Light coming in where floor and back wall meet!

[rbTN]

Sitting in the campground today and walked towards the back wall (sun is shining on the back wall right now) and notice light coming in where the floor and back wall meet....

I think this is probably not good so go take a look under the back wall and yep, a 1/4 in gap where the wall should be secured to the floor and frame. Looks like the screws backed/pulled out? From what I can tell without taking it apart there is a 1 in wide trim piece that runs horizontal across the line that would appear to hide said screws.

Do you think it would be as easy as pulling that trim piece off, and moving the screws to a new location? I can't see any damage such as moisture etc that would cause it, it just looks like they pulled.

[SeilerBird]

The biggest problem with RVs is that they are a house being bounced down the road at 60 mph and everything that is not extremely tight will eventually become extremely loose. You might want to post some photos of the light leak so we can better guess at what to do.

[darsben]

Install larger screws in the old holes and installing extra in new areas might be the best ticket

[rbTN]

this is from the inside

[rbTN]

this is from under the trailer

[lynnmor]

My guess is that the wall should be sitting atop the floor, and yours is not.  If there is no direct support for the wall, the screws will never stay tight.  Maybe you could identify what exactly the wall is sitting on, if anything.  More photos might help.

[Ernie n Tara]

I'd consider installing a spacer that fills the gap and perhaps even epoxy it in before installing larger screws. That could be short sections with foam insulation between them but you either have to move and support the floor somehow or just support it where it is.

Ernie

[rbTN]

thanks all - back home now and will know more as I get into it this week

[rbTN]

I dug into it tonight after work. Pulled the trim strip, then had to pull the bottom panel (it is a metal panel about 10 in high that goes around the bottom of the entire trailer)

Now I could see what I needed to. There were a total of 5, yes 5, 3 in screws along the back wall, 4 of which had rusted thru and broken off. They look like 3 in deck screws with the the #2 sq drive head.

I pulled them all out, removed what looked to be spray foam from between the wall and floor framing. Then put in new 3 in exterior construction screws every 6 inches with fender washers under them to help spread the load. I got it pulled back to about 1/8 gap which I need to fill. I'll probably end up backing them off again and putting some foam backer rod in there first then topping it off with spray foam.

I guess they didn't really build them much better in 2007 than they seem to now from what I read.

[SpencerPJ]

You might use stainless screws or deck screws.  Simple construction screws will rust out again quickly. 

[rbTN]

You might use stainless screws or deck screws.  Simple construction screws will rust out again quickly.

thanks SpencerPJ, I wasn't aware that "construction" screws are really only meant for something like a deck, they have no shear strength and break when you try to bend them so not at all what I needed. I got some stainless structural screws and they bend (tested with vise grips on each end to see if they would bend or break - both construction and stainless) not break so used them - added bonus little worry about rust.

I got the wall back in place, sealed the small remaining gap (was 1/8 gap from the factory filled with spray foam) with window and door spray foam and got all the trim back in place. You'd never know it was taken off.

however I found a new issue while working on this so I'll start a new thread.

thanks everyone!