Well, I have repaired floors in travel trailers in the past, however, never on an R-POD.

It is relatively simple.   Your walls sit on the floor itself, so when you remove the damaged floor, you will have a void beneath your sill plate and the frame of the camper that you will need to slide the new floor into.  This is not hard, but will take patience and some pretty precise cutting of the new floor pieces.

Always remove and replace flooring from support to support.  That may mean you will cut out a little more of the flooring than you want, but the new flooring will need support on all edges.

As you cut out and remove the old floor, insert a spacer the same thickness as your flooring between the side wall of the camper and the frame.  (this will hold everything in place until you apply your new floor.  (Make these spacers large enough that you can pull them out as your new floor goes in.

Be careful putting your new flooring in.  Don't beat the edges up too much with your hammer.  A rubber mallet and a small piece of 2X4 works great.  (I even cut a groove in the 2X4 the same width as the thickness of the new flooring)

Before I purchased my RPOD, I looked at a few used ones and found quite a bit of rear floor rot on most of them..After a little research, I deduced that the water was coming in around the tail lights which had not been sealed properly on a regular basis.

When I did this on my keystone, I replaced the flooring with marine grade plywood.

Hope this helps.  Not an insurmountable problem at all.

Thanks and now I have to decide where and when I attempt this herculean feat of frustration.  I still would like to see pics or videos of jobs. I have searched You-tube to no avail. I appreciate any and all suggestions.

David 

Since the weather is getting cold I think I'll put off the repairs until spring.  If by chance I can get the use of a garage then a winter project it shall be.  Any and all suggestions are still welcomed.

Dave

The end result was a stronger, very dry R-Pod which was attractive and should last for many more years. The repair exceeded $600 in materials and approximately 80 hours. My experience with boat repair and construction methods was very helpful.

 I would be willing to share more specifics outside this forum.  First and foremost finding the source of the water and sealing the R-Pod must be done or any repair work will be for nothing in a short time frame.

Denis,

I'm attempting a similar repair on my rpod.  The whole top layer of plywood is pretty much worthless.  I can tell from underneath where the bellyboard (black waterproof layer, not sure what else to call it) has come loose, the bottom layer of plywood is rotten in a few spots, but not all over.  I have several questions about how you worked around the bolts joining the floor to the frame, how you put the bottom layer of plywood back in, etc....Could I contact you through DM or give you my number to give me a shout sometime? 

Thanks in advance!

I have a 2015 178, which I bought last fall. I found a very soft floor in the rear under the bed and pull the linoleum up and found rotted plywood. I also pulled a small piece of the foam out and the underside is rotted too. I imagine I will need to replace the sub floor, on top and under, from the slide out to the rear. Do you have any help on how to go about doing this? I am a pretty handy guy and can handle just about any project. I have a plan in mind, just thought I would get advice from someone with experience.

Thank you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMXneKc_fDo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMXneKc_fDo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXNYA73rCNE - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXNYA73rCNE

Denis, it's a pain. I got 50% through the rebuild and sold it cheap because it was a bigger project than I could handle, having to store it in a lot where I had to drive to work on it.

You have to fine where the leak came from. In the rear, my guess would be the window. That means you'll have to take off the wall partially too. Get a humidity tester. Get it under cover, and find the leak. Then start ripping it down to the bones. You might not need to rip out the foam and subfloor if not to damaged.

The thing to remember is how the R pod is built. The floor is a plyboard/foam/plyboard layered thing that is glued together for lightness and strength. Anything you'll do won't be as strong, so you'll need to build it back a bit better.

Let me know what other questions you have, and good luck!

To some degree yes, but the walls sit on the frame, and the floor is connected to the frame. I don't remember the walls sitting on the floors.

What I did was tear out off the floors and the walls half way up the walls in the back to find the leak (rear window of course) and to get it dry. I am in the SE, so that's the hard part when I don't have a car port to put it under. It took forever.

I found some thin laminate I was using for the wall replacement, with new insulation behind it.

For the floors, I put in new press styrofoam.  Then put a 1/4' ply wood over the top of everything. My plans was to weld some metal supports, or maybe bolt some supports in below for extra support since the floor wasn't as firm as before. But the foam and plywood seemed to work.

I had a leak up front too on the seams on the sides, so I had to take out the walls on the curved front wall. That was going to be tricky. Between having it i storage that was 20m away, no power, no cover, not enough time...I just couldn't finish it. I sold mine to a carpenter who was set up for the project much better than me. I did all the hard work though of sealing it all back up and tearing out all the mold!

It's doable to fix them. I'm not sure if I'd take mine cross country until I saw how it went on short trips. I bought mine used, and it didn't figure out the leak situation until much too late. It was in really bad shape. I think I deleted all my pictures of the project already unfortunately. I'm happy to talk you through what I did if you want to chat sometime.

My solution was to use a thinker board on top that covered a larger area. I lost about a 1/2' of height. And secured the floor to the metal frame in several spaces, used some 2"x2"s where needed. Again, I was going for more shorter towing and I didn't have a garage to work in. The floor was stable for 2 people to walk on. No problem there.

What I learned is that R pods are not meant to be repaired. Short term gain with them I think. Long term pain.

100% agree with the outriggers. I felt like drilling and bolting was easier than welding bc of having to move the black bottom.

Good luck out there everyone!

You may just want to drill a test hole through someplace inconspicuous to get what you need. You can fill the hole with caulk.

Take a look at this construction video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMXneKc_fDo&t=120s

The plywood is glued right to the aluminum studs and the foam. When you demo the floor, you have to do so without damaging the foam.

Along the back wall there is an 1/8" plywood covering the wiring, etc. you should be able to remove that as it is not glues down, just stapled. take a look inside there to see how deep the water damage goes, though there is a piece of 2x2 (or close to it) for stapling the plywood covering.

I realize this thread is a bit old but I have a major floor problem.  Started with an issue with the entry stairs.  It had raised a section of the floor whenever you stepped on it.  When I pulled the flooring I was amazed to see how they installed the entry stairs.  2 pieces of 2x6 with a bolt thru and no support except the luan laminate......totally crazy.  I have put a 3/8" bolt thru the end of the 2x6 then added a 90 degree bracket to keep the 2x6 from lifting.  Every time I get into a project with this I am amazed at the lack of thought and engineering.  I am including pictures for those interested.  I have plans to use a router to make lap joints where needed.  I am planning to use construction adhesive to bond the luan to the foam.  By the way from what I have seen the floor sandwich has just luan over the outer aluminum frame and the sides are screwed thru the luan to the floor frame.  There are NO longitudinal supports and about 4 feet between the aluminum stringers. It is no doubt why rPods end up with soft floors.

That is why some of us have added those supports. I added one to our (former) RP-179 and it really helped.

My steps on the R-Pod were attached to the frame, not the floor. Do you have the MORryde steps? That is what we have in the Cherokee Grey Wolf we have now. Those do attach to the floor.