Question on Lance Trailers

[Ron3rd]

I'm starting to see more and more Lance trailers around here and the new ones I've seen appear to have a flat roof without the normal "dome" you see on every other trailer. Seems like water would not drain off the roof as well. Is there a reason for this? Just curious.

[tnrv_er]

I have a 2016 KZ 17RBS with a flat metal roof, no issues.

[700g]

I had a Jay afeather with a flat roof. Never have another. If you look at the roof after a rain, it looks like a lake up there. If you take a perfectly flat roof and sit an air conditioner in the middle of it, its gonna flex the roof downward and all the water collects around it. Not a very good desigh in my opinion.....

[Fireballsocal]

I have a 2009 lance 1880 TT I purchased about 3 months ago. 2009 was the first year Lance started producing travel trailers. In my trailer to date, there is no evidence of a leaking roof, no soft spots in the floor, etc. As an aside, this trailer has turned out to be an excellent hot weather trailer. It isn't a four season model but not having a slide keeps the interior small. The big 13,500 air conditioner and better than average insulation meant that last weekend in 118 degree weather, the temp inside rose from 75 to 82 degrees before heading back down to 75 as it got later in the evening.

[westend]

It's not an issue. Search to see what pool and pond liner is made of.

[hohenwald48]

I had a flat roofed motorhome about 10 years ago. I didn't like the flat roof. It collected a lot of water. Parking off level kind of contradicts what the refer manufacturers tell you.

The motorhome had trim all the way around the roof edge that kind of formed a lip. Water would collect behind that lip and be about 1/4" deep. Never leaked but keeping it clean was out of the question. even if it didn't rain it would collect the air conditioner condensation.

I don't have any first hand knowledge of Lance RVs. I did look at them when we were shopping and a lot of the components looked kind of cheap to me. I guess they use a lot of light weight stuff (like plastic windows) to keep the RV light. I'm not concerned about weight that much.

I wouldn't have a flat roofed RV these days. No advantage to it and several disadvantages.

[BadBeans]

Sorry to bring this post back from the dead, but I am looking at a 2017 Lance 2185 and noticed the flat roof. My previous Jayco had the curved roof so I found this flat roof on the Lance is new to me. Any other/new opinions on flat roof travel trailers from RV veterans?

I live in the PNW and do a lot of camping in the rain so I'm concerned about the flat roof pooling water when level.

[Ron3rd]

jmcgsd wrote:
I had two Lance truck campers. Still miss my last one. Lance construction is top notch and I never had any issues with the flat roof on the TC.

Yeah, I've heard they build an outstanding trailer, it's just the first "modern" trailer I've seen with a flat roof and was curious what their reasoning was. BTW, my BIL has a Lance truck camper about 12 years old and it's still like new. Great build quality.

[jaycocreek]

Most of the older trailers are built just like that.Not an issue in my opinion.

[jmcgsd]

I had two Lance truck campers. Still miss my last one. Lance construction is top notch and I never had any issues with the flat roof on the TC.

[goducks10]

Truck campers are built that way. Just park it with the front down or up when not using it. How many nights are you looking at using it? I'm guessing you are like most people and tend to camp in nicer weather. So rain wouldn't really be an issue. The rest of the time just leave the front higher when not camping.
Lance fastens their vents on the roof without screws. That helps to eliminate leaks. IMO if they made a 5th wheel I'd buy one. I think their construction is above a lot of other manufacturers.