Severe wall damage - Hi-Lo camper travel trailer forum

lmelego · 06-26-2012, 08:52 PM

I am new to this forum and new to owning a Hi Lo. My father just signed over his 98 24 ft Funlite to me. He is 70 and can no longer use the trailer. It has sat the last three years without moving. The trailer is in beautiful shape except for the divers side wall of the top section. It has severe water damage. The bottom rail is twisting and the wall is bowing outward. I moved it to my home in the Allegheny National Forest and have begun trying to repair it. I have read many posts for the last year on soft wall repair etc. and have not gotten that far. I have pulled pieces of the wall apart and have not found any metal bracing or framing. There is a steel bar that the cables attach to but this has begun to split from the wall itself. Has anyone seen or ran into this? I need some help getting started and pointed in the right direction. I have attached pictures. thank you for taking time to read this and for any help.

RichR · 06-26-2012, 09:33 PM

Welcome to the Forum! I see you are near me here in NW PA. Stick around there has been much information presented here on wall repair. Some of the experienced owners will jump in here with some good info for you. If you use the search function on the top of the page you may be able to find some of that info as well.

lmelego · 06-26-2012, 09:45 PM

Thanks Rich!! I have used that funtion and have read several articles. I have seen posts from Sam and read the 90 classic restoration posts. It was informative and gave me incite but this seems to be a different animal since there is not framing. I am hoping Sam could help me get started.

sam · 06-26-2012, 11:24 PM

I wish I could help you get started,but I am a loss as to why you don't have metal studs in the wall. You could try talking to the folks at JR in Ohio. If that doesn't work than maybe you could talk tomy HiLo dealer. Glad you read my restoration story. We didn't have to do repair on the rail or the cables. My fiberglass walls were not seperated. I'm sure your trailer is repairable if you want to put in a huge amt. of time and materials. It is a shame this happened to the HiLo. Send your pictures into JR for advice. Are you handy?

sam · 06-26-2012, 11:29 PM

I looked at your pictures and I also see some ceiling dammage. Perhaps you just need to tear the brown paper off the wall and you will see the metal studs?

garyk52 · 06-27-2012, 12:42 AM

When I pulled all the paneling from the sidewalls on my 96 Funchaser I only found metal studding at the following places. On the Drivers side wall, one at each end of the wall, and one on the right hand side of the kitchen window towards the middle of the camper. Not much studding if you ask me for a 24' camper. On the passengers side was one at each end and one on each side of the door and that was it. Again not much studding.

Good Luck
Garyk52

lengle · 06-27-2012, 11:32 AM

I am also new to the forum, and just got a 94 towlite which was only suppose to only need minor repair ended up being the entire top half except for the front wall, (all other three sides and roof were gone.

The outside of yours looks like mine, aluminum siding, am I right? When we found that basically the entire top was rotted including the ceiling metal tubing rusted all the way through I dug in and rebuilt. Mine did not have any metal supports in the walls just 1 by 4 wood framing. The only metal in the side walls was the metal strap on the bottom rail where the cable hooked to. My son didn't like the idea and added steel tubing 2 per side and we framed in between. He welded brackets on both ends of the steal tubing and then used self taping screws to attach to the top metal rail in the roof and then the new 2 by 4 on the bottom. He also welded a strap around the entire two by four on the bottom where the cable attaches.

Your bottom rail is more than likely going to look like it was plywood sandwiched together, which is what mine was, but a 2 x 4 on it's side will fit in there great. The biggest job was getting all the tin off (all the stables used to hold the tin to bottom rail and then all the stables in the side walls) without too much damage to the tin. Hopefully your walls are not rotted to the point you can't get a pattern for the sides, we had this problem.

Just keep asking questions here and you will get the help you need. It is a great group of people with a lot of knowledge and if someone doesn't know the answer they will either find it for you or give you a good place to go.

lmelego · 06-27-2012, 09:41 PM

Thank you all for you incite and advice. I was just looking at the paperwork for the trailer and realized it is a 99 Funlite. I doubt if this makes much difference; however, the outside skin is fiberglass not aluminum (sp?). I took out the entire wall and found the metal studding was just as you discribed. A stud at the very front and back with one on the refriderator side of the kitchen window. When the bottom rail twisted, it also twisted the bottom piece of steel tubing. I plan to use a pipe wrench to twist it back into its original position and weld where it broke free from the very front stud. I also plan to put extra tubing in so that this does not happen again. (just like your son did). When you used the 2x4 for a new bottom rail, did you say you placed it on edge? What did you do about the wires that were running through the tunnel in the bottom rail? Also where did you get a new seal/ gasket for the bottom rail?

You all have been a great help in getting started and in preparing me for what I will encounter. Thank you all so much. You all really seem like a close knit group. Hope your all out enjoying the out doors and your trailers this summer. I know I cannot wait to get out and camp along the Clarion River and do some conoeing.

sam · 06-27-2012, 10:17 PM

Some of our members used "Blue wood" to replace the rail. You could also use cedar or treatedumber. If you use any pine wood I would stain it and waterproof it. Use a clear waterseal or polyurethane. The wires just sit along the rail. The seal between the layers can be purchased at JR in Buttler Ohio. That info is in another post.Sorry not good with computers. The only thing I would have done diffeerently with my restoration was to tearout all the old styrofoam,put bondo on the interior fiberglass and use a vapor barrier that is used on housing before siding is applied. If you decide to rip the walls to the fiberglass you could rent machine to apply icine insulation. Or just go with 1inch styrofoam. Sounds like you are very handy and can do this extensive restoration. We probably spent around $1000.00 on materials. Take your time,do it once and do it right. It will pay big dividends when the sky opens up and pours for all it is worth.DH and I disagreed on a total ripout. Any way we have been camping and remain hi and dry.

lmelego · 06-29-2012, 10:19 PM

Well I have not been able to work on the trailer the last fews days. We just got a pretty heavy storm last night. It stayed dry wtih all the tarps I used to cover it. I plan to hit it heavy this weekend. Hopefully I can get it mostly buttoned up so I don't have to worry about more water damage.

lmelego · 06-30-2012, 05:53 PM

Well Finally, I am done with demo. I used an angle grinder to clean all the rust off the steel frame. I put a rust neutralizing Jelly on it and got it pretty clean. One thing about rust is once it is there, it is almost impossible to get rid of unless you cut it all out which is not an option for me. I know this from patching rust hole in cars. I am thinking about drilling holes through the bottom piece of frame and screwing a new bottom rail in from the outside. I don't know if that would weaken the frame too much. Any one have any thougts? I have attached pictures of what I have done so far.

garyk52 · 06-30-2012, 10:09 PM

First thing I would do is get some wooden supports on the ceiling from the inside before that outside post kicks out and collapses the roof. As far as the new bottom rail, sounds like a plan to me. By the way love the Huge Bow window

sam · 06-30-2012, 11:52 PM

I also like your outdoor kitchen window. Since your girlfriend isn't helping I would have her do all the cooking and cleanup on your well deserved vacation!!

lmelego · 07-03-2012, 09:36 PM

Thanks Garyk52 for the advice. I thought this was especially good advice since we have been getting storms almost daily and several times had high winds. Between work and the storms. I have not been able to get much work done on the trailer. I did manage to get the bottom rail in. I used a pressure treated 2x4. I was lucky to get a nice straight one. I cut a 1/2 in.x1/2 in.x1/2 in. groove in it to run my wires. I used heavy duty liquid nails (thanks to the information in Sam's 90 classic posts) and also screwed it to the metal frame. I used my floor jack and a piece of 2x4 to jack up the frame or lower it as I worked from one end to the other to get the metal frame and roof straightened out. This worked great. Tomorrow my wife is going to help me take diagonal measurements to make sure the wall frame is square. Has anyone done anything or learned any tricks to help get the wall frames back into square?

I think the trailer sat so long with a rotted bottom rail that it allowed the wall to sag in the middle and along with it, the roof. I am hoping the thing is not too out of square. I am assuming that if it is not square, it will not want to go up and down very well.

sam · 07-03-2012, 10:33 PM

Seems like you did the right thing in replacing your rail. If you plan on adding more metal studs or wood studs I would get a box of stainless steel screws from MCfeelys(ask for 1.00 shipping.) I don't know much about how straight/square the walls have to be because our renovation wasn't as extensive as yours. I do know that the underlay is 1/8 and the paneling is 1/8 and the styrofoam panels were 1inch thick. This is all the total wall can be or the top won't have enough clearance to slide down over the bottom. Seems like your plan to square up the walls is logical. If you put in more metal studs you can use poprivets. I know you don't have that many metal studs,but I would metal prime and then use one coat of metal paint. Clarification: Poprivets to give additional strength to the underlay at the stud. Today I wanted to go outside and have DH belt sand the pieces of my desk that I am trying to refinish. Rained just enough to spoil my plans and we are going to get more of the same on the 4th. Both of us managed to find enough small fixits to keep us quite busy all day. Then the temp is going into the 90s with high humidity.

lmelego · 07-09-2012, 01:04 PM

Well I got the side framed in and square. I got the guides and rails back on and the underlayment on the inside. The top goes up and down nicely. I do have to readjust the cables. This is easy enough as I did it for my father quite a while ago. The trailer is going back together very well.

I have foam insulation and the outer underlayment to put on yet. Then I need to scrap a layer of the old underlayment off the fiberglass siding. Has anyone found anything that takes this off easy besides just scraping it with a putty knife? I did buy some fiberglass resin to coat the inside of the siding as Sam did.

lmelego

sam · 07-09-2012, 05:41 PM

If you are talking about scraping the brown paper from the fiberglass on the inside we used a razor scraper in a scraper holder or maybe a razor blade in your hand. If you are talking about removing underlayment then we used a multi tool from Harborfreight. Spent more $ on blades than the tool cost. Such is life. I remember I didn't have enough strength in my hands to scrape the brown paper off. I've had two carpel tunnell surgeries,this is my excuse. So glad to hear you will be putting a rock hard bondoto seal the fiberglass from leaks. Read and follow all instructions. You will need an industrial respirator and all windows and vents open. Use cheap throw away brushes to apply the two part bondo. Should dry with no problem in this heat. When all is dry put Lexell caulk on inside of fiberglass at all outer widths and lengths. This would touch the metal studs. Caulk and foam seal anywhere you can. Use a lot of Lexell caulk on the outside fiberglass seams. Have fun scraping/just play your favorite toones while working. Your trailer will be better than factory new,repaired with love.