I'm sitting here looking out my livingroom looking at a vertical seam on the drivers side ,about halfway of the length of the coach. This seam reaches from the metal moulding all the waydown to the moulding above the compartments. I went out and can catch my fingernail in the seam. Is this the starting of the subject of this post??
Jim
Likely not.
It is common to see the sidewall beams, particularly in certain light or when dew is in the sidewall.
Sound it with your knuckle or plastic hammer/plastic screwdriver head. It should sound solid and just like the other beams. Hollow sound-- could indicate a problem.
Brett, It's not the beams. Yes you can see where the cage beams are. This looks like where panels ar butted together. They seem to be well sealed - I also found one on the passenger side close to where the rear large awning support is. Guess I had never looked so close before. I seem to remember seeing pics of how the side panels were put on to the steel cage but don't remember where...These are not actually a crack that you can see in to.
Jim
Sounds like a crack in the paint top coat from the coach being twisted while trying to level it. I can see similar "cracks" in two places on our coach, but no incursion of water yet. I just make sure I wax the areas very well a couple times a year.
Can you post a picture?
I'll have to get my son to take pic and then learn how to do so...
Jim
Seam in the side wall??? Panels butted together???
Yes, please post pictures.
Thanks.
Jim,
That sounds like the seam in the glass table where they laid up the sidewalls and then vacuum molded all the parts together. If they didn't fill the seam in the glass joint just right it left a seam in the fiberglass. We have seen several sidewalls like that but a pic would be good to help tell.
Pamela & Mike
Are you saying my sidewalls are one piece? That will alieve some of my worries. I have a '69 & a '78
Travco. They have some bulges but no seams that I have seen so far.
Jim
Jim,
On your '92 from the belt line up to the roof attachment and front cap to rear cap should be one piece. Our '92 sidewalls were all one piece and had a glass production table seam showing. After questioning about the little mold imperfection that was on some of the coaches back then we were taken back to the production room and given a one on one look at the sidewall production table and process.
Pamela & Mike
Like Pamela and Mike said those lines were caused by the table where the fiberglass was laid up. Your sidewall is one piece.
To read up on RV Fiberglass Siding just Google "Filon" the are the biggest manufacture.
Thanks, folks. I was beginning to worry about having to make a bank loan and go to NAC!
Plate glass table. 12' lenght
With all due respect, Foretravel didn't use Filon for sidewall construction in '92.
Pamela & Mike
I know nothing about 92's but in 99', they laid up fiberglass and then Gelcoat. You can see the layers in the picture below. They used filon or something like it in the Unicoaches in the basement compartment walls, the top and bottom skins, and the basement ceiling. In the picture, the top is the thin layer of gelcoat on top of the fiberglass. I think the construction is similar in earlier years from what I have seen, but I have no direct experience. Until proven wrong, I believe that not using filon on the exterior of a coach (other than the bottom skin), is one of the things that has made them different than most of the other makers.
Don
I think Nancy thinks "Filon" is a company that builds RV walls for F T ^.^d 8)
JohnH
The visible seam on our coach runs top to bottom on the left side, the right side seam is above the middle of the door. I can feel it when I run my hand across the sidewall. After a thorough inspection my coach has 2 seams on each side, drivers side has a seam 1 ft. forward of the bedroom window and another aft of the kitchen window. Pass. side has the seams forward of the bedroom window and the short one over the middle of the door.
The sidewalls were made in house and produced like Don has explained. The end caps and basement doors were also made in the Foretravel fiberglass shop.
Pamela & Mike