Ali or fibreglass ? (1 Viewer)

[6pm Cowboy]

12th of the month so must be time I made a serious post again.

MH body shell. Which is better and why. Ali sheeting or fibreglass ?

 

[zaskar]

12th of the month so must be time I made a serious post again.

MH body shell. Which is better and why. Ali sheeting or fibreglass ?

Pro's and Cons to both.
There is no definitive answer.

 

[savantuk]

Personally, I'd go for fibreglass.

It's stronger, easer to repair, easily moulded, less likely to leak, won't corrode, warmer than alloy,and will last a lot longer than alloy if well maintained and looked after.

It's also more expensive than alloy, but not so that it would add too much to the price of a caravan body.

The biggest problem with alloy, is that it stretches under pressure. My old Auto trail had large depressions along one side, where the kids had been batting a tennis ball

If you have a light dent, or bump, the panel has to be replaced, as it's extremely difficult to 'panel beat' back to the correct profile.

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[hilldweller]

Personally, I'd go for fibreglass.

It's stronger, easer to repair, easily moulded, less likely to leak, won't corrode, warmer than alloy,and will last a lot longer than alloy if well maintained and looked after.

On the other side:

It's heavier than alloy.

If water gets absorbed then first frost and it starts to delaminate or come out in a rash of pin prick holes.

I think I'd go for fibreglass though.

 

[Judge Mental]

Glass every time! for the reasons Doug has given above....

Most quality German manafacturers use GRP. aluminium can look better, its smoother then GRP and lighter, and why less technically proficant manafacturers use it. Fine until it starts getting knocked or scraped it is very easy to damage as it is soft.....Have seen countless hail damaged vans for sale on mobile.de just not economical to repair

 

[Judge Mental]

sorry oft topic!

what is wrong with this forum ...I sometimes write a post only to see it disapear and this can happen repeatedly. until i get fed up and leave it. in this case it happened but low and behold it was there when I had a look again. Other odd things are that you have to refresh the page constantly or else the page you are looking for is not there anymore.......

sorry cowboy...back on topic

GRP: GOOD Aluminium: BAD

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[vwalan]

glad mine is aluminium .seen to many with osmosis in the fibre glass .also an aluminium,ight dent but glp. cracks ,fine hair line ones water ingress then you have trouble. glass does look better for fancy shapes . aluminium does corrode but its not that expensive to replace even large panels. you must have a nice aluminuim frame inside not a wooden scrap wood one like alot of uk builds. delamination is also a big problem with the sanwich glass boxes. at lest with alu you can rivet a patch. cheers alan

 

[hilldweller]

at lest with alu you can rivet a patch. cheers alan

Not so easy when Burstner is written on the side. My learning curve bit about the overhang has left a dinge in the side but it's where they have a \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ profile, I guess, to stiffen it.

So far I've not had the courage to attempt to fill and sand to that profile. But it's only cosmetic.

It's a wooden frame. In the right light you can now just pick out the frame, not sure if it was like that from new or whether time/wind/vibration had formed the ali to the frame.

Weight is THE killer for MHs so ali is definitely a good thing.

 

[barbaradaisy]

It has to be fiberglass much lighter

12th of the month so must be time I made a serious post again.

MH body shell. Which is better and why. Ali sheeting or fibreglass ?

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