Why no aluminum framing?

[Hollybee]

Originally Posted by yardsale

I pine away for an aluminum undercarriage a la Oliver Trailer as I look at the rust building on the steel frame of our 17B used in the winter.

WE toured the Ollie plant too..I pined away a bit for an Ollie 23..until I figured out it wd cost me $80,000 US, [plus a bigger truck]..so, I pined not so much after that. WE really like our E21C btw After towing it home from AZ for 3 weeks last June, I did end up buying a bigger truck, but still was $38,000 to the good, which more than covered the truck upgrade we wanted.

[okhcolot]

My brother sprays the underside of his cars with Fluid Film (oil based) to help prevent rust since we are in northeastern Ohio. Maybe this could be done on a trailer too? Would there be a reason not to do this? I'm from California where rust is not a problem and I've never owned a trailer, at least not yet.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by okhcolot

My brother sprays the underside of his cars with Fluid Film (oil based) to help prevent rust since we are in northeastern Ohio. Maybe this could be done on a trailer too? Would there be a reason not to do this? I'm from California where rust is not a problem and I've never owned a trailer, at least not yet.

Hi: okhcolot... I thought there was an increased price for aluminium due to some "Tear off".
I have collected 5 large spray cans of Krown http://www.krown.com undercoating ready to do the metal frame and undercarriage of the trailer. Now I'm waiting on a shipment of "Elbow grease"!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[okhcolot]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: okhcolot... I thought there was an increased price for aluminium due to some "Tear off".
I have collected 5 large spray cans of Krown http://www.krown.com undercoating ready to do the metal frame and undercarriage of the trailer. Now I'm waiting on a shipment of "Elbow grease"!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

We have a 5.0 on order for next year, and my brother says if we provide the grease he will provide the elbows. Sometimes little brothers can come in handy once they are all grown up!

[Jim Bennett]

Escape has had requests and suggestions regarding all kinds of improvements to their trailers, and while many would certainly be an improvement, just a few $200 to $1,000 (a made up guessing number) would increase the base cost of the trailers by many thousands of dollars. While these improvements would meet the fancy of a few potential customers, they would push away many more.

This is one reason that Reace had kept many upgrades as options so people actually saw firsthand their effect on the cost. Some things that just about everyone gets are better though as a standard in my opinion, like dual glazed windows and extra insulation.

[75thRanger]

My 2002 Holiday Rambler is still rolling along fine. The frame has rust spots. Who cares?

I expect the same of My Escape.

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by okhcolot

We have a 5.0 on order for next year, and my brother says if we provide the grease he will provide the elbows. Sometimes little brothers can come in handy once they are all grown up!

Hi: okhcolor... That would be fine but mine is getting older... but won't grow up!!!
He has a "Stickie" trailer replete with all their own problems. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Chotch]

Originally Posted by Hollybee

WE toured the Ollie plant too..I pined away a bit for an Ollie 23..until I figured out it wd cost me $80,000 US, [plus a bigger truck]..so, I pined not so much after that. WE really like our E21C btw After towing it home from AZ for 3 weeks last June, I did end up buying a bigger truck, but still was $38,000 to the good, which more than covered the truck upgrade we wanted.

🤔 think this pretty much says it all. Good value for your $$😎

[Raider47]

Not sure if I am overlapping other comments as I only scanned most of them but here is my opinion:
If you look at aluminum campers, they are more expensive than equivalent wood campers. They are also boxy and have simple interiors. The curved walls of fiberglass trailers would make fitting aluminum frames inside very expensive. You would also still need material between the fiberglass and aluminum so the aluminum would become redundant. The fiberglass plywood sandwich is a structural component and the lack of structural framing besides the attached wood cabinets is what makes it so light.
Aluminum also conducts heat and cold better than wood which would counter the insulation benefits of fiberglass campers.
One significant advantage of aluminum rv frames is corrosion resistance. Fiberglass campers are much more resistant to water penetration reducing the chances of wood rot compared to traditional campers.
The chassis frame could easily be aluminum on bumper pull models and would be superior in most ways besides cost so I'm sure Escape would switch materials if they thought customers would be willing to pay the premium. The 5th wheel frame would be more difficult to make strong enough from aluminum and cost effective. Aluminum horse trailers sometimes use steel in gooseneck sections of their aluminum frames.

Wood and steel are both good strong materials when engineered well and complement fiberglass campers better than aluminum.

[tractors1]

Imagine all the fun of drilling and tapping the internal frames to attach anything. There's some labor!

[Patandlinda]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

I have to disagree. From day one, the bed plywood in my 21 began to crack along the driver side wall due to the way the framing was done. (granted - I could lose some weight and it would help ) Look at the last pic in my previous post and then tell me that the framing was done correctly. That big gap where no support was installed under the plywood shouldn't be there.

I've heard over and over complaints about the creaking noises from the bed on the forum. The framing in the rest of the trailer is fine - under the bed, not so much.

I really like how you improved the bed frame . Asking the bed ply to hold it together on our 19 different bed frame but also larger added more supports to floor . Haven’t had any creaking yet . Like you have done ,more work to this trailer then I should of had to . Pat

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by Patandlinda

I really like how you improved the bed frame . Asking the bed ply to hold it together on our 19 different bed frame but also larger added more supports to floor . Haven’t had any creaking yet . Like you have done ,more work to this trailer then I should of had to . Pat

Thanks Pat. We seem to be heading down the same paths at times. Like minds I guess.

[Dcboyd]

Do you have a pict of your reinforcement? This I am in interested in doing myself.

Wait. The last pict just shows the braces cantilevered into the air?
Thats not acceptable. Thank goodness I am a retired contractor and architectural engineer. And have a wood shop. Your top picture looks good.

[Dcboyd]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

Thanks Pat. We seem to be heading down the same paths at times. Like minds I guess.

Thank goodness I. Have our S. Tx winter to bring our new 21C up to snuff .

[oldwave]

A couple of things I live in Ohio and use the fluid film treatment on my 2004 F-150
No rust underneath. Also before we bought the escape we looked at livin lite all aluminum trailers. They seemed very well made then they were bought out and the first thing they did was eliminate aluminum roof for a rubber roof and drop tandem axels to single axle design. Glad we went with Escape. However those trailers were pretty well made at least at first. I toured one in Cape Breton in 2016 and it was nicely made. Not sure if they are still in business. Some comments mentioned the floor getting cold quickly and some owners used cork. Still they were nice at that time and competitive priced .
They ceased production in 2018

[tdf-texas]

Originally Posted by Dcboyd

Do you have a pict of your reinforcement? This I am in interested in doing myself.

Wait. The last pict just shows the braces cantilevered into the air?
Thats not acceptable. Thank goodness I am a retired contractor and architectural engineer. And have a wood shop. Your top picture looks good.

Referring to post #2:
The last pic is the wood framing Escape uses - a sheet of plywood is screwed to the wood strips but areas of the plywood is left unbraced. The wood slats are attached using staples.

The two top pics are of the framing I replaced the Escape framing with. All joints are connected using wood biscuits and Titebond II wood glue.

[gbaglo]

Any idea why my 2008 Escape 17B has no issues with any of the framing? Any idea at all? I'm sure you do.

[Dcboyd]

Originally Posted by tdf-texas

Referring to post #2:
The last pic is the wood framing Escape uses - a sheet of plywood is screwed to the wood strips but areas of the plywood is left unbraced. The wood slats are attached using staples.

The two top pics are of the framing I replaced the Escape framing with. All joints are connected using wood biscuits and Titebond II wood glue.

If my framing looks like that I will rebuild it also. I may add another 20-25# but that’s ok.

If it was built to my standards, it would not be affordable. 90% of buyers have no idea what is correct or not. Not just trailers, but their own homes.

[pjcd]

Owning an RV is like owning a boat, (well not as bad as owning a boat) there is a certain amount of maintenance involved, I've owned RV's for 30 years, the first thing I do is rust proof the frame, if its a tube frame, I use a spray wand to get inside. As far as wood, I would prefer no wood in my rigs, but sometimes that's just not going to happen, that being said, I go through the trailer and fix what I think needs fixing. Should you have to go through the trailer and " do it right"? No, but there's not a RV out there that couldn't stand to be put together better.

[MyronL]

No detectable cracking here. I no longer weigh 250 pounds so when I flop down on the bed I'm feeling good about that.