Enclosed Underbelly or Not

travelnutz wrote:
Enclosed or we wouldn't even purchase it. Had several of both enclosed and open over the last 52 years and the difference in winter and summer comfort, floor temps, resale value, rusted frames and rotted floors from soaking and drying constantly over time is huge and usually very costly to repair or scrap it.

The open underbelly trailers always had very cold floors in 40 degree or under outside temps and thus cold air above the floor too. To counteract this, you needed to raise the thermostat temp setting which means your head is in the hot stuffy air while your feet are very cold. Warm air rises and cold air sinks! Not pleasant to have this uncontrolled at all and in this modern age, using barbaric yesteryear thinking! Go ask any RV dealer why the higher quality RV,s all come with enclosed and insulated underbellies as standard? You'll have your answer real quick! BTW, yes, enclosed under bellies on RV's also helps with summer heat and not having hot floors. Insulation and a dead air space helps minimize discomfort with/in both hot and cold climates just like in a home!

IMO the comments about dead air space in an enclosed underbelly is a HUGE advantage and with a little additional insulation can even be more effective. The typical 6 to 8" frame rails on TT provide a excellent dead air space insulation area to supplement the existing floor insulation already there. I have a remote thermometer with the sensor mounted in my enclosed underbelly near the water lines leading to the low point drains and about 1" below the trailer floor. Typically even in 30deg weather and not using the furnace at all the temp stays around 10 to 15deg warmer than the outside ambient temps. This makes a HUGE difference in how warm the floor stays and throw a rug on the floor and again you even make things better. About 6 years ago I sectionalized my existing one piece underbelly into 4' removable sections that allow easy access to all areas of the underbelly when needed w/o cutting/taping or working thru limited access areas in the underbelly. The work done is all shown along with what I used and how I did the work and extra insulation in THIS ALBUM.

Larry