Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill
By the way, there is nothing wrong with wood as long as it is solid. So don't be discouraged by the answers above - just be willing to check it out.
Bill
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Bill is right about that. In fact wood, in many ways, is a better medium for framing. Ask any wood boat builder.
I bought a 1980 45' Passport sailboat in 1983. I planned to sail that boat around the World (eventually sailed it around the World twice). It had wood masts and I wanted to replace them with aluminum masts. I ran into a shipwright (master boat builder) and he explained the pros and cons of wood over aluminum. I stuck with the wood masts and I was very glad that I did.
In a nut shell, wood is slightly heavier than aluminum when you use enough aluminum to achieve the same tensile strength as wood.
The big advantage to wood over aluminum (for masts and camper frames) is that it is very forgiving. Wood will flex to around 25 degrees and resume it's previous shape with no damage. If you bend aluminum, it's bent. There is no straightening it without a tremendous loss in shape and strength. It must be cut out and a new piece welded in.
With wood, in most cases, no repair is needed. If the wood is bent far enough to crack it, it is an easy repair.
The down-side to wood is that, if you have a water leak, you'd better get it fixed right away. If the wood is allowed to sit, wet it may rot over time, This will happen with certainty with repeated soaking. The good news is, the process that TM uses for laminating the sides of the shell together seal the wood quite well. I think that it would take a water leak plus some damaged wood to achieve wood-rot in one of the frame pieces.
The biggest weakness using wood for framing is the joints. Welded aluminum is far superior there and the shell will withstand a lot more vibration and jarring, over time, with no joint separation.