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Originally Posted by Road Dog
Hi All! Not new to the RV scene...
1)What are the outside shells(walls) made of, is it aluminum?
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It is composite construction, much like aircraft. That is to say it is a laminate of aluminum bonded to foam. In fact, much of the interior furniture use the same techniques. This leads to a very strong, light, though more expensive structure.
The tip is that on TM built before 2003
MAY have wood beams supporting the shell. That leads to the possibility of wood rot, but definitely not a guarentee of such a malady. Besides, many trailers use the same construction materials, and I would wager that TM is no more prone (and possibly less) to this type of rot than any other trailer would be.
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2) How about the roof is it also aluminum or is it rubber?
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I am not real sure what the roof is made of, other than it does not seem to leak even on older units.
The brilliance of the design is that it does not rely on the gaskets to keep the rain out. The way the roof slopes, the huge distance between the interior and exterior gaskets keeps the water out. I inspected a 89-90 2720 and saw no idications of any water leaks.
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4) How is the quality of the build? I had many problems with my Winnebago and my Bounder and don't care to re-live door rattles and drawer guides breaking!
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I bought my '06 3326 used. It had a few dings and the awning had caused a leak near the window, all these had been repaired by the previous owner.
The only major problem I have had is when a piece of cap molding came off (about $32) and I had to reseat it. That gave me an opportunity to see the construction underneath and it looked quite sound.
Interior wise, nothing is cheesey, but it is built to be light. Most of it is a lot tougher than it appears. Since I have inspected older units, it does seem to hold up better than you would expect. The interior velco strips will need tuning and reattacting, but that seems rather minor to me.
The power plugs do not appear to be as soundly mounted as I would like, but they work just fine. As long as treat them like they should be, they will last a long time.
The appliances are pretty nice. The HW tank runs on propane or a/c--makes for fast recovery when you are trailer park. The frige is 3 way. One thing to watch is that when the frige is battery it bypasses the thermostat and runs full cold. The thermostat on works when on a/c or propane.
The stove is good, but the broiler is definitely anemic. It is a nice stove, and the oven works quite well.
The biggest negative with the trailer has little to do with construction. The problem is that everything has to be stowed, or off the counter tops when moving the trailer. This, of course, is not a huge deal but if you are use to TT where it does not matter if everything is stowed or not when moving the trailer it can be a bit of a surprise. Stay organized and it is much less of a problem.
The other thing to be aware of is that on the larger trailers (like the 3326) it real important to level everything. When you lock down the front legs the back may be out of alignment a bit. More experienced TM owners I think are so familar with this that they have forgotten about it when newbie asks. The principle problem this causes is preventing the rear door jam lining up. I just carry a bullet level with me for the rear of the trailer and that has fixed the problem.
I am pretty sure the trailers like the Mini, 2619, 2720, and 3023 never have this problem. 3126 is probably borderline and the 3326 is much more likely to have this problem. A lot of times it just depends on where you set up.