Wall Construction Question

[RoadEyePie]

Last day at Hershey. Two relatively high end RV manufacturers seem to be really close with one big exception. One uses solid weld joints in their aluminum wall construction while the other uses the glued and screwed joint construction. Opinions, comments on these two construction methods?

[rollondown]

The glued and screwed method is one that I'm currently living in. Seems to work so far. Our last 5'er was welded. It held up for 80k towed miles, before being totaled. Is there a difference in wall construction? Hung wall vs Vacuum bonded or pinch rolled? Difference in insulation- wool batts or blue Dow Corning? Is there a method to isolate the interior wall from the wall stud to eliminate heat and cold transfer thru the aluminum?
Dig deeper into the manufactures and find what you think is best.

[RoadEyePie]

Originally Posted by rollondown

The glued and screwed method is one that I'm currently living in. Seems to work so far. Our last 5'er was welded. It held up for 80k towed miles, before being totaled. Is there a difference in wall construction? Hung wall vs Vacuum bonded or pinch rolled? Difference in insulation- wool batts or blue Dow Corning? Is there a method to isolate the interior wall from the wall stud to eliminate heat and cold transfer thru the aluminum?
Dig deeper into the manufactures and find what you think is best.

Yes I'm aware of the other differences in the wall construction and I've been on the tours so I got that covered. I'm just trying to determine if one of the aluminum joint techniques is better than the other.

[Old-Biscuit]

Although it does require some mechanical ability the screwed/glued method IS a strong joint that can be taught fairly quickly.
And with the adhesives now a days......good to go


Welding Aluminum.....can be an effective method also IF--BIG IF--- the weldor is GOOD at welding aluminum.
Very easy to under-penetrate, over-penetrate and/or overheat causing stress/binding just waiting to POP loose.


Guy down the street in a weld shop...YEP
RV Factory weldor.........NAH


JMHO and Daddy was a weldor!

[RoadEyePie]

Originally Posted by rollondown

The glued and screwed method is one that I'm currently living in. Seems to work so far. Our last 5'er was welded. It held up for 80k towed miles, before being totaled. Is there a difference in wall construction? Hung wall vs Vacuum bonded or pinch rolled? Difference in insulation- wool batts or blue Dow Corning? Is there a method to isolate the interior wall from the wall stud to eliminate heat and cold transfer thru the aluminum?
Dig deeper into the manufactures and find what you think is best.

80K towed miles sounds like it held up very well. Assume the RV was totaled for reasons other than failed wall joints.

[aknavy]

Originally Posted by Old-Biscuit

Although it does require some mechanical ability the screwed/glued method IS a strong joint that can be taught fairly quickly.
And with the adhesives now a days......good to go


Welding Aluminum.....can be an effective method also IF--BIG IF--- the weldor is GOOD at welding aluminum.
Very easy to under-penetrate, over-penetrate and/or overheat causing stress/binding just waiting to POP loose.


Guy down the street in a weld shop...YEP
RV Factory weldor.........NAH


JMHO and Daddy was a weldor!

When I was looking, I visited Jayco, Heartland, and Cedar Creek Factories. Jayco/Heartland used welded wall frames, Cedar Creek uses glue and screw, with L brackets at the corners to reinforce.


The welders at Jayco and Heartland don't know how to weld aluminum - lot's of welds didn't penetrate and were just globs at the joint. Heartland was better than Jayco, but both were not good.


The glue/screw joints appeared to be better constructed, with the advantage (in my mind) of being able to flex without breaking. Not sure if that's true, but it makes me feel better. Coupled with hung wall construction made me pick that style over welded.

[ALLOY]

I've seen a mess made of both methods.
- Welding = lack of fusion, undercut missing welds
- Screwing = twisted brackets, missing/ stripped screws, lack of adhesive

My $0.01 is that the tubing connection shouldn't be a deciding factor because the connections are under compression and wall panels carry the shear loads.

Are both manufactures using the same gauge of aluminum? I've seen the tube running along the bottom of the wall compress in some instances and in other instances bent over the outriggers.

When there is 2 or more slides + windows +entry door+ wheel cutouts this means there are only 3-4 locations along the side that can be used to bring the weight of the roof down to the trailer frame.