options and modificatios wall reinforcement option

[oldstation]

We have a 21 ft on order, working on our build sheet, does any one know how they reinforce the walls, extra plywood ? Also has anyone got their 21ft without reinforced walls, and if so have you had any problems, We are thinking on not having them reinforced, they say its for extra strength for attaching things on side of the wall. Would appreciate your input on this, thanks, JL

[tdf-texas]

I'm probably not much help but we had almost all of the walls reinforced. Yes, they reinforce with a piece of plywood inside the walls about 3/4 of the way down the wall.

Why did we have so many walls reinforced? Until we were in the trailer, we did not have conviction on where stuff would be mounted so to cover all the bases, we had it made where we could mount stuff to any of the walls.

Please remember, we ordered our 21' sight unseen. The first "new" model 21 wasn't built until after our build sheet was due. We were told that the interior wasn't changing as we kept getting notices of interior changes. Having all the walls reinforced may have added some weight to the trailer but trying to reinforce a wall after the build would have been difficult.

In your case, try to figure out where you want to mount stuff. There are a number of 21's out there to look at - see what others have done and go from there.

[Jim Bennett]

Hi JL, welcome to the site, and congrats on your order of the 21.

Reinforced walls use 3/4" plywood, which is the thickness between skins of plywood. I found there was plenty of framing to attach the few heavy things I might want to attach, and never had any reinforcing done. Reace even said to me that he thought it was being overdone, but for some reason some folks feel they need to have it. For me, it is an extra cost and weight I can get by without.

[Steve Clark]

oldstation,
Yes the walls are reinforced with plywood. I think it is 3/8 inch, but not sure. (Edit: Jim says 3/4", and he knows much better than I) If you have definite plans to hang something on an interior wall, and on a location that is not part of the framing, then I would have that particular wall reinforced. Otherwise, wall reinforcement is not necessary, and only adds extra weight.

[Donna D.]

I had four walls reinforced in Ten Forward. Both dinette walls and both walls up in the loft. Mainly because I didn't know what and where I'd hang anything and didn't want to be restricted to just around the edge of the cabinets. Coming up on three years and I haven't hung a darn thing yet! But, I'm ready when I do....

[tdf-texas]

One thing I forgot. After visiting a "classic" 21 before the build, I noticed that the wall between the bed and the bathroom had a lot of give to it. We reinforced that wall as we want to be able to mount a hand rail in the bath and also, it felt like I could push in the wall leaning against it in bed. The standard walls are very thin.

[War Eagle]

Walls are quite thin without reinforcement (like the standard 4'x8' sheets of interior wood wall paneling). Our only real concern was a wall solid enough to mount a 19" TV on a swing arm. So we reinforced the wall where we envisioned mounting it. Haven't mounted the TV yet, but that is one thick, solid-sounding wall.

[Mary F]

We got no extra reinforcement on our 21 (2015). YMMV, but we didn't want to add the weight, and weren't interested in mounting a television (or much of anything else). We have added a couple of command hooks for hanging dish towel and hand towel near the kitchen (galley) sink. Still contemplating the best place to hang a gimme cap...And we added a little shelf for a Bose mini-speaker, but did so by attaching it to the bottom of one of the cabinets in the dinette area.

So far, no regrets.

[cpaharley2008]

I reinforced the one wall next to the bath/bedroom for future magazine racks or other heavier items, otherwise there are studs in the walls, just like at home. There are really on 2 walls that one needs to be concerned with, the bath/bed and a dinette.refer wall.

[GregandTeresa]

We re-enforced 3 walls in our new 19 last year, and so far, have not really needed it. I would not have done it, except for the fact that someone on this forum (name rhymes with Tom) convinced my wife that we really needed to

[rubicon327]

oldstation: you are getting some great advice from the people that would know. I wanted to point out that ETI quotes 25lbs extra for the reinforced walls and 50lbs for the bath wall. See attached post. The overall weight is not insignificant and could top 175lbs with all walls reinforced. That is like adding two additional rooftop air conditioners. That's not even taking into consideration what might be hung on those walls.

http://www.escapeforum.org/forums/f8...tml#post175070

[Bobbito]

No reinforcement on our 2015 Escape 21 and we haven't missed it. If we had wanted to mount a TV in the dinette area we would had a single wall reinforced.


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[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by Bobbito

No reinforcement on our 2015 Escape 21 and we haven't missed it. If we had wanted to mount a TV in the dinette area we would had a single wall reinforced.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Or if you wanted, you could just mount the arm near the edge where there is aframing member, which is where Escape mounts them if they do the install. No need for extra backing. Being a corner and laterally supported in two directions, it will even be more solid than the plywood backing.This is what I am doing too.

I hung a couple magazine racks in our 21, one bedside on the fridge, the other dinette side of the bath, just using existing framing, and trust me, I put them to hard tests and no issue with them at all.

[thoer]

I went with Reace (who builds them) and JimB (who's construction knowledge I greatly respect), take on this, and had no walls reinforced. I prefer keeping a lightweight fiberglass trailer lightweight,

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

Or if you wanted, you could just mount the arm near the edge where there is aframing member, which is where Escape mounts them if they do the install. No need for extra backing. Being a corner and laterally supported in two directions, it will even be more solid than the plywood backing.This is what I am doing too.

I hung a couple magazine racks in our 21, one bedside on the fridge, the other dinette side of the bath, just using existing framing, and trust me, I put them to hard tests and no issue with them at all.

You mean your 19, correct Jim?

[Jim Bennett]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

You mean your 19, correct Jim?

Yes, not sure where my head was when I said 21.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by Jim Bennett

you could just mount the arm near the edge where there is aframing member, which is where Escape mounts them if they do the install. No need for extra backing.

For some reason I agree with you.

There does seem to have been a trend later to reinforce multiple walls. None in ours and if I need to mount something heavy somewhere I'll look at what framing nearby is usable or figure out a way to carry the heavy load.

Ron

[Red Dog]

Originally Posted by thoer

I went with Reace (who builds them) and JimB (who's construction knowledge I greatly respect), take on this, and had no walls reinforced. I prefer keeping a lightweight fiberglass trailer lightweight,

That is probably the way to go ...I went to the dark side and had three of the walls reinforced. On the bright side, I will have extra boards if I get stuck in the mud!

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by Red Dog

That is probably the way to go ...I went to the dark side and had three of the walls reinforced. On the bright side, I will have extra boards if I get stuck in the mud!

Looks like we are there with you . Escape put in our TV mount at the factory on the corner . I had to add more backing and reattach . Mount keep pulling away from corner . Could be a bad piece of wood or maybe didn't hit in the wood right. We always remove TV before traveling . When I removed our refrigerator there was no reinforcement in that wall . Glad other 3 are , I hope . Pat