domed top of the c-bolts), thru 3/4" plywood floor. Loctite & lock-washers ... yeah, belt & suspenders ... ...! IMHO ... stainless steel bolts & nuts are great if you plan on removing the body fairly often, but if not, then zinc-plated w/aforementioned loctite will work fine for many,many years.

Good luck, and ...

CHEERS!

Grant

(Funny ... spell check wanted to spell loctite as lactate ... ...!)

I too used elevator bolts, five on each sides and two on each ends, mine is a 5 x 10 Benroy. I tried carraige bolts first but I could not get them to grab, they just kept spinning

I took apart a tent trailer, there were ONLY four screws total holding the floor to the frame,

It don't take many

John

I used self drilling/tapping trailer floor screws and they seem to work pretty good. I remember spacing them rather sparingly. No need to pre-drill holes in light gauge trailer frames and they are flush with the floor when screwed in. Here's a link Trailer Floor Screws

I used 10 (5 per side) grade 8 1/2" bolts with the floor sandwiched between 2"x2"x1/4" steel plates. The bottom plate is welded flush to the top of the frame.

Overkill? yes.
Will the body ever come off the frame? Only during total destruction.

When disassembling the popup for my frame, Rockwood used galvanized sheet metal screws, roughly #10 or so, there were roughly 15 screws holding the plywood subfloor on and it was still on tight after 32 years.

grant whipp wrote:I've never used more than 4 per side (on an 8'-10' long body), and I use 5/16" x 2" elevator bolts instead of carriage bolts (e-bolts have a flat top, not the domed top of the c-bolts), thru 3/4" plywood floor. Loctite & lock-washers ... yeah, belt & suspenders ... ...! IMHO ... stainless steel bolts & nuts are great if you plan on removing the body fairly often, but if not, then zinc-plated w/aforementioned loctite will work fine for many,many years.

Good luck, and ...

CHEERS!

Grant

(Funny ... spell check wanted to spell loctite as lactate ... ...!)

I used to work for an industrial distributor, and I can't remember how many people I turned on to elevator bolts. Grant... thanks for a great suggestion. For this application, I doubt there is a better choice.

Larry C