How a TT is built
I found an interesting link to a video if anyone is curious how a travel trailer is built. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11U0McUKlw8
Forum Discussion
There is more than one way to build a RV, particularly a towable, and most mass market manufacturers like Jayco, Forest River, Gulfstream use at least two different approaches, one stick-built like a lightweight house, the other using laminated panels with aluminum reinforcing frames, for the two sidewalls at least. In the second category, a lot of the details differ: roof construction, end caps vs framing or another laminated wall, wheter it sits in the floor or walls hang on the side of the frame, and how panels are fastened together to make a box.
Alternative methods like molded shells (BigFoot, Scamp, Casita, Escape, Oliver), aluminum framed (not laminated) walls (Newmar, New Horizons, the former Carriage and some Sunnybrook models), and aluminum semi-monocoque borrowing '30s aircraft methods (Airstream the only one left today) are confined to premium markets because the constuction techniques are more expensive.
Before buying I toured Jayco (plant was building laminated wall Eagle line), Winnebago (the "standard" line building four brands of C and six of A gas motorhomes with common construction) and Newmar (main line building fivers and all motorhomes up to Mountainaire). There was not much in common to the working methods, Newmar looking more like a craftsman shop, Winnebago organized and automated more like a 1960s automobile plant than Jayco's labor team operation.
Since then, I've visited Casita, which has more of a feeling a boat building shop putting together a dozen or so small, semi-custom cruisers at a time.
But what most of us buy is probably built the way shown at Jayco, the prices we are willing to pay put us there. More money doesn't always get you better, because the mass market guys create premium lines with more options, more slideout rooms, fancier interior trim, and exterior paint jobs. But you won't get better quality without psying more, because it costs more to build them better.
Alternative methods like molded shells (BigFoot, Scamp, Casita, Escape, Oliver), aluminum framed (not laminated) walls (Newmar, New Horizons, the former Carriage and some Sunnybrook models), and aluminum semi-monocoque borrowing '30s aircraft methods (Airstream the only one left today) are confined to premium markets because the constuction techniques are more expensive.
Before buying I toured Jayco (plant was building laminated wall Eagle line), Winnebago (the "standard" line building four brands of C and six of A gas motorhomes with common construction) and Newmar (main line building fivers and all motorhomes up to Mountainaire). There was not much in common to the working methods, Newmar looking more like a craftsman shop, Winnebago organized and automated more like a 1960s automobile plant than Jayco's labor team operation.
Since then, I've visited Casita, which has more of a feeling a boat building shop putting together a dozen or so small, semi-custom cruisers at a time.
But what most of us buy is probably built the way shown at Jayco, the prices we are willing to pay put us there. More money doesn't always get you better, because the mass market guys create premium lines with more options, more slideout rooms, fancier interior trim, and exterior paint jobs. But you won't get better quality without psying more, because it costs more to build them better.
