Rear end sag

[sam-HILO]

Finally got to go camping.Our RV was parked out on the street infront of our house. Mentioned to DH that the exterior back end was uneven.Blamed it on the street parking. When we got to our campsite and set up DH tolde the BR cabinet would only open half way. You could see the rail next to the interior wall was down three inches and the door had a gap when closed. Upon further inspection we could see the rail and the lower half of the wall behind the vanity was rotted and somewhat delaminated. When I took my Mitchum deodorant out of the BR ccupboard it was leaking. It must have come under pressure with our 90 plus days of heat. Went to brush my teeth and discovered the toothbrush was soaked in deodorant. Had a spare one in my backpack. Mouthwash to the rescue. Never had anything leak in the past 11 yrs. The rest of our camping was good. I took a few pictures of the sag. Too tired to post tonight. We have a rear door and it is the rear section on the passenger side. The wood has rotted out and needs to be replaced. To further complicate the issue this is where the cable is and the awning puts pressure on the fiberglass. I'll will start a new thread as we repair.

 

[Rolff]

That is terrible. Very discouraging.

 

[sam-HILO]

We really must love our HiLo trailers because we just keep fixing them!! Our 25 is a nice size to fit into state park campsites. Love the interior color and layout. It works nicely for three adults. Granted a little bit cozy. We eat outside under our awning at the picnic table. A real treat as we don't have outside dinning at home. The campfire is also something we aren't allowed to have in the city. Yes a little disheartening to have to drop our to do list and make camper repairs. Did I mention it is paid for?

 

[sam-HILO]

Pictures from our last campout,some tearout rear end sag

3SamTLPX's Library | Photobucket
We've been diassembling our HiLo for repair for the last three afternoons. Still not done. Thanks to Sam Shieldsfor his post /outline for replacing the roof gasket. 4-3-2010 Another helpful post by David Ward on cable replacement 3-3-2010. We are only replacing the rotted rail from the door to the back of the trailer and the seal on the entire trailer. Our HiLo dealer is getting the seal for us. Jay is researching the most cost effective source for the seal as we need fifty five feet. This is the problem we are faced with. See post of 3-2-2010 page five second picture.DH has put penetrating oil on the bolt and it just turns as one unit.He needs to be able to get the bolt out of each cable loop. This will allow him to separate the two haves of the HiLo for seal replacement. His only thought is to use his plumbing torch and heat the bolt up. Help,Help any ideas welcome. He is going to use Marine grade plywood for the rail replacement. What a shame to have to buy a 4x8 sheet for such a small repair. With the two halves separated we will be able to see if any more rail needs to be replaced. I'll take more pictures and post again.

 

[69hilo2]

Wow

Wow, looks like you folks know your hilo from inside out the hard way. Still some of the photos show that you seem to have fun with it.
Good Luck with everything.

Later Tim

 

[sam-HILO]

Helpneeded

DH can't get the bolt out of the lift cable loop. This is preventing us from separating the top and bottom for seal replacement. The bolt just spins around as one unit. His only solution is to heat up the bolt with his plumbing torch or heat gun. Penetrating oil doesn't work. Any solution appreciated. This is holding up our repair job.

 

[garyk52]

Sam, are you sure that is a bolt and not a lag bolt which wouldn't thread into a nut. When I took my cable off the top half it was a long lag. I don't think the heat wrench is going to help. Can you get a Stanley wonder bar between the lag head and the cable and pry down, then try to turn the lag.

Different idea
Sam could you loosen the adjusting end and pull enough slack to raise the top from the bottom?

 

[sam-HILO]

GaryK52,I was hoping you would reply as you have a classic HiLo. DH is sleeping I will be sure he reads your post. Got lucky today as DH boss made a house call and knew what type of a bolt it was. The nut was mig welded inside the square tubing. Got all the rot apart and made a trip into HD and got square tubing. DH wants to put a pipe in the square tubing for added strength. States he won't be able to release the other cables. This doesn't seem right to me. Hopefully your suggestions will help. Our dealer is working on getting the seal we need for replacement between top and bottom layers. Today we will go to our ACE hardwear and get a sheet of marine plywood. Need to have the trailer somewhat buttoned up as rain is in the forecast for Friday. We have a RV cover.Three new pictures added to photobucket. When we did our original restoration it was from Sept. until Feb. We were working outdoors and couldn't separate the top from the bottom. I think I will have a mobile welder look over the job. Nine inches of the square tubing is rusted out. It starts at the door and goes nine inchestowards the back. The only thing holding the rot/delamination together was the expanding foam insulation,yellow. The question is should we replace all the tubing or just weld in a patch. DH boss has a second job and has metal flashing and a bending brake. He will do this for us free of charge. DH has done him some favors.
3SamTLPX's Library | Photobucket

 

[garyk52]

Surprised it was a bolt and nut

Sam, I'm surprised there is a nut welded to the square tubing. When I took the right rear corner bolt out, I was holding my breath hoping it wouldn't break off, it was a very rusted lag bolt, when I put in a new one I dipped it in permatex anti-seize compound before I installed it. As far as welding in a piece, you will need to cut out enough till you get to solid tubing to weld to, then I would weld 2 fairly long pieces of 1" right angle over the repair, sort of like I did when I repaired the tubing in my ceiling, however I had to bolt instead of weld because of the location of my tubing. How would you fasten the round pipe inside the square tubing? I would rather see you scab right angle or see if you can find square tubing that fits inside the 1" square tubing, drill a couple small holes in the top and bottom of the 1" inch and spot weld them together.

I've never taken the halves apart, but if I couldn't get the bolts out on the lift cables and was just going to lift it straight up, I would check into just taking the adjustment bolts between the wheels loose and lift the top that way. Just measure how much bolt sticks out on each adjustment so you can get it close to where it was. I also have a friend who is a carpenter with a nice metal brake that I can use anytime. Sure comes in handy at times

Good luck with your repair

 

[sam-HILO]

Dh read both posts.I guess our HiLo is a "odd ball". It has a captured nut. The fastener goes through the bushing and cable assembly.Machine screw goes into the captured nut. He will try your second suggestion. He understands your suggestion. Their has to be a way to get the cable out when one breaks and has to be changed. He now wants to put a plastic pipe inside the metal square tubing. I like your idea of a smaller diameter metal tubing inside the new square tube. I still would have to have a welder come on site. We don't own welding equipment. If the trailer wasn't torn apart so much I could take it to a welding shop or our HiLo dealer. Thanks for taking the time to post.

 

[sam-HILO]

A double good day!! We have a welder friend that drove 24 miles to give us advice on our wall repair. No welding as he would burn the wall/trailer down. We had thought about this. First a long piece of 1inch square tubing will be placed inside the old tubing. Then DH has round steel tubing that will be placed inside of the square tubing. Between drilling,poprivets and screws the repair will be done. I will take pictures as we do repairs. Tomorrow it is going to rain and we gorilla duct taped a old shower curtain over the exterior door and wall. I'm hoping to have all the repairs completed by Sunday. The other part of double good day is that our daughter that is challenged by Autism got a job at Home Depot as a greeter. She is over the moon as she and her job coach have been pounding the pavement job hunting for months. The job pays more than minimum wage and has room for advancement.

 

[69hilo2]

Daughter

Congrads on the Daughter finding that job. Good Luck to her and may things always be bright.
Good Luck with the repair. It's great to have friends that will do such stuff.

Later Tim

 

[sam-HILO]

DH cut the two pieces of plywood and coated with Thompsons water seal. Small steps in our repair process.

 

[sam-HILO]

DH worked on the classic HILO all day today. He made some good progress. The 1" tubing was inserted into the old tubing then a 3/4 round pipe was inserted into the square tubing. Hacked sawed and fitted a piece of metal over the rotted out part. We are working where our trailer is parked and have no electricity. Made a few trips home for additional tools. Cut the new wood for the rail(one end at 45 degrees). Will post pictures later today.

 

[69hilo2]

forward

Glad to hear you are still working on it and looking forward to seeing the pics.

Later Tim

 

[sam-HILO]

3SamTLPX's Library | Photobucket
Some more pictures of our rear end sag repair. DH cut plywood then used heavy duty liquid nails to glue pieces together and clamped pieces. Today our 3/4 bulb seal came in at our HiLo dealer. The picture came out white. The neoprene bulb seal is black.

 

[sam-HILO]

This is the last post on the rear end sag. DH and daughter went to the HiLo campout this past weekend. Our service advisor checked out the seal replacement and rail rot repairs. He said everything was done correctly and the cable adjustment was fine. DH is at the HiLo doing some minor repairs. We are available for advice if anyone needs to do rotted rail or seal replacement.