Street Side front shell bending outwards near the bottom ... A nasty fix.

[rickst29]

This is for a friend, and I will attempt to do repair at my house. I've attached a photo of the problem, which creates great difficulty in hooking the rear street-side lift arm of the front shell. The TM was badly damaged along the front orward shell. Possibly during a previous parking accident. (The owner I'm helping is a new owner.) The lowest 4" of the front street side shell is bent outwards from the rest of that vertical wall. I'm imagining a very complex fix, and wonder if I have any good alternatives.

I plan to raise the TM front shell on its four lift arms, lock the curb-side upper clamp -- and then brace the upper curb-side corners of the shell with long pieces of 2x4 lumber. (The other ends of those 2x4s will be braced against some LARGE decorate rocks which I have near the driveway.) This will prevent the shell from sliding sideways and downhill when I raise the street side....

I will also build two or three "lifting posts" with 2x4 lumber. Each has a large plate at the bottom and a segment of 2x4 at the top. I must then disconnect all the wiring going up the rear outside lift arm, that's the slowest part of the job.
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After raising the front shell, I set the "lifting posts" in place under the lower lip of the street side shell. They're on lifting jacks. I then disconnect the lift arm tops from the shell, which will allow me to raise the street side by about three inches - enough to clear the lower "box" completely. (I hope that the pigtails of the shell electrical wires on the lift arm are long enough to do this, with a need to destroy and re-do the sleeves and rubber conduits after bringing it back down.)

I'll carefully go inside the Trailmanor and place a long 2x4, with the outside covered by a bath towel or shop rags to prevent a lot of damage on the TM inside wall. This brace will need to be at or very near the line where the bend begins, just underneath the street-side window edge. I'll brace this longer 2x4 against the curb-side lower "box", using some shorter peices. I'll tape the window with duct tape, to also try and lower the likelihood of cracking the window when I try to bend the lower part of the sidewall back towards the inside (using sledge hammer hits).
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Finally, I go back outside the TM to the target, with a short segment of 2x4 and my trusty sledge hammer. From front to back, I hit inwards along the line of the shell's bottom outside corner, trying to straighten the out-bending damage portion so that it will be vertical and properly aligned after I lower the street-side back to normal height. If I go with 3 posts, then I'll be moving my middle "raising post" further along (and then behind me) while I work.

Before lowering, I'll go back inside and remove the long interior "shell wall brace". Then I'll lower the lifting jacks (middle and front, then back), allowing me insert the corner lift arms back into the shell (one at a time), at proper "lifted" position. Finally I'll tighten the lift arm bolts and reconnect all the wiring, remove the exterior "curb side" bracing, and test opening and closing a few times.

My obvious question is:

Do you guys with experience (lifting shells out of lift arms) have any warnings or suggestions with regard to this plan?

[Larryjb]

I did this last summer to replace a torsion bar. Two things happened to me, one more serious than the other. I set up a jig to lift the shell from the inside. I put foam pads onto a 1' length of 1x6 between the roof and lifting jig. However, this wasn't quite enough and I do have a couple of very slight dimples in the roof.

The second was a little more serious, but I did manage to fix it properly. The side wall was sticking a little as I'd raise the roof, and it did pull out from the roof panel. It turns out that TM used only 3 long self-tapping screws to hold the roof to the side wall, and some of them were rusted badly. I clamped the wall back to the roof, removed the old screws, drilled and inserted new screws. I used stainless steel, but if you go that route make sure you coat the screws with some type of sealant. I used RV Proflex because it remains soft.

[Larryjb]

Ah, I found my thread which may be useful:
https://www.trailmanorowners.com/for...ad.php?t=19745

[rickst29]

With weak torsion bars of my own, I have read your torsion bar replacement thread very carefully already.

Your method (from the the inside) is good, with the limitation which you noted. (The TM shell is normally held up by lift arms in the corners underneath, and my alternate scheme maintains that relationship.) I think that my scheme will also allow the upper shell to be slightly rotated, with the street-side higher and creating a bigger gap for me to pound on. When you replacing torsion bars, you needed to raise both sides.

What problems did you encounter with your earlier lift attempt using the bottom of the side wall? (The method I intend to use.)

[Larryjb]

Rick, I'm having a little trouble visualizing your proposal. Some pictures or diagrams would be very helpful I think.

If you rotate the shell higher on one side without disconnecting the lift arms from the shell, you might twist the connected side, especially if it is still attached to the torsion bar.

When I tried raising the shell from underneath, it was extremely difficult to keep my 2x4 lift supports stable. and from tilting to one side or the other.

By doing this from inside, I was able to

• screw the supports into the dinette structure so they stayed in place
• place fore/aft angle bracing
• place side-to-side bracing, using 4 screws on each post to prevent any sideways swing.
• install my hydraulic jack so that I had just a short jacking post. This was much more stable than putting the hydraulic jack on the ground using a long jacking post.
• lock the centre support post to the 2 side posts with screws

Other thoughts:

My method would allow me to raise one side a couple of inches higher, but I would have wanted to have a similar jacking system on the rear. Perhaps using the interior method for the front where you have the dinette or sofa, and then raise the rear of the shell from the outside. The other shell will prevent the lifting shell from tipping sideways.

I had thought that if I had a large enough garage, I could make a pulley system and pull the roof off from above. That's how they do it at the factory.
If you release just the front lift arms, the rear of the shell will push into the roof of the other shell. You will need to raise the entire shell at least an inch or so to prevent this.

To lift the shell from outside, I would have needed longer 2x4's to lock them together. I would have needed to do something to prevent the base from kicking out

[rickst29]

Originally Posted by Larryjb

Rick, I'm having a little trouble visualizing your proposal. Some pictures or diagrams would be very helpful I think.

If you rotate the shell higher on one side without disconnecting the lift arms from the shell, you might twist the connected side, especially if it is still attached to the torsion bar.

When I tried raising the shell from underneath, it was extremely difficult to keep my 2x4 lift supports stable. and from tilting to one side or the other....
<snip>

Great post, and I understand what you're saying. My exterior curb-side "blocking" 2x4s bars should keep the street-side from kicking out (sideways), but I might still have an issue on the damaged street-side. Maybe my "lifts" should not be entirely vertical, but rather set on planks from "far outside" at the low end, going up to "Tm Shell Bottom" at the top.

I'm not that worried front to back, if the curb-side front "mini-clip" structure is in place and well-anchored. My garage is not long enough to handle a 3024 with the front shell open - it fits my closed 2619 with only about 2 feet to spare. And anchoring the curb-side is key for making the sledge hammer attack work - I can't have the shell floating completely free. I will plan to add add a set of ropes/cables, horizontal from curb-side rocks to the lifts (just underneath the TM floor) to prevent "kick-out" of the street side lifts.

If the front shell is inclined to descend in the backward direction, I'll need to create another brace to prevent that. I can simply add another 2x4, with a vertical bar to catch raised shell - from the rear side of the front shell, top framing base (just above the flexible rain shield), with the other end jammed against my garage door frame.

Thanks so much! Your idea of maybe building a tall scaffold for shorter "lift members" sounds really good, but I'll try it with full length "lift members" first. I can cut down the long "lift members by a few inches, to create scaffolding - but the entire scaffold is still prone to falling down side-to-side, unless I can create some "stabilization" near the top. There are more BIG decorative rocks in the edge of the yard on the "street side" of the TM in working position, but they're further away from TM position than the "curb side" rocks. And they rise at a softer angle. Overall, I feel better about ropes from the "curb side" rocks into hooks on the "tall" lifts - less "stuff" to actually build.
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I do intend to leave curb-side torsion bars connected. I need only 3" of lift on the street side, temporarily, and I hope that the temporary past-90-degree curve of the curb-side bars will tend to "spring back" after the temporary distortion. I anticipate the shell to be unconnected on the street side and stressing the curb side for only about 2 hours.