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04-28-2021, 01:05 PM
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#21
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TrailManor Master
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Vancouver BC
Posts: 1,530
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Dave,
This is the first I've heard of anyone drilling anchor bolt holes in the driveway. I have wondered about doing it myself in the past because my driveway is on a slope as well. Now that you have done it, I'll consider it more seriously myself.
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04-28-2021, 01:20 PM
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#22
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Site Sponsor
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Sunny Beaches of Los Angeles
Posts: 3,274
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Yep, I did it as soon as we got our TM, about 14 years ago. Works great. You can see the 1 bolt in this picture that goes through the 6x6. The 2 bolts going through the wheel chocks next to the 15" tires just hold 2 pieces of lumber together to raise the profile of the chocks (along with glue).
Dave
__________________
2000 2720SL & 2007 3124KB
2005 Toyota Sequoia
Twin Battle Born 12v 100Ah LiFePO4 (BBGC2) batteries, 300W solar on rear shell, Link 10, Lift kit, Maxxis 8008 225 75/R15 E tires
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04-28-2021, 01:22 PM
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#23
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TrailManor Master
Join Date: Nov 2016
Location: Vancouver BC
Posts: 1,530
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I'm very impressed.
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04-28-2021, 01:29 PM
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#24
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Site Sponsor
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Sunny Beaches of Los Angeles
Posts: 3,274
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Thanks! It's been saving our neighbors across the street from certain doom for years! I figure either one of the homemade chocks OR the 6x6 would be enough to hold it, but BOTH of them together should be pretty fail safe.
Dave
__________________
2000 2720SL & 2007 3124KB
2005 Toyota Sequoia
Twin Battle Born 12v 100Ah LiFePO4 (BBGC2) batteries, 300W solar on rear shell, Link 10, Lift kit, Maxxis 8008 225 75/R15 E tires
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04-29-2021, 06:16 AM
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#25
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Member
Join Date: Apr 2021
Posts: 13
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She made it into the garage!
Took about 6 hours. Had to repair the divider, remove trim, trim the garage door supports & remove the door opener, but she's in. Once the tires were on the flat garage floor, we unhitched from the tow vehicle, put the wheel on the tongue jack, and pushed it in by hand. I took some pictures of the clearance on top & sides, but phone goofed up and lost 'em. Had about 1" everywhere. Not much!
I may look into those driveway rails like Dave mentioned. It took about 5 minutes to get the trailer lined up perfectly with the garage. (Which was a little "frustrating and annoying").
Awning and porch lights had to be removed. I have some slim LED's on order to replace the porch lights, and I'll need to search around here (again) for mounting the awning without screws (so it can be removed easily).
Also of course need to fabricate new removable garage door trim.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ShrimpBurrito
See, the camper is saving you money already! Maybe now you should consider adding a boat?
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Yep, now I have room on the side yard for a boat. (Just sold my Compac 16 about a month ago).
__________________
- Joe
2006 TrailManor 2619
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04-29-2021, 07:14 AM
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#26
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TrailManor Master
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 1,063
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Congratulations!
Where there's a will, there's a way
Yes, I went nose-in when I was storing it, so the tracks made sense -- the center track was far more valuable than the wheels, but they all helped. Backing in tracks would need to be removable as others have mentioned.
My awning solution was a total hack -- once it was removed, we just cleaned up all the caulk, put it back on the rails, and then carefully installed to sliding bolt-locks (like on a gate) to hold it in place. Worked ok...until the awning was deployed and a microcell storm blew through without warning, ripped it off the roof. Probably saved me from flipping the TM entirely -- the bolts being the "weak link" in the upward direction meant they simply sheared off. Ended up replacing the awning with a roof-mount and getting small aircraft anchors to tie the awning down when deployed. It's now survived some major storms without any issue. It's still imperfect, but it works.
You may want to figure out something a little different from what I originally did -- it was always an annoyance to get the awning perfectly aligned to get the bolts home. I envisioned some kind of hinges that could be bolted to the existing angle brackets, and then the hinges would attach to the awning and allow it to flip 180 degrees over to the roof.
__________________
2009.5 2720SL
2006 Toyota Sienna
2018 Audi Q7
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04-29-2021, 08:39 AM
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#27
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Site Team
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: The mountains of Scottsdale, AZ, and the beaches of Maine
Posts: 10,179
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I don't mean to contradict your carpenter, because I am not one. But I still think there is a possibility of narrowing the center area between the garage doors. As Rickst said, and your carpenter apparently confirmed, the center area contains a load-bearing structure, and the header beams over the garage door openings rest on that structure. My thought would be to put in a narrower load-bearing structure, such as a lally column, either fixed or screw-adjustable length. Now that you have narrowed the support structure, the header beams won't reach the center of the lally column, of course, so you would put a thick steel plate on top of the column, extending in both directions from the column. The plate extends out far enough for the header beams to rest on it. The reach on each side is not long - maybe 4-6 inches? - so a properly-chosen plate won't bend over that short distance. Bolts in appropriate places will hold the whole thing together so nothing moves.
After supporting the header beams on the plate, you can strip out the original support structure, which is probably wood, rebuild the trim and fascia, and install new doors..
Just my uneducated thought.
Bill
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04-29-2021, 09:25 AM
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#28
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Site Sponsor
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Sunny Beaches of Los Angeles
Posts: 3,274
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Nicely done, Joe! Now that you know it’s possible, it’s just a matter of how easy you want to make it. And regardless of what you decide to do, even if that’s nothing, I would think you’d get better at the whole process with practice.
Dave
__________________
2000 2720SL & 2007 3124KB
2005 Toyota Sequoia
Twin Battle Born 12v 100Ah LiFePO4 (BBGC2) batteries, 300W solar on rear shell, Link 10, Lift kit, Maxxis 8008 225 75/R15 E tires
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04-29-2021, 09:29 AM
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#29
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Site Sponsor
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Sunny Beaches of Los Angeles
Posts: 3,274
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And of course, you always have the option of just skipping the awning altogether. If you mostly park in the shade like we do, you may find you just don’t use it much, and even if you do find you need it, you could always take an EZ Up of some sort. Might be easier.
Dave
__________________
2000 2720SL & 2007 3124KB
2005 Toyota Sequoia
Twin Battle Born 12v 100Ah LiFePO4 (BBGC2) batteries, 300W solar on rear shell, Link 10, Lift kit, Maxxis 8008 225 75/R15 E tires
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04-29-2021, 09:45 AM
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#30
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Member
Join Date: Apr 2021
Posts: 13
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill
I don't mean to contradict your carpenter, because I am not one. But I still think there is a possibility of narrowing the center area between the garage doors. As Rickst said, and your carpenter apparently confirmed, the center area contains a load-bearing structure, and the header beams over the garage door openings rest on that structure. My thought would be to put in a narrower load-bearing structure, such as a lally column, either fixed or screw-adjustable length. Now that you have narrowed the support structure, the header beams won't reach the center of the lally column, of course, so you need to put a strong thick steel plate on top of the column, extending in both directions from the column. The plate extends out far enough for the header beams to rest on. The reach on each side is not long - maybe 4-6 inches? - so a properly-chosen plate won't bend over that short distance. Bolts in appropriate places will hold the whole thing together so nothing moves.
Now you can strip out the original support structure, which is probably wooden, rebuild the trim and fascia, and install new doors..
Just my uneducated thought.
Bill
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Thanks for the suggestion.
We did talk of adding a structural beam across both doors, which would allow a large single door. However, there's not enough clearance between the top of the doors and the attic joists. This would also make it a 17' door, which would have to be special ordered and pricey (and 10 weeks delivery time). Instead, we would've went with a standard 16' door and added 6" of trim to both outsides. Don't know how that would've looked, or if it would've got approved by the HOA.
Either way, the repair's complete and she's in the garage, so I'm planning on going camping instead of working on that garage any more. If pulling it in and out becomes a nuisance, or if I scrape the trailer (did I just jinx myself?!?) then I may revisit adding wider doors.
__________________
- Joe
2006 TrailManor 2619
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