Laminated sides vs aluminum siding

dougrainer wrote:

RLS7201 wrote:

Bumpyroad wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

fitznj wrote:
I've had 2 Alum sided and 1 Smooth sided TT.

The Alum Siding if easier to fix if you dent a panel. Ours is 10 years old
now and still looks brand new.

Our only smoothie had a leak and delaminated 4 years into our ownership.

As a result - I have a bias towards Alum Siding

Why is it easier to fix if you dent a panel? Doug

yep, that makes no sense to me. do you start pulling off pieces at the bottom and work up to the dent, then replace? a fiberglass sided RV can easily be repaired either with white Bondo, or at a boat yard. I can't visualize an individual repairing a hole with fiberglass cloth and resin and end up with less than an unsightly patch.
and if you are in hail country, aluminum would be a disaster.
bumpy

You cut out the damaged piece, snap in one edge of the new piece, bend new panel over a piece if 2" PVC, have helper pull out PVC slowly as you snap in the other edge. Replace corner trim.
Yeah! I was amazed too when I saw it done.

Richard

IF the metal is wider than 12 inches, you can do what you stated. IF the metal is less than 12 inches, regardless of how careful you are, you will put small dents when you try to bend/roll the metal back in. The metal only has so much give before it creases. Very few RV's now have metal wider than 12 inches. Most are 10 inches. You still have to remove the corner moldings and windows/doors/anything on that piece of metal. That adds labor time and cost. PLUS, if you have any decals you have to factor that in. YOU DO NOT CUT OUT THE DAMAGED PIECE. That is NEVER done. Also, HOW do you then staple the new metal "S" lock to the studs? Doug(someone who has done RV metal work for 37 years).

Doug, I actually misquoted the procedure. The new piece is inserted and stapled down and the old piece next to it is then inserted, using the PVC.
After retiring as Chier Engineer of a ink production facility, I went to work(?) as a gopher at Premier Coach Service in River Side, MO and was the helper pulling out the PVC. That winter of watching, was what I needed to get an account at a wholesale RV supplier and start my own small RV repair business. OH! and the wiring and service manuals you provide contributed to my ability to make repairs. :) TY

Richard

RLS7201 wrote:

Bumpyroad wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

fitznj wrote:
I've had 2 Alum sided and 1 Smooth sided TT.

The Alum Siding if easier to fix if you dent a panel. Ours is 10 years old
now and still looks brand new.

Our only smoothie had a leak and delaminated 4 years into our ownership.

As a result - I have a bias towards Alum Siding

Why is it easier to fix if you dent a panel? Doug

yep, that makes no sense to me. do you start pulling off pieces at the bottom and work up to the dent, then replace? a fiberglass sided RV can easily be repaired either with white Bondo, or at a boat yard. I can't visualize an individual repairing a hole with fiberglass cloth and resin and end up with less than an unsightly patch.
and if you are in hail country, aluminum would be a disaster.
bumpy

You cut out the damaged piece, snap in one edge of the new piece, bend new panel over a piece if 2" PVC, have helper pull out PVC slowly as you snap in the other edge. Replace corner trim.
Yeah! I was amazed too when I saw it done.

Richard

IF the metal is wider than 12 inches, you can do what you stated. IF the metal is less than 12 inches, regardless of how careful you are, you will put small dents when you try to bend/roll the metal back in. The metal only has so much give before it creases. Very few RV's now have metal wider than 12 inches. Most are 10 inches. You still have to remove the corner moldings and windows/doors/anything on that piece of metal. That adds labor time and cost. PLUS, if you have any decals you have to factor that in. YOU DO NOT CUT OUT THE DAMAGED PIECE. That is NEVER done. Also, HOW do you then staple the new metal "S" lock to the studs? Doug(someone who has done RV metal work for 37 years).

I suspect laminated would be lighter for equal strength. It definitely is lighter for equal rigidity and in theory ought to be able to be made more resistant to at least structural damage from water. In practice, I doubt the water resistance is better.

I would love to see welded unibody construction, similar to a car body structure, with foam injected inside for insulation and additional rigidity. When was the last time you heard of anyone having to caulk the roof on their car? I suspect that the level of tooling required might make it economically infeasible to build RVs this way, given their comparatively low volumes.

Bumpyroad wrote:

dougrainer wrote:

fitznj wrote:
I've had 2 Alum sided and 1 Smooth sided TT.

The Alum Siding if easier to fix if you dent a panel. Ours is 10 years old
now and still looks brand new.

Our only smoothie had a leak and delaminated 4 years into our ownership.

As a result - I have a bias towards Alum Siding

Why is it easier to fix if you dent a panel? Doug

yep, that makes no sense to me. do you start pulling off pieces at the bottom and work up to the dent, then replace? a fiberglass sided RV can easily be repaired either with white Bondo, or at a boat yard. I can't visualize an individual repairing a hole with fiberglass cloth and resin and end up with less than an unsightly patch.
and if you are in hail country, aluminum would be a disaster.
bumpy

You cut out the damaged piece, snap in one edge of the new piece, bend new panel over a piece if 2" PVC, have helper pull out PVC slowly as you snap in the other edge. Replace corner trim.
Yeah! I was amazed too when I saw it done.

Richard

Seems Airstream is the answer...I have owned both and I would much rather have dented aluminum opposed to delamination.

dougrainer wrote:

fitznj wrote:
I've had 2 Alum sided and 1 Smooth sided TT.

The Alum Siding if easier to fix if you dent a panel. Ours is 10 years old
now and still looks brand new.

Our only smoothie had a leak and delaminated 4 years into our ownership.

As a result - I have a bias towards Alum Siding

Why is it easier to fix if you dent a panel? Doug

yep, that makes no sense to me. do you start pulling off pieces at the bottom and work up to the dent, then replace? a fiberglass sided RV can easily be repaired either with white Bondo, or at a boat yard. I can't visualize an individual repairing a hole with fiberglass cloth and resin and end up with less than an unsightly patch.
and if you are in hail country, aluminum would be a disaster.
bumpy

My personal preference is .040 smooth aluminum riveted to aluminum frame- not many trailers built like that now- Holiday Rambler did when they still built trailers, cargo trailers are built like this, and then there's Airstream.

If the OEMs would dump the luan in sidewalls and use a composite, that would be da bomb.

Having had to repair delaminations on my current MH I would choose a MH with a hung wall with FG skins on the exterior. FG is more resistant to damage than Al. It is very difficult to find out what new adhesives Mfg's use currently that would make newer MH's better when it comes to delaminations. None of their web sites will tell you other than use marketing terms. I would chose one with a reinforced thermo plastic skin over FG Polyester but I don't know of any made like this yet. Newmar I know has a hung wall with FG polyester exterior skins. Monaco and HR have this hung wall but I think their exterior skins are Al, maybe some one on here knows for sure.

fitznj wrote:
I've had 2 Alum sided and 1 Smooth sided TT.

The Alum Siding if easier to fix if you dent a panel. Ours is 10 years old
now and still looks brand new.

Our only smoothie had a leak and delaminated 4 years into our ownership.

As a result - I have a bias towards Alum Siding

Why is it easier to fix if you dent a panel? Doug

In the past 10 years, I have rarely seen delamination. We sell and service a lot of RV's that are laminated. It appears the RV makers have found a good system and glue to make almost perfect laminated sidewalls. While this is true for lamination, what I have seen in the past 15 years is, inadequate staples used on aluminum siding. This causes the metal to pull loose from the studs. I have seen this more often than delamination. Now, Delamination can happen when there is a water leak. The wall did not fail, but reacted to the water leak. That is why almost all OEM's state that adding or cutting extra holes in a sidewall voids the warranty for the sidewalls. Doug