Question abt metal studs ect?
I just read and re-read the thread on "Winnebago Quality". Pretty much decided on a used Winnebago Aspect or Access or another model with low miles. Which Class C RVs have metal wall studs and j...
Forum Discussion
No wall studs in "modern" C's, neither metal nor wood. Modern RVs aren't built like houses, some brands haven't had studs for more than 40 years.
These RVs use laminated wall panels, skins bonded to foam cores with aluminum tubing perimeter frames and a modest number of vertical and horizontal members, as reinforcement. Mounting plates laminated in the walls take care of attaching interior and exterior fixtures. These plates might be metal or wood, sometimes metal backed by wood.
No joists in floors, floor will be a welded steel frame. It is now often foam filled with metal skin on bottom, plywood on top, but in some brands it might be pressed board over a steel frame, undercoating or non-woven fabric on the bottom.
Ceilings might have joists, as some manufacturers still do that, but most with fiberglass roof have now gone to single piece roof/ceiling panel, again laminated to a foam or honeycomb core. Skin laminated over a core is much more rigid (at least an order of magnitude) than anything that can be pieced together from wood and/or tubing.
The exceptions:
LazyDaze and BornFree still have studs in walls, wood. There is also some steel framing. Rigidity comes from the steel frame, while the more house-like construction methods you are imagining fill in.
Bigfoot, Dynamax and Holiday Rambler used to make C's with aluminum studded walls. Monaco also sold the H-R-built class C (and A gassers) under the Monaco and Safari brands. When Newmar built a C, it probably had studded walls, that's how Newmar builds everything.
Today, Bigfoot is no longer in the motorhome business.
The Holiday Rambler (and other Monaco brands) of C, if they are still being made, became laminated wall construction when Monaco Corp turned C and A-gasser manufacture over to the R-Vision factory, shortly before bankruptcy.
I don't know where Dynamax is, manufacturing technology or product lines, since being sold to Forest River.
If you are really concerned about RV construction methods, and think you can decide which technologies and methods might be superior, then visit the factories and see how they are made. General principles are the same, but there is a wealth of differences in the details, both material and method. Despite the differences, most C motorhomes hold up well, 10 to 30 years if you make sure the seams and openings do not leak.
These RVs use laminated wall panels, skins bonded to foam cores with aluminum tubing perimeter frames and a modest number of vertical and horizontal members, as reinforcement. Mounting plates laminated in the walls take care of attaching interior and exterior fixtures. These plates might be metal or wood, sometimes metal backed by wood.
No joists in floors, floor will be a welded steel frame. It is now often foam filled with metal skin on bottom, plywood on top, but in some brands it might be pressed board over a steel frame, undercoating or non-woven fabric on the bottom.
Ceilings might have joists, as some manufacturers still do that, but most with fiberglass roof have now gone to single piece roof/ceiling panel, again laminated to a foam or honeycomb core. Skin laminated over a core is much more rigid (at least an order of magnitude) than anything that can be pieced together from wood and/or tubing.
The exceptions:
LazyDaze and BornFree still have studs in walls, wood. There is also some steel framing. Rigidity comes from the steel frame, while the more house-like construction methods you are imagining fill in.
Bigfoot, Dynamax and Holiday Rambler used to make C's with aluminum studded walls. Monaco also sold the H-R-built class C (and A gassers) under the Monaco and Safari brands. When Newmar built a C, it probably had studded walls, that's how Newmar builds everything.
Today, Bigfoot is no longer in the motorhome business.
The Holiday Rambler (and other Monaco brands) of C, if they are still being made, became laminated wall construction when Monaco Corp turned C and A-gasser manufacture over to the R-Vision factory, shortly before bankruptcy.
I don't know where Dynamax is, manufacturing technology or product lines, since being sold to Forest River.
If you are really concerned about RV construction methods, and think you can decide which technologies and methods might be superior, then visit the factories and see how they are made. General principles are the same, but there is a wealth of differences in the details, both material and method. Despite the differences, most C motorhomes hold up well, 10 to 30 years if you make sure the seams and openings do not leak.
