[maguyvor]

We are remodeling a 50 yr. old Manufactured Home and can not find any plans on the structure. So we're left with the question, do the trusses use only the perimeter walls for support or do the few walls under center serve as load bearing walls?
We have a 1971 Savoy manufactured home; 12' x 60'. Luckily there is a central air duct running the length of the mobile so I figure the roof trusses must be stand alone load bearing units. But I have not taken down any ceilings yet to check for structural strength.
Please advise.

 

[softplan11]

We are remodeling a 50 yr. old Manufactured Home and can not find any plans on the structure. So we're left with the question, do the trusses use only the perimeter walls for support or do the few walls under center serve as load bearing walls?
We have a 1971 Savoy manufactured home; 12' x 60'. Luckily there is a central air duct running the length of the mobile so I figure the roof trusses must be stand alone load bearing units. But I have not taken down any ceilings yet to check for structural strength.
Please advise.

You might have to crawl underneath and see what sort of floor system is in place and if there's a center beam or channel down the center. Walls over that beam can be assumed to carrying a load above....however the load for a 12ft span will be the half length of the rafters on both sides of the ridge....the easy explanation for that is half the rafter on one side is held up by the bearing exterior wall leaving only the center of each rafter to the ridge on both sides as supported by the ridge and the ridge supports....or the ridge has been sized to carry the load. In any regards, the tributary load for a 12ft (level) span should not be very difficult load to work with....with or without ridge supports.

The trusses are most likely all there is of the roof structure. You cannot modify, cut into, damage or repair roof trusses....until structural engineering is performed as to what YOU'LL have to do make that truss whole again.

 

[Nealtw]

With 12 feet wide, it would be reasonable to think the trusses are putting load on the outside.
But to know for sure you would have to look.

 

[maguyvor]

You might have to crawl underneath and see what sort of floor system is in place and if there's a center beam or channel down the center. Walls over that beam can be assumed to carrying a load above....however the load for a 12ft span will be the half length of the rafters on both sides of the ridge....the easy explanation for that is half the rafter on one side is held up by the bearing exterior wall leaving only the center of each rafter to the ridge on both sides as supported by the ridge and the ridge supports....or the ridge has been sized to carry the load. In any regards, the tributary load for a 12ft (level) span should not be very difficult load to work with....with or without ridge supports.

The trusses are most likely all there is of the roof structure. You cannot modify, cut into, damage or repair roof trusses....until structural engineering is performed as to what YOU'LL have to do make that truss whole again.

With 12 feet wide, it would be reasonable to think the trusses are putting load on the outside.
But to know for sure you would have to look.

That was my first impression because the roof trusses have no support for half the length of the trailer. Full width rooms are open from one end of the mobile past the halfway point where the bedrooms begin. And as I mentioned, the trusses are built to incorporate the air duct and it runs the full length, so they probably used the same truss throughout the home.

 

[Nealtw]

That was my first impression because the roof trusses have no support for half the length of the trailer. Full width rooms are open from one end of the mobile past the halfway point where the bedrooms begin. And as I mentioned, the trusses are built to incorporate the air duct and it runs the full length, so they probably used the same truss throughout the home.

That would be my thinking too.

 

[HotRodx10]

Single wide mobile homes have no interior bearing walls.