Maintenance & Restoration

janony · 02-02-2012, 10:06 AM

Guess we never figured we needed it. We never had anything on the floor in the scamp we had except regular floor covering with a throw-rug over it. I've been researching insulating and sound-proofing, and from what I've read, in all reality, anything that's only 1/4" thick or so has very little temperature insulation value (some of the foils claim more, but the fine print is that they only insulate more if they have space on at least one side of them). As for noise, the denser product (the prodex) has better noise reduction than the bubble-foil. We actually did plan on insulating under the bed (we're making the dinette a permanent bed and adding a mini-dinette in the front where the sofa was). Not sure what we'll do under the cabinets or dinette yet. But in reality, we'll only have about a 4 x 4 floor, and I was going to put a throw-rug in over the laminate we were putting down--so that would probably be as good as having prodex on the floor--and I can deal with damages far more easily...

David Tilston · 02-02-2012, 11:11 AM

Home Depot sells a carpet underlay that has been used for trailer insulation. It is called Eco Foam. It is light, closed cell, recycled, low VOC. The cost is not too bad either.

janony · 02-02-2012, 03:29 PM

This sounded great--but I just checked Home Depot's site and it's no longer available. Couldn't find it anywhere else; maybe they stopped making it. I will have to check some carpet places I guess. Right now the Prodex is sounding about the best...

idiotsniff · 02-02-2012, 06:14 PM

janony,

that prodex stuff looks like it will cause you problems in the areas you need to bend the product around corners/curves in the body.

check this out. look at all the creases that form just with a slight bend. I really don't think this stuff is a good idea unless its on a flat surface only. should see if you can get a sample and try and curve it to the corners of your trillium and see how many creases form. i think it will be really bad in those areas and be useless. unless maybe you are going to cover it with a carpet over that. or something. but if you spray grizzly over this, you'll see those creeses for sure.

here's a sample photo:

David Tilston · 02-02-2012, 06:27 PM

It may be heavy and not exactly closed cell, but I have thought that neoprene would work.

janony · 02-03-2012, 07:18 AM

Hi Joel,
I had seen the pic of the Prodex, and I know it will wrinkle, but the bubblefoil would too. I think just about anything would. Maybe the grizzly stuff isn't the way to go, although I've heard that it does fill--I saw pics of it used over a rough floor and it was smooth. You put it on with a roller. They sell pints for under $20; might be worth trying it before I go the whole deal.
Dave, I've thought about neoprene too, but it's more expensive than the ensolite, and then there's still the seam issue. It was a great suggestion though. We're committed to doing something; we took out the old ensolite yesterday, and I have to say I'm not sad to see it gone...

Sandi Pitre · 08-31-2012, 10:36 PM

Janony

I am very curious as to what you have decided to use instead of the ensolite?

**RogerDat** · 09-01-2012, 12:01 AM

One thing to be aware of is the ensolite provided some cushion space between the trailer and the interior part such as the bench seats. No experience with FG trailers to guide me but..... I think you might want to avoid a really tight contact between things that are connected to the floor and against the walls in order to avoid stress on the fiberglass from trailer flexing.

Maybe some thin padded tape or something between wall and things like the seats, cabinets and closet. Just to provide a little "give".

Roy in TO · 09-01-2012, 07:19 AM

Roger,
The Trilliums are built differently from your Scamp.
The seats and other parts are glassed in - no rivets.

**RogerDat** · 09-01-2012, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Roy in TO

Roger,
The Trilliums are built differently from your Scamp.
The seats and other parts are glassed in - no rivets.

Good to know thanks. That would seam harder to take apart for some repairs but more solid overall. I mis-read and thought it was a boler, a scamp half-brother :-)

Scot M · 09-02-2012, 02:24 PM

This doesn't really pertain to the ensolite, but it's in the same realm. I have a few wrinkles in my T-molding, that I would like to correct while redoing the overhead bins. Is there an easy way to push the spline of the molding into the groove? Maybe mine was too hot (after heating) when I tried to re-install it, because the spline sort of fell over. My thumbs cannot do this job, and while I used the handle of my pliers, that is incredibly slow. Thanks,

Scot

janony · 09-04-2012, 11:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandi Pitre

Janony

I am very curious as to what you have decided to use instead of the ensolite?

Hi Sandi,
We went with Reflectix (like a bubble wrap with foil-like covering both sides). We used 3m 77 spray adhesive, which was highly recommended. We covered it with a blanket-like material. All came out really great, UNTIL we put it out in the hot July sun. (we had done the renovation work inside a barn). The glue let go when the trailer was in the sun. I contacted 3M, and after some back and forth, they admitted that their glue is only good up to 150 degrees--and the sun beating on the fiberglas, which was painted gray, apparently exceeded that temp--especially since the reflectix didn't absorb any of the heat...and so now we are looking for a glue that will withstand the temp. The manufacturer also told us we would have to strip all the old adhesive off both the fiberglas and the reflectix before using any new glue, or the old adhesive will interfere with the new sticking. So we're pretty discouraged. We had done some sample pieces to make sure everything would work, but never thought about the heat factor because the can never said anything about heat being a factor. So now we're searching for a new adhesive, but one that will withstand the heat but not off-gas and make a toxic environment...we're open to suggestions...

Bcboler · 10-14-2012, 11:27 PM

Hello, I'm about to redo the insulation on my boler and cannot find super 90 anywhere in my area, but today I picked up this LePage contact cement that is water based and Eco friendly which I'll be using. It cover three times more area than solvent adhesives, has no odour, cleans up with water, no clamping required, and best of all - service temperature up to 70C or 158F! Here is the link to the technical data sheet. http://dashboard.lepageproducts.com/...9813bb8bfa.pdf
I live in a very hot climate in Canada where we hit 40c most of the summer so I have the same concerns of de-lamination as you do. I've Dan some tests this evening on the foam I'll be using to insulate and it bonds great after the set up time.
Regards from Penticton, BC

Ira

janony · 10-15-2012, 05:41 AM

Thanks for the info on the glue; I spoke to a rep of 3M and they said I'd need to strip all the old glue off EVERYTHING--I'll strip from the camper shell, but it would be crazy to try to strip from the insulating material so I'll replace. What are you using for foam? I would rather use a foam insulation if I could find one; I haven't been real impressed with the reflectix.

Bcboler · 10-15-2012, 06:35 AM

Take a look at the thread I started just yesterday about restoring my 1974 boler. I put up some pics and info of what I'm using. Even if you can't find an exact match I'm sure you'll find something close. Being in the states you'll have access to a lot more material than up here.

Donna D. · 10-15-2012, 08:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bcboler

Take a look at the thread I started just yesterday about restoring my 1974 boler. I put up some pics and info of what I'm using. Even if you can't find an exact match I'm sure you'll find something close. Being in the states you'll have access to a lot more material than up here.

Just to keep things together for Search, here's the topic Ira referenced: http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/f...-bc-54938.html

David Tilston · 10-15-2012, 08:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scot M

This doesn't really pertain to the ensolite, but it's in the same realm. I have a few wrinkles in my T-molding, that I would like to correct while redoing the overhead bins. Is there an easy way to push the spline of the molding into the groove? Maybe mine was too hot (after heating) when I tried to re-install it, because the spline sort of fell over. My thumbs cannot do this job, and while I used the handle of my pliers, that is incredibly slow. Thanks,

Scot

Scot, you are close about it being too hot. It is my theory that the hot days in the sun cause it to soften and expand. This causes pieces of it pop out of the track. Over time the repeated cycles of hot and cold cause the ripple effect.

The solution is thankfully simple. Take the T molding off and boil it. No, this is not some gross soup. The heat will soften the vinyl when you take it out, lay it flat. When it hardens up, re-install. A rubber mallet helps.

Cricket · 10-16-2012, 06:34 AM

There is a guy in Mpls that used the truck bed liner when he re-did a Boler....that I thought was advertised for sale here somewhere....I went and looked at it, but he had taken out the bunks so it wouldn't work for me.....I don't know if he's camped in it, but I assume he has.....Tim something I think if memory serves....

Borden · 10-16-2012, 07:45 PM

In one older article on FiberglassRv site they used closed cell foam glued to walls and then sprayed on thinned truck liner to make it like the original wall covering with no seams