Extending life of wood in old camper

[Bill]

I bought a 40 year old camper in great shape and cheap for my duck lease. With new tires and replacing some of the marker lights, it might even be towed to CO for elk hunting sleeping accommodations for 2-3 hunters.

The plywood bottom is old, and other than on spot next to the door with some water damage, in solid shape.

Is there anything I can put on the area next to the door to try to stop any dry rot from getting worse (green cuprinol?), and does it make sense to pressure wash the underside and spray anything onto it afterwards? I think with taking care of it, I might get another bunch of years service from it.

I got lots of good advice on the campfire from folks when I was shopping for it and had to move it, my hand written sign was not readable, so I added the words to the picture file.

BTW, to dispel the CA myths about surfers and bikini-clad models, there's cattle grazing behind me in the picture, and they just harvested the cotton fields off to my left.

[bwssr]

I would call an RV service center. You may be better off haveong them repair it...

[Dale Moser]

Viagra?

[Snakelover]

There used to be a product called Mr. Mac's Wood Fix that was sold at Sherwin Williams. But I haven't seen it in a long time. They may have gone out of business. But you could perhaps find a similar product... a two-part epoxy based wood filler designed to repair dry rot.

Apart from that, you could perhaps make your own by mixing epoxy with sawdust. Here's a link that might help...

http://www.historichomeworks.com/hhw/library/OHJEpoxy2004/OHJEpoxy2004.htm

[Bill]

Thanks. I googled around after reading the link and found this.

http://www.acbs-bslol.com/Gadgets/D97WoodRot.htm

It's a small area by the door, I don't plan to rip it out- just want to stop if from getting worse.

[Snapper]

I am in the same situation. I have a couple of "soft spots" in the floor of my trailer due to old water leaks. I sure would like something to firm them up besides ripping the whole floor out.

[Bill]

What I've read (I'm trying to get smart, fast but will listen to somebody who's really done this!) is 1st you need to kill the bugs (fungus) that's eating the wood, then you can try to repair it. There are products to kill it. The link had an interesting (and cheap) suggestion to use antifreeze or the boric acid mixture in water (the Navy recipe). I'm going to check out a local boating store to see what they sell to stop wood rotting, and to reinforce it. I'd say if you can stop the fungus, I've repaired all kinds of things with Fix-All that I never though would work around the house where there was water damage in bathrooms, or bondo if the weight of the fixall might be an issue (it's basically cement).