Fiberglass vs. Aluminum

My first 5th wheel was aluminum. It popped when expanding and contracting with temperature changes just like my stick and brick does with aluminum siding. I’ve had this fiberglass sided one now two years so can’t say much about it yet other then I can’t hear the rain as easy which I really liked with aluminum but my wife likes the quiet of the new one.

Fiberglass is so much easier to keep clean. Aluminum is easier to repair if you ever have water damage.

I’ll let my insurance company pay for proper repair. Fiberglas for me.

I've never owned a fiberglass trailer and I've only owned the aluminum sided trailer that I currently have. I've always felt the fiberglass trailers looked nicer, sleeker and classier, but I had an incident that made me realize I will never own a fiberglass trailer as much as I would love to. I peeled open the side of my trailer like a giant can opener was being used on it a couple of years back. The total cost to repair was under $200 replacing two 12 foot long pieces of siding and an hour of my time. Try to do that with a fiberglass trailer!

downtheroad wrote:
Floor plan should be the first consideration.

Absolutely.

However, I think almost every floor plan available for aluminum is also available for fiberglass.

Thanks for the replies so far...and proud that no one has yet to answer the Wi-Fi question :-)

I like the looks of fiberglass better than aluminum. I think aluminum tend to cost less to repair and buy. Cost was important to me.

Full body paint... first choice... LOL.

But, in reality, I like the aluminum as I just use an automotive wax on it after washing and it stays nice. Just traded a month ago, got another aluminum sided one. The fiberglass ones I had were very nice, but oxidation was a lot quicker and harder to get clean.

Aluminum dents and if in a hail situation, not good.

My current one, based on floor plan, just happened to be aluminum.

Floor plan should be the first consideration.
But, our aluminum sided trailer was much harder to keep clean and "nice" looking and much harder to wash and wax. (way more nooks, crannies, and edges and ledges.)

Aluminum dented easier....smooth sided looks better (opinion only).

Our first three RVs had aluminum siding and our current 5th wheel has Filon siding which is fiberglass like material.

The only difference I have seen is dents. The Filon resists dents, aluminum doesn't.

Our 5th wheel is 22 years old and has never been stored indoors or covered. I wash it before every trip and wax it once every two years. When freshly waxed it looks brand new.

Our previous TT we had for 16 years. It also was never stored indoors or covered and same cleaning and waxing. It also looked brand new when waxed.

I've made modifications to all four of our RVs and each had rippled siding. The TT had deeper ripples which required good seal to make sure no leaks when mounting something to the siding or cutting a hole through the sidewall.

Can't answer the wifi question because we've only used wifi with the filon siding. But due to windows I'm not sure aluminum would be much different, plus you can always mount an outside or use an inside signal booster/antenna.

Personally I much prefer the look of fiberglass trailers, in contrast my stick house which has aluminum siding would look just plain dumb with smooth fiberglass siding. :W