Aluminum Camper Forum

@Powder Hounds

Did you have all cracks repaired before having the gussets installed?

I'm trying to figure out how much to remove before having the welding fixes made. Some of the cracks are close to existing wiring/pipes/hoses/tanks, so I'd have to remove a lot before the welding. If I only added gussets, and didn't repair the cracks I could possibly get away with removing less.

It's likely I'll have the fresh water and grey water tanks removed before welding starts, but I'm not sure where to stop removing things.

Thanks

I would if it were my trailer.

My assumption is that the more cracks there are, the more the frame will wiggle around and twist. Having more wiggle probably leads to more stress and causes more cracking. We are not going to use our trailer until after we get the current set of cracks fixed/reinforced.

One thing that I'm noticing in my frame cracks is that so far the majority are vertical cracks. I would expect that the welding of the frame components to the bottom of the aluminum floor would increase the shear strength like adding plywood does to a wood frame. I am noticing some very small cracks in a few of the welds from the frame to the underside of the aluminum flooring. Maybe the shear strength from the flooring isn't as good as expected since I don't think that the individual lengths of flooring are welded to each other??

Ed...

Found a nice picture from Powder Hounds in another thread showing two gussets installed on one of his fixes.

https://aluminumcamperforum.com/index.php?topic=1195.0

Thanks all for your help, think I'm now ready to start interviewing potential aluminum welders.

Ed...

Also, what was the thickness of the material of the new aluminum gussets?

I will definitely file a report with the NHTSA, so thanks for the reminder.

I would really like to see examples of how the gussets were installed so I can better determine what a good aluminum Welder will propose vs a bad aluminum Welder. I'm also wondering if they re-welded the cracks and then installed the gussets? Attached is a quick sketch of what I'm imagining the installed new gussets would look like.

The last welder I used for strengthening the bumper has retired, and even one of his new welds has cracked at the inside back right corner which surprised me (pic attached).

Thanks,
Ed...

I thought I had lucked out and not had much of a frame crack problem in my 21BHS (manufacturing data 12/2015) but after spending most of yesterday mapping out where work is needed, boy was I wrong. At least my axel mounts are still looking good so far.

I've attached a hand sketch of where I see at least the beginning of cracks in the welds. The sketch has small yellow highlighted labels of 01 through 25 of the areas that I could access without removing tanks etc. I'll have to break out my endoscope to search those other spaces.

I've also attached a few pics of the worst ones I've found so far (#04, #06, #08).

If anyone would like to post pictures of what a fixed weld looks like (i.e. with a gusset or just a re-weld?) that would be much appreciated.

Ed...

I use Tef-Gel where my SS come in contact with aluminum in areas like the tongue where there is any moisture.

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My sticker shows "DATE: 12/2015"  but I bought it as a 2016 21BHS. It does have the aluminum floors. Thanks for the advice on caulking both sides, makes sense.
Ed...

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Kind of hard to tell, but that "tape" could possibly be the vinyl flooring.

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Did you apply the caulking just on top of the felt(?) tape or both on top of and under the tape?

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I'm running separate wires (through recommended 60A fuse & solenoid) from the TV battery to the rear bumper where I'll install the anderson plug (with cover) to match the one I installed on the trailer tongue.

I'll leave the 7-pin wiring as is, but I may pass its aux-12V wire (pin 4) through the new solenoid in the engine compartment as well so I don't have to remember to disconnect the 7-pin if I'm going to be parked for a while.

I had two sets of 4 awg wires left over from my solar installation (25ft & 15ft) so I used one on my trailer installation and will use the other on my TV. The victron orion charger is known to get warm, and in fact it has pretty big heat sinks on its underside. By minimizing the cable voltage drop I'm hopeful that the orion will not have to work so hard and thus not produce as much heat.

If I can avoid installing a thermostatically controlled cooling fan for the pass through storage area, especially if I later install an inverter in the open space between the solar charge controllers and the DC2DC charge controller, I'll have less installation work to do in the future.

Ed...

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So far the solar installation has been working great. Worst case was when visiting the Redwoods np in January where we had lots of rain and our batteries got down to 72% SOC.

Just added another way to charge.

I added a DC2DC (victron orion 12/12-30) charger for those days when I'm too shaded or not enough sun light. I don't yet have the added cables in my TV, but I made a little adapter so I can temporarily hook up to the anderson plug on the tongue with my jumper cables.

Still have room left for an inverter, but that will happen when my current FLA batteries (trojan tr-105 225AH) get replaced with lithium a couple of years down the road.

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I got the tandem axles replaced under warranty with a start angle of 22 degrees down. The original axles were 10 degrees down. I've never had any problems since.

https://aluminumcamperforum.com/index.php?topic=480.0

Finally done with installation. I went with the left two panels in series, the right two panels in series, and then the left and right panel sets in parallel. The two victron charge controllers (roof, portable) really work well together since they're networked via Bluetooth.

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I had the same problem in my 2016 21BHS. As GK suggested, it was the cold water flexible line that went to the outside shower.

Not so good before and after fix pictures attached. I couldn't find any of the flexible tubing, so put in two straight lengths and a right angle connector.