Friday, September 7, 2018

Fixing the Trailer Door as the Wood Rotted Out of the Bottom

I went to the lake with the kids for a family reunion a month ago and things were a bit crazy since then so I wasn't able to get to the repairs I needed to do before putting it into storage for the winter. 

I basically use the trailer twice a year at the most as I don't like going anywhere by myself in it as I have so much to do in my house and it costs so much in gas, food etc, that I would rather spend my funds doing other things for the girls so it mostly just stays in storage for the year. 

A few years back, I redid all the seals on the trailer and removed all the windows, vents, and replaced the abutylin tape to make sure that I didn't have any leaks as when we bought the trailer there was a leak the guy noticed after we made the deal and he thought he had sealed it as he put a CB radio on the top corner of the trailer. 

I tried over and over sealing this and that thinking I had found the leak but when we took it to the lake last year, I realized that the lead had never been in the CB but where he attached the awning, he clamped it down and it opened the seal allowing water in. 

I sealed the area really well last year and don't think it has been leaking there anymore but the door fell apart at the lake last year and I did a fix job to be able to get it stored and put away spending hours at the lake fixing it as I could at the lake. 
This year I didn't think about it before heading to the lake and the door fell apart at the lake and the bottom was off and we basically tied the door closed until we had to head home and I had a few girls help me and got it shut using duct tape.

When it got hot, the bottom fell off and the tape just made a gooey mess and when the girls were headed up to meet the family a few weekends ago, the door was wide open on the trailer and they used a rubber band to hold the door closed while we were gone. 

I ended up finally feeling well enough and having the time today to pull the door apart and take it off the hinges and cut a new piece of wood for it. It is frustrating that the leak in the roof came down right there and rotted the wood out of the bottom as I had cut and replaced the wood there a few years back. 

I couldn't believe how rotted out the door was. The leak must have been something horrible for it to be that rotted. The screen door is super dusty as you can see when I took pictures of the project. 

Basically, you unscrew the hinges and leave the hinge on the trailer. Take the door off and unscrew the bottom aluminum rail. When I did this last time, I used a right angle L hook and screwed it into the side wood so that I could screw the new piece of wood into it as well as just screwing the aluminum pieces into the new wood piece giving it a bit more strength and you can see the L piece on the inside of the door picture. 

Once you have that bottom piece off, remove any rotten wood and measure the length, width and depth of the piece of wood you need cut. 

Basically, a 2 x 4 is about the right size to fit a trailer door size width wise and you just need to cut to the depth and length. I cut the wood into just under 1 1/2 inches but used a reciprocating saw and did a horrible job as my neighbor that usually let me use his workshop passed away. The saw did the job and I did have to shave a bit off on the edge where the aluminum edging was bent a bit. 

I screwed all the pieces in and after so many years of the door falling apart and banging in the wind etc, the frame is bent some and I ended up having to do some tweaking to get it to fit but finished and attached it back to the trailer at dusk. I forgot to take pictures after I put it back on so I went out tonight after dark to do that. 

On the way back into the house I found two black widow spiders on the porch! It must be a bad year for them as I don't know that I have ever had two on the porch at a time. 

I have killed probably 8 this summer already so I need to spray so I don't get a huge amount next year. I can't ever seem to get rid of them as I have an empty field next to my home and with that, I don't think I will ever be able to get rid of them for good.

I am hoping to clean the tape goo off the door tomorrow and do a few other repairs and get it stored for the winter.... 

Have a Blessed Day! 

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