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Wall Flex


Douglas17313

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The wall on the passenger side of my 1986 Gulfstream flexes. Nothing is attached to the wall from the interior. The dinette, the overhead cabinets and the refrigerator cabinet have all been removed for restoration. The drivers side still has the jacknife sofa, the wardrobe and the bathroom wall attached. Does removing the interior "furniture" provide strength to the outside walls? 

I noticed this today while installing a 40mil edpm roof liner.

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12 hours ago, Douglas17313 said:

The wall on the passenger side of my 1986 Gulfstream flexes. Nothing is attached to the wall from the interior. The dinette, the overhead cabinets and the refrigerator cabinet have all been removed for restoration. The drivers side still has the jacknife sofa, the wardrobe and the bathroom wall attached. Does removing the interior "furniture" provide strength to the outside walls? 

I noticed this today while installing a 40mil edpm roof liner.

Wait till you decide remove the sofa it weight a ton!

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There should be no noticeable difference to the walls with or without the furniture. On my escaper the upper cabinet is integrated into the wall and acts as additional support for the roof. Some of the internal walls such as closet and bathroom were likely engineered to add overall structural integrity to the roof and walls. 

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How would I repair this flex? There is absolutely no water damage and the wall panels themselves were recently replaced with new wall board and insulation.

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What happened. All this was supposed to be rebuilt 5 years ago. Did you ever get more sidewall supports put in? On the old thread you posted on the other member showed his being worked on and the supposed aluminum framing was way far apart. Not enough the be effective at all. You were going to add more to yours. Like I said what happened. 

Linda S

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Hi Linda. I could not get the guy to do anything. What Finally pushed me to get it home was that he was leaving the keys in it overnight and he'd moved 8t up next to the road. Finally after 2 years I drove it home. Between covid and my wife's heart attacks the camper has been sitting in my drive way for 18 months. It's been under two tarps, and is completely dry inside. This week I added a double layer of wood, and glued a 40 mil edpm to the roof. While adding the pieces the go down the edges is the unit, where the wall connects to the roof, I leaned against the passenger side wall and noticed that it flexed. There is absolutely no furniture on that wall. I have the original dinette and overhead cabinets and plan to use them. Does the furniture, once attached to the floor and the walls, act as a support to keep the wall from flexing?  I found metal plates on the walls that would have the overhead cabinets attached to. This is one of the areas in which I'm totally ignorant. The rest of it is within my ability to finish.

Can't believe that you remember me. Thank you in advance for your advice on the wall flex.

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This post is from a member who removed the entire coach section from a Conquest by Gulfstream. There's a video of him doing some of it here too. He does mention that the cabinets are part of the integral strength of the coach and comment about the very bad job they did with the aluminum framing. If you watch the video you can see him tear out big sections of wall with no framing in sight. Might have been a good idea to add some extra framing before you put the wall back in. Even some wood would have been better than the nothing that seems to be there

Linda S

 

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Hey, Video, take 2.  Yes, keep the vallium handy... this one is the tear down.

Motorhome rebuild part 2.

The camper was indeed framed with aluminum.  However, the joints were barely welded/brazed.  I show that in the video, at one point.  The joints were only welded on one side.  3 sides no weld material.  All walls had water in them.  Some worse than others.

Main thing about reusing the walls is structural support.  The cabinets most definitely added a lot of structural strength to the frame.  Without them, the walls would have been dangerously inadequate to protect the passengers let alone not flex in winds or with snow load.  

 

 

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7 hours ago, linda s said:

This post is from a member who removed the entire coach section from a Conquest by Gulfstream. There's a video of him doing some of it here too. He does mention that the cabinets are part of the integral strength of the coach and comment about the very bad job they did with the aluminum framing. If you watch the video you can see him tear out big sections of wall with no framing in sight. Might have been a good idea to add some extra framing before you put the wall back in. Even some wood would have been better than the nothing that seems to be there

Linda S

 

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Hey, Video, take 2.  Yes, keep the vallium handy... this one is the tear down.

Motorhome rebuild part 2.

The camper was indeed framed with aluminum.  However, the joints were barely welded/brazed.  I show that in the video, at one point.  The joints were only welded on one side.  3 sides no weld material.  All walls had water in them.  Some worse than others.

Main thing about reusing the walls is structural support.  The cabinets most definitely added a lot of structural strength to the frame.  Without them, the walls would have been dangerously inadequate to protect the passengers let alone not flex in winds or with snow load.  

 

 

 

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Hello Linda,

Thank you for sending the video. I subscribed to the channel on YouTube. Not going to lie, some of it was painful to watch as my unit is exactly like the camper in the video.

I thought of adding additional support from the inside, I certainly don't mind removing the interior walls to increase the strength. One of the few things the guy, that messed up so badly, did do correctly was add trusses, with a slight dome, across the top of the camper. They're quite a bit more sturdy than the original.

It was also a relief to find out the flex is due to the cabinets being removed. It leads me to believe that once the overhead cabinets, the dinette and the refrigerator cabinet are re-installed the strength should return and the flex should go away. I'm definitely not a welder, would wood be adequate? Would adding extra wooden support from the interior be of any benefit? The supports could easily be hidden with decorative covering.

Again, thank you very much for all of your advice and resources.

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Hello Linda,

Thank you for sending the video. I subscribed to the channel on YouTube. Not going to lie, some of it was painful to watch as my unit is exactly like the camper in the video.

I thought of adding additional support from the inside, I certainly don't mind removing the interior walls to increase the strength. One of the few things the guy, that messed up so badly, did do correctly was add trusses, with a slight dome, across the top of the camper. They're quite a bit more sturdy than the original.

It was also a relief to find out the flex is due to the cabinets being removed. It leads me to believe that once the overhead cabinets, the dinette and the refrigerator cabinet are re-installed the strength should return and the flex should go away. I'm definitely not a welder, would wood be adequate? Would adding extra wooden support from the interior be of any benefit? The supports could easily be hidden with decorative covering.

Again, thank you very much for all of your advice and resources.

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One More question, this is the first doing this with a camper.  I'll pull the paneling off the walls, I've watched the video series that you sent. Could you give me a couple pointers as to where the added supports should go? Pink solid insulation is behind the paneling. I'm going to get a metal/wood stud finder just to help.

The pic I've attached is after the walls were removed and before the insulation was added by the guy that left it in the rain. There doesn't appear to be anything to attach supports to.

20211012_200329.png

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Well I can see the aluminum tubing going across the top, that's what you want to support. From the door to the big window I see no supports at all. Can you imagine a house with the studs 6 feet apart? Disaster. I am not the person to ask how because I have a Sunrader. Plenty of people here have rebuilt their coaches. Hopefully one will chime in

Linda S

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Thank you Linda. I see a thinnish board near the bottom of the wall, the seat belt framing is attached to it. I'm thinking that if I attach a few vertical supports from that board to the metal tube running the length of the camper, that should strengthen the wall. The wooden support would have to be relatively thin maybe an inch thick. I could place one on the right and left side of the window. Any further to the right and the support would run into the refrigerator vent.

As I said yesterday, I don't mind tearing off the wall paneling if it would be of benefit. My problem is that I can wire and install lights and switches, rip out bathrooms to replace the sub floor and I do all the maintenance on my cars including brakes.

Where I am lacking, is fabrication such as supports in campers and RVs.

 

You've given me a lot to work on and think about. Can't tell you how much I appreciate it. 

Doug

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 Just rambling.......you don't necessarily have to weld more support in. You could get a piece of aluminum as another support and attach it with metal angle brackets that would screw in. 

 

 If you start adding too much you also start adding weight. While one would look at that and wonder how it lasted 35 years, it did. 

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This is a really good idea. Aluminum tubing is fairly easy to cut and drill. Use permanent thread lock when you put the screws in so nothing can come loose. 1 inch tubing can be found at any large hardware store, Lowes, Home Depot. 

Linda S

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