Aluminum underbelly

HappyCampers · 07-30-2009, 06:08 AM

If your Sunline fiver has the aluminum under belly, keep a close eye on it. I spent about 2 hours yesterday crawling around under the coach fixing the underbelly. The sheating had pulled through the self tapping screws and was hanging down in a few places. I took the screws out in the affected areas and put some flat galvanized washers through the screws and then refastened them in place. It wasn't a difficult fix, but it was a pain in the butt.

Capt Skup · 08-04-2009, 02:49 PM

Oh, can I ever relate. On our first long outing( I posted the whole sad adventure here a couple of years ago), My wonderful bride, Kim told me as we were checking in at Sturbridge Jellystone that "something" was hanging low on the trailer's belly. So I got down on one knee, "HollyMackeral", the dang whole panel was being held on by maybe 20(out of probably 100) screws. luckily the axels were carrying the weight of the panel or we may have lost the whole thing. We got parked(in the worst mud whole I have ever experienced as a rv'er). Went to Lowes, got an electric drill, self tapping large headed with washers, screws, and a couple of tubes of sealant. Proceeded to lay on that cold, damp, wet, filthy sorry son of a gun, poor excuse for a campground, ground, and installed about 120 screws to secure the underbelly. While doing so I found out that the lower connection of the four shock absorbers were never hooked up. Found out later that this procedure is one of the last things done before the trailer left the production floor, once the weight of the all the components were on the suspension. That was one hell of an eye opening baptism into rv family camping.
BTW, we will NEVER revisit Jellystone Sturbridge, MA.

EMD_Driver · 01-10-2010, 02:45 PM

Not having removed any of the underbelly screws yet, I'm wondering what I'll find. Is there any type of insulation above the aluminum? When the weather does start to improve, I need to replace all the screws with SS screws and washers. For that matter, I could always tap the holes and use SS bolts!

**JohnB** · 01-10-2010, 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EMD_Driver

When the weather does start to improve, I need to replace all the screws with SS screws and washers. For that matter, I could always tap the holes and use SS bolts!

Hi Gary

While my underbelly is not aluminum, it’s Coroplast, Sunline used ¼’ self taping sheet metal screws. They screw into 1/16” sheet metal strip. This is not the greatest setup. Many have stripped out and I had to drill new holes. However I probably put that cover on and off more then Sunline ever figured the owner would.

If your mounting strip is as thing as mine, use fine thread if you are going to tap it. I have not fixed mine for long term yet. I have to get in there to mount my front shocks, so thought I would deal with it then or more like procrastinate until then….

John

EMD_Driver · 01-10-2010, 06:25 PM

Hi John,

If memory serves, the underbelly is attached to the bottom of the frame rails directly. In theory, I should have at least 3/16" worth of meat, to drill and tap. Hopefully...

It was 14* outside this morning... Needless to say, nothing got done!

**JohnB** · 01-10-2010, 06:46 PM

Gary

H'mm if it is 3/16" thick, then you can go 1/4 -20. I was thinking of doing that but then the thought of all those holes in the flange by the edge stopped the thought.

I'm real curious on what it looks like under yours.

Gee you had a heat wave in WV. It was 3 degrees here when we went to church this AM. Yesterday I had to plow the snow off the driver way. Put the bibs and Carharts on and my artic trooper hat. We have about 6" and it is just not going away. Camping with drawl setting in pretty good. Have not been out since after Thanksgiving and we would of normally been out by now.

At this rate it might not be until March. Oh man that is a long ways off. February is so rotten here we have never made it out in the last 5 years.

ihsolutions · 01-11-2010, 07:54 AM

Mine is the corrogated heavy duty plastic-type stuff (maybe that's coroplast??). It's attached with self-tapping screws directly into the frame rail. They are not 1/16" though, these are good sized screws, and it's not possible to strip them out, at least not with normal power tools.

When I took the underbelly off to look around, I bought some more of the same screws to reattach as I felt there were not enough to make me feel good about it. I shot them right into the frame with my 18v drill. I think they have something like a 3/8" hex bolt head. Takes a little muscle to get them started but they self-tap, no problem.

There is no way my underbelly is coming off, unless I hit something.