Hold-down latch has come loose

Posted this somewhere last night/early this morn but can't find where so reposting. Curbside hold-down bracket came loose from the bottom of 2001 2619. I have seen where others have said something about 2 screws...this one has 4 nut screws. The reason for the break is due to rot out of wood. I have read on here about adding a glued in square tubing to screw into...right now the bracket is caught by one screw cocked sideways and I am wondering what happens when it is knocked loose in order to work on it. The camper is in the up position and was wondering if we needed to close it to take the tension off of it??? or does it matter...DH wanted to know what to do to release the tension and has left it to me (DW) to find out since he has left for work for two weeks?? Any help appreciated...we just bought it a month ago...compeletly redid the interior and cleaned up outside. This was the first time we were putting it down by ourselves.

[MariaG]

I'm not sure I know exactly what you're talking about - could you post a picture or two? I'm sure we could help you better if we knew exactly what we're looking at. The screwing into tubing with wood plugs inside may be something you saw on my blog - the address is in my signature below.

Here are some pics-hope this helps-don't think I explained the problem too well but pics are worth a thousand...

[MariaG]

I will have to have my husband take a look at the pics and see what he says - we haven't dealt with any wood rot in the same area. Ours was all around the bottom edge of the upper shells, not the box. I know it was fairly simple to take the arms apart from the shells while in the upright position - we just removed the acorn bolts that hold the arms at the pocket stop and carefully propped the shell up by putting a 2x4 all the way across the camper, resting on the walls of the box. Hopefully someone else might have more advice in the meantime. I'll get back to you once I've talked to DH. (Dear Husband)

[Wavery]

No matter what, all of the rotted wood will have to be cut out. There is no "easy fix" to wood-rot.

Wood-rot is a living organism that is feeding off the the good wood. As it destroys the good wood (thus rotten wood) it keeps moving on to find nourishment.

It really isn't hard to take apart the lower edge of the box by pulling out the staples etc to expose the wood. Just keep cutting out rotted wood until you reach good wood. It can be replaced with 2x4" aluminum tubing. I think that I would pop rivet the skin to the tubing about every 3-4". I would find where there is vertical frame members that I could tie into. Maybe get some 1" x 3/16" flat bar aluminum to screw in all along the lower edge to give added strength.

Just my thoughts.........I haven't done it.

I would check for a water leak by the hot water heater or sink as the rot appears to be in that area. Removing the vent panels on the outside and looking inside would also be a good place to look. You will have to be pretty handy to handle that repair,cutting away bad wood and replacing with with other materials or more wood as Wayne has suggested.

Thanks MariaG...will be looking forward to DH's response (my DH is offshore right now and keeps asking me if I have found out anything yet...LOL). not sure what the acorn bolts are..We are more worried on how to take the tension (or torsion) off the top to get that plate loose...It is still caught by that one bolt. Also have some upper top damage where you had it and will work on that later.
Harveyrv...sounds like a good idea..especially the plate since I was wondering what I could do to make the attachment stronger. I can be doing the wood rot cleanout while DH is still out...one less thing for him to do. Just a little worried about what would happen if that one bolt (which is just caught at an angle comes loose if I am under it. See Pic
robertkennel...DH and I are very handy but are just worried about the top coming down. The rot is probably from the wheel well (square box style)...the former owner had a blowout and never repaired the box so water was being sprayed up in there. (The wheel well has been repaired but might also look into retrofitting it later)

[Wavery]

Originally Posted by TheBrowns

We are more worried on how to take the tension (or torsion) off the top to get that plate loose...It is still caught by that one bolt. Also have some upper top damage where you had it and will work on that later.
Harveyrv...sounds like a good idea..especially the plate since I was wondering what I could do to make the attachment stronger. I can be doing the wood rot cleanout while DH is still out...one less thing for him to do. Just a little worried about what would happen if that one bolt (which is just caught at an angle comes loose if I am under it. See Pic
robertkennel...DH and I are very handy but are just worried about the top coming down. The rot is probably from the wheel well (square box style)...the former owner had a blowout and never repaired the box so water was being sprayed up in there. (The wheel well has been repaired but might also look into retrofitting it later)

With the roof in the "Up" position, most of then tension is off of the torsion bars. The torsion bars are loaded when the roof is in the "Down" position. You should support the weight of the roof with 2x4s on the damaged side. It looks to me like the pressure that is causing that brace to pull out of the wood may be more from he weight of the roof than the tension on the torsion bars. If you support the roof weight, you may find that those parts may just hang free. I could be wrong but that's the way that it looks in the pics.

I think that eventually, you may have to unbolt the upright "arm" from the roof. Once the repair is complete, I think that you will have to attach the lower end of the arm to the torsion bar, then attach the other end to the roof with a little tension on it. I can't see any other way to do it. It may be wise to just securely support the roof and completely remove that arm now.

BTW...The acorn nuts are used to prevent someone from over tightening the nuts on the threads of the bolt and smashing the "hollow" material that is being secured. The bolts are an exact length and when the acorn nuts are tight, the fit is proper.

[MariaG]

Similar to Harvey's response - DH says while the shell is in the upright position, there isn't much tension on the bar beyond weight of the shell itself. It probably won't drop much if you just remove that last bolt holding it, but to be safe use a block of wood under the torsion bar underneath the camper about 6 inches, then set a bottle jack under it and jack it up just enough (like an inch or less) to give you slack to work on it and remove that last bolt holding on. Slide the bracket with the four holes that was holding on with one bolt along the bar toward the jack to get it out of the way. Then you can check for wood rot. If there is wood rot, you'll have to open up the aluminum skin and clean out the rotten area and replace it. We haven't had to make any repairs to that area, so this is just how he would approach it. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask, I hope this helps.

I own a 2005 Trailmanor 2619. My left rear (street side) torsion bar mounting plate POPPED down with rust showing on 3 of the 5, 3/8" screws that tore out of the soft, apparently rotting, wood (see first image attached below).

After talking with the regional TM dealer over the phone I tried larger diameter screws that initially held...for about 30 minutes and then POPPED so violently the plate was horribly bent to an almost unusable condition (second image shown below).

Then I called the main TM factory and the rep told me that this happens on some TMs, usually on older ones. He suggested the same idea I was considering of making a backing plate to place on top of the 3" thick foam floor and use longer nuts and bolts and lock washers sandwiching the floor between the backing plate on top and the torsion mounting plate on the bottom. The idea is the backing plate distributes the load across the RV floor evenly over the entire area of the footprint of the backing plate and actually provides a very sturdy mounting and attachment device.

So I made a backing plate from 1/8" x 2" flat steel to be placed on the top of the floor (see 4th image below) and I was just able to access through the outside shower compartment opening for installing it. It was a very tight squeeze and extremely tricky to get the damaged torsion bar mounting plate bent back so that the holes would line up. I used a few jacks, jack stands and some well placed hammer blows to slowly but surely realign the plate for mounting (see third image attached). I opted to try to save the existing mounting plate which ended up working out well in the end.

It looks like "The Browns" situation is very similar but your plate is still in great shape and you seem to have great access to possibly install a backing plate in a similar manner. It's not that difficult (unless you had a Blow Out like I did) and I feel the end result is a much stronger anchor for this torsion mounting plate. Moisture proofing everything the best you can is a good idea. I used oil based Rustoleum and silicon to protect and seal the new parts and installation areas. The wood rot is a big problem and not easily remedied, I will leave it at that, it is very disappointing to have this occur.

Bottom-line, my repair/upgrade of my failed torsion plate mount is holding very well, I feel it will easily last the life of the RV but I do worry about the others failing at some point in the future, like yours has.

IMAGES:
First Image - The first time the Left Rear Torsion Mounting/Tensioning Plate popped down, I then tried larger diamter screws.

Second Image - Then I used larger diameter bolts and it briefly held and then really POPPED, badly bending the plate.

Third Image - Working on badly bent plate to unbend and realign mounting holes.

Forth Image - 1/8" x 2" backing plate to be placed on top of the floor accessed through the outdoor shower opening.

Fifth Image - Plate fixed - A little paint and larger screws in some blown out parts, like the rear bumper storage area, fixed up things like new...well almost.

Good luck with your repair project. I absolutely love my TM, I tow it with a 2005 Jeep Rubicon Unlimited and it's a great match. Most times I genuinely enjoy spending time taking care of my RV, but these darn plates are tough nuts. There is a lot of pressure on them which makes everything much more challenging and a bit dangerous if you are not careful.

Take care...Bob.