Foam sandwich construction, done properly, can be strong, light, and durable. It is commonly done in yacht construction. However the materials and methods used do not transfer well to the price points in the RV industry. You cannot replace structural foam cores and vacuum bagged layups with chopper gun layups, bead board, contact adhesive, and 3mm luan hoping to achieve the same result. Earthroamer builds a shell more like a boat, but they have a $200K budget.
Still, I will take the somewhat flawed construction of a Bigfoot or NL every time compared to the very seriously flawed construction of many competing brands. As I have said before, the quality in the Bigfoot sucks, but it sucks less than the others!
I'm surprised to hear of buckling of the sides of the basement in the NL. On the Bigfoot, there is 1.5" of plywood reinforcing the basement walls all around. Does the NL just have the glass skin and foam there?
