Filling Garage Beavertail To Make Floor Flat

BoisDogs

Member
Good morning, first post, appreciate this forum. I will be moving up to a Torque T31 from a 27' TT and I'm looking for a way to fill the beavertail to make the floor flat once I am set up in camp. We train retrievers and travel with a bunch of them, so the garage will be the dog room once I pull my ATV out. I want to set up 4 dog crates along the back door, but will need to fill the wedge of the beavertail to make a flat surface so they sit level. I can calculate the geometry and build something out of wood, but it needs to be easily moved, stored, and not too heavy or bulky. Has anyone already solved this so I don't have to reinvent the wheel here? Any ideas?
 

danemayer

Well-known member
Hi Boisdogs,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum. We've got a great bunch of friendly and helpful people and I'm sure some of our toy hauler owners will jump in with what they've done, or have thought of doing.

Btw, I've moved your thread to a better area of the forum.
 

PondSkum

Well-known member
Not sure I *need* this mod, but it is a great idea. I'm interested in what others have done, and interested in what you end up doing. My suggestion would be maybe build a 3-piece system where the center section is the one you move easily and store, and make that section just wide enough for your ATV to fit through. That way you don't have to move the entire thing every time. Now unless you are loading a UTV, which would pretty much need to remove the entire thing. I'd definitely make it more than 1 piece, for ease of maneuvering.

Oh maybe you could install some type of hinge system at each side, attached to the wall, so that it could fold up against the wall for travel??
 

porthole

Retired
With the ramp up or down?

If just for traveling and I needed to do this (we don't crate the dogs in the RV), I would just put a cleat on the ramp at the height needed to have the crate sit level.
 

BoisDogs

Member
Beavertail Wedges.jpg.jpg

With the ramp up or down?

If just for traveling and I needed to do this (we don't crate the dogs in the RV), I would just put a cleat on the ramp at the height needed to have the crate sit level.

Ramp up. I want to support the crate rather than just have the end resting on the cleat. I found a video of a garage converted to an office. I may use their wedge idea and make three sections with lightweight Masonite, or very thin plywood, and 2 X 4 wedges just to support the full crate. We travel with 7 dogs so creates are a necessity.

ETA: photo posted
 
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That was one of my first MODs
i don’t have any pictures. But it sounds like you have a good idea what you need and can fabricate it

what I did was use 1/4 birch plywood covered with the diamond tread floor I ordered from heartland (not cheap. You might want to skip that part)
i cut several wedge shaped boards to brace the plywood off the floor. I used a cedar board at the tail and screwed some large washers on top of that for the pull down screen to catch

mine is in three pieces so I can pull out the center to access the storage lid. I use a removable piece of wood to keep the outside wings spread apart so the center piece drops right back into place

it was trial and error getting all the angles right so the floor and the plywood matched.

Wish i could get you a photo but rig is in storage for a couple more weeks. I just used the tools I had and what I was comfortable working with[FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
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avvidclif

Well-known member
I have been contemplating the same thing so if you have pictures or ideas I would love to see them. Not for hauling crates, mainly just to have a level floor at the back.
 

schew

Well-known member
Good morning, first post, appreciate this forum. I will be moving up to a Torque T31 from a 27' TT and I'm looking for a way to fill the beavertail to make the floor flat once I am set up in camp. We train retrievers and travel with a bunch of them, so the garage will be the dog room once I pull my ATV out. I want to set up 4 dog crates along the back door, but will need to fill the wedge of the beavertail to make a flat surface so they sit level. I can calculate the geometry and build something out of wood, but it needs to be easily moved, stored, and not too heavy or bulky. Has anyone already solved this so I don't have to reinvent the wheel here? Any ideas?

What are the dimensions of the dog crates? Will they be used in any other locations? If so, one other option would be rather than build a ramp that levels the entire width of the floor, make removable mitered stringers that attach to the bottom of the crates themselves. When the crates are needed elsewhere, simply remove the mitered stringers to revert back to a stock dog crate. This way, whenever you need to open your ramp, it will be ready for use, and saves you the hassle of needing to remove and store the floor ramps as we all know that space is a premium when RV's are concerned.

BTW, congrats on your TQ31, we love ours!!!
 

BoisDogs

Member
OK, it's been a few weeks since I posted. After getting the T-31 home and setting it up, my wife and I have come to love the sofas and folding table set up in the garage so I will not need the mod to make the floor flat. I should be able to get four dog crates in the remaining area, two side by side on driver side with a smaller crate on top, Masonite panel in between. And, a fourth crate on the passenger side.

The sofas are just too nice to lose to dog crates. We hosted a retriever training workshop on our property and the instructor lived in the RV for 5 days. We were able to hold planning meetings in comfort at the table in the garage. Thanks to all for the help and suggestions.

Really loving the T-31 and it was worth the 12 hour trip to Navasota, TX to deal with Tex and Tim and their crew at T & S Enterprises.
 
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