Floorwell Qusetion

[Bigwoods]

How are you folks building and framing the floor wells. The more I think about it, maybe I should add one for more room. My wife saw a Boler. It is the Canadian vwersion of the Scamp and wants to nix the idea of a tear. I'll get her straighen out on that real soon.

[tdthinker]

I have seen them made out of welded steel hooked to the frame but I am making mine out of wood bolted to my frame.

[Grant]

Geeez, BW ...

... I thought there'd be more responses to your post? Oh well, eh what?

Here's how I do it (another freebie from Grant!):
• I determine how big I want my footwell (usually 24" front-to-back for an 8-footer, and 1-1/2" narrower - each side - than the frame/chassis, or 2-3" narrower - each side - than your inside wall measurement if your frame is directly under your walls)
• Then I build a 14-16 guage sheet metal "pan" to that dimension with a 1-1/2" outside lip and a 1-1/2" inside lip, usually about 7" deep - kind of a straight-up "Z".
• Predrill and slightly countersink holes about 4-6" apart in both lips, countersinking from the top of the outside lip and the bottom of the inside lip. (I usually powdercoat my pans, at this point, but you could paint, or you could build it out of galvanized metal)
• Plot and cut a hole in your floor to correspond with the dimensions of your "pan", and pre-fit for clearances.
• Trim about 1/8" from all sides of the piece you cut from your floor (or 1/4" from one end and one side) and pre-fit into the bottom of the pan
• Once you are happy with the fit of the floor in your pan, remove floor and run a healthy bead of siliconized-caulk in the corners and along the edge of the inside lip and install floor piece, screwing from the bottom with flathead wood screws.
• Repeat above caulking on the underside of the outside lip and drop completed pan into hole in your floor, screwing from the top with flathead wood screws.
• Smooth out squeezed out caulk, running a "fillet beat" around the inside edges of the floor piece, and finish to your personal preferance.
• Viola! Self-supporting, floor-strengthening, water-proof, tough-as-nails footwell.

The above method assumes you are using a single piece of 3/4" plywood for your teardrop's floor. IF you are following the "built-up floor" method that some plans describe, you can do the same thing, but use a single 3/4" piece of plywood for the floor of the footwell.

This method is simple and more than sturdy, and a footwell definately adds an extra measure of liveability to your teardrop.

Good Luck, and as always ...

CHEERS!

Grant

[Bigwoods]

Grant,

Thanks for the imput. Can't wait to get started and place an an order with you. Am accumulating parts and materials and a lot of ideas.

I'll be insulating for sure as winter in early and spring is late up here.

[mikeschn]

Thanks Grant,

I guess there is not a lot of dropped floor experience in here. Just you and Rik!!!

Mike...

[R Keller]

Actually just Grant! He fabricated mine and I followed his installation instructions...

Verdict: works great! Very strong and clean looking. I put in some marine carpet from Cabela's in the bottom so it wraps up the metal sides. It's attached with velcro so I can take it out and clean it as necessary.

Rik