Laminated sides vs aluminum siding

My sticks and tin trailer has held up very well, and is obviously impervious to delam. My next one won't be aluminum sided though. They are much easier to damage. Once on a narrow road, I ended up dragging a tree limb along the side of the trailer and decided to back up. The limb dug in and poked right through the aluminum. You also hear stories about hail damage all the time.

The key is almost always simply taking good care of your RV. Preventive maintenance makes either variety last a good long time.

fiber glass insulation can absorb water leaks and is fatal.
bumpy

I've now had both. It's really 50/50. Flip a coin, hope for the best. Each one has advantages and disadvantages.

I've had 2 Alum sided and 1 Smooth sided TT.

The Alum Siding if easier to fix if you dent a panel. Ours is 10 years old
now and still looks brand new.

Our only smoothie had a leak and delaminated 4 years into our ownership.

As a result - I have a bias towards Alum Siding

In the past 10 years, I have rarely seen delamination. We sell and service a lot of RV's that are laminated. It appears the RV makers have found a good system and glue to make almost perfect laminated sidewalls. While this is true for lamination, what I have seen in the past 15 years is, inadequate staples used on aluminum siding. This causes the metal to pull loose from the studs. I have seen this more often than delamination. Now, Delamination can happen when there is a water leak. The wall did not fail, but reacted to the water leak. That is why almost all OEM's state that adding or cutting extra holes in a sidewall voids the warranty for the sidewalls. Doug

fitznj wrote:
I've had 2 Alum sided and 1 Smooth sided TT.

The Alum Siding if easier to fix if you dent a panel. Ours is 10 years old
now and still looks brand new.

Our only smoothie had a leak and delaminated 4 years into our ownership.

As a result - I have a bias towards Alum Siding

Why is it easier to fix if you dent a panel? Doug

Having had to repair delaminations on my current MH I would choose a MH with a hung wall with FG skins on the exterior. FG is more resistant to damage than Al. It is very difficult to find out what new adhesives Mfg's use currently that would make newer MH's better when it comes to delaminations. None of their web sites will tell you other than use marketing terms. I would chose one with a reinforced thermo plastic skin over FG Polyester but I don't know of any made like this yet. Newmar I know has a hung wall with FG polyester exterior skins. Monaco and HR have this hung wall but I think their exterior skins are Al, maybe some one on here knows for sure.

My personal preference is .040 smooth aluminum riveted to aluminum frame- not many trailers built like that now- Holiday Rambler did when they still built trailers, cargo trailers are built like this, and then there's Airstream.

If the OEMs would dump the luan in sidewalls and use a composite, that would be da bomb.

dougrainer wrote:

fitznj wrote:
I've had 2 Alum sided and 1 Smooth sided TT.

The Alum Siding if easier to fix if you dent a panel. Ours is 10 years old
now and still looks brand new.

Our only smoothie had a leak and delaminated 4 years into our ownership.

As a result - I have a bias towards Alum Siding

Why is it easier to fix if you dent a panel? Doug

yep, that makes no sense to me. do you start pulling off pieces at the bottom and work up to the dent, then replace? a fiberglass sided RV can easily be repaired either with white Bondo, or at a boat yard. I can't visualize an individual repairing a hole with fiberglass cloth and resin and end up with less than an unsightly patch.
and if you are in hail country, aluminum would be a disaster.
bumpy

Seems Airstream is the answer...I have owned both and I would much rather have dented aluminum opposed to delamination.