Fiberglass vrs Aluminium Sided Campers

[rewcamper-SUN]

any ideas or info on laminated side walls as opposed to traditional siding ? I've seen bot for this model, this year..

 

[JohnGB]

any ideas or info on laminated side walls as opposed to traditional siding ? I've seen bot for this model, this year..

Hi, Sunline offer the laminated side walls as an "option" and considered it an upgrade. They built the rest of the camper the same, but if the dealer or the customer ordered the laminated side walls option, known as the SE package, then they would put that siding on.

Both are good siding options and both have pro's and con's to them. It comes down to a personal choice of which one prefers.

Hope this helps

John

 

[rewcamper-SUN]

thanks john. I was thinking that the cabinets on the solid wall models must have been screwed in from the inside unless the walls were put up in layers. the traditional siding makes it hard to remove anything unless the siding is removed, or the wood studs are so bad that the cabinets pull off. the one I was looking at was a solid wall, and I was wondering if there was floor work to be done, are the cabinets are a big concern..would you know how they're done ?

 

[JohnGB]

Hi rewcamper,

From what I know, Sunline did not change the way the camper was built just because of the siding option put on. Meaning the cabinets and the main wall structure was the same. The cabinets where screwed from the outside of the inside wall board to the cabinet and some of the cabinets had support parts screwed from the inside out. They really did not change their entire manufacturing method just due to the siding option.

The aluminium is stapled to the studs from the outside.

The fiberglass is glued to a luan sheet and that luan sheet is attached to the the outside of the wall studs like the aluminum siding. What I do not know is if they glued and stapled the laun sheet to the camper first, then glued on the filon siding onto the camper OR they bonded the filon separately to the luan and put the pre-assembled sheet glued to the studs. Glue on the fiberglass walls replaced the staples on the aluminium sided campers.

From what I have learned, the new way of making fiberglass sided campers is using a vacuum bonder. The put the entire wall, inside and outside with wall studs and all in a vacuum bonder chamber and use the pressure of the vacuum action to create a 100% over all area clamp to set the glue properly.

The old way of not using the vacuum bonder made it harder to get a good clamp on the glue set. Sunline went out of business before the age of camper wall vacuum bonding became popular to my knowledge.

I have not heard of any reports from our members where the fiberglass sided campers had glue separation issues that did not have a form leak to get in and deteriorate the glue or the luan backing. So the older gluing methods worked well, but it may have been more labor intensive the the vacuum bonding setup to get it to work right and more profitable.

As we know, a leak in a camper is bad news regardless of what siding is on it. The need is, work to not get a leak.

As to removing a cabinet in an aluminium sided camper vrs the fiberglass sided, the same issues exist of not having the cabinet installed directly from the inside. You still need to deal with the screws coming in from the outside. Yes, I too wish they where all built like a house, but it is a camper and they use the structure of the cabinet to create strength and support of the camper at less weight. When you take all the cabinets and inside walls out of a camper, the whole structure is a little more wiggly. So since cabinets are not considered a changing item in a camper, they screwed them in from the outside to make a stronger camper while saving on weight and structure to make them self supporting without the cabinets. At least this is my thinking on what they did it this way.

Hope this helps

John

 

[rewcamper-SUN]

as usual john THANKS.. now you'll understand my constant concern and questions regarding disassembly. my last trailer that I completely gutted was a 2005 other brand, with vacuum bonded walls. these were about 1 by 1 aluminum studs, built flat,much like a house frame, foam board in between, and an inside and outside wall bonded to the frame. all window openings etc were pre-framed then routed out. walls screwed up from the bottom through the frame and subfloor, then the corners screwed together. a nice arrangement until like me you have to remove the floor right out to the outside walls. I actually jacked the body up a bit to get to the floor around the perimeter out. I changed or fixed all perimeter mouldings, putty tape, and screws. the flooring had actually swelled from 5/8 to 1 1/4 thick. anyway hence my quest for my original sunline 1550 or something. 7 months on the other trailer part time, the love affair faded, and I SOLD IT COMPLETED WITHOUT IT EVER LEAVING MY YARD !!!! thanks again your responses are great....

 

[JohnGB]

Wow, that was quite a rebuild.

By any chance do you have pics of the rebuild? Learning new things is always a good thing.

Dealing with the aluminum framed in bonded construction is for sure different. I have not been into that yet. Sunline made 2 series of campers with the aluminium wall studs and floor too. The roof may have been the traditional wood rafter system placed on top of the aluminium wall frame don't know for sure. And they used the foam board insulation in the aluminum area. These where known as the Que and certain model years of the Advancer.

It would be helpful to our club members on how you went about fixing that other brand as we have at least one active Que member who will be doing a fix in the somewhat near future. I do not recall any of our members doing a post on their aluminum frame camper yet. We have many of the wood framed ones.

Thanks

John

 

[rewcamper-SUN]

john, I have pics but oddly enough it's all floor replacement and doesn't include any wall repair ! not one place was soft in the walls. I actually never found a/the leak, or wet spot on the new floor. I had sealed all the mouldings, and areas that were suspect.i think in that type of construction, the most likely place would be outside corner mouldings, and storage doors. the water can really only run DOWN I think for the most part, as the foam and aluminum would not absorb water on the way down. I managed to put down a new Armstrong one piece vinyl floor covering that was nice and thick, and light colored, almost as original...IN ONE PIECE !! that is the advantage of having cabinets and walls secured from the inside. they come completely out. I cut the new floor covering back from the walls about 2 inches or so , so it could be watched all the way around for new leaks, everywhere covered by cabinets or beds. no glue as the floors are not usually glued down. i was right down to the metal frame and plastic belly covering. no insulation, the plastic laid right over the metal trailer frame. I used a circular saw set to a depth that did not cut through the plastic..well maybe a FEW small places GORILLA TAPE fixed that. I wish I had the moisture meter last year. one other thought. this all only relates to a 16 foot trailer. larger would of course be more work depending on where the damage was. this also gave me a chance to see all the water and electrical systems before it all went back together. no stone unturned. I sold it soon after as I really didn't like the layout and lack of windows. nicely built though