No wonder the Burro floor is rotted

[Andy B]

Originally Posted by Raya L.

Wow

That framing you added (?) for the step looks really stout. No flexing there!

What are the loops for? (The ones that look like safety chain loops but in other places.)

Thanks for the photos

Raya

Raya, The original support under the doorway was two stubs of angle iron. Each one was a different size, like they just used scraps. The new support is 1 1/4" angle iron from old bed frame rails.

The old floor was really rotted and felt like you would fall through, so I decided to add the additional supports at the doorway and on both sides of the walking area down the center of the trailer.

The "loops" are made from half links of 3/8" chain, there are 4 on each side and 2 in front and 2 in back. I put them on for 2 reasons.

1) So there would be good places to tie down a tarp if I want to cover it for the winter.

2) If I want to lock the trailer, either at home or when camping, I can use a padlock and a loop of chain or cable through the wheels or to a tree and connect it to those locations.

Andy

[Mike Shackelford]

Thank you Donna....the link was very helpful. I had attempted what others do routinely and your link supported my past efforts. I still seem to fall short and am beginning to think its my laptop. I did just as your link suggested and when I hit "upload" Windows xp says it "can't open that window"... Mr. Symantec will act as my enforcer and check out the laptop for baggage. Thanks to all.
Your work is above reproach, Andy. Looks great from here.
Best wishes,
Mike

ps...this goofy thing just said "windows xp cannot display this webpage" when I hit "upload" from my picture selection....yet again.

[Donna D.]

Mike it sounds like your anti-virus. I run two machines with XP, one with 2000 pro and one on Vista. None have the condition as described, but I run McAfee. I've heard on other forums people have problems with Symantec and different forum software. While not as elegant and will cause problems in the future, you can post on a free picture hosting site and link back here. See this post by Janet for more info: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...tml#post217275

[Andy B]

I just realized that I never posted pictures of the new floor installation, here they are... Old floor removal.

[Andy B]

Some more pictures

[Andy B]

And some more, good sealing at the wheel wells, the source of much of the water that rotted the first floor.

[Andy B]

Inside attachment to the walls. I have been using 20 oz fiberglass and epoxy resin. The 20 oz is very heavy/thick glass. There are 2 layers where the walls and floor join, 0ne layer 3" wide and one layer 5"wide. I cut the strips at 45 degrees to the glass cloth weave direction so all the fibers go across the seam. There is also a 4" wide layer of the same cloth on the outside.

The center seam between the 2 shell halves was cracked both front and rear where it meets the floor. Cracked in front at top and bottom of window and rear at bottom of window. When they made the Burro they glued the halves together with thickened resin, but did not use any fiberglass to bridge the seam.

[Bruce Thomas]

you're gonna get alot of inquires about repairing trailers excellent work and documentation.

[rabbit]

Great pictorial and revelation of the procedural sequence which is EVERYTHING! We should all core our floors! Wait a min, I did! I had a smoothbor water fill hose split where it passes thru the floor on my '98 17' Widebody. I had no experience with this stuff so initially assumed that it had simply rotted out. I ordered 10' of new hose and after clamping to the water fill and feeding thru the floor and trying to make the bend to the tank, I could then see that the hole was too close to tank and the lead was too severe. So I pulled it back out and bored a second hole with a hole saw with about half-hole overlap and at an angle which relieved the tight bend, ran the hose, clamped, and caulked with a permanently flexiable gun goo. I have retained the core so here's the dope on this particular floor. 1/2" plywd. 5 ply. 1/16"+ of glass on bottom; 1/4" on top. I think this is not much more than two layers of fabmat outside and possibly as many as four layers of mat inside. Overall thickness .85".

jack

[Andy B]

Some more pictures. I painted the bottom before attaching the floor to the frame. Put foam tape, the kind used with truck caps, on the frame before assembly. Assembly consisted of putting the body on the frame and aligning it, then drilling up through existing holes in the frame and through the floor with a 1/8" bit. I then lifted the body and removed the frame. Drilled holes in the frame big enough for 5/16 bolts and painted the edges of the holes. I then drilled the countersink for the bolt heads in the floor and then the holes big enough for the bolts. I then coated the exposed plywood edges with epoxy and let it set and then did another coat of epoxy and let it set.

The body was put back on the frame and the holes were aligned. The bolts were installed with epoxy on the bolt shafts and in the holes. Locknuts were used, 37 bolts total.

[Jane D.]

Just bought an '82 Burro and the floor is useable for awhile but a replacement is definitely in the future. Andy B, beautiful frame work by the way but could you comment on how the shell comes loose from the floor/frame and how did you lift the shell? I watched a video link from this site but it went very fast past that part of the job with minimal detail.

Hopefully I can lift it off this coming winter and have it ready for Spring.

I don't know the proper name of the part but could someone help me with info on where to buy the covering that goes over the top edges where the sides of the shell come together? Looks like it maybe just slips over it, some type of molding or trim?

Thanks for any help. JD

[rabbit]

Originally Posted by Jane D.

Just bought an '82 Burro and the floor is useable for awhile but a replacement is definitely in the future. Andy B, beautiful frame work by the way but could you comment on how the shell comes loose from the floor/frame and how did you lift the shell? I watched a video link from this site but it went very fast past that part of the job with minimal detail.

Hopefully I can lift it off this coming winter and have it ready for Spring.

I don't know the proper name of the part but could someone help me with info on where to buy the covering that goes over the top edges where the sides of the shell come together? Looks like it maybe just slips over it, some type of molding or trim?

Thanks for any help. JD

TrimLoc

[Andy B]

Originally Posted by Jane D.

Just bought an '82 Burro and the floor is useable for awhile but a replacement is definitely in the future. Andy B, beautiful frame work by the way but could you comment on how the shell comes loose from the floor/frame and how did you lift the shell?
Thanks for any help. JD

Jane, there are 30 screws, installed from the top of the floor, that go through the floor and through the angle iron cross pieces of the frame. If you look under the Burro you will see the screws. They extended about 2 inches past the angle iron surface on the underside. The heads of these screws are under the fiberglass surface of the floor. If you look at post #24 in this thread, the 1st two pictures show holes that I cut with a hole saw to gain access to the screw heads. Some of the screws are inside the lower cabinets. The screws were heavily rusted so I cut off the part of the screws that extended out underneath the trailer. About half of the screws were so heavily rusted that they broke when I tried to remove them. When I saw how bad the screws and floor really was, I was glad the body did not fall off the frame when I towed it home.

I jacked up the body off the frame from 1 point at each end. I will attach some pictures. I used a hydraulic jack in the pictures, but that is over kill. I later did all the jacking with a scissors jack from an old Subaru. You only need 1 small jack, not 4 jacks like some people use, as long as you provide enough support with blocking. The entire Burro body is only 5 or 6 hundred pounds. Make sure you use a piece of wood between the jack and the fiberglass to spread the load. I jacked up one end several inches, supported it on blocks, then jacked up the other end, supported it on blocks and repeat until the body was at a comfortable working height. I raised it enough that I could roll the frame out with the wheels still on. That height made it easier to work underneath the trailer when replacing the floor.

[Jane D.]

Rabbit thanks for the info on the trim material. Seems like that place pretty much has all I might need. Helps a lot.

Andy B -- Thanks for the GREAT photos, that clears up a lot about how to raise it off the frame. At the moment the only other thing I'm wondering about is were you able to use the old floor as a template for the new one? I guess that may become self explanatory once the body is off but when the time comes it would be better to have some idea of what I will be getting myself into. Also am starting to feel like you about whether the body is going to stay attached. To be honest I am very leary about towing it but have to pretty soon.

Thought maybe I might be able to use it some and tear it down later this year but am having second thoughts about that now. It is still sitting at the house where I found it and this coming week I plan to take up the floor covering and get a better look at the situation from top and bottom. Tried to get under it yesterday but the ants had so many nests under there that I just did a bunch of spraying and had to stop with getting the tires pumped up. I moved it with a hand dolly and it sure was wiggiling around a lot.

Would be nice to have someone nearby to do my frame like yours. I have to find a welder, I have some bed rails already!! Sorry for being longwinded but one more point. I have zero experience doing fiberglass work, do you think that using marine grade plywood with an epoxy paint coating would work just a well for a new floor?

Thanks much for the great info. I'm really wanting to just tear it apart now and get it done and over with. JD

[Andy B]

Originally Posted by Jane D.

Andy B -- Thanks for the GREAT photos, that clears up a lot about how to raise it off the frame. At the moment the only other thing I'm wondering about is were you able to use the old floor as a template for the new one? I guess that may become self explanatory once the body is off but when the time comes it would be better to have some idea of what I will be getting myself into. Also am starting to feel like you about whether the body is going to stay attached. To be honest I am very leary about towing it but have to pretty soon.

Thought maybe I might be able to use it some and tear it down later this year but am having second thoughts about that now. It is still sitting at the house where I found it and this coming week I plan to take up the floor covering and get a better look at the situation from top and bottom. Tried to get under it yesterday but the ants had so many nests under there that I just did a bunch of spraying and had to stop with getting the tires pumped up. I moved it with a hand dolly and it sure was wiggiling around a lot.

Would be nice to have someone nearby to do my frame like yours. I have to find a welder, I have some bed rails already!! Sorry for being longwinded but one more point. I have zero experience doing fiberglass work, do you think that using marine grade plywood with an epoxy paint coating would work just a well for a new floor?

Thanks much for the great info. I'm really wanting to just tear it apart now and get it done and over with. JD

Jane, I did not use the old floor as a template, I don't think that would be possible even if the floor was solid enough to stay intact when removed. Almost all of the plywood in the old floor crumbled in my hands when I removed it. Prior to cutting into the floor I did not think it was anywhere close to being as deteriorated as it turned out to be. The plywood had almost no strength around most of the screws that hold it to the frame.

I made a template out of cardboard, it is shown in the first picture in post #7 of this thread. The Burro construction has the outer shell wrap under the floor by about 2 to 3 inches all the way around. The inside of the outer shell wall is fiberglassed to the top of the floor. I cut out the old floor along the edge of the outer shell where it wraps under the floor and then removed the last 2-3 inches of the floor around the perimeter with a chisel, although most of it just pulled right out. This left a 2 to 3 inch deep slot around the perimeter. I routed the new plywood floor thinner to fit in that slot. You can see that in the 7th picture in post #7 of this thread. I glued the new floor into the slot with thickened epoxy and then used two layers of fiberglass cloth at this seam on the inside and one layer at this seam on the outside.

The fiberglass joint where the wall meets the floor is what holds the body to the floor and the floor is held to the frame with the screws. The fiberglass between the floor and the walls needs to be strong, this is just as important as the floor being attached to the frame. You are going to need to fiberglass the walls and floor together anyway so I would recommend fiberglassing the floor at the same time.

[Jane D.]

Andy B,

More really good info, thanks again. I figured that the shell may be attached to the frame by way of bolts or something but obviously I was wrong. That explains why you said that the fiberglass work from the shell to the floor needs to be quite strong. As for the floor template that may be a little more tricky than first thought due to the fact that the floor is up in that area where the inner and outer shell come down. I was thinking along the lines of using one solid piece of plywood but guess I will have to see how the floor lays in there.

I'm currently looking for a place where I can store the body so I can take it apart. The more I read/see it is obvious that doing the floor now is probably the best thing. This is all new and I intend to be a sponge with the information so please feel free to share whatever you're willing to. Since I am trying to figure it out as I go don't think that any info is too simple!! Photos of anything are great too.
About your new axle. Do you think that the one you put on would be the same that I would need?

Searching for a welder......

Much thanks,
Jane

[Jane D.]

Have a welder lined up and got the body up off the frame today on my '82 Burro. One bad thing, the door won't open, guess things moved around just enough, due to the lack of any type of support from the rotten floor, to make it closer on the bottom part so it's too tight. Nothing seems broken just won't open. Guess it will have to stay that way until it goes back on the frame.

Welcome any tips or advice in this project. Especially could use help concerning the top FRP where it meets the interior walls. It looks like I will have to cut it away from the walls to remove it. Need advice as to how far I should take it being that the walls have to be glassed to the floor.

Total newbie at this. Never pulled one apart like this before but it wasn't too bad. Next, clean out all the old crap and make a floor pattern. Then, another new thing, doing the glass work.
These eggs sure are different from an aluminum trailer!! Can't wait till it's done, I really like this little thing........

Thanks for helpful tips!!!
JD

[Andy B]

Originally Posted by Jane D.

Have a welder lined up and got the body up off the frame today on my '82 Burro. One bad thing, the door won't open, guess things moved around just enough, due to the lack of any type of support from the rotten floor, to make it closer on the bottom part so it's too tight. Nothing seems broken just won't open. Guess it will have to stay that way until it goes back on the frame.

Welcome any tips or advice in this project. Especially could use help concerning the top FRP where it meets the interior walls. It looks like I will have to cut it away from the walls to remove it. Need advice as to how far I should take it being that the walls have to be glassed to the floor.

Total newbie at this. Never pulled one apart like this before but it wasn't too bad. Next, clean out all the old crap and make a floor pattern. Then, another new thing, doing the glass work.
These eggs sure are different from an aluminum trailer!! Can't wait till it's done, I really like this little thing........

Thanks for helpful tips!!!
JD

Great that you got the body off the frame, hope the screws didn't give you too much trouble. You will need to correct the door spacing before bolting back on the frame. When the new floor is glued/fiberglassed in place that will hold the door spacing in place before attaching to the frame. There was someone here that had their door spread when they removed the floor, mine did not change at all.

As far as how close to the sidewalls to cut the floor, I cut out most of the floor from above. You can see the saw that I used in the 2nd picture of post 24 of this thread. Started at the doorway and cut pieces out as I went into the trailer. For the edges I cut from under the floor. If you look underneath the floor, you will see the white gellcoat outer wall goes under the floor about 2 or 3" all the way around. You can see the gelcoat edge with the new floor in the 5th picture of post 25 in this thread. I cut straight up just inside where the outer wall ends. Be sure to leave enough when you cut around the wheel wells, I left the same 2-3" as the other edges, but there is no gelcoat edge to guide you.

Don't forget to post pictures.

[pzubiate]

I just bought a 1978 Burro. Everything is in great shape except for the floor and the cushions. I can tell by the posts that replacing the floor is going to be tough. I took the plunge and started ripping out the rotted floor last weekend. So far everything from the closet to the rear of the trailer was rotten. The wood at the front of the trailer is in pretty good shape. I'll add some pictures as I move forward with this project. This thread has helped as I plan out how to re-construct the floor.

[Jane D.]

[QUOTE=Andy B;268705]Great that you got the body off the frame, hope the screws didn't give you too much trouble. You will need to correct the door spacing before bolting back on the frame. When the new floor is glued/fiberglassed in place that will hold the door spacing in place before attaching to the frame. There was someone here that had their door spread when they removed the floor, mine did not change at all.

Andy,
All but 3 of the bolt heads snapped off from being so rusty. I lost some sleep last night thinking about that door. I was thinking if I do the glass work attaching everything together won't that hold the door opening in that misaligned position? Just wondering how it can move back if that is done since the door opening is part of the outer shell that gets glassed to the floor??? This problem has me going around with no solution right now.

After I got the frame loose I was really glad that I decided to do this. One wiggly, weak, tired frame. I have new parts rounded up to make it better. Coupler, tongue jack, corner stabilizer jacks and add new metal to it like you did. Also, any recommendations for getting a new axle and do you think that I could use the same one that you did?
My information sponge has plenty of room left for input so if you folks are talking I'm listening..........
Thanks much,
JD