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Old 03-21-2005, 05:56 PM   #4
40,000 mile TC user
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Join Date: Mar 2005
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Yes Warpath, there is no structure left because it burned.
The construction used in the Kingsley is as follows.
The Body is made at the Thor Factory in Middleburg PA. They make Thor's "value priced" travel trailers.
Nothing fancy here, just your garden variety $15-25K travel trailers.
The Kingsley "box" is made here.

A large layout table is used to make the wall/roof frame. It is made with 1" or 1.5" square aluminum tubing. We are not talking heavy tubing either, but probably .030" thick. Too weak for a lawn chair frame, and too heavy for a beer can. The frames are laid out with the joints MIG welded. Spacing varies, but the one I had and the one I saw being made used 3-4 foot spacing between "studs" some extra around the slide out but nothing special. Insulation is then cut and put inside the gaps in the "studs".
Plain old masking tape is used to hold all of this together.
Two people can pick up an entire wall at this stage with out straining. It is pretty floppy at this point.
The next step involves putting the luan wall board and the fiberglass layer on the wall. A really cool glue applicator puts the glue on one or both sides and these panels are then dropped into place. The wall is then run through a rolling press to squish the layers together. Any spots that will get things attached to them have thin sheet metal again taped in place before gluing the wall board on. This way the screws can bite into both the 1/8" wall board and the >.025" thick metal as well as the insulation for a "strong fit".
The total time to make a wall is approx. 1 hour, start to finish. Roof is similar.
Total cost delivered to Kingsley is probably $17,000 to $20,000.

The Floor structure uses a Lippert Components Frame made of 2X4 steel, which looks pretty strong, but is pretty flexible over the 35' length.
To this a Floor is bolted with carrige bolts. The floor is made of Home Depot 2X4s and plywood, nothing fancy here no Imported Baltic Birch... Just the stuff you would use to build a dog house with.

All this is screwed together.

A bunch of typical RV style trim molding is then applied to the corners and seams.

Nothing is particularly square or straight. If you have a Kingsley, just take out a nice Carpenters square and start
checking wall to cabinet squareness, you will be amazed.
I saw one unit owned by a guy who posts on here, which had a cabinet that was out of square over 1/2" in less than 2' !!!!

At some point if asked, I can talk about the quality of the wiring, plumbing...

I hope this helps.


This is then bolted to the Chassis and driven to Minnesota, where the lower compartments are built under the box and body. Compartment doors are added at this point. Spray cans are used to provide the. "High quality rustproof coating"
My experience was that it was neither high quality nor rustproof.

That about does it for the construction. This is up to date as of Oct. 2004.
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