Broken Springs

I bought a jet heater so I would be able to work on the camper through the winter without looking like Randy from the Christmas Story.  I decided I could test it out while I worked on the front lift strut springs.  We were hit with a snowstorm right after thanksgiving and then it got extremely cold.  The heater worked fairly well and allowed me to work in a light jacket.

  The wood that holds the fixed ends of the springs had broken and needed to be repaired.

I believe the original design was kind of poor, so I decided to change it.  I built two new spring supports out of square tube and angle iron for the springs to attach to instead of wood.  The square tubing actually came from the 'rafters' a previous owner had put in to support the sagging ceiling.  You can see one of them in the pictures from the previous posts.

 New steel spring support

I used carriage bolts to attach these to the plywood cross members at the front of the trailer.  The plywood was in very good shape, so I saw no need to change it.

New spring supports installed on front of camper

 After the new metal supports were installed, I tied them together with two pieces of ready-rod.  This should counteract the force of the springs on the supports, reducing the amount of force the plywood cross members see.  The original wood spring supports tied the cross members to the interior paneling of the camper.  The steel ones were too short to attach the paneling to, so I had to come up with something else.  I cut some pieces of 2X4 to tie the plywood to the interior paneling.  It took a few tries to get the angles right but it worked well.  This stiffened the front up quite a bit.

 Ready-Rod installed on spring supports

To attach the springs, I used a ratchet strap to pull the springs out far enough that I could get a nut on the eye bolts.  It worked quite well.  

 Using ratchet strap to install springs and eye bolts

All done!  I believe this will stand up to the load from the springs better than the original design.  Time will tell.

 Finished front spring system

All in all, the work took two days, and most of the components were leftovers from other projects, so I didn't spend any money.  I ordered some butyl tape online so I can re-attach the sheet metal and seal it up.  I still need to get the roof started too.  I have a good idea of what I'm going to do for the guts, thanks to this thread, but still haven't figured out the outer layer.  Originally it was vinyl/canvas, but I'd like to use either rubber or metal panels as I think they would be more durable.  Oh well, I've got some time before I have to commit to that.  If anybody has any input on roof materials let me know!

Thanks for reading!

Bill