GPW wrote:Foam allows you to design a trailer that fits your needs …. Commercials are designed for cutesy eye appeal for the ladies … But in use they’re poorly planned for most people ( Uncomfortable ) … And their appliances are terribly expensive , not that reliable, and Dangerous … Foamies bring their own stuff ( what You want) Commercial trailer make you bring their stuff that’s not that reliable … and sometimes even catches fire … One only has to read any Non factory RV forum to discover their many problems …
It’s a Giant scam on the public …. Ever wonder why RV dealers can afford TV advertising all day and night
… They make a Shedload of Profit on the shady work they do …
“ membrane roof "…
And they made fun of Foamies ...
Having a 12 year old 34 foot unit that two people have lived in for almost 7 years....not much of it is original....and what is left is falling apart....
Most of the original appliances were scrapped in the first year of living in it....
Fridge will catch on fire...at some point....don't believe me? If you run it on propane ever.....do some looking inside the compartment that the fridge lives in....(my parents 18 foot Terry caught fire in there driveway in 1973.....some leaves had blown in the vent and they were running the fridge in prep for a weekend at Grand Isle....I was loading the trailer and saw this small smoke trail coming out the vent.....I took out one of the compartment walls....but got the fire out in time for the trip to take place....if I had not been on the ball....probably the trailer and old shotgun house I grew up in would have burned down).....thats fridge.....I have a 110 volt 3/4 size house fridge in mine....the one a lot of solar people use....
Oven: its still there.....good for pot storage, only.....use a toaster oven....so why not just start with one?
Microwave is only thing still original, untouched, but a royal pita.....with having to 'load balance' current loads under a 30 amp breaker...So, even here....this forced me to install a separate electrical sub panel....50 amps....and plug my 30 amp current service into a 30 amp breaker on it....(kiss) and add a couple of 20 circuits isolated from all original wiring....
Sink, Sinks, tubs.....I have a replacement $200 Moen moduluar faucet over the kitchen sink....that $5 faucet....of course this was a no brainer when I tore out the kitchen cabinets and rebuilt them, and installed a Danby portable dishwasher in place of an awkward designed cabinet.....of course the decision to tear up the cabinets was easy since I needed to replace the kitchen floor in the first couple of years I was living in it full time....not because of water.....no....some idiot.....had installed the 2x3 flooring stud....on a 45 degree angle...with a sharp point that was cutting a break into the subfloor with every step (it felt like we were going to fall through)....
Tubs....I had fiberglassed one in 19 footer for a relative in the past....nice big crack in the bottom....same thing in this one.....I used some stuff that a aircraft guy let me use (can't remember the name or type....but...it ain't cracking where I fixed it....and to prevent it from happening elsewhere.....I just braced it underneath..(with foam)..like it should have been braced to start with....
Propane heater: this is even more dangerous than the fridge.....ask me how I know.....I have the scars from a old natural gas converted to propane furnace that was burning dirty.....easy to tell....find out what a clean flame looks like....anything else is dirty.....This must be serviced often.....I had an old mobile home I lived in for a year while building a house back in the early 90's....I relit it when it went out on one of those rare mornings in south lousiana when its in the teens.....and the unburnt gas, flashed out that little pilot lighting hole.....yeah.....a week on morphine....debriededment and whirlpools.....and just a few percent short a ride to a proper burn unit.....When I noticed that mine was not burning clean...I serviced mine in my RV by pulling it out....and using electric heat.....when it get to single digits....I have a buddy heater that I run for 5 minutes.....good for a 4 hour boost....
For some reason....my roof air is still working....but too expensive an electric current draw to run full time (it would never stop)....I have a window unit in the slide out window.....to properly cool this unit....it would have needed two of those roof hogs.....
I do have a 3 season unit.....while mine is not even mid grade....it ain't no where near the bottom.....it is a true 3 season unit.....if it is still holding together....but with single pane windows? Have to place inserts in the windows to keep heat in the winter and cool in the summer...and a constant issue for condensation.....mine actually is insulated pretty well....side walls are foam after all.....foam sandwich....roof is 2x6's....I still can dance on the roof, we do it every time we caulk.....
Waste....3 waste tanks.....just bypassed the kitchen gray water.....4 years ago....had a heart attack a week after dropping black tank and replacing the RV toilet with a house toilet....the whole waste treatment idea is flawed....if...and only if....everything else lasts any reasonable amount of time....the buildup in the tanks....will become so heavy as to create a weight problem.....or it will be even worse and become blocked.....this is black and gray....doesn't matter.....and don't even get me started how my kitchen grey water tank 'vent' was left 'open' under the 'roof fridge vent cap'......to allow everything and anything that might float or fly out of the kitchen grey water tank back into the RV......
Forget about replacing that expensive awning.....look on pintrest and spend $5 for a tarp and about $3 dollars for some plastic standoffs.....to 'run' in the awning track....and for 8 bucks.....I have a replacement awning.....instead of a big bucks.....and it won't blow off in a storm.....or on the highway.....
Roof.....so much wrong here.....but here is root of all your problems......with a house its the foundation......with a RV its the roof.....you can't spend enough time up there to keep your RV from falling apart......the only way to protect it is to cover it with another structure......and that defeats its purpose....there is NO way to 'seal' a RV roof with the way they are manufactured......and the roof membrane is probably the thickness of one of my bedsheets......so many things could put a whole in this......for me it was a shopping center sign that I choose to back under......clipped a quarter inch slit in the center of my roof about an inch long.....easy to repair.....but so much easier to destroy....and I manage to damage the vinyl insert that cover the screws that lie in a channel all around the perimeter of the roof.....actually holding the roof on to the top of the wall....and on one side actually taking the whole weight of that big bulky 20 foot plus awning.....
With that vinyl missing.....those screws will let in water......yes.....the good stuff.....and the ants will take up residence in there.....and carry some dirt in there......and leaves will compost in there.....amazing all the bad things that can happen in such a small space.....
you know.....while it might seem like I have run out of problems with bashing manufactured RV's....not really.....I have run out of energy to spend on it....
I think the point is made....
what GPW said......
I too think there are alternatives to the RV industry....and from my long experience of trying to manage and/or replace the 'standard RV industry offering.....one of the places to get good ideas is from right here.....from GPW and from quite a few others on this forum....that is what I am doing...
and you know I have jinxed myself.....that hot water heater will fail for sure now.....either the electrode or just flat corrode a hole in it.....it has to be in bad shape as the water here eats a metal hose fitting in just a couple months.....much better at this point on this one to be just reactionary.....otherwise I would have no time for anything else.
by GPW » Sun Sep 16, 2018 5:16 am 
Those poor people in Florida …. 
That was all OK , just filthy and some surface rust … So we cleaned it up a bit and got a lesson in changing bearings and bearing cups … Getting them out was fairly easy , but reinstalling the cups was a challenge . We didn’t have a tool or press for that so we got out the hammer and wood block ... 
Never enough trailers eh … We’re down to only 4 in the yard now … 
