I’ve been thinking for the last two days about how to get the body of the trailer separate from the frame and supported in a way that will let me replace the floor. This is what I’ve decided on.
I bought a decent floor jack designed for cars. With that I jacked up the frame with trailer stabilization jacks, and supported it on all four corners. Each looks more-or-less like this:
Note that this is NOT SAFE. I would be taking my life in my hands if I went under it while it was supported like this. The frame and body are still connected, and the tires are still on. The left wheel is just up in the air, and it’s easy to lift the right one up. If something happens and these jacks collapsed or fell over sideways, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BAD WOULD HAPPEN.
Lifting the right wheel doesn’t cause any movement on the jacks. That’s important because later I will have to remove both wheels. I don’t want to lift high enough to get the frame separation I need otherwise.
I build eight supports. There’s a solid 3.5 x 3.5 column of wood, braced solidly with outriggers. You can see one of them in the picture above. I’m putting a 2×4 alongside the existing 2×2 and preloading it with of those jacks. Like this:
Now I can drill a couple holes and bolt those together. If I do that for all eight supports, the trailer will be well and SAFELY supported. I’m guessing the full-up trailer will be around 4,000 pounds. Maybe a bit higher. Dry and empty and with no batteries it should be slightly less. Without the frame it should be under 3,000. Any one of those supports with two 3/8’s bolts should be able to carry that much weight with a little spare strength. I’ll never go underneath the trailer unless it’s supported on at least six.