I have an 01 1150 model for the last few years. Love the unit and have done repairs such as rebuilding the entire bunk area to fix the balsa wood, scotch tape and bubble gum the factory used. It no longer sags and rests on the roof of my truck. This year I tackled the giant belly under the slide out. I disassembled and removed the 2x3 they felt would support the entire weight of he slide,dinette and fridge. It now has a steel beam wth welded uprights going right to the roof. Even after this, the right rear still sagged and would Almost rest on my bed rails. Today I removed the lower 1\4" piece of plywood that slides along your wheel wells and was crushing to reveal not rot, not water damage or broken struts. The factory put absolutely NO framing there. There was nothing to keep the bottom of camper from crushing right up other thanN the. 1\4" plywood! In the pics you can see the water tank that was just bouncing around there with huge belly in between each of the 2 strts they put in.. there was NO insulation in the floor. So much for a 4 season camper! Where the rear sawhorse is is where the end f my truck bed is. The rest is overhang. .there is no structural support at all. A high school shop classs would frame it better. I am adding a solid 2x10" in the open area going rearward. I have already framed in the area in front of the water tank and mounted that properly. Of course the rear was sagging, there's NO wood there! Needless to say my opinion of this manufacturer is zero! Look at he right front corner, they didn't even put wood on the corner!!!!!! Who the hell does that? So if you have a heavy camper with a big rear overhang this is why,absolute garbage construction and quality. Pics are below the next response

Welcome to the club. At least you had 2x3 holding your slide. My dinette slide on Lance might be smaller, but all they put to hold it was 3/4 x 2 1/2 wood and stapled it to the front corner.All that when I bought Lance hoping for better quality after I saw front wall on my Fleetwood, where main horizontal beam holding the sides of 6500lb camper was 3/4 x 3 1/2 Engineering on kindergarten level

I like metal, so going to HD I found aluminium 2x2 angle chanel for the outside and 1.5 x 1.5 steel chanel for the inside. Wood under the load always sag, unless you oversize it badly, what is not possible on camper.

This is what I did in the corner. I scarped the plywood from siding, so with construction glue it should all come even with original siding. Click For Full-Size Image.

Arctic fox: you should be ashamed of yourselves!

60 Replies

Kayteg1
Explorer II
Jul 27, 2017
jimh425 wrote:
Kayteg1 wrote:
Stainless steel Prevost starts about $1.5 mil, so 23 mils is high exaggeration.

Someone exaggerated on RV.NET? :D

Good point. I type trying to dry sweat between the jobs and my mind was not going straight. :S
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Jul 27, 2017
You can get a Prevost skinned any way you want for a price. The guy I worked for just had one built last year and it's the lower half is polished stainless, the upper is custom painted (what I don't know but I presume it's stainless as well.), marble crapper, leather furniture and 24 K Gold fixtures big screen tubes, all sorts of stuff and a 550 horse Detroit couple to a 6 speed Allison and self levelling air ride suspension with air disc brakes all around.

I checked it out. Took my shoes off first.
jimh406
Explorer III
Jul 27, 2017
Kayteg1 wrote:
Stainless steel Prevost starts about $1.5 mil, so 23 mils is high exaggeration.

Someone exaggerated on RV.NET? :D
Kayteg1
Explorer II
Jul 27, 2017
Stainless steel Prevost starts about $1.5 mil, so 23 mils is high exaggeration.
Not sure SS is still available though as Prevost seem to switch to fiberglass.
gitpicker2009
Explorer
Jul 27, 2017
I've got it! Just make the camper and frames out of Graphene! Light, indestructible, never delaminates!
Of course, it would cost about 23 million dollars, but that includes the slide....:)
Noel
Explorer
Jul 27, 2017
We had a 2000 AF 1150, bought new and paid $16K, I think. Sold it in 2004 and went to a Class A. It held up well....except.....the slide drooped down a bit.

AF said come to factory and we will fix it, no charge. We did...and they did brace the area under the slide.
travelnutz
Explorer II
Jul 27, 2017
Like BradW said and Sidecar mentioned also as to TC construction, we also would have the older made TCs and with aluminum exterior as it always looks new if keep clean which we do. Brad's is a 1996 Lance 500 and ours is a 1997 Lance Legend 990 and has been totally problem free and 20 years old now with way over a thousand nights use and over 100,000 miles of travel. One piece aluminum roof and never a leak or a need to replace. Very heavy but lots of room inside and has a true dry shower in its nearly 11.5 floor length so no slide needed and no need to open the slide to even enter as there's not one. Everything totally usable anytime! Excellect insulation and alway very warm inside at well below zero F. If we wanted a new TC, we would simply buy one!
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Jul 27, 2017
To the OP, far as I can ascertain, AF has nothing to be ashamed of. They build campers just like most everyone else does and considering it's age, I don't see where you have anything to whine about. I realize whining is an American pastime but it does get old. Fix it and carry on. I presume you are an adult and can differentiate between whining and constructive comments.
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Jul 27, 2017
jimh425 wrote:
Sure, when glass comes apart, they don't call it delamination. :). If there was only one solution that was so much better, the rv industry would all use it.

When 'glass' comes apart, it's an easy fix that is actually stronger than the original damage.

far as the rv Industry using a better solution, in general they use the CHEAPER solution, not the BETTER. solution. Filon is the least expensive of any siding and the less labor intensive too. vacuum bonded Filon can be made up in any size sheet you want so long as you have a vacuum table big enough\ to suck it and the substrate together to allow the glue to cure.

Filon is like a young gal. It looks real good when new, but as it ages, it's negatives become apparent.

You aren't going to restore a Filon clad unit like an aluminum clad unit. You cannot remove or 'peel back' Filon to repair a rotted substructure You have to replace it instead and sectional replacement is basically out of the question because you'll have a seam that stand out like a sore thumb and/or have a point of new water intrusion.

Like I said, my next unit, if there is a next one, will be aluminum clad.
JoeChiOhki
Explorer II
Jul 27, 2017
SidecarFlip wrote:
BradW wrote:
JoeChiOhki wrote:
The Amerigo may not have the best fiberglass, but its actual fiberglass and can be taken off and repaired in a pinch.

"Real" fiberglass (like they make Ranger bass boats out of) seems to me to be the near perfect material for a TC shell. I would think it would also be the easiest to repair. There must be some drawbacks to fiberglass; maybe cost? I don't know of any fiberglass TCs with slide outs. That filon scares the ***** out of me, but that's probably will be on my next TC.

Reddog's Bigfoot and Ranger boats share the same technology. A chopper gun/resin and a mold. It's strong, durable and can be repaired or painted. Filon looks better initially but when it delaminates it's a royal PITA. Glass won't delam at all.

The old Amerigoes were built that way, I can still see the marks where they used the hand rollers to help press the air out of the layers of chop and where they rolled in whoke pieces to reinforce the corners. Its far thinner that Reddogs Bigfoot or the boats as its not structural, but a shell over a classic wooden frame, but its held up for 42 years.