Attaching a belly pan to the tiny house trailer

Last week I installed the belly pan on the tiny house trailer. My trailer was made to have a tiny house built on top of it. I initially wanted the manufacturer to add the metal belly pan for me as part of the build, but due to supply chain issues, they were unable to do that.

I had done a lot of research on ways other people have done this. The trailer needs a bottom. Surely this problem has been solved before! It had, but it didn’t look fun. A lot of people on YouTube used galvanized metal sheets that come in rolls. It’s flimsy stuff, and the trick is how to keep it in place while you screw it in. No one looked like they were having a good time doing this task.

I found one guy who used 5V metal, which is a type of metal sheet for roofing. In my last blog, I shared the story of how I ended up with the mini-rib metal for way cheaper. Score!

Doug and I got the first sheet in place. One sheet is a little over 10 ft long and 2 ft wide. The first sheet is the most important. If you get that one straight and square, the rest of the sheets will follow suit.

To hold the piece of metal up while we screwed it in, we used pieces of wood and clamps to clamp one side to the crossbeams. Doug had some hydraulic jacks that we were able to use to hold up the other side. This worked really well.

The Metal Mart guy sold me on some pancake screws with a square head. Unfortunately, these were not cutting it. They kept spinning off or not going through all the way. Doug had some left over screws for other metal work, and they worked much better. They had washers and had a hex head. I went to Metal Mart to buy a couple hundred more of those.

After getting the first sheet in, the rest of the sheets were a breeze. My friend Joe helped us on the second day. At first, all three of us would be under the trailer drilling away. Joe offered to stick to the drilling, and Doug and I cut metal sheets to size. Joe definitely deserves the MVP of this project! My biceps were so sore the next day. I can’t imagine what his felt like!

Because of the ridges of the mini-rib pattern, it allowed for some space for water drainage, but I didn’t want bugs coming in. I had some stainless steel scrubbers that I was able to break apart and stuff into the ridges.

Up next will be caulking the long edges and then applying the same system to the gooseneck platform.

What an adventure! Check out the video here: