? Re Framing Water damage 40 ft trailer. Corner bolts nessary?

[Vegan-thug]

Hi I’m not sure what form to join so I’m sending a private message.

We are renovating a 40 foot toe trailer with to pop out.
There was much more water damage then we anticipated.
We are reframing the rotted wood at the back of the trailer.
There are 2x4 on the floor that are rotted on both corners.
There are also bolts bolted to the frame of the trailer.
We are having to take them out to replace the wood.
How necessary is it to replace the bolts or can we get away with not replacing them.

We are using brackets to place the word back together again as we’re only taking out some of the rotted wood not all of it.

We plan to be stationary and if we move it move it will be one time . We are saving to buy property.

[Herk7769]

Since towable trailers are made with the minimum structure and connectors necessary for the weight class, you eliminate bolts and such at your peril.

At a minimum you could reduce payload and in fact you could actually compromise structural integrity of the trailer.

Having it fall apart when you hit a pothole would be devastating.

Herk

[SeaDog]

welcome to the forum its a great place to get your questions answered. It would help if you list the year, make, model of your trailer.

[brusso]

I have done several rv repairs over the years. I last one I did this fall was the worse. I would not recommend not bolting or some type of fascinating product, power grab (liquid nail)

[stephensatt]

I have generally recommended that once someone buys a new "massed produced" trailer, they go through it with a fine tooth comb and upgrade, glue, fasten, screw, pull on the cabinets, kick the tires, undercoat the trailer, all that, on a new trailer the minute you get it home.

I am with Herk on this, and that they are put together with a "shoeshine and spit". We had cabinets separating on a Forest River NOBO on the 3 hr drive back to Houston from Shreveport, brand new from the dealer. I line all the shelves with construction adhesive, glue all the joints, run 3 and 4 inch stainless screws everywhere in the cabinet corners. I am pretty strategic, and I was just under the very thin 1 x 1 " framing under the Queen bed this weekend doing some wiring and mine was totally square and holding up well, whereas other have complained about it all falling apart, but I glued it all with Polyurethane Construction Adhesive.


So that being said, YES, put in all the bolts, and more bolts if possible. Anything you can do within reason to make the structure more rigid is a plus in the long run and lots of glues.

[clr]

If possible you could sister the joints on the ends it may keep you from having to remove all bolts that are holding the floor down. But as others have said I would suggest replacing the bolts if the wood is rotted there or the bolts are very rusty. The sistering idea is only if there is sufficient wood that is not rotted to connect on to.