Thinking of New Aluminum Sided Travel Trailer

[Mike_Up]

I had a 2012 Jayco Jay Flight travel Trailer. It started getting corrosion spots vertically along the front corner of the camper. I fixed everything that was there, but new spots were continuing to pop up in different areas. So I fixed what I seen and hopefully that was the last of it.

I went to a pop up mainly for storage and low cost preventive maintenance along with easy towing and overall yearly tax and insurance costs.

Been doing a lot of research and seeing many stick and tin or aluminum sided campers have this galvanic corrosion issues with Jayco being the worst on their Jay Flights. My coworkers friend had the same issue with his newer Jayco Jay Flight and got rid of it.

I am thinking of ditching my Forest River pop up because their quality is pretty pathetic. I'm on my second camper, 1st was a lemon, and the second has been nothing but a garage queen as well. Every trip something falls apart and this is a brand new 2020.

So I won't be getting any more Jayco or Forest River campers, but looking at Gulf Stream and Grand Design aluminum sided camper, but if this is a wide spread issue of galvanic corrosion, I'll skip campers all together and start renting cabins.

I seen makers should use zinc coated staples or Galvanized staples which is suppose to stop galvanic corrosion. I don't know why Jayco has such bad aluminum panels. First 2008 Jay Flight had to have them all replaced due to paint peeling off. Second 2012 got corrosion spots as I stated. maybe Jayco isn't using galvanized staples and/or their aluminum panels have impurities and alloys causing the corrosion.

BTW, I'm not a rooky. I have had 6 brand new camper including the lemon. 2 Jay Flight Travel Trailers, 3 Forest River Pop ups (all poor quality including lemon. 1st was 15 years apart from the 2019 lemon and the 2020 pop up), and a Starcraft Pop Up.

Thanks for your help

[jerem0621]

Not sure about all the sciency stuff but I love our Crossroads Zinger.

I’ve watched the brand over the years and they seem to hold up pretty well. Ours is brand new and knock on wood, no issues except a broken ACME nut I found yesterday and some nuzmbskull installed the door latch backwards.

Thanks and good luck Mike Up!

Jeremiah

[mikeb9550]

My 2006 jay flight had the same corrosion problem as you. Sold it about 6 years ago. Thought of getting another but also worry this may happen again.

[deltabravo]

Mike Up wrote:

Also negatives being that many makers use hollow core aluminum tubing where cabinet can fall off the wall because the screws don't have good anchors. Some have used wood core aluminum tubing to keep that from happening.

Northwood and Outdoors RV use wood in the frame so the screws for cabinet, etc have something to bite in to.

[lane_hog]

Hey Mike, we have a Grand Design Transcend. The gauge of aluminum on these is a lot heavier than anything we had on our Jay Flight. It's only two years old so no corrosion that we've seen on the aluminum.

We really looked long and hard at Jayco, specifically Jay Flights, because of our past luck (three of them, zero issues), but since Thor bought them, they just felt cheap and the fit/trim didn't seem anywhere close to what we had in the past.

Grand Design didn't feel cheap, and you can tell from the layout that they're designed by people who actually use RV's as opposed to building and selling them.

Like you, I'm done with fiberglass trailers. Maybe if Azdel is more widespread and luan disappears I'll consider it again, but after chasing leaks for 15 years, I've had enough worrying about a small leak turning into a >$1000 repair.

[Mike_Up]

I did look at the Jayco Pop Ups and they were horrid. Guessing because of Thor buying Jayco.

The bottom of the cabinets where the floor meets, you could see light to the outside as they were not built right or sealed. This was on every pop up on the lot.

The beds didn't even have a pull loop to pull it out. It took the salesman and me, to even pull out the queen bed.

Then the top wouldn't go down. The salesman climbed up onto the roof and sat on it, to get it down enough to get the latches to actually latch.

Afterwards he said he recommends against buying those 2019 pop ups as he said they are made really bad as we seen.

The Somerset pop up aren't even close. The closest dealer is like 300 miles away and they didn't even have any stock. Don't see them making tent pop ups much longer as they aren't marketing them to sell.

[Mike_Up]

PAThwacker wrote:
I told you about poor quality forest river popups. I had the 2010 new 625d , 2007 Jay Series 1206 and bought an auction buy 2007 Jayco select 12HW for $750 bid. I wouldn’t buy any travel trailer again.

Unfortunately Forest River really is the only pop up maker now. The 2005 2290 I had was really really bad but hek, this was 14 years later, surely they could only get better. So far, it's only been worse but here's to hoping that I'm done fixing and the camper will be reliable. Here's crossing my fingers very hard!

I could never buy used, I never found anything that was reasonably priced or in good shape. That's why I buy new.

Why not a travel trailer, bad luck with your hybrid?

[PAThwacker]

I told you about poor quality forest river popups. I had the 2010 new 625d , 2007 Jay Series 1206 and bought an auction buy 2007 Jayco select 12HW for $750 bid. I wouldn’t buy any travel trailer again.

[Mike_Up]

colliehauler wrote:

Mike Up wrote:

colliehauler wrote:
The Gulfstream was a Streamlite and I traded it on a Forest River Cherokee TH. Both were fiberglass not aluminum. There are 3 Gulfstream dealers in KS now. The dealer I bought from went out of business, the dealer I traded mine into use to carry Gulfstream but dropped them. Hopefully they have improved their quality. This has been many years ago so information might not be revalent to current quality. Ironically I owned a Gulfstream Seahawk that was very well built before I bought the new ultralight.

Yeh, my coworker just bought a Cherokee 274DBH which is a really nice trailer for cheaper, under $20K.

BUT I would have a hard time buying Forest River after the continuing issues I have which are all build quality problems of the camper and appliance installation problems which are not the fault of the supplier.

I was looking at Streamlite which is sold as clones under different names for the retailer area. Any serious issues with yours?

The box of the trailer was structural with foam and luan for the floor walls roof and a very light frame because of this. When putting on WD bars I actually bent the frame a little. The tires were under size for the weight. The floors were spongy from lack of support. All the interior curtain trim was stapled on with a hundreds of office staples and would fall off. The bathroom door didn’t fit. The slide out was installed crooked. The cut the vinyl flooring. Some of the interior lights weren't wired up. The radio didn't work.

I don't think there is much difference between any RV built in Elkhart Indian. There work force is all out of the same pool of people by the same type of management that let workers go home when there quota is achieved. There is absolutely no incentive what so ever to build quality.

Wow, that's some serious issues on the Gulf Stream. My Forest River campers are not anywhere that bad. It's just build quality in the furniture and cabinets where stuff fails, along with appliance installation issues. I just keeping fixing them all the time.

Hopefully I'm done fixing for good. I may just keep this pop up as it's pretty large and comfortable. While my wife doesn't like the mattresses, I think they are some of the most comfortable mattresses I have slept on including my own bed. Then again I outweigh my wife by over 100 lbs.

I really liked the floorplans of the travel trailers but I honestly don't want another "house" to maintain unless we do a lot of camping.

Was trying to find a private campground to do a weekend trip since all the state parks are reserved on the weekends until the end of the year. I can't believe that some campground are charging $80 a night for a full hookup campsite what I paid $27 a night a decade ago. New owners but that's ridiculous. The other campgrounds all start around $50 for little narrow campsites. No wonder the state parks are full, when they offer huge sites for $28/night even if the site only has electric.

Guess I'll continue to go to our standard 3 private campgrounds that are reasonable priced with large sites and the state parks.

[Lynnmor]

Mike Up wrote:

Lynnmor wrote:
You live in a salt state and most trailers are built there as well. If your trailer was delivered while the roads had salt or you towed during winter, all bets are off. I don't care what brand or type of construction, the salt will get in there and sooner or later the damage will become obvious. Never buy a trailer that was exposed to road salt.

I'm not buying that. I know plenty of people that hunt in the winter and use their travel trailers. No one has ever had damage caused by salt.

Don't let those Southerners cloud your mind. 🙂

I live in a salt state and have pulled snowmobile trailers over the entire northeast for the past 40 years, I do know a few things about salt damage. Believe whatever you want.

[rbpru]

I have a used 2010 Dutchmen that I put 40,000 miles on in 5 years. It has had several framing issues due to vibration, poor assembly methods and just plain hard use. But, stick and tin is easy to repair.

The roof does not leak and every time they needed to repair or brace up the frame, the siding was removed and reset.

One likes to think that such structural problems cannot happen with a laminate construction. I simply do not know. But I do know that same level of craftsmanship goes into both styles of product.

I will fret over issues I can control and both laminate and stick and tin construction have been around long enough to prove they can be built properly. While I can control the floor plan I choose, the price I pay and the size and weight of the TT I choose to tow. I cannot control the care, craftsmanship or hidden flaws in the end product.

My personal choice is based on floor plan, cost and towability; so laminate or stick and tin are about equal. Others have their own opinions on the subject. One thing is certain, neither method is going away anytime soon.

[Mike_Up]

mbopp wrote:
My brother had an aluminum sided trailer that the siding developed corrosion perforations.

No sure, but I heard the Grand Design Transcend line of trailers use a plastic siding instead of aluminum.

According to their website they use Strongwall Aluminum Exterior so I don't think it's plastic siding.

Thanks though.

[Mike_Up]

wing_zealot wrote:

Mike Up wrote:
Which trailers did you have from each. The dealer put Jayco and Amerilite (Gulf Stream) higher in relibility and better overall units than his other stock of travel trailers from Dutchman and Forest River.

Surprising you had the opposite experience since the Jayco and Amerilite trailers were my dealers cheapest stock but he values a repeat customer as he's been there at least 20 years I know of.

Thanks and thanks for the comments.

Why didn't you just buy the Gulfstream then? What brought you to these boards if your dealer, who's been in business for 20 years and values repeat business, told you the Gulfstream was best? You asked for recommendations then you dismiss them out of hand. Go Figure!

Because I bought the Jayco Jay Flight back in 2012 instead which was their preferred brand and mine at the time.

Never did I dismiss, it's called conversation, you know one person states their opinion or experience and then you respond with your experiences.:)

Thanks for being so helpful!!!!

I just love your attitude from across a computer. Thankfully I never seem to get that when talking campers with anyone in person.

[Mike_Up]

Lynnmor wrote:
You live in a salt state and most trailers are built there as well. If your trailer was delivered while the roads had salt or you towed during winter, all bets are off. I don't care what brand or type of construction, the salt will get in there and sooner or later the damage will become obvious. Never buy a trailer that was exposed to road salt.

I'm not buying that. I know plenty of people that hunt in the winter and use their travel trailers. No one has ever had damage caused by salt.

Don't let those Southerners cloud your mind. 🙂

[Mike_Up]

Drew A. wrote:
Mike Up

Can you better explain what the galvanic corrosion you experienced on the Jayco involved? Did the staples holding the aluminum panels rot out causing the aluminum panels to become detached from the trailer?

The reason I ask is that I have a 2010 Jayflight 32BHDS and do not think I have any corrosion of the aluminum siding. I am pretty meticulous with the roof and other maintenance, so I would think that I would have noticed something if it were there.

Thx

Yeh, it was in the front corners going from the bottom and working it's way to the top. The service techs thought it was staples that worked out rubbing on the inside of the panel. Staples on the corner, just outside of the corner vertical trim piece.

They weren't sure without ripping all the trim and panels off which they said would be a few thousand or even more in parts and labor. So I elected to just fix the corrosion areas instead of pulling everything off. If I had a pole barn, I would had attempted to do things myself.