Kingsley Construction Methods?

[Dragonslayer140]

Does anyone on here happen to know how Kingsley Coach builds their boxes? I was wondering if they were steel cage, laminated, or perhaps even wood framed? There is one listed on Racing Junk for a decent price, however they mention that it recently had a new rubber roof and new roof trusses "professionally" installed. I can see it needing a new roof, but to have new trusses means that it must have leaked for some time. Also leads me to believe that it probably has wood trusses, as it is unlikely that steel ones would have rusted away..lol. Makes me wonder what else could be wood. I have wood rafters and laminated walls in my current class C, and a roof leak in that was a major issue. If the coach was metal construction and alum skin, and purchased for the right price one could gut the interior and do a major renovation with all new materials and re use the existing appliances. Might be more cost effective than building one from scratch..

Does not seem to be too much information online about the Kingsley units, except that most of them are super long, and overpriced...

Dave

[Bob86ZZ4]

Here's a small bit of info on Kingsley: Kingsley Coach KNGS description of business

Here's another article about Kingsley: Fit for a King

Ralph Dickenson, founder, owns Buses For Sale at BusesAndMore.com - Buy Buses and Sell Buses , at least he did as of a couple years ago. Now it looks like J.D. or Darcy are listed as the persons to contact on their site. I'm pretty sure they are Ralph's kids. Maybe Ralph has retired? I'd go to busesandmore and give them a call and I bet they wouldn't mind chatting about the construction of their coaches. From that first history link I put up above it looks like the boxes were made by Thor. Sounds like regular rv construction, not that good. Then they changed and made their own I think. Maybe better? I think most of their trucks were named for the customer so if you know the name of that one you're looking at they might know about it.

[Dragonslayer140]

Thanks Bob, that was some good info, does seem like they contracted out a lot of the work and just assembled it. The one I was looking at was made in 1997, that would have been the second year of production for them, and per the article it would have had a Thor box placed on a lower unit built by someone else. That would explain why the unit has had rafters replaced, and will probably have fiberglass sides over luan plywood well on there way to delaminating. I have not seen a wood rv have enough water damage to need truss replacement that did not also have tons of other damage and mold issues. Not going to be much to salvage there, would have to tear off the whole upper box and build a new one to fit on the lower, unless the rig was super cheap, would definitively not be a good way to go. already have a class C with wood and fiberglass coming apart, do not want another one at 10x the cost..lol Starting to look like building from scratch or spending $$$ on a new conversion are going to be my choices, unless i get lucky and find a used one that fits my needs.

At least if I go with new, I have managed to narrowed it down to two builders to choose from.