Bolts that hold walls to the frame

[Hotrodjohn]

I decided before I put my unit to bed for the winter 🕰️ to check all the lags holding the walls to the frame up in the bedroom and in the closet. Wasn’t terrible but two had backed out. One about a 1/2”. Almost all could be tightened half to a turn and a half. They all got star washers and some epoxy that will stick to 💩. It was kinda a pita. It helped to have a remote control to open and close the bedroom slide to access under the bed. Couple lousy pictures as I was sweating and aggravated lol. I also added a few that had holes and no screws. There is also 1/4” holes that aren’t used perhaps those will get screws as well

 

[dwcfish]

Had the same problems with my rig. The starlock washers have seemed to do the trick. Personally found it a bit disturbing that this was happening. I think your rig is newer than mine, so it is surprising that is still happening. Everyone should consider taking a look at their lag bolts. It is a major pain to get to those under the bed slide.......Sometime in the next couple of weeks I am going to drop the area under the front by the pinbox to see if all the bolts that run vertical are in place and in good shape.

 

[Hotrodjohn]

I found some 5/16” x 3.5” Spax I had so the smaller frame holes got those as well.😀

 

[Hotrodjohn]

I was considering dropping the front as well. I was surprised how few lags are in the closet section which is the extreme front where I would thing leverage would work on

 

[dwcfish]

I know what you are saying - on the door side of my rig I only had 2 lag bolts. I will note that Alliance has told me the standard is all holes with a minimum of 4 bolts. I ended up having to increase one of these to 1/2" since it was stripped out. I did install lags in all of the other holes. The first time around they still were working their way out. Once I installed the starlock washers this seems to have stopped.

 

[Hotrodjohn]

I had 7 on the door side and about
The same on the other side

 

[Hotrodjohn]

Nothing better than an aluminum frame stuffed with pallet lumber to hold your 17k lb trailer together. I think it’s a joke.

 

[Hotrodjohn]

So I pulled the trim under the bedroom outside on the right and left. Without pulling out the bay door in the front you can pull the skin down and check the bolts going upward. You can’t get to the extreme front one but alll the rest. They were actually still tight for the most part. The biggest improvement was cleaning the trim and putting it back a little tighter. The caulk line was all stretched from bouncing and loosening as well as there is a foam gasket in there so you can snug it a bit more. Looks a million times better

 

[RockDr896]

Reading this thread convinces me, that engineering, like most the past few decades, never consider the clamping strength of the fastener threads. It's a real thing, having owned rock excavation equipment. After 2 years with my trailer, it is looking like an IKEA project design. Glad you guys are sharing this!

 

[Hotrodjohn]

They are all handyman specials ^

 

[RockDr896]

I stumbled across this video concerning what washers to use. Perhaps we should be using the Wedge-Locking washers to counter the vibration issue associated with our rigs.