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I wonder if it would be possible to insulate under the floor...
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I have been thinking about under-floor insulation, even without in-floor heating. I think it is an entirely reasonable idea, at least in my 17-foot
Boler
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...How to protect it from road damage is my question. Maybe a thin sheet of plastic or aluminum glued to sheet foam insulation?
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The
fiberglass sheet material used as the outer surface of "fiberglass" stick-built trailers is available in sheets in various thicknesses and finishes (e.g. with or without gelcoat). A common brand name is "Filon". I have considered getting some of this (perhaps as scrap from an RV repair or manufacturing operation) for this application.
Off-road and
rally competition vehicles routinely use relatively thick sheets of solid plastic as rock guards, but that would be too heavy for the large areas involved. Newer conventional trailers use thin plastic - perhaps composite such as
fiberglass - underbody covers for aerodynamics; maybe that would work well.
My current thinking is to use polystyrene foam insulation (Styrofoam®), glue it in place, and use screws through the foam and just into the floor to hold the cover sheet. I have not tried this yet. An alternative would be some sort of brackets from the frame rails, but I would rather not weld on the rails or drive self-tapping screws into them.
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...Could the tanks be freeze protected also? Would road clearance be compromised or would the insulation all be above the axle and not prove to be a problem? ...
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This depends on specific trailer construction; however, in my
Boler B1700 the frame is a pair of 4" high box rails, and the flat floor runs across the top. In the areas without water tanks, there is space for 4 inches of insulation before it would hang lower than the frame.
The tanks in my trailer protrude significantly below the frame rails, and it would be necessary to raise the trailer to provide room to significantly insulate them. I have seen photos of trailers with foam insulation apparently sprayed on the tanks, but this looks neither tidy nor durable to me.
[b]Bigfoot is proud of their winter-worthy insulation design, and uses 1.5" foam in their walls. I wonder if and how they insulate their floors and tanks?