Couple of 2307C repair/modification questions
 

1. The half wall between the rear dinette bench and the closet in the bathroom is separating from the curb side inner wall - the gap is currently about 1/4 inch at the top rail. I'm considering pulling the half wall tight up against the inner wall with a pipe clamp and reinforcing that area with a couple of 90 degree brackets screwed into the upper wall rail and cross-bolted through the end of the half wall outboard of the slot the divider drops down into. Anyone ever dealt with this issue, and/or have any thoughts as to whether this is a workable fix?

2. We generally keep the front sofa made up as a bed full time and park our roller suitcases under it, which makes access to the storage drawer under the sofa on the curb side really difficult. I'm considering converting the drawer front to a drop-down door matching the one on the street side, and adding a hatch in the front wall that would make that area accessible from outside when the top is raised. Does anyone know if there are any structural members or electrical lines traversing that area that would be in the way of cutting a hatch opening about 12 to 18" tall by 24 to 30" wide in the lower outer curbside corner of the front wall?

As for adding a hatch - interesting idea. I would ‘guess’ (emphasis on guess) that if you mirrored the arrangement that is the access panel on the driver side for all of the water connections that you would miss structural elements. However, a stud finder could probably locate the steel support beams that make up the key elements before you get started. My experience with the top half suggests there aren’t as many as you’d think...

Neat idea, good luck with it.

oldcarguy, is it possible to use a length of angle iron vertical to hold the walls together? Seems that angle iron would give it more support than brackets. I did this type repair on my 29' HiLo. It was the outside wall and the fridge wall that my monitor panel was mounted to. I covered the angle iron with wood grain contact paper that "kinda" matched the woodwork. Just a thought.........

Bob

Doesn't look like it's going to work to pull the outer wall in and tie it into the dinette / bathroom closet wall - the dinette wall is not structurally robust enough.

I spent much of the day today fabricating brackets, chasing down hardware, etc, got the reinforcements and brackets installed, took the big pipe clamp off and within 3 minutes the dinette wall had started to pull apart.

So, back to the drawing board - I think the best bet is going to be a cosmetic fix - find some oak cove molding, fit it into the back corner of the dinette where the wall gap is and build a filler piece to close up the gap at the top of the wall along the inner top rail, stain it all to match the interior and call it done.

On the hatch, a stud finder doesn't indicate any vertical or horizontal structural members in that area of the wall, but before I cut any holes in the outer skin, I'll drill a series of (very) small holes at 1/2 inch intervals across the inner wall in the section where the hatch would go. If I don't hit anything, next step will be to cut the inside hole - if the area is clear, proceed with the outside hole.....

we had the same wall separation issue way back when Hi-Lo was still open. I contacted Filon, the outside panel manufacturer, they said the only way to correct the separation was to separate them, reapply the adhesive then repress the two back together. We traveled from our home here in Florida to Butler where the Hi-Lo repair center was. They were able to repress the two walls together and it hasn't happened again since. Maybe the new Hi-Lo Trailer Company is able to reattach the walls for you.

Different issue - the problem I'm working on is not delamination of the inner and outer walls, it's separation of the curb-side transverse wall (between the rear of the dinette and the bathroom - the wall the sliding bathroom wall panel retracts into when the top goes down) from the out side wall.

Best as I can tell, the outer wall is bowing outward slightly at the top pulling the top rail away from that inner transverse wall. It's not bowed enough to cause a problem with raising and lowering the top section - mostly it's a cosmetic annoyance.

Any chance you could load up a picture to help think through the problem a bit?

I'll see if I can get a good photo the next time we have the trailer out of storage and home where I can raise the top.

Not sure there's any functional resolution that will pull the outer side wall in and hold it in place. The construction of the curbside half-wall between the dinette and the bathroom is quite light - it was obviously never intended to be a structural reinforcement for the outer side wall, so any effort to tie those two together is undoubtedly going to put excessive stress on the half-wall.

The gap between the top rail of the outer wall and the upper section of the inner half wall is rather small (probably no more than 3/8 - 1/2 inch) and doesn't affect raising and lowering of the top section at all, so the best resolution is probably going to be to cover the vertical gap on the dinette side with a piece of cove molding and build a cosmetic filler piece to close up the space between the top rail and the upper section of the wall.

Update on the wall separation issue - believe the root cause of the problem has been found and fixed, although the separation still needs to be addressed.

This ties back to an earlier post regarding sagging of the curb side of the upper section at the door opening - although it's in excellent condition, our 2307C travelled extensively with the previous owner, and it appears the constant flexing and movement has caused the door opening to distort. In the course of reviewing the problem, it was discovered that the curb side rear support was sagging downward, and it was possible to "wiggle" it both up and down and fore and aft.

The logical assumption (broken welds at the frame) turned out to be incorrect - surprisingly, the lower section of the curb side main frame rail was deformed inward (presumably, the sag in the side wall put extra pressure on the rear support, and the rail bent under the load). A day's work with a port-a-power massaged the deformed area back into line and returned the support to its proper position (and solidity), and fabrication of a pair of square tube supports that tie into the transverse beams should keep it from bending again.

Prior to our next trip, a third support will be added forward of the curb side wheel opening and just aft of the steps which will support the upper side wall just aft of the door opening, hopefully permanently resolving the sagging issue.

Unfortunately, there's still a slight bend in the lower outer wall's top rail, so the original separation issue still needs to be dealt with - I'll post again once a fix gets figured out.