[VAC] Re: Fantasy vs Reality

[Sarah Calhoun <srcalhoun@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

All you bulletproof guys, please step aside while I get my Harley up the stairs.

Seriously, though, Bill's needle in the balloon and Harvey's answer to my
question about frames and motorcycles led me to do some backtracking on the
frame separation issue, which has come up in various ways in the past, and I
still have the following questions about it:

1.  Is frame separation mainly due to rotted floors in the rear bath rusting the
frame bolts, an bend in the frame that goes away when the weight problem is
corrected, or an actual kink in the frame?  Frame sag, which Roy Lashway
described as a separate problem, is that due to tired shocks?  Are both problems
more common on the longer single-axles, or on the even longer double-axle
models?

3.  Is frame separation due to improper attachment to the frame (eg rusted
bolts), structural fatigue of the shell (we all know what that's like),
overloading, all of the above, or all of the above combined with having been
made of cream cheese in the Beatrice era?

3.  In photos I see of most slanted-rear models (those that took over from the
pointy-ends ones), there seems to be some amount of "droop" in the back.  It
seems so common that I had come to assume it was a visual/stylistic thing to go
with the line of the back, or maybe even an optical illusion.  The broadest date
range I saw for actual frame separation was from 1965 (on the service bulletin)
to 1976 or 1977 (per Bill Scott).  Does anyone know of frame separation problems
for units outside those years?  Given the comments about weight I would have
thought it would be something that could happen to any airstream.  Also I seem
to recall pipe frame models, or at least Tuna's pipe frame, were also
susceptible to this problem?

4.  Trike said "The frame on my SOB is a scrawny little 4" C channel just like
older A/Ss use" -- how scrawny, compared to what other sized frame members, and
which older A/S's is he referring to?

I have looked underneath mine ('62 24' single axle) and all I see is smooth
belly; I don't see any separation or rust around the bumper but then it is
stabilized with jacks right now where it is sitting; and I have looked along the
side and don't see any telltale bulges near the wheel well.  But I don't want to
go around thinking a '62 is immune if it's not.  And if non-Beatrice A/S's (yes,
I know that was a more limited time frame, I'm just poking fun here) don't get
frame separation when you overload them, then what do they get then with the
spa, the cattle car (oops, sorry mom, no really, I was thinking of that '48 that
was in RVTrader in December with the 5' rear access door) (oh, okay, well be
that way then) and the golf cart in them?

PS is that (average of) 1000 pounds the carrying weight for actual towing, or is
that the sleeping weight, for all the goods plus mom-in-law and the brood?
Wouldn't the stabilizing jacks help some with the sleeping weight, at least if
you didn't have any sleep-jumpers and/or dietary indiscretions filling up the
blackwater tank in the night?  Doesn't it make a difference how much weight you
can carry depending on where you put it?  I would think 1000 pounds directly
over the axle, for example, wouldn't be a big deal as long as the tires could
take it.

--Sarah