Need a safe but have a question

M

Mustang_Fanatic

Moderator
We have a single wide mobile home and my question is this, Id love to get a small gun safe but im afraid it would be too heavy for our floor. Ive got 2 pistols, 4 rifles w/ 1 on the way and some ammo coming as well....what are my options w/ a $1000 budget.
 
My son got one of these last year. It seems like a good safe. The problem is that Sam's Club does not stock these year round. The clerk at the Club I shop at said that they only get them in early November, and when they sell out, thats it for that year.
 
I'm figuring that if it's around 150lb you would be OK. You put 100lb of guns and ammo (that is a lot when you think about it) your at 250lb, if your trailer floors can't handle that, most guys here could not walk in your trailer either. I think a 200lb plus safe would be pushing it. Unfortunately or fortunately you can skimp on the fire protection to save weight. You only need 1 hour protection with a trailer because, God forbid you have a fire, it will burned up quicker compared to a house with more heavier timber to burn and brick walls to make everything inside heat up like an oven. The clay or gunk they use to fireproof safes puts as much weigh into a safe as the steel.
 
I lived in a singlewide for a few years before building the house. It had a big I beam type thing that ran down both sides of the trailer I sat that safe (14 Gun) on top of one of those. never had a problem. If you just have that particle board type flooring and no other support in that area you could cause a problem.
 
Mobile home floors are a bit stronger than most folks think. They do manage to support refrigerators and bathtubs full of water and people.
 
Fortunately there is plenty of room underneath so you check and see if the floor does need to be reinforced. Also it is and advantage because you can through bolt the safe to the floor instead of lag bolts. Check Cannon gunsafes website. They have the best warranty in the business. When you bolt it down use way oversize washers or a steel plate. Does it sound like I've done this a time or two? I have.

www.cannonsafe.com/fireprotection/
 
The simple method we used at a friend's double-wide many years ago was to identify the safe's planned location then measure to that spot underneath the unit. Under the safe's sitting point we added a 3/4" thick piece of plywood (painted for weather resistance). The plywood was notched and routed to fit some frame member dimensions. With the wood "plate" in place, we simply cut some 8x8" lumber to sit on concrete footings and used shim wedges to fill the short gap (these were treated with glue & hammered in).

The hardest part was moving the safe from the glass doors to its resting place -- laying down mostly to distribute the weight on 2 dollys -- uprighting it and then bolting it in place. Like BobK said -- use really big washers!
 
Ask the manufacturer for the floor load limit. It will be a number of pounds/square feet. Find area of safe footprint and calculate the safes load per square foot, don't forget to figure in the approx weight of the items you are planning to put in the safe. Fire resistant material in safes is the same stuff on the walls of most houses = drywall or gypsum board. Most "mobile homes" will accomadate a gunsafe, as Don H said. If you weigh 250 lbs and stand with both feet together you are applying 250 LBS/SqFt at least.
 
I have placed numerous safes into mobile homes without any problems. The heaviest safe has probably been in the 800 pound range empty. I simply suggest that you center it over one of the rails instead of the middle of the floor.

It was mentioned above that Cannon has the "best warranty". Warranties on gun safes are useless for the most part, as your homeowners (or renters) policy will cover the loss.

Also, there are other safes on the market that don't cost a whole lot more than the safes from Sam's that are better safes.
 
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