wood or metal trusses

[pipers_family]

I know sales people will sometimes say whatever they think will sell the trailer- but are metal trusses really that much better than wood? What do you think?

[Atlee]

Neither. Yuengling :B

hilandfrog wrote:
This is almost as popular of a subject as what kind of tires.....

LOTS of threads... each side has their points, is either correct?

Up next.....Coors or Budweiser

Repo

[xzyHollyxyz]

I am really liking the 16' LivinLite twin bed slide. However, the mfgr does not recommend a WD hitch. My tow vehicle is a 2013 Nissan Frontier. And I currently have a 16' Fun Finder with Equalizer hitch (with its horrible heavy bars!!)

Thoughts?

[desiphil]

djsamuel wrote:

desiphil wrote:
By the way. I do like the Livin Lite construction. Price (for what you get) can make it a tough sell though.

the LivinLite (Camplite TT) is what I was referring to. They have no wood at all. The floor is tongue and groove aluminum planking. They provide carpeting and you can add insulation as an option. The frame is all aluminum (welded), and they do a nice job with the welds. The interior walls are azdel, and the cabinets are aluminum frame; built as part of the trailer frame, with Azdel panels. The outer walls are aluminum as is the roof.

You are defintely correct, the price is the point of hesitation. The other campers were a good bit cheaper, which is why we kept looking after seeing the Camplite. However, the more we looked, the more we liked the Camplite. Perhaps it was the engineer in me, since I kept focusing on the construction, the weight, the overall design. We felt that what we were giving up in luxury, we were gaining in durability. Time will tell, but the camper does tow great, and we really like it. Plus, I gave the dealer a low offer based on what I found by searching online around the country for the cheapest price (a sale price). So, we ended up not paying a whole lot more than we would have for another camper.

But with all of that said, the other campers were really nice too, and it boils down to personal preference. I'm really glad we made the choice we did, but it all boils down to proper maintenance (barring poor design).

You made a good choice. Like I said its just a tough sell considering most of the costs are tied up in stuff you will never see/enjoy.

What makes it worse is that many salespeople in this industry describe all products with aluminum framed sidewalls as "complete aluminum framed trailers" making it difficult for potential buyers to know the difference between products like Livinlite and pretty much everything else.

A good rule of thumb is too look at brochure cutaways of construction. Anything that is hidden like front caps, rear caps, floors, slideouts... just assume its put together using the cheapest materials and methods possible.

[djsamuel]

desiphil wrote:
By the way. I do like the Livin Lite construction. Price (for what you get) can make it a tough sell though.

the LivinLite (Camplite TT) is what I was referring to. They have no wood at all. The floor is tongue and groove aluminum planking. They provide carpeting and you can add insulation as an option. The frame is all aluminum (welded), and they do a nice job with the welds. The interior walls are azdel, and the cabinets are aluminum frame; built as part of the trailer frame, with Azdel panels. The outer walls are aluminum as is the roof.

You are defintely correct, the price is the point of hesitation. The other campers were a good bit cheaper, which is why we kept looking after seeing the Camplite. However, the more we looked, the more we liked the Camplite. Perhaps it was the engineer in me, since I kept focusing on the construction, the weight, the overall design. We felt that what we were giving up in luxury, we were gaining in durability. Time will tell, but the camper does tow great, and we really like it. Plus, I gave the dealer a low offer based on what I found by searching online around the country for the cheapest price (a sale price). So, we ended up not paying a whole lot more than we would have for another camper.

But with all of that said, the other campers were really nice too, and it boils down to personal preference. I'm really glad we made the choice we did, but it all boils down to proper maintenance (barring poor design).

[desiphil]

By the way. I do like the Livin Lite construction. Price (for what you get) can make it a tough sell though.

[desiphil]

djsamuel wrote:

desiphil wrote:

Even with metal roof supports, all of your roof and floor decking will be a wood product. The exterior fiberglass is glued to wood. The interior wallboard is wood. So, still gonna have a bunch of wood.

True with most, but not all Travel Trailers. Some have no wood.

Which non-wood trailers are you referring to? I know a few exist, but I also know that not using wood does not necessarily make it a good option.

For instance, I have seen a 2 year old EG with a bad soft spot in the floor. When we took apart to fix, that section of the floor was a compressed bent crumbled mess. The compositek was the thickness of luan. They count on the lamination of materials on the floor to provide strength, but with continued wear/weight the foam compressed and crumbled and there were 0 floor joists anywhere nearby for support. It was impossible to fix correctly. At least with conventional construction, you can cut out bad area and replace with new material.

Just my 2 cents.

[miltvill]

Evergreen no longer offers the 2 year warranty. It now is a one year warranty. They are not wood free any more. They use plywood in the roof.

Northwood's Snow River uses marine grade plywood on the roof which is a nice improvement. Even if you have metal rafters they are covered with wood.

I like a roof that uses screws to attach the roof to the rafters. No staples.

Also, many manufactures use wood backing behind the metal so the screws have something to bite into. I thought about wood and metal rafters a lot. I have decided I want a strong well constructed roof wood or metal.

[djsamuel]

desiphil wrote:

Even with metal roof supports, all of your roof and floor decking will be a wood product. The exterior fiberglass is glued to wood. The interior wallboard is wood. So, still gonna have a bunch of wood.

True with most, but not all Travel Trailers. Some have no wood.

[desiphil]

Some metal framed roofs are really awesome. See Dynamax's Trilogy. Some are not too good. Find out very clearly how they tie the metal roof structure to the sidewall. Some manufacturers simply insert wood blocks in the hollow tube aluminum and screw together.

Even with metal roof supports, all of your roof and floor decking will be a wood product. The exterior fiberglass is glued to wood. The interior wallboard is wood. So, still gonna have a bunch of wood.

[djsamuel]

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
Yes I like the Livin' Lite campers. They are rather spartan inside, but I like how they're built. And spartan isn't a bad thing. I'm a believer in minimalism and form-follows-function anyways. 🙂

They are a bit spartan, that's for sure. The "luxury" look of many of the other campers kept catching my attention. But maybe because of the engineer in me, and the fact that my wife heavily weighed durability over looks, we kept comparing the construction methods. We finally chose the Camplite. Many of the other campers out there seemed very nice as well.

[Bumpyroad]

thank goodness, I don't have an orphan after all.
bumpy 🙂

[aftermath]

youngone wrote:

aftermath wrote:
I have an Airstream. It is all metal except for the floor. Is it better? I really don't think so because like all trailers, if not regularly inspected and properly maintained it is going to leak. The problem with Airstreams is floor rot.

If I were looking at trailers today I probably would not get too worked up over wood vs metal framing. I would play very close attention to the quality of the trailer, the history of the brand and the record of repairs. Keep the roof clean and maintain all the caulking and it won't matter if the frame is wood or not. The addition of new composite materials for floors is a welcome improvement. The Evergreen line came out a couple of years ago with a trailer that was made of materials that couldn't be damaged by water. They went out of business quickly which was a shame. Expensive units and poor management was talk.

Evergreen is not out of business. Check out their website. goevergreenrv.com. I have a 2012 Evergreen Ever-lite and I love it. This company responses to my emails right away and solves any problems I have. By the way it came with a 2 year warranty and they have backed it 100%. 6 sided aluminum frame and lots of composite material and no plywood floors rotting in my rv! They do Now use plywood in the roof where mine has a sheet of composite material on the roof. Also their roofs are covered with TPO Vinyl instead of a rubber roof. I inspect my roof and rv many times during the season to make sure all is well!

Sorry, my mistake. It was Earthbound, not Evergreen that has gone out of business.

http://www.rvbusiness.com/tag/earthbound-rv-llc/

I looked at one of these at a RV Show in my area and was quite impressed. Apparently, not enough other owners were as impressed as me.

[youngone]

aftermath wrote:
I have an Airstream. It is all metal except for the floor. Is it better? I really don't think so because like all trailers, if not regularly inspected and properly maintained it is going to leak. The problem with Airstreams is floor rot.

If I were looking at trailers today I probably would not get too worked up over wood vs metal framing. I would play very close attention to the quality of the trailer, the history of the brand and the record of repairs. Keep the roof clean and maintain all the caulking and it won't matter if the frame is wood or not. The addition of new composite materials for floors is a welcome improvement. The Evergreen line came out a couple of years ago with a trailer that was made of materials that couldn't be damaged by water. They went out of business quickly which was a shame. Expensive units and poor management was talk.

Evergreen is not out of business. Check out their website. goevergreenrv.com. I have a 2012 Evergreen Ever-lite and I love it. This company responses to my emails right away and solves any problems I have. By the way it came with a 2 year warranty and they have backed it 100%. 6 sided aluminum frame and lots of composite material and no plywood floors rotting in my rv! They do Now use plywood in the roof where mine has a sheet of composite material on the roof. Also their roofs are covered with TPO Vinyl instead of a rubber roof. I inspect my roof and rv many times during the season to make sure all is well!

[SoCalDesertRid1]

djsamuel wrote:

SoCalDesertRider wrote:
Many 'aluminum' frames are built very chinsy, using too thin material, or only welded on one side, faulty welds, not enough framing members in the design. But then again, most everything in the RV industry is built chinsy....

Exactly. That's why I posted the link to the LivinLite construction video. I am really impressed by how they are built. Even the cabinets are integral to the frame of the camper, and all are built of strong framing components. I'm a mechanical engineer who's worked a lot with aluminum in the marine area, and am impressed with the materials and construction of the Camplites. That's why my wife and I purchased one. That said, I do agree with many posters here, whether aluminum, fiberglass, or wood; campers can last a long time or just a few years based on the maintenance and inspections given.

Yes I like the Livin' Lite campers. They are rather spartan inside, but I like how they're built. And spartan isn't a bad thing. I'm a believer in minimalism and form-follows-function anyways. 🙂