Foretravel Owners' Forum

What you are describing is true also for the endcaps and, I believe the hatches as well. No question that the sidewalls are done differently, since the endcaps and hatches are not "infused" with metal framing like the roof and sidewalls. Obviously, the steel sidewalls and aluminum roof structure is welded up first and then the foam board insulation fitted in-between the frame members. The question in my mind is how the outer skin is applied and laminated to the framing and to the rigid insulation underneath. I think perhaps the layer under the gel coat comes as a sheet of resin infused fiberglass mesh and possibly Foretravel would outsource that component as smaller individual sheets that could be glued to the wall assembly and the joints glassed over to make a seamless substrate to which FOT would apply the outer Gel coat. The roof is a bit different since the roof has plywood decking over the aluminum frame and then the fiberglass substrate and Gel coated over that. I could be wrong... but that is my guess. Here are a couple of pictures. The first picture is the roof structure at the refrigerator vent opening where you can clearly see the plywood roof decking. The second picture is a 4" diameter plug from the dryer vent hole I drilled when I installed the Splendide 2100XC. The gelcoat is on top and there is two different types of rigid foam insulation and the luan inside paneling is the bottom layer. I call this my "Foretravel Sandwich".
Don
Edit: Oops! It appears I have taken this subject away from the original topic... Moderators feel free to remove or move it. I will try to be good from now on.

Not sure how to move either but those pictures should be searchable so a new thread is a good idea.  Thanks for posting those two pictures.  They will be very valuable in the next two weeks.  First the roof picture helps me understand how I may want to proceed to fix the holes from the original satellite dish.  I had it replaced as part of a rework of the AV in Nac.  When the new dish was added they left all the old holes open.  During three days of rain, water started coming into the interior thru the front ceiling light.  I own it because I did not check the work.  I will probe and probably seal the wood ends with west system and redrill for small stainless bolts and then caulk.

The second, sandwich, will also be helpful.  We are having windows resealed next week in Hudson FL.  I noted two fiberglass repairs, after the buff out, next to two windows on the passenger side.  They were professionally done as they end in proper angles but the gelcoat was not of the same quality.  Not sure what I will see when they come out but knowing the original layup will be very helpful.

John, are you sure that Foretravel uses finished sheets made by someone else? I had many conversations with Rance and Greg while at Xtreme, and unless I misunderstood them, Foretravel handlayed up the fiberglass for everything but the basement section which is a filon sheet material.
Don

Don,
I can't be proof positive as I'm relying on wisps of brain cells tucked away in a far corner of my mind and have no idea now how they got there.  Of course, what might be true in one model year maybe false in another.  One thing that might be telling is this "feature" I have found on my side walls; vertical seams every 130 inches.  I happen to have a bay door off where one seam is and I can see the edge of the fiberglass panel; the seam is only the thickness of the gelcoat which is about .020".  The seam is straight, only .030" wide and I can feel a groove when I run my fingernail across it .  I decided to look for seams on the roof and couldn't find any.  I would think if they could lay up a roof without seams, they could do a side wall too where it would be more visible.  I'm curious if other year coaches have these seams.