We are in the market for a midsize travel trailer and focusing in on Winnebago towables. I found several YouTube and Google results suggesting that recently Winnebago Towables began using Azdel in their laminated walls instead of luan. Apparently some 2020 units were made and distributed before the changeover to Azdel and many have been produced since. I am a proponent of Azdel and so I wanted to know if the specific units that we were considering at dealers around Central Florida contained Azdel.
We called Winnebago and went through three folks before getting a satisfactory answer. The first two said that, if Azdel is used in a specific unit, there will always be a sticker on the sidewall of the unit. I challenged them about the possibility that someone hadn't simply peeled off the sticker on a specific unit and maybe even placed it on another unit; they were stumped. Finally we were transferred to national sales support. I said all the same words but this time got a different answer, one that I was hoping for.
Many products which are made in America have "trace ability" requirements placed on them by the government. These requirements force manufacturers to document what a specific product contains. This often requires serialization to be performed meaning every product must have a unique serial number. Automobiles and RVs are no different and therefore are identified by unique VINs (Vehicle Identification Numbers).
Most folks know that vehicles are also identified by make, model and production year. What some folks don't realize is that changes to a given product line which occur within a given model year are also serialized. At Winnebago this is documented as an alphabetical letter. The first production run of a model year is labelled as "A" and proceeds for awhile until it is paused to check quality and verify production assumptions. If all is good, production continues and the letter "A" continues to be applied. If a problem is found which requires changes to the production then a new run labelled "B" is begun and so on.
At Winnebago, I believe sometime in late summer 2019, production labelled "A" began on the 2020 Minnie travel trailer production line. Evidently it was stopped, some changes were made and a "B" production run was begun. That run was also later stopped, more changes were made, this time including the switchover to Azdel instead of luan, and production was restarted and labelled "C". I believe this change happened around September of 2019. The first vehicle of this "Azdel inclusive" run had a VIN whose last five digits were "49222". I specifically asked the Winnebago representative over the phone if all towable Minnie travel trailers produced since this VIN contained Azdel outer walls and she responded in the affirmative. We finally felt confident that the unit that we were considering did indeed use Azdel in the walls.
I hope that this information is helpful to others considering purchasing a 2020 Winnebago Minnie travel trailer. I'll check back on this thread later to see if any questions arise that I might also be able to answer. Thanks.
2019 Ford F150 2.7 Ecoboost Supercab
2020 Winnebago Minnie 2500FL
