Greg Booth

Ridgid Explorer - seen them in the $650 range. There are a couple of other brands with photo capabilities for half that.

One of the Ridgid models now takes pics.

One of the best networking tools I have found, is becoming a member of the local Rotary Club. Not only do you meet members from all your community businesses, and their circle of associates, you help with "good works". Although specific marketing activities are to be avoided, the casual interface is invaluable. Plus, any place in the world you may travel, you can find friends that will sincerely welcome you!! There are other community based organizations equally worthy.

I have only seen them in hospital facilities--never observed in a residential setting.

Marc is right! A few years ago, we installed a 16X80 single-wide on an owner-prepared site. Someone had told the owner (an electrician by trade) that he should pitch the slab slightly to "...help the drainage." Well, one-quarter inch per foot, in a run of 76 feet........ Could not believe my eyes when we arrived at the site--we had to chain the unit to both service trucks to keep it on the slab when we started to level it. LOL now, but it was far from funny at the time.

Is that copper water line touching the galvanized flue? looks like some dissimilar metal activity happening.

Back in the day, Lear-Siegler manufactured a mobile home furnace under (or for) the "Miller" name and I belive a sister unit simply called "Home". The connection with the Nordyne name is as manufacturer of the current Miller, down-flow unit found in the majority of HUD code homes. Miller/Nordyne units are pretty much the standard of the industry, with Coleman in second position. Nordyne also manufactures many other style hvac units outside of the mfg. home market.

Always a pleasure to see quality workmanship LOL.

Thanks for pointing this out, Greg. The steel frame carries the weight of the manufactured home and is generally narrower than the home. Notice that in the OP's pic, the steel frame is resting directly on the foundation wall, so that spreads the weight and, as everybody has said, there should be no problem with those beam pockets. In cases where the frame is narrower, I think the transverse beams under the frame carry much more of the weight than they would in typical home construction, where the walls of the home rest directly on the foundation walls. I dug up a couple of pictures that show this. The OSB walls of the basement are more for skirting than support. One pic shows the end of an I-beam resting on the plate, not very well supported. I think most of the load was on 3 8X8 wooden beams with central steel jackposts. About a 50 ft double-wide. Click to Enlarge 44.71 KB Click to Enlarge 67.65 KB

This is a typical installation for HUD code manufactured homes when installed on full basements. The defining element of the HUD code home being the full-length steel beams carrying the floor system. The transverse beams supported at the beam pockets carry the entire home load transmitted by the full-length beams of the home, of course double-wides will have a center lally column. The required number of transverse beams will be specified by the home manufacturer. There is routinely no support at home perimeter unless specified by snow load requirements. If this is a double-wide installation, a key item to note, that is often overlooked, is a support from the center of the transverse beam to the marriage wall band joists. Please excuse any posting errors as this is my first time!