Larry Jaques wrote:

On Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:39:57 -0600, with neither quill nor qualm,
"Pete C." quickly quoth:

Larry Jaques wrote:

On Sun, 9 Mar 2008 08:17:59 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Karl
Townsend" quickly quoth:

"The Kid", my 25 year old, got a fifth wheel travel trailer for free. So
far, he's taken the backhoe and ripped the whole top off. Now there's a
ripped up floor on what looks to be a decent fifth wheel frame.

It looks like they used self tapping screws to attach one layer of plywood
to the frame. Then a second layer bonded over the top with zillions of
nails. The deck is not prying off the steel frame no matter what he's tried.
He's about to say UNCLE and send it to the dump.

No doubt they used construction adhesive, too. sigh

Any suggestions on what to try?

I'm guessing that they sent the self tappers the wrong way (through
the wood into the properly sized holes in the trailer frame) vs. the
proper way (through clearance holes in the frame and sunk into wood)?

Self drilling screws are used. No way any production operation would pre
drill holes in the frame and then try to precisely align the screws with
those holes.

I've seen self-drilling screws for sheetmetal, but for framing
members?!? Is there such a thing?

Absolutely, and the ones designed for these decking applications have a
special wide head design and frequently a Torx type drive.


Let us know how it turns out. As I said, I'm faced with a similar
conundrum here.

Chiseling the screws off flush and then hitting the remains with a
center drill is probably the best idea. The drill points on the screws
would be hardened, but the remainder of the screw probably isn't as
hard.

Right.

Another idea that would be slightly messier would be to find a small
deep hole saw like those used on the spot weld cutters and use it
without the center pilot, slipping it over the protruding screw as the
guide. It would leave bigger holes where the screws were, but would
probably be faster than the chisel and drill strategy.

Didn't he say that the heads were hidden by the top layer of nailed
(and probably glued) ply? Otherwise, it would be a piece of cake to
remove them, oui?

If you wanted to fill the holes from either method after you could
probably make a copper backup bar and use it with a MIG welder to
rapidly fill the holes. A little time with a grinder later and you'd
have a like new frame ready for primer and paint and with the ability to
put new self drilling screws in at any location for the new decking.

HELL no! I'd use a larger bit to open up the holes (when I drilled
out the existing screws, then put in screws from the bottom.

There is a reason that *no* manufacturer of any kind of decked trailer
does it that way...