Hello, has anyone attempted to renew the bottom side timbers that run behind the external panelling bottoms and the floor edges. The nearside one on my caravan is absolutely rotten, when touched it just comes away in handfulls. The offside one has about 1/4 of its length gone.
My question is: can they be replaced or is it a 'scrap the van job'?
Unfortunately we have just bought the van as in need of floor repairs. On getting it home we looked underneath. I can only assume the wood - it had no protective coatings - has rotted due to surface water being thrown up, and old age (1990). It is particularly bad near the wheel arches and doorway. The plywood floor underside on the other hand, is in remarkably good condition. The rails would have to be renewed in their entirety.
all 4 corners of my van are/were rotten due to the sealent behind the awning rails braking down,
you shouldnt get rot from just road spray,
doorways do suffer from bad floor as its the most used part of any van
Think you need to investigate further into where the damp is getting in.
I agree that it is doubtful that it is roadspray, just took mine apart recently and the damp was coming from a dodgy seal on the door which had rotted half the door frame, part of the floor and the wooden member you are talking about.
The actual timber you mention on mine was the part that the wall framework and the floor framework were joined together with (so a pretty important structural part of the van.
found it quite easy to replace, the hardest bit was removing all the fittings in the van just to get at it............
i had rotten side rails on a 99 eldiss it was the awning rail leaking all was sorted the side rails where easy to fix just took of the lower side ally cover replaced the wood with 3by 2 hard wood so should outlast me
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Topic: Rotten underfloor side rails on Abbey GTS
