Dirt Roads & Dust Infiltration

I'm very interested in TrailManor but have one serious concern - dust getting inside.  Almost everywhere I'll be camping requires driving numerous miles on dirt roads (usually very dry and dusty).  I would like to know what the reality of this situation is from those folks who regularly travel dirt roads.  I don't want to be thinking I've found the perfect unit for my needs only to find out (after investing so much) that I will have to spend my camping time cleaning - YUK!  If TM really isn't the right unit for my situation, please let me know - I don't want to make a big mistake!  Thanks!

[Bill]

In my experience (Arizona back roads, plenty of red dust), dust can get into a TM through either of two channels.

The first channel is around the sliding seals - the parts that move past each other as the TM is erected and collapsed at the campground. How do these seals keep dust out during travel? I have found these seals to be pretty good - not much seems to get in, although the seals themselves get dusty and beg for a wipedown with a wet paper towel every couple of days. This shows that the engineering of the TM lineup is pretty good.

The second channel is around the caulking between the various fixed (as opposed to moving/sliding) parts of the TM. Here the answer is not so good. Most of the caulking on my unit looks like it was installed by a big happy dog with a wet tongue. There is an art to installing caulk, and the production line workers in Tennessee have not been taught that art. On our unit, the caulk around the wheel well liners - a prime source of dust, as you can imagine - was incomplete, missing, or fell out in the first 5000 miles.  Since the wheel wells are under the kitchen cabinets, those cabinets filled with dust on our first off-road trip, and the dust filtered into the rest of the trailer with a vengeance. It was nasty until I redid the caulk myself. Other locations in the TM have been less than perfect, but the wheel wells were by far the worst.

I don't want to overstate this issue, or discourage you from considering a TM. I have talked to owners of other campers, both collapsible and hardside, and this problem is common. As you can imagine, dust infiltration is an extremely difficult issue to deal with in the design of a moving box with multiple openings, and I think TM has done a great job in the hardest area - the sliding seals. But the QC problems of all the RV manufacturers, as exemplified by low-level things like installing caulk - are unfortunate for the industry.

My suggestion is that you voice your concern to your TM dealer, and accept his promise to redo any caulking that turns out, during the first year of ownership, to be inadequate. I am sure he will offer it.

Hope this helps

Bill

[mwgraham]

I personally have not encountered any dust infiltration problems and i have traveled over some gravel roads..
There is a thread on page 9 regarding dust issues you might want to check out. :-/

[KB7OUR]

I already have personal experience driving dusty roads with our new TM. In a nutshell, DUST WILL GET EVERYWHERE. Keep in mind you will need to do a very good cleaning after a dusty trip. We drove about 40 miles on fairly good backroads to some land in northern AZ, south of Seligman and north of Prescott NF. Travel was slow, but it has been soooooooo dry here that parts of the road were like powder. When we got home I had to vacuum plus clean everything with a wet rag and lots of water changes. This included the ceiling. I didn't mind the trip, but just know what to expect when you return home.

Wade

mwgraham,

Thank you for your suggestion of reading the thread on page 9.  I did read it before I started this thread.  I guess what I'm trying to figure out (different from what I learned there) is whether dust infiltration is a problem only when there is some sort of defect (thus, if it happens, it can easilly be cured), or, if TMs really aren't designed for non-asphalt camping.

Bill,

Your explanation is greatly appreciated!  My primary area of concern is between the lower edge of the outside upper sections and the lower edge of the inside base (the joints that when up are sealed by the flaps with vecro, top sections to base section).  I'm visualizing the curtains turning into powder puffs by the time I reach my destination.  Is that area not a problem?

[Bill]

My experience has been closer to Mike's than to Wade's. Or maybe it is just that I am so relieved to get the MAJOR openings recaulked that everything else seems minor. My TM is nominally identical to Wade's, and I think we are talking about the same stretch of dusty road there in the Seligman-Prescott area. I don't have an explanation for the different results we have experienced.

I don't want to mislead you - the TM is not your living room, and it won't stay as clean as your living room. We bought a small Dirt Devil hand-vac with a short hose, and it helps us keep up with the situation. Unfortunately, it operates from 110VAC only - a 12-volt unit would have been a better choice.

Bill