Rear floor needs replacing

[LuckyPenny]

I have a 13’ Burro that I’ve been having restored. Now I found out that under the rear compartments, there’s supposed to be wood sandwiched between fiberglass. The wood is rotten. Question- can I have pieces of wood to fit & add another fiberglass layer or can you just use metal grill & fiberglass on top? If you need wood, how thick?

[Joe MacDonald]

search for floor repair in the various forums, you will find a ton of information, My opinion is that you should have wood, as it will give the trailer the strength it needs to be structurally sound, but many on here have done this task and can speak to it better than I can

Joe

[John in Michigan]

My Boler 17 bottom consists of a fiberglass outer shell resting on the frame, then a 5/8" plywood layer above that. On the top surface of the plywood layer, it is bonded to/tabbed to the side of the fiberglass outer shell using more fiberglass. This fiberglass applied to the top surface of the plywood layer extends a foot or two in from the outer edge.

My Trillium 4500 is of similar construction.

Keep in mind that the plywood floor provides structural support to portions of the fiberglass body (bottom, sides and roof) that rest outside the perimeter of the frame. Without the plywood support, the fiberglass will sag over time. To complicate matters, the plywood extending outside the perimeter of the frame is cantilevered. So if there is extensive rot extending outside the frame, the repaired layer must be attached to the solid layer inside the frame to form a single rigid layer that is at least as strong as the original supporting layer.