Any thoughts on a repair?

[JrStafford]

Just purchased my first truck camper a couple of months ago. A 2000 Fleetwood Elkhorn 8S. Being in a hurry and not having a clue what I was doing, the guy slipped by a damaged camper on me. After I left his house, I took a picture to send to my wife, and noticed a 'fold' in the fiberglass above the propane box. (It was late in the day and not that noticeable at his place, plus I think it's gotten worse since I took this picture.)



Closer look:



The other side looks better, you can see basically a straight line down the same area (barely noticeable), because I think the whole bed area is sagging.

We thought it was an issue right at the jack, because that jack was loose. I pulled it apart, pulled the propane box out, and we put a metal brace inside to shore up the jack. I also could see partway up into the camper above the propane box, and all the wood braces that I could see were fine. So I loaded it and headed out. Going up a washboard road the camper was 'slapping' the top of my truck, and now I'm fearful that the entire corner might come down. I thought I would take a loss and sell for a 'project', but it's a nice camper and I would like to keep it. I also don't want to pay a fortune to fix it, as I won't use it much.

I wonder if anyone here has some insight on beefing up the overhang part so it don't fall on my truck? I'm just thinking some heavy duty 'L' braces, maybe one on each side? Even if it looks not so pretty, I don't mind. I'm wondering if I could put braces on the sides, and maybe lag to metal plates on the inside the camper for stability? I could always paint them to match the camper, so it's less noticeable. One guy suggested 2 long pieces of angle iron on the roof, connecting the overhang to the middle of the camper, and then sealing it up. Not even noticeable that way, but I wasn't sure how much that would help to hold up the overhang section. I don't even care about the fold on the side still showing, I just want the thing to be sturdy so I can continue to use it.

Anybody with any thoughts, that might know more about the internal build of these campers?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated 🙂

[mountainkowboy]

mine showed nothing and started as a window reseal.....



6 months later....

[BurbMan]

JrStafford wrote:
There's some rot right on the edge by the wall, but nothing load bearing.

You are missing exactly what the problem is....the edge IS load bearing!

A bunch of 1x lumber stapled together will bear weight directly from above, but have no resistance to collapsing when pushed from the side or end. Watch when they build a house, they need to use diagonal 2x4's to brace the walls until the plywood sheathing is installed other wise the wall would fold like a cheap suit.

the plywood exterior is glued and stapled to the framing and THAT'S what gives the the cabover its vertical strength. The plywood is what keeps the frame from buckling. Look at how the 1x3 at the top of the propane compartment is pulled away about 1/2" from the fridge floor.

[AnEv942]

Our campers front wall looks like that, exposed 1x's behind the water heater, water tank. The left side is small cabinet behind jack and 1xs are covered. Ours they aren't the structure but added on face for supporting other stuff.
My vote is though 20 years old, has some issues and doesn't help how to fix- but it really looks like p/o hit something pretty hard and pushed/twisted the nose back into the weakest area. Hows it look behind the refer vent?

Even on a sound camper your going to have some bobbing between truck bed and cab-should be 2-3" or better between cab and camper nose.

[Kayteg1]

All TC I have seen had frame with plywood or other paneling on both sides.
Your picture shows new frame with no plywood over it, while the original wall in door opening seems to have serious damage.
So judging on what I can see, PO added some sister frame to damaged wall & floor.
Still the design is holding cab-over with skeleton frame on the side with openings on both sides. That would call for steel reinforcement in those corners as no wood will hold such stress.

[time2roll]

Reminds me of my brother buying a cheap car. Muffler fell off on the test drive and when we got home and rolled up the window it had a 10" hole in it.

Good luck with the new TC 😞

[JrStafford]

It's strange, because I had pulled out the propane box to put in a bracket to 'shore up' the loose Jack on that corner. You can see pretty well up above that sagging corner, I took a couple of pics up there. The pics don't show all of the wood that I could see, but all the wood and braces up there was not rotted and perfectly intact. (There's some rot right on the edge by the wall, but nothing load bearing.)





That one spot looks bad, looks like the wires burned it, but on closer inspection I don't think so. Everything up there looks good and solid.

[Grit_dog]

^ Tongue in cheek, but something I'd consider...

Honestly bud, I think I'm pretty handy and I can't think of any simple way to go about this.
For a temp repair, IF you could locate the framing in the walls of the overhead and back into the main camper, you could cut a sheet of plywood to fit each side, jack up the overhead and take the sag out of it (looks like it's sagging, no?) and screw a reinforcing "plate" on each side. Upside, I think that would be quite sturdy. Downside, there's some holes in the wall sheathing, but small ones at that.
Bout the only thing I can think of for a field fix.

[bighatnohorse]

Make sure that it is insured and park it near the fire line.
Then run like hell.
Sorry for your predicament.

[JrStafford]

Glacier D wrote:
Hey, guess the past owner sold you a pile of rotted wood. Maybe you should take it back to him and have a one sided discussion since he knew of the impending doom.
Hope it all works out and you can part it out or repair it, Fleetwoods were known to have too many issues, even the aluminum framed Fleetwood campers had issues with weld failures and the slide outs were not properly braced.
What fire are you on? I'm an EB for a private contractor in the PNW, looks like a slow year again for us. Be safe out there.

Mangum fire, at the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

[midnightsadie]

we all know the saying about buying used. buyer beware well now you own it so hope it works out, open it up and start the repair on a really nice tc.

[valhalla360]

K Mac wrote:
Was this a dealer ? (if so I drive it through his front window) or not I'd ask a lawyer if you have any recourse. No way they can say "they weren't aware " of the problem. Good luck !

Problem is they could claim is was so obvious as to be self evident.

[bwlyon]

I have a 2012 Ascent that is aluminum framed did the same thing. Fortunately it jus a stress delamination not a structural. I just live with it. If you’re wood framed it’s likely rot related.

[midnightsadie]

well I hope you get it home , maybe even trailer it, P.S thanks for fighting all those fires, has to be one tuff job,

[lakeside013104]

JrStafford wrote:

joerg68 wrote:
Some gently inflated tire tubes between the truck and the cabover floor might work. They would dampen the flex, but still allow movement.

Someone out here in the fire camp actually had that as a suggestion too, I just don't have any tire tubes. The other suggestion was a cheap twin air mattress from Walmart in between the cab and the camper. Although I'm still 81 miles from a Walmart 🙂 I might be able to buy one at the local Dollar store.

Bicycle tire tubes may help you.

Sorry to hear of your misfortune.

Lakeside