Four Wheel Camper Frames Repair
Hello Baja Camper.
Yes, many years ago I had problems with the frame of my Keystone camper breaking. At the time we were travelling on many frame twisting/wracking off road trails.
It took it's toll on the camper frame. And even to the extent it tore out the bed mounts on the truck itself. All of which required reinforcing and repair.
But... back to the camper frame. I do not know if your failure mode is the same as that I experienced. In my case it was primarily the front frame of the camper, directly behind the cab. The frame would break, and the obvious sign was the severe wrinkling/tearing/buckling of the outer aluminum skin.
The frame was failing at all of the welded joints. My first thought was to simply have the frame re-welded. We tried. But...re-welding "thin wall" aluminum tubing that's already torn and damaged proved extremely difficult to do effectively. It also occurred to me that the welded joint was failing in the first place because it was TOO rigid. The frame tubing itself could "flex" but the rigid welded joint couldn't. my solution was this. Instead of re-welding the broken joints I made up L angle brackets out of .093/.125 thk. aluminum, and the same width as the tubing itself. I then placed one of these "L's" on either side of the joint and secured them to and with whatever adjoining tube member/ply paneling there was with two #10 machinw screws and nylon lock nuts per leg of the L. The theory behind this being that the joint would be securely held together but would still be "flexible". It was time consuming, tedious work, but worth it in the long haul. It has worked now without failure for some 17-18 years of the same kind of trailing. Another "very importan" point. The aluminum skin has to be able to move as well with the flexing of the frame. When you replace any of the skin DO NOT simply run the self tapping sheet metal screws through both the skin and the frame. You have effectively created a "shear panel" and this you do when you want to make a panel "rigid" NOT when you want it to flex/move. Spot your fastening holes, then make the holes in the camper skin itself at least 1/16" bigger, that only 1/32" a side clearance, than the diameter of the screw, and use washer headed screws if you have to. Secure the skin. What this allows is that the frame can move, taking the screw with it, without the screw tearing the hole in the skin. which can lead to the buckling and wrinkling of the outer skin. The screw has to be able to move around in the hole in the skin. All of this occurs on a very small, almost imperceptible level, but trust me, it happens.
GOOD LUCK with your repairs.
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