New floor for Burro, When you gotta gut you gotta GUT! Options

[Myron Leski]

Newbie buys used, abused trailer, rips out wet carpet, falls through floor. Undaunted, he climbs back out , begins gut, and putting in new floor. Pumkin turns into chariot.

I love those stories. Yep, told many times by old timers to this forum. Here's my contribution, latest floor progress, before and after. I ripped out as much as I could, and replaced with new 5/8 ply which I coated with fiberglass. I added a 3/4 square of plywood in the dinette seating area to give the table base more screw depth. Covered main floor with 1/4 inch ply (also coated) to bridge seams, insure uniform base for final surface material.

Many flooring options have been discussed on this forum, and they all have great merit, for sure. Being a wood guy, for me it was always going to be wood.

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[Per Walthinsen]

Applause, applause! Another Burro rescued. Beautifully done!

[DianeP]

Nice work. Pulling one back from the brink is so rewarding.

Check out our Scamp save in "Dave and Dianes Project Scamp" album on the Yahoo Scampers Group site.

Dave and Diane

[CharlynnT]

Beauty!

As Don Cherry wood say, "I love dem guys!"

[james kent]

Faaaantastic That looks like a lot of work,but well worth the effort.

[Myron Leski]

Thankyouthankyouthankyouverrry much.

Now that main flooring is finished the threshold and doorway must be dealt with. Its a bigger problem than expected. Specifically, I see a big GAP when the door is closed. Looks due to mis-allignment when Burro shells were joined. For example, no gap at top, but 3/4 inch open gap on bottom side.

I took a hefty length of wood and made custom cuts so it serves as a threshold underpinning, mating just fine, to the door bottom. The gap at the side, however will require some careful selection of rubber gaskets.

I know this trailer was bought as a kit, and was assembled by previous owner at home. I wonder just how much assembly he had to do?

Anyone out there ever do a Burro kit?

Because, there are several places where inner shells could have been matched up much better. I have read some horror stories about poor quality control when Burro was in California, but always thought their earlier, Minnesota production was at a high standard. And this is a Minnesota Burro. I also heard the kits came with the shells already joined, and all you did was bolt up your axle and interior options, but that may be wrong.

[BOBSMITH]

Beautiful work. I am impressed!

[Dan Quinn]

looks great glad i did not have to go that far to put my floor in..

[Myron Leski]

It's always something.

Noticed door was not quite parallel to frame. Was going to replace hinge screws with stainless anyway, so removed door and filled old screw holes with Formula 27 (what great stuff, Gary), and did slight re-positioning, drilling new holes. This may have helped a tad, but still not good enough.
This picture shows gap before the hinge adjustment.

This post has been edited by Myron Leski: Apr 20 2006, 09:26 AM

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[pjanits]

Myron,
My door has the same look. Even after someone put a fiberglass 1/8 " shim on the bottom hinge of the door side. I guess I could add more to the shim or just live with it.

I never did find the right stuff for the door gasket it's all either too thin or too thick.
It cost too much to keep experimenting so I figure I'll just leave this cheap foam stuff on until I stumble into the perfect gasket.

By the way the floor looks great!

This post has been edited by pjanits: Apr 20 2006, 12:44 PM

[Rick F. D.]

Myron,
Same here with my '86 Burro 17' wide body. I think the doors were molded incorrectly. There is no way to align my door with the appropriate body lines. Also am adding an access door in the side. A few more days and I should have this done.
Rick

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[Bob Maddox]

Thanks to all of you for your coments about the Burro door? I had always thought that I was out there all alone with a misaligned door. My gap is at the very bottom and it is pretty well taken care of with some of that soft stick-on foam, about an inch square.

Myron, was your original floor fiberglassed and then rotted through that? My 1980 is fiberglass and I haven't noticed any problems with it. Where I have drilled holes through it to run wiring for various things, I have always filled with silicone to keep out water splash.

Rick, great job on the access door. I needed an easy way to get to the area under the rear seats as I keep the rear dinette made up as a bed all of the time. Unfortunately, on the Burro there's not a large flat area back there for a decent-sized access door. I found on eBay a boat hatch (10" diameter overall with 8" opening) that just fits to the rear of the curb side wheel well. It's not all that large, but I only use it to store poles, umbrellas, electric cords, etc.--anything that can fit through an 8" opening. (I fitted it with a lock so it's secure.)

Enjoyed all of your comments!

Bob

[Myron Leski]

Bob ------ I just realized I never respond to your question ...."Myron, was your original floor fiberglassed and then rotted through that?"

Answer is yes, big time. Due evidently to years of many leaks from all windows, and especially from the roof vent. This trailer suffered from 13 years of being irrelevant.

I have stopped using silicone. My preference is to stuff gaps and holes in floor with fiberglass putty, often including the cloth. When I redid all windows it was with butyl. Silicone gets a consistently bad rap from most of this forums' regulars. Stuff evidently just doesn't hold up.

Agreed, those doors MUST have been molded incorrectly. I am still searching for the perfect door gasket and like you, PJ, have settled on using the cheap foam stick on stuff. But haven't found it thicker than 5/8" so likely will double it, plus, for application on lower door gap, which gets to be over 1 inch, then tapers close going up to the latch.

Did find nice black rubber L shaped corner threshold for step threshold that seals nice up against the door. I contact cemented it in.

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[DianeP]

There was a discussion recently over on yahoo Scampers relating to door gasket material. There is a marine gasket material that is in the form of a tube with a self adhesive backing that several were interested in.....check out marine suppliers.

I recently saw a self adhesive soft tube gasket at a local RV shop. I t was very pliable and ~1.5 in in diameter. Very interesting stuff. I was tempted to experiment till the guy priced it at $3 a foot. The door seal is the most stuborn problem we have.

Dave and Diane

[Myron Leski]

Yes, and $3 a foot is a bit much but might tempt me in the end, anyway, if I only needed a couple feet and that was the answer. First, though, I may go hunting in junk yards for rubber gaskets in wrecked car doors.

Look, it's the fun and adventure of discovery! By the way, its amazing how many junked cars have hitches on them.

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