Help! Floor coming away?

[JonW98]

Hi!

I’ve got a Swift Challenger sport 586 (2015). We’ve had it since new. No damage to it that I know of since I’ve had it (family pride and joy!)

I’ve just got it out of storage (indoors) after the winter and noticed that one of the front corner steady winders has dropped.

On closer inspection the floor on the front corner has dropped, can be seen on the underside and can be seen on the inside front corner.

We’re due to be going away on Friday for half term hols next week - I can just about lower the leg now but don’t want to make it worse by driving it 100 miles to where we’re going.

No idea how this can have happened! Anyone any advice? Thanks in advance!

 

[JonW98]

A bit more googling last night got me back to a post on this site!

Corner steady alignment problem

Hi, New to this forum. My name is Hamish and im from New Zealand. I have a 2010 swift celebrating 6 berth with triple bunks setup. We are currently travelling around for a few weeks and the last couple sites we have parked up at have noticed the front stedies have moved down and damaged the...

forums.practicalcaravan.com

I think this is what’s happened to mine, but I might have caught it fairly early as it’s only dropped 1/2”

Anyone had experience of rectifying this?

 

[JRT]

A bit more googling last night got me back to a post on this site!

Corner steady alignment problem

Hi, New to this forum. My name is Hamish and im from New Zealand. I have a 2010 swift celebrating 6 berth with triple bunks setup. We are currently travelling around for a few weeks and the last couple sites we have parked up at have noticed the front stedies have moved down and damaged the...

forums.practicalcaravan.com

I think this is what’s happened to mine, but I might have caught it fairly early as it’s only dropped 1/2”

Anyone had experience of rectifying this?

Our 2018 Challenger was recalled to have the bulkhead repair referred to. It was a very common issue. Most of the screws from the aluminium fixings had become detached and I hadn't noticed until I looked properly after seeing this issue come up on forums.

If you look inside your gas locker you will likely see some if not all screws will be missing from the aluminium strips in the inside corners.

Initially from memory they were saying the issue was confined to 2017-2018 models but it later transpired it had affected earlier years too, including 2015.

I believe It can be rectified even when as bad as yours but really needs to be done properly by a competent person.

As for towing after it's been discovered - advice at the time was conflicting, I only towed ours three miles to the dealer to have it fixed once it was discovered.

 

[JonW98]

Thanks @JRT.

I removed the locker side panel and found the aluminium bracket. All the screws holding it onto the caravan side had either gone or were bent and most of the way out. There was a 1/2” gap at the top, which corresponded with the amount it had dropped!



Roughly following the steps in the Swift service bulletin posted on the previous thread I’ve tackled it myself (being a reasonably competent person!).

First I filled the gap inside with Silkaflex (the Swift approach is to remove the side rail and do it from the outside but that’s beyond my level so have attacked it from the inside):



I then jacked the leg up which raised the floor and aluminium bracket into line. Using some larger 6.3 x 25 screws:



…I placed them in the old holes along with some new holes drilled with a shiny new 6.5mm drill bit:



The silkaflex (sticks like sh!t to a blanket!) had squeezed out a bit on the inside so after cleaning that I’m now leaving it a few days before attempting to tow it at the weekend. I’ll keep the side panel off inside the locker and keep an eye on the screws. When back from hols I’ll probably do a pre-emptive strike on the good corner.

Hope that’s of use to someone. I’m obviously not recommending this approach to anyone - you do yours ‘n-all, but just a record of what I’ve done with mine. I’ll post a final update when back off hols to record whether it’s held!

 

[Buckman]

We had the same issue on our Elddis. We were told that the bracket is only there for rigidness during construction. After construction it serves no useful purpose, but they repaired it anyway.

 

[Gafferbill]

......I have the same model caravan as the OP but older at 2012.
Bought buy us in 2018.
I know about the fix and carried out the larger screw mod when first bought as some screws were missing.....they still work loose after a tow!
Hence I check and tighten after every tow.
My caravan shows no signs of any floor movement and I don't understand why the OP's has dropped.
All the pressure on the floor at that point would be to push the floor upwards relative to the caravan's side, yet it has dropped.
The steady would push the floor up and movement in the joint would allow the body side to drop relative to the floor as the floor is supported by the chassis.

 

[JRT]

All the pressure on the floor at that point would be to push the floor upwards relative to the caravan's side, yet it has dropped.

My understanding is that once the separation has occurred the front floor can move in either direction but that it tends to drop under it's own weight the weight of the internals and the weight of the corner steadies. It normally occurs whilst underway not while pitched.

That said I do seem to recall that some owners reported that their floor went the other way and the corner steady screw was too high in the access hole in the side skirt.

(BTW when ours was fixed by our dealer they not only used screws they used a strong adhesive ??? Sikaflex to secure the brackets.)