Do I have new vent options?

Hi Tom,

Question for you. I noticed your rafters are are arced. Did you do that or was it like that when you opened up the roof?

Rod

So........try this experiment.

Take two pencils, lay them on your flat table in a "+" pattern. Now take a piece of letter head paper, place it covering the pencils. Place a glass on each corner of the paper.

The paper will not bend smoothly in both directions. It will lay down smoothly (curve) in one plane, but not bend smoothly in both planes at the same time. When you get to the stage of laying down your new aluminum roof skin, it will behave exactly the same way as your paper/pencils experiment. It will lay down nicely either side to side, OR front to back, NOT BOTH, without puckers in the four corners.

The curved rafters were common on many different brands of trailers. and IMO they are basically a good idea. BUT, they are problematic when laying down a new roof skin. At todays cost of new roof skin over $700 (with shipping about $1000) it's very frustrating to have puckers in each of the four corners.

The problem is called a compound curve.  It's the reason car body builders have to use English Wheels to stretch the metal in the middle of a panel (roof/hood) to get it to lay down.

My advice is to NOT raise your roof vent, if you already know your going to fight puckers due to the curved rafters. Don't kill yourself with more issues.

You can easily raise the roof vent AFTER THE ROOF SKIN IS INSTALLED. Just slide the 3/4" spacers between the framing and the skin, before you screw down the vent assembly.

The 1" Mule Tape, ratchet straps, and nice flat 2 by 4's are your friends when pulling down on the new roof skin.

Just an opinion,
John