I am in the throws of renovating my 84 Barth. I have noticed that the floor pan covering the bottom of the coach flooring is pretty water tight. When I removed two floor mounted table stanchions found wet fiberglass insulation located between the wood floor and the aluminum floor pan. I'm about certain my coach has a water leak in the plumbing but I have not got to that part of the renovation yet.

My question is if anyone had considered drilling the aluminum sheeting located on the bottom of the floor and installing vents (they type used in house soffits) to allow draining and drying of the space between the wood floor and sheeting? I have seen a similar problem in my 5th wheel campers underpinning. It filled with water over a period of several years. The water came from a staple that pierced a water line. A very slow leak! I ended up replacing a lot of wood as part of that repair.

On another note, I will eventually post some photos of the seating changes I have made if anyone is interested. I am replacing the front seats with those out of a late model Chevy Suburban with shoulder belts and full power. This really has not been that difficult, but I did loose the capability of rotating the seats, they point forward and that’s as good as it gets.

As for the wet floor question, my first concern with venting it from underneath would be traveling in extreme wet conditions. The water from the road will blast against the underside and any ventilation will allow it to soak whatever is behind it again. I may be misunderstanding your question.
As far as the front seats go, I like being able to rotate the seats for use while stationary, but considering the amount of use they get this way compared to going down the road, I'd go with the comfort of the GM big seats. I've sat for miles in my friends Yukon and there is nothing like it short of Flex steels or another high dollar super seat. I have the original 81 seats and have driven non-stop through both tanks of gas, about 400 miles, but I won't say I enjoyed it. I think comfort on the road should be the first consideration when choosing front seats, and if you can swivel them in camp, so much the better.

quote:

Originally posted by Bywaters:

I am replacing the front seats with those out of a late model Chevy Suburban with shoulder belts and full power. This really has not been that difficult, but I did loose the capability of rotating the seats, they point forward and that’s as good as it gets.

Auto seats have caused me a similar dilemma on the swiveling. Seat-mounted shoulder harnesses cause the mounting to be subjected to quite a bit of leverage, requiring strong bases and strong metal structure underneath to carry the forces to the frame. The typical MH design of bolting the seats to the plywood floor is quite weak. In addition, the swivel bases I have looked at do not appear to have enough strength to stand up to the leverage forces that go with seat mounted shoulder belts. Perhaps a trip to an RV show would be informative to see what some of the new ones have.