Don't trust anyone!! Repairs that should'nt have to be made.

[FiveORacing]

I'll start a thread on the repairs I am making on my newly purchased T-2499. I know, I'm stupid, I should have been aware, I should have investigated further and all that....but, just a warning to everyone. If you are going to buy a Sunline, and probably any other brand, don't believe anyone but yourself. No matter how much you are told about how new and perfect and maintained the trailer is, don't believe them. Whether an intentional cover up, or honest ignorance, don't take the sellers word on anything. If there is evidence of odor control, water absorption devices, kitty litter etc, it's not to "control humidity", it's because the trailer is wet, soaking wet, and probably rotting somewhere. Invest in a moisture meter, and if you suspect anything,,,,walk away! Find another trailer to buy. My weakness is I trust people. I would never sell anyone a problem, never hide damage, never mask the odor, or fail to answer questions truthfully, and I suppose I want to trust people too much and expect the same from them. Don't!

Okay, now on to the repair thread. My hopes are that someone will be saved from the embarrassment of finding this, but if the damage is done, maybe this will help with the repairs.

[FiveORacing]

I pulled the rubber insert out of the corner moulding an remove screws about a foot above the bottom panel. I then slowly started working the moulding off, very slowly so I didn't bend it. I took all the screws out from across the bottom. They were rusty, and wet, a bad sign.




Both sides loosened up, I then had to removed a few staples from each side that held the bottom panel. The staples are under the goop and you have to dig for them. Some cheap rubbery work gloves are a must. I used a sharpened screwdriver to dig them out. You will then see the wrapped black Tyvek like material wrapped from under the belly up around the sides of the trailer.

[FiveORacing]

I proceeded to take off one more panel which exposed some insulation. It was pretty and dry and I was hopeful that I wouldn't find anything. Hope wasn't enough. I should have prayed. If you look close you can see the staples. There are some across the bottom of each piece after the first bottom one. Be careful. Buy bandaids.

Look really close and you can see the dampness on the vertical corner board. The water goes to the bottom, and the balsa wood these things are made out of wick the water up from the bottom.

[FiveORacing]

Here's two lower panels off and the studs exposed, They are about half the size of a 2 x 4 and very light. Looks pretty good, huh? Oh, the hitch is not on the wrong end of the trailer, that's my other trailer. I'm still outdoors at this point, still hoping I gonna find something minor....

[FiveORacing]

I cut the black belly plastic and removed the lower insulation, and things got bad. Real bad. You can see how the water creeps up from the bottom. The inside of the black plastic was also wet. Time to move indoors. This is gonna take a while

[FiveORacing]

It fits. I have a 10 foot garage door and I had one inch to spare!! Day two. I move the trailer indoors and get all the tools ready.

[FiveORacing]

The water damage went all the way across the back. It should be noted that the inside of the trailer looked good when I looked at it. The carpet was dry but once I pulled it up, it was badly stained and the wood under it was starting to turn black. When the carpet on the floor is wet, it is easy to assume that water has followed gravity to places below. I wasn't there when the carpet was soaked, but it would have been a sure sign at some point. The black belly pan works as a water barrier, unfortunately, both ways! The horizontal base plate that the studs are sitting on is the same kind of wood, and started out the same color. I could put my finger through it. I was able to wring water out of chunks of it. One interesting thing is the back of the paneling is two different colors. At first I thought it was water stained, but it's just two different lots of paneling.

[FiveORacing]

Here I started chipping away at the rotting wood. It was like tearing apart pastry. I ended up with a huge pile of rotten black flakes of wood. Look closely at the vertical piece of wood on the left. It looks burnt but it's just rotten, from the bottom, up.

.

[bunjin]

Your studs look pretty good in the photos.
What model do you have? I'm wondering if you could screw a member like 2x6, etc. across them and shore up the walls to replace floor.
Does the studs sole plate rest on top of the floor?

[FiveORacing]

ah, the lights. Big hole, little wires. No filler, no foam, improper grommet. This almost borders on negligence. Pure laziness on the part of the builder, and no excuse for it. I built go-carts better than this when I was 10.

[FiveORacing]

Originally Posted by bunjin

Your studs look pretty good in the photos.
What model do you have? I'm wondering if you could screw a member like 2x6, etc. across them and shore up the walls to replace floor.
Does the studs sole plate rest on top of the floor?

T-2499 2006

They're not bad starting at about 6 inches up. I'm still in the process of deconstruction, but I'm leaning toward some ripped down PT framing. Not sure just yet. The studs rest on that bottom plate, which is sistered to the rearmost floor crossmember. (That's also out at this point, mainly because it's the lowest piece and I want it to be pressure treated. Pictures to follow)

[FiveORacing]

[FiveORacing]

[FiveORacing]

[FiveORacing]

This is the layers of construction of the floor. The baseplate that the studs sat on has been removed and the bottom of the studs cut out. From the bottom is, the bottom plastic belly, the rearmost floor crossmember (which was hidden behind the baseplate for the studs), the plywood floor, the carpet padding, and the carpet. The carpet wrapped around the sides of the floor and the walls were built after the carpet was in.

[FiveORacing]

Same thing on the other side. These are not wall studs, they are the framing for the inside table assembly. You can see how the carpet wraps the floor.

[FiveORacing]

Here I have cut the studs off to fresh wood. I set a mini circular saw to just reach through the studs and score the paneling very slightly. The paneling was water damaged and needed to come out too. Once it was scored at the studs I used a straight edge and connected the marks and used a sharp utility knife and scored it several times from the backside to remove it. See the two different colors of paneling. You can see the corner studs still need to be cut out.

[FiveORacing]

The last part of day two. I needed to take out this 2 x 3 under the floor. It looks like it's built as an assembly and lowered onto the frame. It's carriage bolted to the floor, and through the metal frame crossmembers. I ran a sawzall through it to split it in two, and cut the carriage bolts, and then started to pry it out in two pieces. That's why it looks angled in the pic, I've actually pryed out one piece. It was the toughest part so far but I managed to get it all out, Behind it was insulation that simply sits on the belly fabric and was wet on the bottom.

[FiveORacing]

I ended up with a lounge area for customer waiting.....or spectators I'll post more tomorrow. If anyone has any pointers let me know. I haven't purchased any materials yet. I'm thinking I'm gonna just do some sort of wainscoting on the back wall rather than trying to match the paneling?

[Gene]

That is quite a project.

Here is a link to a 2362 with similar problems.

http://www.sunlineclub.com/forums/f7...pair-9066.html