It seems that the industry is slowly moving away from wood stud, fiberglass insulation and aluminum siding to the fiberglass skin, aluminum tubing, solid foam for wall construction. Both have their pluses and minus and fans and critics My question is, Is there any weight/cost savings between these 2 methods ?Second, is flooring. Several companies have tried composite flooring. Most (all?) have switched back to the tried and true 3/4" plywood. My assessment of the failure of composite flooring is that there was not enough aluminum tubing used in the floor PLUS the same fiberglass panels used for wall construction were used for the floor. My research has shown that no fiberglass skin manufacturer recommends their product to be used as a subfloor. Has this changed ?

Longevity all distills down to how an owner maintains either. No maintenance equals a short life with either construction method. Water son't discriminate.

FWIW, I know I wont buy tin (aluminum) over wood on wood studs. At least for the walls. Roofs are hard to avoid, but for walls I dont want the movement that exist between layers in aluminum sided units. I know they have been around for years, and have owned a 30 yr old unit that was still sound, but it was located on a fixed site for almost all of its life. Its bad enough that there are seams which present possible water intrusion along all the edges, and around the door and window openings on an azdel unit, I dont need an additional one every few inches the length of the unit. And wood, even a hardwood with screw in fasteners will still wear and have fasteners loosen on any unit which flexes and shifts from wind, snow loads and the hurricane force winds thrown at it by towing to travelling. Aluminum with tight fasteners will hold better. They can loosen as well as experiencing electrolysis issues, but overall I have more trust. On my house that I built in 2005, I used an OSB tongue and groove flooring product on the two upper floors, and want that in my new TT if not marine plywood. I just visited a dealer to look at Grand Designs last week and was happy with the walls in general, but the dealer touting composite , laminate flooring wasn't impressive. Composite just means "made of multiple products or materials", and laminate means only that "they glued them together". He could not tell me what they consisted of. Yes the weight is lower on the aluminum and azdel units if everything else remains static. I dont know if I stated anything of interest to your question, but Those are my preferences and why.

theoldwizard1 wrote:It seems that the industry is slowly moving away from wood stud, fiberglass insulation and aluminum siding to the fiberglass skin, aluminum tubing, solid foam for wall construction.Curious as to how you came to this conclusion when pretty well every major manufacturer still offers stick 'n tin models. :h As an example, my own Freedom Express is aluminum framed with Filon (and Azdel in the sidewalls) but Coachmen still offers the stick 'n tin Catalina series simply because that's what some people prefer. ;)

Ironically Grand Design just introduced it's newest model. The Transcend. Corrugated siding. Looks like wood studs, but hard to tell. You can see wood framing for the bed while looking in the front cargo hold.Almost every MFG offers entry level TT's with corrugated siding. some with aluminum framing, others with wood.

I have had the same trailer model in both stick and tin vs aluminum and foam. No comparison. The foam laminate is much more well insulated and much quieter.Even if the foam laminate is heavier, I strongly prefer it.

Different TT construction | Good Sam Community

kerrlakeRoo
Explorer
Dec 22, 2017
FWIW, I know I wont buy tin (aluminum) over wood on wood studs. At least for the walls. Roofs are hard to avoid, but for walls I dont want the movement that exist between layers in aluminum sided units. I know they have been around for years, and have owned a 30 yr old unit that was still sound, but it was located on a fixed site for almost all of its life.
Its bad enough that there are seams which present possible water intrusion along all the edges, and around the door and window openings on an azdel unit, I dont need an additional one every few inches the length of the unit.
And wood, even a hardwood with screw in fasteners will still wear and have fasteners loosen on any unit which flexes and shifts from wind, snow loads and the hurricane force winds thrown at it by towing to travelling. Aluminum with tight fasteners will hold better. They can loosen as well as experiencing electrolysis issues, but overall I have more trust.

On my house that I built in 2005, I used an OSB tongue and groove flooring product on the two upper floors, and want that in my new TT if not marine plywood.
I just visited a dealer to look at Grand Designs last week and was happy with the walls in general, but the dealer touting composite , laminate flooring wasn't impressive. Composite just means "made of multiple products or materials", and laminate means only that "they glued them together". He could not tell me what they consisted of.

Yes the weight is lower on the aluminum and azdel units if everything else remains static.

I dont know if I stated anything of interest to your question, but Those are my preferences and why.
SidecarFlip
Explorer III
Dec 22, 2017
Longevity all distills down to how an owner maintains either. No maintenance equals a short life with either construction method. Water son't discriminate.

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