urbex
Glendale, AZ
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Some time ago I picked up an '87 Fiesta on a Ford E-350 chassis. I knew it was going to need repairs going in, though it's entirely possible I bit off a little more than I can chew on this one..
It clearly has had some level of water leaking at some point in it's life, evident by the discoloration on the wood, and I knew I'll need to locate and fix that.
My current "big" issue is obvious sagging of the roof around the AC unit, and I suspect part of the problem is poor engineering/design from the factory, which didn't give nearly enough support under the AC.
I think I should be yanking down all of the support structure, and replacing the side-to-side beams with solid pieces, then adding in short pieces front to back (as opposed to the front to back beams being one piece like it is now). Tie that in to the wood going down either side of the roof, and then support of the bottom of the wood on the sides with the top of the steel van body. In my mind, this would transfer much of the load of the AC and roof to the steel body. But then I don't know if that's going to cause other issues I'm not thinking of.
![[image]](https://i.ibb.co/CzyzLv4/roof-400.jpg)
* This post was
edited 10/26/23 10:13pm by urbex *
1990 Ford F350 CCLB DRW 7.3 4x4
1990 Lance LC980 truck camper
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pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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Urbex,
Set the width to less than 400--then the whole picture will be in the frame.
Regards, Don
My ride is a 28 foot Class C, 256 watts solar, 556 amp-hours of Telcom jars, 3000 watt Magnum hybrid inverter, Sola Basic Autoformer, Microair Easy Start.
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urbex
Glendale, AZ
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pianotuna wrote:Urbex,
Set the width to less than 400--then the whole picture will be in the frame.
I changed it..is it still too big?
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pianotuna
Regina, SK, Canada
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yes try 375?
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urbex
Glendale, AZ
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Trying again...this looks really tiny on my monitor....but maybe I just have weird settings somewhere.
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opnspaces
San Diego Ca
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picture looks fine to me. Can't really comment on the questions except to ask why are you trying to reinvent the wheel with the way the support beams are configured? It seems that typically a sagging AC is because there was a water leak that compromised the roof structure.
Do be mindful of added weight. In other words don't replace existing 2 x 2 lumber with 2 x 3 or 2 x 4 because it is easier to get or "stronger"
2001 Suburban 4x4. 6.0L, 4.10 3/4 ton
2005 Jayco Jay Flight 27BH
1986 Coleman Columbia Popup.
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urbex
Glendale, AZ
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I wasn't trying to reinvent anything, and just basing a thought off of the failure..I was asking a question because I really don't know. Sorry. In the future, I'll be more mindful to learn the answer before asking the question.
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