Spring Trailer Opening Surprises

[Grey Ghost]

Each year, we look forward to opening the trailer and beginning a new season. However, last year we had a shocking surprise when we opened the door to our travel trailer. The linoleum floor was split from the front of the trailer to the back. This was actually quite common last year due to the extremely cold winter temps. This winter has even been colder, dipping to -26 degrees twice in the past week (in Lapeer).

The cause of the splitting is quite simple. When trailers are constructed, the linoleum floor is one of the first things installed -- probably before the walls are built. It is stapled around the perimeter. When the linoleum is exposed to cold, it experiences shrinkage that pulls the flooring tight. In our case, there were floor vents cut into the linoleum for the heating system, so the stress caused the floor to rip and once that happened, it didn't stop until all of the stress was relieved.

It is not really feasible to replace the linoleum, since it is under the cabinets and inner walls and trimming of a new piece would be extremely difficult, if not impossible. But there are a few options including carpeting, vinyl tile, epoxy floor paint and others. Our solution was to cut out the linoleum and replace it with vinyl "wood" floor tiles. It was not too difficult to trim the pieces to contour around the cabinets and walls and gave a nice appearance. We trimmed the edges with matching moldings and it looked like a factory installation. The flooring is also glued down, so we don't expect any issues this Spring.

Since we replaced the flooring, we moved onto another RV with ceramic tile for flooring, so although we don't expect any issues this Spring, it will be interesting to see how this extreme cold has affected the motorhome.

[Josh]

Hate that darned shrinkage! I would suspect that the linoleum gets brittle too as it gets older and can't keep up with the expansion and contraction.

We didn't have any issues last winter with our ceramic floor or the parkay wood floor in the Champion so hopefully both of ours will tolerate this brutal winter.

Interesting that you bring up the subject as I was just thinking the other day (when I saw -16F in my car) about what the RV antifreeze will handle. Soooo I did some reading and discovered that our antifreeze has most likely frozen in the pipes but the good news is that it doesn't expand until around -50F. So as long as we stay above that we will be in good shape. Strange thing about the antifreeze is that it has to be mixed with water to be effective. If you bought regular RV antifreeze it comes mixed with water ready to use right out of the jug but they do sell an concentrate version that needs to be mixed with water. Seems counter intuitive but the science doesn't lie.