[B_and_D]

I can see three different metal tubes in my upper shells (1997 TM) meeting at the front corners of the front shells. One tube goes up towards the top of the shell. Another runs along the bottom of the front, and the other along the bottoms of the sides. So I know that there is metal tubing in there, but I don't know how far it goes up into the roof of the top shell. It is definitely all along the bottom of the upper shells. I'm not about to tear apart my TM to see whether or not there is metal tubing in the top roof corners, but I believe that there is.

One way to tell if there is a problem with wood rot is to loosen up a few screws along the corners and see what happens. If they're not "biting" into anything, you may have a problem.

We love our older TM, feel that it is very well made and that it will last us for at least 10 more years. We did the wheel-well retrofit (to make them rounded) and it did seem to help when we had a blowout.

Our side A/C did die on us so we just removed it. We put a microwave into the empty space. I've only wanted an AC once in the 5 years we've had our TM, but we survived without it in 90+ degree temps. The RV park had a pool and our relatives had AC.