Yet Another Thor Floor

ElkTab

I've decided that I'm finally far enough along to start posting progress on my own floor replacement. Special thanks to nÜCamp for hosting this forum and to the forum members who have already replaced their floors and lived to tell the tale, particularly pjalau, and your excellent "Floored. A rebuild project." thread. This thread is for entertainment purposes (at my expense) and not intended to be a guide for floor replacement, except insomuch as some future internet searcher my learn what not to do, I suppose. So if you're finding this tread in 2023 and think you have found the Yoda of floor replacement, disappointed you will be. 

Background:

I purchased a used 2007 T@B made by Dutchman / Thor at the beginning of Summer 2020 to take to Wyoming for two months of fieldwork. I really wanted my own space while away from home during COVID and I wanted an RV that my family could use afterward. I really enjoyed staying in the T@b for those two months but by the time I pulled the trailer back to Missouri, the floor, which had extensive water damaged at some point, was sagging and pulling away from the right side wheel well.  Being a hillbilly with no experience repairing recreational vehicles, I naturally decided that I could replace the floor myself with one of my own design.

ElkTab

Here she is hooked up and ready to travel. 



Part the First

Behold the consequences of pulling a trailer a quarter of the way across the country after the floor is already water damaged and dry rotted. Or should it be rotted then dried? The upper photo shows a large crack at the elevator bolt. The floor is supported from below at this point with a jack stand so that is can't sag as much as it wants to. 



The rear frame was bent and I would later find more broken welds in the aluminum frame after removal and dissection. 

ElkTab

Part the Second

I ended up removing all of the rear cabinets prior to removing the floor. I was able to leave the front cabinets, but only because their connection to the floor was ethereal in a bad way. I wasn't taking many pictures at this point so those who came for the carnage are going to be disappointed. Here's the cabinet removal in progress:



See the two holes in the middle? I'm pretty sure the spare tire, which still looks new after 13 years of non-use, is being held on by Tyvek and wishful thinking at this point. 

ElkTab

Part the Third

After I had removed and dissected the original floor, I began copying the structure while adding my own improvements. I used 1-inch by 1-inch, 14 gauge steel for the floor frame since it's easier to weld and will hold screws without needing wood inside the tubes, and would allow me to add some additional cross-bracing. Plus, it's cheap and readily available. My goal was to add some strength to the floor and make it a bit more water-resistant without adding too much extra weight. 



This is 1/8-inch plywood for the top, a steel frame with extra internal cross-bracing and some additional pressure treated wood bracing. 1-inch pink insulation foam is glued to the plywood using Loctite PL300 foamboard glue and the treated wood bracing and steel frame are glued to the plywood using Liquid Nails Fuze It all surface construction adhesive and 1-inch self-drilling lath screws. 



I decked the bottom of the floor with 1/2-inch pressure treated plywood, joined to the frame with more screws, foam board glue, and all purpose adhesive. This plywood was total overkill and added more weight than I would have liked, but I couldn't find anything thinner that was pressure treated and I wasn't willing to use non-treated. This also made the floor thicker than the original, something I will have to deal with later. 



I covered the treated plywood with FRP. Later I trimmed the excess and caulked the seam before I put the new floor back on the trailer. That's it for now. Next I will be bolting the floor down with new, longer elevator bolts and adding flooring before I set the upper shell back on.  

4ncar

Dag!

gulfarea

WOW! Art

jkjenn

Nice work!!

This seems to be the year for the DM floors and windows to go.

ElkTab

ElkTab

Sharon_is_SAM

Very nice job!  Hopefully it will last another 13 years!

ElkTab

As of last weekend, the floor is back on the trailer. I built some brackets so that I could lift the trailer frame two inches above the axle and get some much-needed ground clearance.  I'm also leaving off the spare to get back some of the weight I added to the floor. Since the floor is a half-inch thicker than the original I replaced all of the elevator bolts with longer ones.  The two-inch lift (plus the half-inch from the floor) necessitated adding a step. I had already planned these modifications during the planning stage so I had already added some additional steel reinforcement where the step was to be bolted to the floor.  The floor is snap-together waterproof textured vinyl flooring from Menards. As you can see by the concrete block towers in the background, the trailer is positioned to go back under the body.  

ElkTab

Sharon_is_SAM said:

Very nice job!  Hopefully it will last another 13 years!

I'm hoping that my liberal use of pressure-treated lumber and steel will buy me an extra decade or two. Only time will tell. 

VKemper

Thank you so much for posting this Mod. We purchased our 2006 CS last January knowing the floor had some soft spots. Fast forward to December, when we took up the linoleum and realized the floor, the entire floor, was rotted and aluminum frame broken in more than one spot.
Thanks to your very detailed mod, my husband and his cousin replaced the floor in two weeks time! Pretty good for two 70+ year old guys! Thank you again!

Nova

Hi Elk Tab
I commend you on your hard fine work.  I wonder if you have some further pics? I ask because I too have jumped in to this.  I have ordered a floor from NuCamp and it should be hear in a few weeks.  Any pointers and I would be very grateful..  

Denny16

As long as you are going to all the effort to pull the trailer off it’s floor, to replace the plywood sub floor, you might as well get the Azdel replacement floor from nüCamp, then you will not have any future water damage issues to the floor.  You will also save weight over a plywood subfloor.
cheers

Sharon_is_SAM

@Nova - ElkTab has not been active since October.  Send him a private message and he will receive an email notification.

hotcoldsummer

ElkTab said:

This looks great. How is it holding up?  Did you ever find out if the weight was still within the limit of the Alko axle?  Nucamp no longer sells floor replacements so I'm looking at options

Geo

@hotcoldsummer,  Another option to consider - @rfuss928 used 1" plywood to replace his floor, no fabrication of framing required.

Good Luck

AmberB

How can i get a look at the floor? I just bought a 2006 t@b and the floor seems weak (no crunching noise or visible sag) in front of the sink. 

hotcoldsummer

Geo said:

@hotcoldsummer,  Another option to consider - @rfuss928 used 1" plywood to replace his floor, no fabrication of framing required.

Good Luck

That's a thought.  I feel like if I have to gut it and remove the body from the floor, I might as well use a steel frame with similar design to original. I contacted Dexter and am sending them some measurements to see if they can build a beefier torsion axle that will be easier to maintain and hold a little more weight.

hotcoldsummer

AmberB said:

How can i get a look at the floor? I just bought a 2006 t@b and the floor seems weak (no crunching noise or visible sag) in front of the sink. 

If it has the original vinyl over the floor inside the storage bins and cabinets, cut some away to see if there's signs of rot beneath.  You also press on the underside or topside to see if there's soft spots.  Moldy or musty smells are another clue. I haven't gutted mine to see what kind of shape the floor's frame is in but I can tell that the floor is flexing pretty badly, so I'm sure the floor's structural integrity is going.