The salesman told me...

I wouldnt shy away from the hideout either. the number of features it has are hard to match in trailers that cost 10k more, but the weight is somewhat of an issue, kind of on the high end of .5 tonne towable

What the salesman didn't tell you is that before any walls go up, they cover the whole floor with linoleum therefore the metal studs are on linoleum not wood. It is cheaper to waste linoleum under everything than to take the time to cut it for a perfect fit.

The salesman is bang on as far as heat transfer goes and anyone with an aluminum studded anything will be able to tell you where the studs are on a cool Dewey morning. The warmest, highest end trailers and fifth wheels like Teton Homes and Corsair/Citation never switched to Aluminum to maintain their reputation of being extreme weather units. Having said that I'm not convinced on the condensation dripping down and rotting out floors. Aluminum has its pros as well including being lighter weight. Properly sealed and maintained a wood trailer will stand up as well as aluminum. Personally I would have just given the buyer pros and cons of each and let him choose.

IMHO

Your title of the thread also threw me. Not sure about the aluminum condensation issues, but I'll bet the salesman told you he would sell you the camper BELOW COST, too? :R :B

Wow, I am no expert on RV wall construction but, aluminum caged walls do transmit the heat and cold, I don’t know if the sweat inside the tube but I have seen frost form on some interior walls in places where air circulation wasn’t good and obviously the insulation was poor where the metal studs were…. Aluminum caged trailers also fail other ways… they crack and break and oxidize…
Laminated constructed walls get much of their strength form the lamination not the cage and only have the metal studs where they think they need them, to me that doesn’t even sound like construction for the long haul…
One of the reasons I got rid of my Sunnybrook, a built up constructed aluminum caged trailer was because of repeated structural failures, and repeated trips to the manufacture for structural repairs…

Wood frame construction has been used for many years successfully, it is the tried and true... any construction done well from the factory and well maintained will last for many years… most RV’s with few exceptions have plenty of wood products in them that can rot, mildew, and mold…

Replacing roofs can be expensive but cheap compared to repairing some of the walls used today… repairing the floor is hard in any type of trailer…

The salesman was accurate in stating that aluminum conducts heat and cold. It is also true that you can get condensation in your rig. I have had it happen on my Avion. That being said, I wouldn't trade either of my Avions for a stick built rig. My oldest Avion is almost 45 years old and has always been stored outside. I'll bet that it will last to be 100 years old if it doesn't get into an accident.

midnightsadie wrote:
my though is get a new salesmen wood rots alluminum doesn,t .rv .s are insulated for the steel. rigs ,

True statement. However regardless of what your wall construction is, the vast majority of floors are made of wood and since in most cases the wall set on top of the wood floor IF the aluminum studs ran all the way down to the wood floor the salesman could have a point. However in every factory I have toured they weld or screw the aluminum studs(vertical) to a piece of aluminum along the floor(horizontal) so the odds of the condensation making it to the wood floor is very remote

RoyB wrote:
Salesman told me I could pull my 8800lb fifth wheel with my F150 truck too. It still sits in the back yard hehe...

Depending on the year of your F150, you may be able to

Gr8life wrote:
The salesman was obviously trying to sell what he had to sell. However, I have seen the outline of an aluminum frame under certain high humidity/low temperature situations.

I was going t6o mention this outline myself but couldn't remember/or know if my bounder of about 1995 had wooden or aluminum framing. think it was wooden and if so that conducted internal warmth to the outside fiberglass skin.
bumpy

Thanks for the replies everyone!

I figured as much that he was feeding me a bunch of cow manure. However, I don't know for certain so I wanted to check with you guys. I understand the pro/cons of wood/aluminum. I just hadn't heard of the bottom rotting on aluminum frame due to condensation in the metal studs.