Anchoring a gun safe in a mobile home

[cobb]

I bought a small Liberty gun safe for my daughter and son-in-law for a Christmas present and delivered it this morning. They live in a mobile home that is about 13 years old if I remember right. So is anyone experienced in mobile home construction, what am I going to run into when I drill holes in the floor to anchor the safe? I am guessing at least one, if not two layers of 3/4" plywood or some other flooring material. So I am wonder if 2" lags will be long enough considering the thin carpet/pad and 2 layers of flooring that I assume will total 1.5".

Any thoughts would be appreciated, plan to go over in the next few days and permanently anchor it once they decide where they want it.

[selurcspi]

Find one of the chassis cross members and drill it for a coach bolt or 2!

[tim]

Go under it and use bolts with a plate on the bottom.

[cobb]

Find one of the chassis cross members and drill it for a coach bolt or 2!

Yes in a perfect world that is what I really would like to do. But anchoring the safe in the middle of a room, in front of a window is not an option. I may get lucky and hit a metal cross member when drilling, just one would be good. But considering that the holes in the safe floor are pre drilled and the limited locations I am dealing with in a foot print of a mobile home, I hope to his some a couple inches of solid wood to lag into.

[engnerdan]

3/4 inch partical board floor that is what you will find.

If you want the thing super anchored get a couple 2-3' pieces of redi bolt to pass through the floor of the safe and out the bottom of the house. Then a piece of 4X4 or some steel to run LENGTHWISE with the house, to span the joists, should be used under the house to pass the bolts through. Use nylock nuts inside the safe and weld nuts to the redi bolt under the house.

You could also cut through the tar paper under the house and put some steel plates right up against the bottom of the floor but you need to patch that tar paper back up sealed.

-Dan

[rtk]

I wish my Father-in-law bought me great gifts like that Cobb!

[BBeckwith]

If you will be drilling all the way through the floor and you don't want to climb under the mobile home I would go with some of these toggle bolts

http://www.lowes.com/pd_118084-10337-50 ... facetInfo=

Drill through and then place these in the whole and buy whatever length bolts you need to get them to grab.

[cobb]

Still kinda on the fence on this. If we are to drill through the floor and use bolts that go completely through, would it not be fairly simple for someone to climb under the mobile home with an 18V power cutter or grinder and grind/cut the bolt heads off in a minute or so? Now if we are lucky enough to be near some metal framing, then welding to that would be great, but I am not that good with a welder and I would be nervous welding under an older mobile home because of fire hazards.

I was hoping I would have more like 1.5 inch of flooring to go through, then 4 good lags with a healthy coat of glue on them I would think would be fairly solid.

Maybe over thinking this.
I guess the bottom line is that we will have to place the safe, do some measuring from both above and below to make sure there are no surprises and drill a pilot hole to see what we really have.

I wish my Father-in-law bought me great gifts like that Cobb!

Really didn't get it for my son-in-law, my daughter has more guns than he does.
But why would that be a surprise.

[Holland&Holland]

Still kinda on the fence on this. If we are to drill through the floor and use bolts that go completely through, would it not be fairly simple for someone to climb under the mobile home with an 18V power cutter or grinder and grind/cut the bolt heads off in a minute or so? Now if we are lucky enough to be near some metal framing, then welding to that would be great, but I am not that good with a welder and I would be nervous welding under an older mobile home because of fire hazards.

I was hoping I would have more like 1.5 inch of flooring to go through, then 4 good lags with a healthy coat of glue on them I would think would be fairly solid.

True enough but with the particle board that they typically use as a sub floor a good pry bar and a hammer would pop the thing up I think. Better to have it anchored to the structure and make it tougher for someone to get down there to get to it. I would think a typical smash and grab would not want to be flat on their back under a trailer for long.

[usnret]

My question is what does this safe weigh empty? If it is pushing say 500 pounds or more, does it really need to be bolted to the floor?

[dimachico]

My question is what does this safe weigh empty? If it is pushing say 500 pounds or more, does it really need to be bolted to the floor?

if it can be moved in by a couple guys and a dolly, it can be moved out just as easily. Always bolt it down or else you provide a convenient container for the bad guys to haul away.

[cobb]

My question is what does this safe weigh empty? If it is pushing say 500 pounds or more, does it really need to be bolted to the floor?

if it can be moved in by a couple guys and a dolly, it can be moved out just as easily. Always bolt it down or else you provide a convenient container for the bad guys to haul away.

It is a small Liberty safe, fire rated, is about 275 lbs., the 3 young friends that my daughter got to help this morning basically verified that I wasted $10 on the appliance dolly that I rented from U-Haul.

The glued lags into the particle board, if that is what the flooring is, I agree, that method of anchoring would be basically worthless. So at this point I am back at the nut and bolt through the floor with some type of backing plate on the underside. If someone would have the ambition to go as far as removing the skirting, going under a mobile home to find the safe's anchors under the tar paper and insulation, I think there would be an easier methods to gain access that I prefer not think about.

[Countryfried Frank]

Drill through the floor, don't worry about hitting a cross-member.
Use construction adhesive to glue up two 2x4's to the sub-floor, cut them as long as possible and still stuck directly to the sub floor.
Drill the 2x4's for your bolt holes.
Bolt the safe down to the 2x4 reinforced floor and grind down the flats ont the nuts/bolts/whatever.

The 2x4's are there to spread out the load across a larger area of floor, with them in place the safe won't move without also taking a larger portion of floor. You will leave a smaller area for a bad guy to grind on, you can put it about anywhere and installation will be relatively cheap and easy. Don't skip on the construction adhesive. Unlike most adhesives more is better in this case.

[OldmanFCSA]

Agree - 2x4's to spread the load - construction adhesive if desired - 3/8X16 toggle bolts at a minimum - mark holes using pattern of gun safe - drill thru 2X4's, thru floor, STOP just as you go thru to avoid hitting wiring or plumbing lines (use a less aggressive Forester bit), use flashlight & small mirror on stick to verify placement of lines under floor if any, install safe on 2X4's - may need to increase hole size in safe bottom to allow toggle bolts to go thru - use large steel washers between toggle and bolt head - tighten by pulling up on bolt head until tight enough to use wrench - (can be removed by un-screwing until toggle drops off) - IF you lined up with wall stud, install lag bolt into wallstud to lessen the ability to use safe as a lever to twist floor bolts out/off - HAVE FUN !!!

[FJ540]

Wall studs in trailers are 2x2. Lagging them is just asking for structural damage if a crow bar is used.

I sent you a PM Rich.