question about trailer construction

[gizardlizard]

I have a question about trailer construction: The Hi LO I just bought is a 1994 Towlite 184 DL. The entire outside skin is aluminum. The inside of the walls appear to be wall paper over underlayment. Other then maybe insulation, what's between the 1/4" underlayment they use on the walls and the outside aluminum skin? Also, there is white foam board on the ceiling with joints every so often. What is between the foam on the ceiling and the outside aluminum skin on the roof? I am super curious. Being very particular about how things work and should work, I am wanting to strip this trailer down to four walls, re-seal anything that needs it, clean everything and make sure everything is working the way it is suppose to. I hate surprises and being an industrial maint. mechanic, not only do I do preventive maint, I also do predictive maint. This assures little to no breakdowns.

 

[sam-HILO]

Preventive maintenance

I have a classic trailer so I don't feel right talking about the construction of walls in a towlite. My walls consisted of fiberglass then paper vapor barrier then 1" insulation then 1/8th vinyl coated wall paneling. The layers are glued and pressed together at the factory. My understanding of the towlite is that in order to repair water damaged walls you must remove the aluminum skin from the outside and brace the inside walls so you have support while rebuilding the wall with wood. Under no circumstances would I tear your walls apart as you have no leaks!! What I would highly recommend is that you remove all windows and reseal with butyl tape and Lexel caulk. Check all the caulk on the exterior and renew as needed. I'm sure others with towlites will give you some tips on what to check and do in the way of preventive maintenance. Many have done some very nice modifications.

 

[hilltool]

I recommend you do a search of this forum for "rebuilds" or "wall repair" etc. Eventually you will find a number of posts of folks who have done exstensive rebuilds and that should give you an idea of what the construction is like in both narrative form as well as photos.

Rick

(check out this thread for a start: http://www.hilotrailerforum.com/f17/demolition-begins-1532/)