blocking in a 17 foot bigfoot

[biggoolies]

Hi I am looking to place a roof rack on my 2006 bigfoot trailer. I was told to find the schematics of the trailer before bolting it on. Any ideas where I could find a schematic and find the blocking on the roof?
thanks,
Darcy

[Michael Pupeza]

Darcy;
The Bigfoot Manual for the Bigfoot 17 shows the exact measurements for installing a rear ladder and the roof rails. There are blocking 'hard' points for the install.
In this Usegroup, in the Resources, Document Center, there is the Customer Services Manual which shows the B-17 points.
<http://www.fiberglassrv.com/forums/downloads.php?do=file&id=29>
Download it and see page 14.
Enjoy.
Mike .....>

Originally Posted by biggoolies

Hi I am looking to place a roof rack on my 2006 bigfoot trailer. I was told to find the schematics of the trailer before bolting it on. Any ideas where I could find a schematic and find the blocking on the roof?
thanks,
Darcy

[Lizbeth]

What do you plan to carry up there? I would be very leery of carrying anything on a Bigfoot roof since it's just laminated construction with no joists as in regular construction. I know several older trailers that the roofs have delaminated. A few of those it seem the problem was directly related to weight being on the roof (air conditioners).

I always wondered why they put ladders and racks up there to begin with? Maybe Bigfoot didn't foresee the delamination problem?

[biggoolies]

I want to carry two kayaks and a canoe. Thanks for the tip on the user manual. The only problem I see is the manual only shows the rear top of the trailer in terms of blocking. Not the front of the trailer in which I have to put the front rail.
Darcy

Originally Posted by Lizbeth

What do you plan to carry up there? I would be very leery of carrying anything on a Bigfoot roof since it's just laminated construction with no joists as in regular construction. I know several older trailers that the roofs have delaminated. A few of those it seem the problem was directly related to weight being on the roof (air conditioners).

I always wondered why they put ladders and racks up there to begin with? Maybe Bigfoot didn't foresee the delamination problem?

[Lizbeth]

I don't think there is any blocking in the front. Bigfoot, as far as I know, only added the blocking where they were going to be installing items. There may be some small struts where the ceiling panels are joined but they are pretty small.

If you add a rack be sure to do something to spread the load over a larger area, maybe some bows that span side to side on the roof.

[Donna D.]

If the first question to answer ... is what are you putting on the roof? Is there better places (and more easily accessible) places to put this "stuff." The roof of any RV really isn't designed to support storage. Maybe if we know more about what you're trying to do, we could give suggestions for alternatives.

[ken h]

If you are looking for support on the front, my 89 bigfoot had about a 4" piece of plywood that ran above the front overhead cabinet. If you look inside the cabinet along the roof you will see the screws going in the ceiling to hold the cabinet in place. I pulled my ceiling all down and that is all there was up front for blocking.

Hope this helps, Ken