After taking the shell off, we realized that we needed to rebuild the whole frame. That was the easy part; we took the existing frame and copied each piece. The curved pieces we traced onto a new piece of wood and cutout with a jigsaw. We attached all the perpendicular pieces with a pocket hole jig which is so much sturdier than the previous weird squiggle, press-in staple things. That’s the technical term, actually.
squiggle staples holding the trailer together. terrifying.
New and improved framing!
However, the frame sits on the subflooring which also was rotted and needed to be replaced. We assumed ripping out the floor would be just like the rest of the demo we had been doing - quick and easy. Well, the people who built this thing really didn’t want the floor to come apart. Each piece of ply was nailed about a billion times into the wood pieces running along the chassis. Not to mention, completely rusted and impossible to pull out with a hammer. I want to shake the hand of whoever designed a sawsall. That is a miracle tool.
Taking the frame off
The other pesky thing about removing the subflooring was carefully taking off the wheel wells which had been folded under a layer of ply and nailed another billion times.
Wheel well or mid-evil torture device?
So, here we are, in the middle of a complete trailer rebuild that we hadn’t anticipated. We are down to the rusty chassis which we’re next going to attack with a angle grinder and some rustoleum. It’s all building the trailer basically from scratch from this point on which is SO exciting. It feels like a long time coming (even though it’s only been three months). My goal is to have the trailer in full camping-mode by early August. Just in time for some summer camping, music festivals and birthday celebrations. But who knows, some building surprises could pop up in the process.
