Quote:
Originally posted by Gary Atsma:
From what I know, the difference between "standard MH construction" and that used by Showhauler and many other truck converters is that most truck converters use a STEEL tube cage and heavy aluminum sheet in their construction while Powerhouse and Kingsley units are either wood and thin aluminum siding, or light aluminum studs and thin aluminum siding. In a nutshell, Powerhouse and Kingsley units are NOT built as strong as the units from Showhauler and others using similar construction.
Gary
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Actually, Kingsley's walls and roof are a 2.5" sandwich of plywood, boxed aluminum studs, plywood, and then fiberglass. The studs are at 16" centers and they use beadboard insulation between the studs. My roof is also spaced at 12" centers since I attend race events and frequently have 8-20 people on the roof. Just because it is made of steel does not mean it is stronger. For example, many of the new cars and trucks use aluminum frames where they used to use steel. Why, you ask? In these cases, the aluminum is actually stronger and lighter than the steel they replaced.
If you really want to look at strong construction when NOT using steel just look at the race transport trailers built by Kibbi (aka Renegade) and FeatherLite, amongst others. These trailers are made of all aluminum and they carry tons of weight, are used daily, and they travel all over the country.
Warpath, On a separate note and out of curiosity, who do you think puts out the niceset interiors? Unfortunately for Kingsley, most of it's past customers where people that wanted cheap and that is what was put out. Some of them where actually finished by Thor as "demo" interiors so the quality was on par with one of their TT or 5ers. I have seen some of Kingsley's newer ones that include cherry, maple, and hickory cabinets. Granite floors and countertops, etc. There are even a couple that rival a Prevost conversion on the inside. Since every one of them is made to the customer's wants and desires, the interiors do not necessarily reflect upon the manufacturer. One of the ones that was just finished last week had red cabinets, yellow countertops, and blue walls!!! To me it looked like a preschool classsroom but that is what that particular celebrity wanted and that is what he got. He LOVES it!! The new sales manager, Paul, came from the custom home arena (he owns his own company). He uses the same design center for his coaches as he does for his houses. Wait until you see one fo the ones designed by him.
Also, Kingsley now sells 2 levels of shells for the DIYer ala Prevost. The first is just the box mounted and blended into the cab (i.e. NO mechanicals or interior). The other is a shell with all of the below-floor mechanicals completed (i.e. gen-set, plumbings, wiring, etc) per the customer's specs. This allows the customer to have total control of how the interior is finished. It will be interesting to see how these do.