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Aluminum vs. Fiberglass Siding


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A couple of folks have mentioned that insurance companies give lower rates to RV's with composite side wall construction because they are less susceptible to hail damage.  The TT unit we're looking at comes in both aluminum and composite.  I'm not partial to either from a cosmetic perspective and that has not been a selection criteria in my searches.  The offer climate packages on both, so the difference in R-value must be insignificant. I will contact our insurance company (Travelers) about this, but curious what others know about this.  I should think composite side wall would be prone to cracking or delamination from a hail event and be more costly to repair - whereas the aluminum would just look like a Titleist gold ball but otherwise not effect performance (leaks or further degradation).

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I'll be interested to hear what your insurance has to say as I had not heard that at all. Most of the RVs that I am familiar with that use aluminum siding do so in order to reduce the weight as it is quite a bit lower in weight for the size RV. It probably also costs less to build as most of the lower cost rigs use it also. I am not familiar with any RVs that offer either type of construction. I have never heard of the laminated walls cracking under normal use and maintenance? In general the laminated walls have greater strength and usually a higher R value. They typically are much less subject to air penetration. The issue of delamination has been pretty much solved as long as the subject RV is maintained and aHaving ny leaks corrected promptly. One thing that has helped a great deal is that most builders now use some type of sealant material to coat all edges and all openings through the walls for windows and vents. 

Having owned RVs of both types of construction, the only reason that I would accept aluminum walls or roof is to keep the weight down, which is the case with our current ultra-lite weight RV. 

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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In the past I had two different trailers with filon siding that delaminated...to a lessor or major degree. So when I bought my final trailer (I hope!!!) I went with aluminum because I was tired of dealing with delam issues. But I suspect Kirk is right in that filon delam issues have been solved. I don't think insurance is an issue at all... Sure aluminum suffers from hail damage but I suspect that is a relatively small occurrence. I have had aluminum siding off and on for 40 years and never had a hail claim. Kirk mentions aluminum because it is light weight but my Sunnybrook is a very heavy trailer and has aluminum siding. So I guess I'm not helping to answer the question. Filon is definitely the future. I am very, very happy with my aluminum because I don't have to worry about delam anymore. And it is far easier to repair!

2007 Arctic Fox 32.5 rls for full-timing, now sold.

2014 Sunnybrook Sunset Creek 267rl for the local campgrounds now that we are off the road
2007 Silverado 2500 diesel

Loving Green Valley, AZ (just South of Tucson)

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On 5/17/2017 at 10:30 PM, theeyres said:

In the past I had two different trailers with filon siding that delaminated...to a lessor or major degree. So when I bought my final trailer (I hope!!!) I went with aluminum because I was tired of dealing with delam issues. But I suspect Kirk is right in that filon delam issues have been solved. I don't think insurance is an issue at all... Sure aluminum suffers from hail damage but I suspect that is a relatively small occurrence. I have had aluminum siding off and on for 40 years and never had a hail claim. Kirk mentions aluminum because it is light weight but my Sunnybrook is a very heavy trailer and has aluminum siding. So I guess I'm not helping to answer the question. Filon is definitely the future. I am very, very happy with my aluminum because I don't have to worry about delam anymore. And it is far easier to repair!

Good luck with that.  :)  We are now on our 3rd RV after our "first last one"

Newt

2012 HitchHiker Discover America 345 LKSB

2009 Dodge/Cummins

 

LIVINGSTON TX

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Well, we have the new (to us) StarCraft TT in the driveway now... two day trip to Billings to go through the buy process.  Our insurance (Travelers) did not ask anything about the trailers construction.  We did make sure to include collision coverage, having recently learned a painful lesson that the policy on our Palomino Truck Camper only had liability.  Perhaps my brother-in-laws insurance company does base policy rates around construction material, but Travelers does not.

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