Accessing roof vent

[Rick kl]

I am going to replace my roof vent on my Boler with a new one with a fan, the question is without crawling out on the roof how do you reach out far enough to drill out the pop rivets? I don't think the roof will support the weight of a human will it?

[Frederick L. Simson]

Just a thought...
Would you be able to consrtuct some kind of scaffolding over the trailer?

[John Hussey]

Or, lay a piece of plywood over the top of the roof and put your body just upon the plywood. This way the whole roof supports the weight of your body and not just the few points where you touch it to support your weight. But that is just a suggestion to spread your weight out. I have never looked at the roof structure of a Boler to see if it will work.

[Donna D.]

If the vent is toast and you don't care if you bust it up. Can you break it apart enough to go through the hole from the inside. Maybe if you stood on a ladder, you could reach through and get to the rivets that way

[william russell]

Rick:

When I replaced my vent with a powered vent, I just set up a step ladder close to the side, protected the trailer with a doubled over blanket, and then drilled out the rivets I could reach. Then went around to the other side and did the same thing.
I'm 5' 8" tall and didn't have much trouble reaching all the rivets. Once I had all the rivets out and the vent loosened I went inside to finish the job. In order to get the roof really clean of "junk" where the old vent was, I stood on a stool inside the trailer and worked my head and shoulders through the hole so I could really work at getting the roof cleaned up.
Russell

[Rick kl]

I got it! I followed Donna's advice and broke it up, it is possible to drill the rivets from the inside the only problem was the 3/4" of silicone around the outside, lots of scrapping from a step stool and it broke free.

[Gerry]

I just replaced AC unit with a vent on my Boler 13 and had no problem reaching all areas from a step ladder leaned against the trailer with some blankets to protect where ladder leaned against it.
But if you need to get on top, how about thinking inside.
Support the roof with some up-right 2x4 from floor to ceiling just like I do to support the 2 feet of winter snow in Maine.
I lay a 2X6 on floor then mesured height from top of this to ceiling, minus 1- 1/2 inches.
Cut as many 2X4 this messurment.
Then cut another 2X6 for the ceiling and wedge your 2X4 as uprights.
This will give you plenty of support to crawl up on your roof if you need to.
Gerry