Bolting the floor frame down

[Joseph]

I used stainless steel deck screws screwed into the wood frame through the steel frame from the underside.

Joseph

[Larwyn]

I used six 3/8" carriage bolts. That's two more than GM used to hold the bed down on my truck. Should be plenty.......

[jdjernigan]

Hey a great place for ANY kind of specialty bolt is Bolt Depot.com

http://www.boltdepot.com/

Shipping is a little high, so order everything you need one time. Service is excellent!

Good Luck! Joe

[bledsoe3]

I used 10 carriage bolts. 3 on each side and two on each end. I used a forstner bit to sink the head of the bolt.

The bolts went thru the floor and a piece of angle I welded to the frame.

[cracker39]

I used 10 carriage bolts. 3 on each side and two on each end. I used a forstner bit to sink the head of the bolt. The bolts went thru the floor and a piece of angle I welded to the frame.

Mine look just like that, except that I used 13 bolts (5'x9' floor). I welded 2"x3" gussets to the end and middle 2" square tubes and drilled through my other two angle iron floor support pieces. I also have additional floor securing because I had to bolt an angled spar to the front and back frame cross members to attach my skins to, so I screwed the floor ends to these spars as well.

[asianflava]

I only used 8 bolts. I didn't bother to counter sink them because the mattress would cover them.

[Chris C]

Rocky,

I plan on doing the same. A carriage bolt, after all, doesn't protrude that much, and when material is cut away from the floor to lower the bolt head, one is just weakening the holding power..............although, I'll admit, minutely.

[cracker39]

You TD guys are ok not contersinking. My floor will be covered and walked on, so I had to countersink and fill in smooth.

[Chris C]

That makes sense!

[cracker39]

Well, there you are, but, where are you? (Capt. John Yossarian, 1961)

[bledsoe3]

Rocky,

I plan on doing the same. A carriage bolt, after all, doesn't protrude that much, and when material is cut away from the floor to lower the bolt head, one is just weakening the holding power..............although, I'll admit, minutely.

I got a really good deal on a 5' X 8' X 1" sheet for my floor. I'm not too worried about strength. Weight maybe.

[doug hodder]

I did the carriage bolt thing also, about 10, didn't bother to countersink them. as the floor is only 1/2"...just cranked on them till they sucked down below the top of the ply..3/8 dia bolts....Doug

[Artificer]

A slightly different method of bolting the floor down. The walls socket onto the wooden strip. The large glue area makes a very strong joint. I went with overkill of 11 5/16" galvinized bolts into the T-nuts per side.

[Mitheral]

I used six 3/8" carriage bolts. That's two more than GM used to hold the bed down on my truck. Should be plenty.......

Good reality check. More reference:

Pickup truck cabs (well regular cabs, I don't know about those fancy 4 door jobbies) are only attached to the frame with 6- 1/2" or 5/8ths bolts. I'd imagine they are grade 5 rather than grade 2 like carriage bolts but still only six.

FWD engine cradles are attached to unibodies at either 3 or 4 points with 1/2" bolts.

I wouldn't use just 4 bolts to attach my tear to it's frame but that's more because of a feeling the tear attachment points wouldn't be strong enough to distribute the load rather than that the frame or bolts would fail.

[cracker39]

With my larger and higher cabin, I tood someone's advice, and after attaching the cabin walls to the floor with glue and screws, I installed 4 angle brackets (on the sides, one near each end) and bolted those to the side rails and the wall framing to ensure that the cabin doesn't leave the chassis.