walls of travel trailer

[TxGregory]

Hello I have a 30' thor wanderer travel trailer. I went to hang something on the wall and I figured it would have metal studs. But I used my magnet stud finder and It found nothing except at the corner of the walls. Can someone tell me what kind of studs are in the walls, and what is the best way to locate them.

thanks,

Greg Hall

[daka320]

Living in AZ we have the same problem also with the heat and the command hooks not staying secure. Found some hollow door anchors at home depot. Work really well but they are permanent.

[rbpru]

I used the Command strips to hang a small mirror, they stuck well but pulled the wall panel paper off the wall in about a year. I used a small brad nail to tack them in place.

Also in my 2010 Dutchmen the stud locations are a mystery. I would not guarantee they are on 16 or 24 inch centers, nor would I even state with any confidence that they are vertical. I can say that however the walls are braced, they work just fine.

The TT is the standard stick and tin construction, I have no idea what the laminated models use.

[Trackrig]

I agree, Command Hooks are great, but we've had them fall due to the heat. If we store the MH in Arizona during the summer, even under covered storage, the inside temps will still hit well over 110F inside of the MH. Sometimes when we come back we'll find one or two hooks that have failed in the heat but they're the only way to go.

Bill

[Community Alumni]

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Use 3M Command Strips........

We traveled FT.
Pictures, mirror hung on walls using them
NONE fell down during our 7 yrs of traveling ....

They're great, we use them throughout the trailer for coats, towels and decorative stuff; never lost one in years.

[myredracer]

Some TTs with sandwich type exterior walls and aluminum framing will only have studs in the corners (already noted above). The TT in your profile looks to have aluminum siding in which case it will have wood framing. To find studs, you can look for a vertical line of teeny tiny staples and a stud will be behind them. At joints in the luan plywood there will be tape over the seam with the same wall color. You can push a thumb against the laun horizontally and see where it doesn't flex. There's no standard stud spacing so don't assume they'll be every 16". You could try lightly tapping luan with a hammer until you find where it seems solid. You may or may not find that a stud finder will work. Sometimes you can look at the exterior walls early in the morning and see dew where the studs are. Another thing that might work is a IR gun used early in the am when it's been cool overnight and when the TT has been heated for some period of time.

Mounting/attaching things to a wall depends on it's size and weight. RV manufacturers typically use #8 screws into the luan plywood only for just about everything (cabinetry, dinette seating, etc). For something heavy or subject to being pulled off (towel bar, eg.), Oscar rivets work great. They're a special type of pop rivet designed specifically for RVs. Otherwise smaller #6 screws may work or Command strips.

Screwing into studs would be the strongest but make sure screws are the right length so they won't go through the siding. For heavy items like say a TV, you will have larger dia. screws and will want to screw into the dead center of the studs (they're not very wide) and may need to drill a pilot hole first.

[ppine]

What vintage is the trailer? You should be able to figure out if it is stick and tin or not. Probably it has wood studs and the magnet will only pick up screw heads.

[ktmrfs]

command strips work well if you clean the wall with alcohol.

Oh, and you are aware aluminum is non magnetic so a magnet won't find a stud.

however newer stud finders do have a metal detection mode and will detect aluminum and copper as well.

[azrving]

Some are foam sandwich with an box aluminum perimeter. I just worked on one where the rear wall had no studs. There are some studs on the side walls such as around the door etc. The door, hand rails, water heater etc are all screwed into them.

[Old-Biscuit]

Use 3M Command Strips........

We traveled FT.
Pictures, mirror hung on walls using them
NONE fell down during our 7 yrs of traveling

But if you really need to bang holes remember screws do NOT hold in aluminum studs.

Trailers have either wood studs or aluminum studs.
Trailer walls are nothing more then thin paneling so just pushing on wall you should be able to find where studs are

[Trackrig]

It could well have aluminum studs which a standard stud detector won't find.

Bill