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To the Dolphin community,
My wife and I are considering buying a 1985 Toyota Dolphin W/62K miles, clean and everything seems to work for a very reasonable price.
My only major concern is that both verticle sides of the coach are noticably bowed in the middle forward of the rear axel. It is most noticable when you close the coach door (located on right side in front of rear axel), there is a gap at the top and bottom of the door when closed, with the door latch area being bowed out the most.
Has anyone ever heard of this problem and how can it be fixed, and at what cost.
Signed
Hoping to be Dolphin owner
I suspect that it was left outside and cought a heavy snow load over one or more winters. The increased weight of the snow will cause the side to bow out.
We had a small mobil home with this same problem and erected a 2x6 wall alond the inside wall. Than we drilled through the outside at the 2x2s in the trailer wall and attached lag bolts into our inside framing. It fix it right up. Good luck.
My guess without looking at it would be it's delamination. It was common in the 85 thru 92 units in the industry. They used petroleum based glues back then that when assembled would eat the styrofoam insulation. It would be like taking gasoline and pouring it into a styrofoam cup. It was called a 4 piece Eastern sidewall. They now make a 5 piece Western sidewalls. The extra layer is a luan board that is porous enough to absorb the glues. Also since 1994 the EPA changed the glues that were allowed to be used and they are now more foam friendly. What would happen is the manufacter would spread glue on the framing and then when the wall was sandwiched together the glue would squirt out onto the foam cavities and eat the foam up. There's more to it then that, in fact, I had to use 2 pages in an article I wrote on it., but that's what you have. Once it starts to delaminate then the weather takes over and start to pulp the sidewalls out. If you have pulping, stay away from it.
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