Dutchmen T@B Owners with Original Floor

brorob

Hello everyone. I have a few questions for Dutchmen/Thor T@B owners. I am repairing some water damage in my floor and during the process I learned about owners that have had failures with the aluminum frame itself, weld joints and even a few broken tubes. Most of these I’ve seen were due to water damage. I’m wondering how many owners of this model have travelled a lot and haven’t had any problems with the floor. How much have you travelled with your T@B? Are you limiting your travels to smooth terrain or taking it down any 2 tracks? Do you camp in mostly dry areas? Are you doing anything to inspect the floor and wall joints regularly? Any preventative maintenance you’re doing that may be helping with the longevity of the floor? I’d like to believe that these things are solid, as long as they were assembled correctly. Mine seems very solid other than the window leak area, that will soon be fixed.

I’m thinking of supporting the four corners of the camper with some angle iron (8 total) below the outside corners and elevator bolts on top so it strengthens these joints and hopefully the overall integrity of the floor. I have removed all of the damaged plywood from the wall and floor and am confident I can patch that area and it will be stronger than it originally was. I’ve thoroughly inspected the rest of the floor and there are no other soft areas and it looks good. The camper looks great overall, like it wasn’t camped in much so not a lot of wear and tear shown. I just think someone had it sitting outside for storage and the window had a bad seal and probably leaked for a long time.

I would tackle installing a new floor but I received a lead time of 4-6 weeks and we just sold our house so we need to start our travels in mid to late November. I can’t cut it that close, plus there could be production delays. This is something we just discovered with our camper. I was also surprised at the $1200 quote from my local dealer (no direct pricing now), just for the floor without the underbelly material! NuCamp also will not let you pick these up at the factory now either, at least that is what I was told. They also don't appear to carry bearings or brake shoes for this model any more. Curious if anyone knows of a place to purchase genuine ALKO parts in the U.S. I know manufacturers are very busy but I wasn’t really happy with their customer support or these changes.

I included a drawing of my thoughts for strengthening the joints in case anyone wants to share their thoughts about that. I was originally thinking of using metal plates (in blue) but am not thinking of angle iron underneath (in orange).

Thanks for sharing any experience if you have one!

hotcoldsummer

How did this work out for you?  I'm in the same boat.

dragonsdofly

@hotcoldsummer @brorob has not been active on the forum since February.  I suggest you try a PM through this site and hope for a reply. -Denise