What would u recommend?

Ralph Cramden wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:
Some of the early "light" TT used some kind of "composite" floor. They became very soft within a year ot two.

Most (all?) have gone back to 3/4" plywood.

Not true at all.

When people are talking composite floor, that's composite as in laminated. Beaded styrofoam in between an aluminum tube structure, with plywood laminated top and bottom the same as a sidewall. Typically a little thicker on the tubes and foam than sidewalls, 1.5" or 2" foam as opposed to 1" on the sidewalls, and 1/4" or 5/16" plywood top with 1/8" plywood bottom. All laminated together with contact adhesive and either pinch rolled or vacuum bonded.

Plenty of manufacturers are still using laminated floors. Chances are if your trailer has laminated sidewalls with a fiberglass / filon exterior, you also have a laminated floor.

Midway of the 2017 production year Forest Rivers Rockwood division eliminated laminated floors and went to 5/8" plywood, actually OSB. According to a Rockwood rep I discussed it with at the time, that was done more for savings on manufacturing cost than problems with the construction

I can not prove my position or your position, but my research shows that most companies are using plywood floor, even it is because it is a labor cost savings.

As was mentioned elsewhere, composite flooring requires more reinforcement than 3/4" plywood.

One last thing, if you look at spec sheet from the manufacturers of composite materials for RV wall construction, NONE OF THEM APPROVE IT FOR FLOOR CONSTRUCTION.

FrankShore wrote:

goducks10 wrote:

theoldwizard1 wrote:
Some of the early "light" TT used some kind of "composite" floor. They became very soft within a year ot two.

Most (all?) have gone back to 3/4" plywood.

Grand Designs are composite laminated floors. The trend is to go as light as possible.

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Hey goducks10 :)

I was just looking at Grand Design (the TT line up) and didn't see any mention of "composite material" in any of the flooring. I was thinking that maybe you were talking about what Lance uses, (which is Azdel) or perhaps another lesser known composite material.

Do you know which models and layouts of the Grand Designs that have composite laminated floors? The Azdel or other brand of composite interests me, always - as you probably already know LOL :B Thank you for bringing up the use of Azdel in Grand Design, but I'm thinking it isn't Azdel but another "unnamed" manufacturer

I love to keep up on the industries construction and materials used - and to my way of thinking, it's the SINGLE most important things in any RV is and that's how they're actually constructed, the length of time it takes to put a trailer together, and then follow throughout with stringent quality control. Lance puts out on average 10 Travel Trailers a day and maybe 3 Truck Campers

It's all nice and idealistic to say that "floorplan" is the #1 factor, but it should always be design (Lance uses Solidworks, a CAD program on which they design the trailers, tweaking the CAD, make auto corrections, before the Lite-Ply (Lance gets Lity-Ply from Spain and Italy import a true "white wood" Birch) meets the CNC Routers. To me, this is much more important than worrying about the jackknife sofa is located or whatever

I'll be a Lance Fan all my life, and unless the quality falters, the materials cheapen, the other things that make a successful Lance caliber trailer, are diminished. AS it stands now, I'm not planning on upgrading my 1995. ts a terrific trailer, no problems at all, no warranty work was ever needed on the 1995.

Thanks again for the heads up on Grand Design (their unnamed composite material) And for listening to me rattle on!

If you look at the construction pics it looks like a laminated floor to me. It's not showing the usual 5/8" T&G ply or OSB on stringers.
It looks like a single layer of Luan on aluminum floor joists with foam insulation.
https://www.granddesignrv.com/showroom/2018/travel-trailer/imagine/construction
This is for the Imagine light weight models.

I recommend JT Strongarms.

Your post actually requires industry to read and actually care what the consumer has to say.

First (read) is highly unlikely, but possible,
Second (actually care) possibility is ZERO

Just wasting good oxygen.... but, then again, so am I for responding.

Mike

JT Strong Arms or BAL lock arms, with 5 of them on my trailer you can't move it more than about .5", without you can rock it over 6" side to side and about 3" front to back. Shipping weight is 7.6lb for 2 so about 3.5lb each after you remove the weight of the box, nothing you're going to notice.

The best, strongest, most durable construction means
little of your spouse does not like the floor plan.

The wrong or an inconvenient floor plan can crimp the fun of RVing.

While some light weight floor materials my have proved spongy over time, I do not know anyone who has fallen through the floor.

Light weight has to be cost competitive, it will be a while before we see titanium frames.

Ralph Cramden wrote:


Lightweight is nothing more than a marketing buzzword. In most cases so is 4 season, arctic package, aerodynamic cap, fuel saving underlining, 1/2 ton towable, etc etc etc. My Rockwood Roo Hybrid is advertised as "lightweight" despite it weighing substantially more than trailers of the same size that are not marketed as "lightweight".

Folks need to read and understand this. I mentioned this long ago and was "corrected" by fellow members.

To prevent flex in my ultra-lite frame :W I added a third pair of scissors jacks just in front of the axles. Think of the frame as a bridge standing on the far corners, it doesn't take much to bounce the middle. Flexible tires and springs won't prevent the bounce.

We use X-chocks, Andersen type levelers, regular wedge chocks and lego blocks to keep the stabilizers short.
Any wiggle is minor because we’re usually outside and can’t feel it.

theoldwizard1 wrote:
Some of the early "light" TT used some kind of "composite" floor. They became very soft within a year ot two.

Most (all?) have gone back to 3/4" plywood.

Not true at all.

When people are talking composite floor, that's composite as in laminated. Beaded styrofoam in between an aluminum tube structure, with plywood laminated top and bottom the same as a sidewall. Typically a little thicker on the tubes and foam than sidewalls, 1.5" or 2" foam as opposed to 1" on the sidewalls, and 1/4" or 5/16" plywood top with 1/8" plywood bottom. All laminated together with contact adhesive and either pinch rolled or vacuum bonded.

Plenty of manufacturers are still using laminated floors. Chances are if your trailer has laminated sidewalls with a fiberglass / filon exterior, you also have a laminated floor.

Midway of the 2017 production year Forest Rivers Rockwood division eliminated laminated floors and went to 5/8" plywood, actually OSB. According to a Rockwood rep I discussed it with at the time, that was done more for savings on manufacturing cost than problems with the construction. It's a lot faster and cheaper to lay down sheets of plywood/OSB than to fabricate laminated floors. This allowed them to add more frill, like solid surface counter tops and other things they changed at the same time, without substantially increasing price points and maintaining bottom line. Personally if I would have known they were making the change to solid floors I most likely would of held off on our purchase of our early 17 Roo which has the laminated floor.

Lightweight is nothing more than a marketing buzzword. In most cases so is 4 season, arctic package, aerodynamic cap, fuel saving underlining, 1/2 ton towable, etc etc etc. My Rockwood Roo Hybrid is advertised as "lightweight" despite it weighing substantially more than trailers of the same size that are not marketed as "lightweight".

rickhise wrote:
We know The TT industry goes full out for ultra light.

By all out do you mean spending on stickers saying "ultra light"?

Even bigger non-ultra light trailers have a little bounce in them. Get something like JT strongarms (there are other manufacturers that do just as well). That's about as good as it gets.