After reading the post on bulkhead repair, at least 3 times It kinda bummed me out. Crawled underneath and checked for separation and distortion , and it looked pretty good , very lite surface rust , and no distortion . Next thing I did was putting a socket on the bolts and checked for tightness . The outside bolt on the rear ( passenger side ) bulkhead broke off 3 or 4 threads, the few I could reach seemed OK . Called Mark Harvey at Foretravel and he said leave the old bolts and drill 4 to 8 new holes and put through bolts in. What do you suggest to do? Check torque and replace all or just broken ones ? Thanks Art
Check torque on all of them.
That is the only way you will know which ones are broken and need to be replaced or sistered.
Either removal, drilling and thru-bolting or leaving the old broken one and installing new ones on either side (sistering) are acceptable fixes since you have no separation or distortion.
Brett
I agree with Mark Harvey. Leave the existing bolts alone and install some additional new ones if you are concerned.
Personally, I would not try to torque the existing bolts as they are probably rusted and will not turn or if they do you will be twisting them off.
Until you can slide a putty knife or thicker item in-between the bolted items, you have no problem.
Even if ALL the bolts are broken, you don't have a problem other than the broken bolts. Get them replaced, whenever.... No big deal.
Believe me, I have been there... Done that. Read the archives.
Paranoia creates problems you don't really have.
Regards,
Jon,
I respectfully disagree. Without checking the torque (250 INCH- pounds), there is no way to know if there is a problem or not.
I know on our coach 100% of the bolt heads looked fine and no rust or separation. But, 5 bolt heads fell off in my hand when I applied torque to them. And all were broken as were the ones Art found-- at the junction where the bolt met the square tube. All breaks were rusted, so they had been broken for a long time.
Brett
Do you think it's better to double nut and remove, or just drill sister holes and through bolt? Art
Art,
No big difference structurally. Both accomplish the same thing.
It really boils down to whether you want to drill a brand new 3/8" hole through that 1/4" angle and box beam and seal the old bolt hole or whether you want to back out the old bolt and over-drill that 5/16" hole to 3/8".
In both cases, I would go with the thru-bolt as a replacement. A little more work, but no big deal once you are under there.
Brett
I also have a 1996 U320 and when torquing bulkhead bolts, 5 were broken. Three of the broken bolts were on the outside of the passenger side of the rear bulkhead. I have noticed others have posted information about broken bolts on the passenger side of the rear bulkhead.
Are the passenger side rear bulkhead bolts the most likely to be broken?
Hi Wyatt,
I think the fresh water overflow dumps in that area on most Foretravels. It may have something to do with the many bolt problems associated with the passenger rear side.
Very true.
Of the southern coaches I have inspected that have had bulkhead issues, leaks in the wet bay have been the #1 cause. Water in that bay WILL find it's way into the bulkhead area and there is no effective way for it to exit.
Brett
For your viewing pleasure, here's a couple of photos of the rear bulkhead on a 98 270 we looked at when we were searching for a Foretravel. This one was in Colorado.
jor
(https://www.foreforums.com/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi102.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm105%2Fjoroiga%2F1-4.jpg&hash=cf7bda91c0c1901ee2bae7ec2e0ed535" rel="cached" data-hash="cf7bda91c0c1901ee2bae7ec2e0ed535" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m105/joroiga/1-4.jpg)
(https://www.foreforums.com/imagecache.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi102.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fm105%2Fjoroiga%2F2-4.jpg&hash=0efce469bba36216399f08f3646f85f6" rel="cached" data-hash="0efce469bba36216399f08f3646f85f6" data-warn="External image, click here to view original" data-url="http://i102.photobucket.com/albums/m105/joroiga/2-4.jpg)
Ooohhh that does look bad, like a trip back to the factory for a new floor is in order. The same bolts are used across the bottom for the vertical bulkheads in the middle, yet there does not seem to be any problem at those locations. The aft bulkhead and the one just forward of it carry all the weight of whatever is in the water and waste water tanks.
Comparing that to my '94 makes me feel very good. Thing is that I somehow have to maintain what I have in the present condition!!! Was that brown stuff on the lower pic growing on it??? Or is it rust. Almost like like they sprayed foam on there and got it all over.
jor:
Out of curiosity did the seller know about the rust jacking and problems with the bulkheads or did you discover it on your own? If you were not told about it up front, some unsuspecting person might buy this coach and then be in for an expensive shock at some future point in time.
You know, I'm not really sure. It was weird looking stuff - like rust combined with something else. The front bulkhead also had problems.
To answer George's question regarding if the owner knew of the condition, I'm not really sure. The owner was Aqua Hot up in Colorado and it was their company RV that they used for testing and hauling a large and heavy trailer. As I was taking photos I showed the guy exactly what the issue was and told him, at least for us, it was a deal breaker. After we looked at it and passed, I posted on this forum. This coach also had some body damage up front under a vinyl bra-like covering. It was priced well below what they were going for then. It looked good; the interior was really nice; and the company kept it heated or cooled when not in use. Had the sought after retarder too! If we had not read all the info here on bulkhead separation as well as other issues to look for we probably would have bought it.
jor
The bulkhead issue on this 98 U270 looks pretty bad, but I don't think that it's anything that money cannot fix and restore to good condition. Maybe a couple thousand dollars will do it...maybe?...any opinions?