I finished mounting the floor to the body. Next step was to check the floor flatness. I set up a laser level at the front, and checked at each of the other three supports.
Ideally all three would be exactly the same height, but there’s about an eighth of an inch off flat. That’s very good, and since the frame is a little bit flexible that will cause no problems. The left side was the same.
Now I was ready to re-mate the body and frame, but I realized I should do the floor beams first. I could fabricate those later, but it would mean I was doing a bunch of assembly on my back under the trailer.
There are three longitudinal beams, each 2×3. One is mounted to the outside of each of the frame channels, and one runs down the center. Each has the same shape. There’s a straight section in front. 15 feet two inches for the outer ones, and one inch longer in the center. Then an angled sections a bit under three feet. First, I can’t find 2×3’s locally. I was able to find good quality douglas fir 1×3’s, but only 14 feet long. So I made the long beams sections by gluing 1×3’s, with doubled sections.
Now the original beams were mounted by fairly large wood screws coming from above through the floor. There are several reasons I don’t like that, but many of the screws were in places I can’t get to. So I had to do it differently. So I made a number of mounting clips from aluminum angle and mounted those to the beams.
Sorry. I framed that picture poorly. The three beams are exactly the same length, but there are some 2×2’s on the ground that make the center one look about double the length of the others.
Then I slid those between the trailer and the body. I jacked up the body enough to get the current supports out, and jacked the frame up to meet it. I was able install the bolts in the front left support and the right rear support. Here is the trailer with frame and body back together, sitting on a couple of supports.
I made eight frame supports. Four I threw away. Two are supporting the frame, at the rear spring attach on each side. I kept two more. Partly because I may want to support the front of the frame, and partly to use them as a place to tight the tarp ropes. They are big enough to be a decent weight.
The other right side supports fit just fine, but there’s a problem on the left. I took for granted that the width was constant. I made the floor sections all 92 inches wide, and kept them centered. Front, rear, and right side all fit great. But on the left side the trailer appears to be slightly wasp wasted. In the center it’s about half an inch too wide.
Annoying. It means I have to
- remove the bolts between the body and the lower 2×2 and pivot the 2×2 out of the way.
- remove the 2 inch #10 screws that come up from below and tie the wall to the floor
- find a way to slide the wall in about a half inch over about ten or twelve feet.
- reattach the wall to the floor.
- reattach the body to the lower 2×2
- Plug the existing support holes. I do that by gluing in wooden dowel pins.
Then I can drill new holes and complete the mounting. I should be able to get this all done tomorrow.