Okay so, I've been MIA for awhile, last year I took my trip in a class a and didn't have a step van build or anything fancy to show for myself. This year I'm doing a tiny (5x10) enclosed trailer and I'm not skimping, it's getting a shower, sink, stove, microwave, ac, converter, 460 watts of solar, 5,500 watt battery bank and I'm clearly stuffing a lot into this thing.
I don't like chemicals and didn't want the plywood floor so I yanked that and was trying to figure out what to do. I love working with metal so was thinking aluminum but it wasn't structural enough in a price range I could afford. I decided on steel (with a simple carpet over) and was planning on 14 gauge but wanted to be safe versus sorry so I upped it to 12 gauge. I get the the metal supply place and they have 3 sheets of 4'x5' in the remnants area for half price but yeah um, it's 10 gauge, 5.5 pounds per square foot! Since my life motto is "anything worth doing is worth doing in excess" and I love saving money I pull the trigger but now I'm wondering if I went too far as this stuff is hard core!
I'm not "too" worried about weight but the trailer sticker says not to add more than 1,940 pounds, I'm guessing that's with the plywood flooring which would have weighed 90 pounds versus the 275 this steel weighs so a gain of 185 pounds.
Advantages I can come up with (please help me justify):
1) Lower center of gravity (I flipped the axle)
2) I can cut out areas and box them in to drop the floor for things like the water tank (I don't think 14 gauge would have been strong enough)
3) I can screw things down to it with some certainty there's plenty of threads to hold
Any additional things I could be missing?
I was also thinking of welding the metal flooring to the bottom of the framing to gain a couple inches in some interior areas. Any thoughts on this plan, I would have to run like 50 feet of bead to do this but that's fine with me.
PS Here's last years rig and the trailer in question.
I don't like chemicals and didn't want the plywood floor so I yanked that and was trying to figure out what to do. I love working with metal so was thinking aluminum but it wasn't structural enough in a price range I could afford. I decided on steel (with a simple carpet over) and was planning on 14 gauge but wanted to be safe versus sorry so I upped it to 12 gauge. I get the the metal supply place and they have 3 sheets of 4'x5' in the remnants area for half price but yeah um, it's 10 gauge, 5.5 pounds per square foot! Since my life motto is "anything worth doing is worth doing in excess" and I love saving money I pull the trigger but now I'm wondering if I went too far as this stuff is hard core!
I'm not "too" worried about weight but the trailer sticker says not to add more than 1,940 pounds, I'm guessing that's with the plywood flooring which would have weighed 90 pounds versus the 275 this steel weighs so a gain of 185 pounds.
Advantages I can come up with (please help me justify):
1) Lower center of gravity (I flipped the axle)
2) I can cut out areas and box them in to drop the floor for things like the water tank (I don't think 14 gauge would have been strong enough)
3) I can screw things down to it with some certainty there's plenty of threads to hold
Any additional things I could be missing?
I was also thinking of welding the metal flooring to the bottom of the framing to gain a couple inches in some interior areas. Any thoughts on this plan, I would have to run like 50 feet of bead to do this but that's fine with me.
PS Here's last years rig and the trailer in question.