Hold-down stirrup repair

The pop rivets that I used were not the ordinary, hardware store variety one normally thinks of. They were a high-strength, "Cherry Q" pop rivet with solid steel shank. In other words, after each rivet is formed and the pulling shank broken off, a solid steel shank still remains inside the hollow body of the rivet. These rivets have a strength rating equal to that of solid steel rivets. The picture shows the rivet and the ordinary pop riveter that allowed me to insert them.

I also inserted these pop rivets into the 1" tube from the interior surface of each wall. This required that I lift up the long, foam-filled bag seal and then reinstall it after placing the rivets. At the location of my solid, 3/4" square aluminum bar inside the tube, I placed pop rivets 7" apart so that they were just beyond the ends of the bar. Finally I marked where my stirrup should be fastened, drilled 2 holes and tapped them for the 1/4-20 hex head machine screws. I fastened the stirrups in place with lock washers and these machine screws. The 1" long screws are now held by threads in solid aluminum. I don't expect either the stirrup or tube itself to ever pull out again. The picture shows the newly installed stirrup firmly grasped by one of the heavy-duty lower catches.

After doing all of this, however, I discovered that there was a very prominent bowing out of the upper shell at the pocket of its front lift arm when both stirrups are locked in their catches. I think that this is due to imbalance in the tensions of the shell's lift arms. It's something that may have occurred during the long period over which we didn't use our TM. I tried adjusting the lift arm bolts but couldn't fix it. Oh, that DenTed were at my side! He could fix it in a jiffy. Well, I've resigned myself to the fact that we've got to tow it over a hundred miles to the new location of our TM dealer to get this fixed. It was a lot handier when our TM dealer was only 20 miles away - but they had the gall to move farther away from us.
:'( :'(
Larry

[Bill]

Wow, Larry, nice job! You're right - that should NEVER pull out again. Thanks for the pix.

Now, a vaguely-related question, brought on by the fact that in your last photo, the black plastic boot is missing from the operating handles of the latches. The question is this. On my unit, the latches seem to be getting harder and harder to open - that is, when I arrive at the campsite and want to open these latches, it takes a real solid clop with the heel of my hand, to the point where it is a bit painful. Presumably this is because the mating surfaces of the latchhook and the latchpin have galled, and it is harder to slide the hook off the pin. I have cleaned the surfaces, of course, but it doesn't seem to help. Have you (or anyone) experienced this? Any suggestions for smoothing it out? For a location like this, grease is such an ugly word.

Bill

[Cateye]

I use a small amount of anti-sieze...works great

Now, a vaguely-related question, brought on by the fact that in your last photo, the black plastic "boot" is missing from the operating handles of the latches. The question is this. On my unit, the latches seem to be getting harder and harder to open . . . I have cleaned the surfaces, of course, but it doesn't seem to help. Have you (or anyone) experienced this? Any suggestions for smoothing it out? For a location like this, "grease" is such an ugly word.

Bill, I forgot to push the rubber boots over the handles of the lower latches before this photo was taken. By the way, I'm considering gluing the boots to the handles with a little bit of Dow Corning silicone sealant. I lost most of my old rubber boots after they lost their elasticity and fell off during towing.

Some of my old latches used to require quite a bit of tugging on them to release a shell. My new ones, of course, release easily right now. I'd suggest spraying a dry lubricant like TopCote on the surfaces of the latches. This not only will lubricate the rubbing surfaces and minimize galling but also provide some protection against rust. You can obtain TopCote in aerosol cans at your local woodworking supply stores or from Internet woodworking stores. I've found it to be a very useful rust inhibitor spray also. I apply it to the tops of my tablesaw, bandsaw, drill press and on the surfaces of some of my handtools. One application prevents rusting for 2 to 3 months. : :

Larry

[Bill]

THREE good ideas! I love this board! I tried to get my wife to do the releasing, but that was definitely NOT a good idea.

Bill

THREE good ideas! I love this board! I tried to get my wife to do the releasing, but that was definitely NOT a good idea.

Shame on you, Bill, for suggesting that she assist you in that way! As she's still recuperating from an ankle fracture, I can understand why she wouldn't want to kick at the release handle with a toe. ;D ;D

Larry

[Bill]

Um-ahh, how do you think she got the fracture, Larry? You didn't buy that fell-off-the-bicycle-on-a-steep-grade story, did you?

Bill

Um-ahh, how do you think she got the fracture, Larry? You didn't buy that fell-off-the-bicycle-on-a-steep-grade story, did you?

Well, I did believe that story. But now, however, I'm beginning to think it was more like her falling off a ladder when you made her get up on it to clean your TM's roof! ;D ;D

P.S. my wife has gone up on a ladder numerous times to clean our TM's roof - without my having to ask her. She can't stand the messy stuff that our eucalyptus trees deposit on our trailer's roof!

Larry

Sometime last year I noticed that the 1" square aluminum tube making up the bottom edge of the rear (inner) shell, driver's side, was being pulled down. This was due to the downward forces exerted on the stirrup on that side when the shell was locked down. The 1" tube, however, was not cracked as had been the case with the tubes of my front shell. Rather than replace the rear shell's flimsy tubes with new, thick-walled tubes, therefore, I decided to do a "temporary" repair. The first photo shows the appearance of the bottom edge of the rear shell at the location of the stirrup. The tube was pulled down and away from the inner and outer panels by 3/8"+.

I intended to push the tube upward and back into place, then use silicone sealer and Cherry Q pop rivets (solid shank rivets) to fasten the tube to the outer aluminum panel. First I decided to test a discarded piece of this kind of tube (removed during the previous repair of my front shell) to see if the pop rivets would hold in the thin wall of the tube. The second photo shows that the pop rivet mushroomed nicely in the backside of both components, rather than pulling through the thin wall of the 1" tube. By the way, I measured the wall thickness of this tube again and was horrified to discover that it was only 0.035" in thickness. I had assumed that it was 1/16" or 0.063". Each stirrup is held in place by two sheet metal screws driven through both lower and upper walls of the 1" tube. No wonder that the screws seem to be located just alongside the inside surface of the tube's inside wall. The TM factory may be counting on the screws' threads rubbing on the tube wall's inside surface to provide some of the attachment strength of the stirrups. As I've mentioned before, the weakness of the stirrups' attachments are a major weakness of TrailManors.

But moving forward, I first removed the stirrup and decorative molding from the entire bottom edge of the wall. I then slipped a knife in between the outer aluminum panel and the tube and scraped away as much of the old, dried adhesive as I could from the approximately 3' span over which the tube had been pulled down. It required a scissors jack placed on the ground and a long piece of wood between jack and bottom of the damaged tube in order to push the tube back upward into alignment with the bottom edge of the wall. 1/4" thick wedges of wood placed at 3" intervals held the outer aluminum panel away from the tube and allowed me to inject silicone sealant into the space between panel and tube. I finally drilled 3/16" holes through outer panel and tube and pop riveted them together. The Cherry Q rivets have solid steel shanks and were extremely hard to break off with my hand pop riveter. I had to use a parallel jaw, woodworking clamp to exert sufficient force on the pop riveter's jaws to break off the shanks. The third photo shows the finished repair after the decorative molding and stirrup were put back in place.

I'm not as confident that this repair will hold up as well as the method of repair I used on my front shell. If the rear shell's stirrups pull out from the thin-walled tubes, for example, I may have to replace the existing tubes with 1/8" thick-walled tube. That method of repair used with my front shell took many days, however, and I'm not anxious to repeat it. Time will tell if this temporary repair method will be sufficient.