inches between studs on 2015 trs230?

cvin · 04-25-2018, 04:11 PM

anywhere online we can find the schematics for the studs etc on my trailer?

need to mount some L track to the walls in the toy bix area and none of the stud finders i bought will see the aluminum studs

called keystone and waiting to hear back but not optimistic

**JRTJH** · 04-25-2018, 05:19 PM

There is no rhyme nor reason to stud placement on travel trailers. They do not follow a 16" OC, 12" OC or 24" OC. If you look through some older brochures, you'll see that the studs are placed "where appropriate" to frame windows, doors, slide opening, etc. Here are a couple of photographs that I downloaded from the internet that show the "skeleton" of a typical RV. As you can see, there is no "measured consistency".....

You can often find the studs early in the morning when there's dew on the sides of the trailer. The stud area will have the heaviest accumulation. Mark them lightly at the bottom and you can then determine where they are later.

Here's those pictures:

cvin · 04-25-2018, 09:42 PM

thank you for those pictures

was worried this would be the case

i am in southern az and no dew ever lol
so that wont work for me

think if i sprayed the trailer in the morning as it dried itself off they would show?

this is a big hassle, just wanted some L track in the toy area to secure things...

cvin · 04-26-2018, 01:17 AM

when doing research on this project last week i was concerned about finding the aluminum studs and did several internet searches on what/if any stud finders would find them

some people said their stud finder worked in their rv
others said it did not but that they were able to contact the manufacturer and get schematics so they knew where the studs were

these were general searches on finding aluminum rv studs not just keystone

do others think keystone does not have that info or will not give it to me? dont want to waste my time if someone else has been through this before and gotten nowhere

but it seems they should have it..

Mikendebbie · 04-26-2018, 01:57 AM

I had a jayco a few years back. Jayco customer service emailed me the framing plans for all four walls. Keystone will not do that. They want you to go thru dealer. You might try asking dealer if he can contact keystone and get the info for you. Good luck!

Dave W · 04-26-2018, 02:37 AM

I had to buy a Zircon metals stud finder to locate our wall framing. I found out the distance between studs seemed to be whatever they felt like but that here were always some around windows and doors. With RV manufacturers using Styrofoam as the 'sandwich' filler, the number of wall supports needed is supposedly less. Oh well

slow · 04-26-2018, 04:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cvin

anywhere online we can find the schematics for the studs etc on my trailer?

need to mount some L track to the walls in the toy bix area and none of the stud finders i bought will see the aluminum studs

called keystone and waiting to hear back but not optimistic

When installing an extra cabinet in the bathroom I ran into the same issue.

What worked well for me is I pressed on the interior wall panels to find roughly where the stud was. At the height I was planning to locate the cabinet, I drilled very small holes along a horizontal line to find the edges of the stud. The holes were so small, they were difficult to see unless looking for them, but that did not matter since they were covered up by the cabinet.

Frank G · 04-26-2018, 05:05 AM

Last year 2017 we toured one of the Cougar assembly plants, Noticed there was no framing around a window opening and asked the tour guide about it...he replied on some models it is not required.

I would think this may be the case when the openings are made using a CNC Router and the framing would be close by. In models where they hand route the opening they need framing all round with radius inserts.

cvin · 04-26-2018, 04:02 PM

as of right now we contacted a dealer in tucson who told us to call keystone emergency tech support...
they are east coast and closed, will update this tomorrow on what they say

dave do you remember which stud finder you bought?
i bought a zircon wood and metal finder and it did nothing at all
would be awesome if there is a stud finder that will work

also bought a infrared reader because saw on some searches that worked, but 1-2 degrees difference is not enough to chance and it was inconsistent..
so that was a bust

really hope there is some frame in the window area since we need to go by there with the mounting

the inside walls are basically not hooked to anything, you can easily flex them etc
i think the one long interior wall has a stud on the door frame area but not exactly sure where we need to drill at the other end close to the outside - the short one has nothing in door

but surprising the outside walls seem very uniformly solid, we could not press on them and figure out where to go, i was surprised because thought that would work as a last resort

we are not wanting to drill holes everywhere but guess if it comes down to it we could do that and then i will find some kind of rubber skin we can mount on top to cover that once we know where the studs are

this is pretty ridiculous for a toy hauler, seems they would have indicated where or something since it is almost guaranteed mounting stuff will have to be put in for motorcycles, quads etc

once we figure some stuff out i will post the measurements we end up with

cvin · 04-27-2018, 10:55 AM

Update on this

Keystone said there is a master plan for each unit but that each team builds the trailer the way they want and it is possible the studs will not match the master plan.....
They said the only way to do it is to drill small holes everywhere until you hit the studs and then try to cover them up with something
Unreal

Contacted zircon and ask if any of their stud finders will work on aluminum rv studs and they said no

Anyway we will drill holes everywhere
i will take pics and measurements on the off chance it may help someone else with this trailer

Dave W · 04-27-2018, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cvin

Update on this

Contacted zircon and ask if any of their stud finders will work on aluminum rv studs and they said no

It sounds like whoever responded to ytou doesn't know the product line, I'm, as I type this, am looking ar their METALLISCANNER m40 which worked very well on our 5er finding aluminum studs. The Amazon description specifically mentions stud.

https://www.amazon.com/Zircon-Metall...lliscanner+m40

cvin · 04-27-2018, 11:33 AM

That would not surprise me

I emailed them and had someone call for me to clarify etc and both times they said no...

Thanks so much for posting this, i will get one of these and post back if it works for us

AbHDToyHauler · 04-27-2018, 01:03 PM

Another thought. If you know someone with an infra red camera. They will show where studs are because they can "see" the thermal difference from a stud and no stud. They are so sensitive that I touched the wall and 5 min later i could still "see" my hand print? Hope that is some kind of help.

**sourdough** · 04-27-2018, 03:15 PM

cvin, Zircon does make a metal stud finder that works. We used one while I was in FL doing a project for my daughter. Unfortunately, I do not remember the model but there's one out there that will work....keep the faith!!

cvin · 04-27-2018, 08:06 PM

thanks toyhauler, i did try the ryobi infrared but it did not work, wondering if this works better in colder climates...

or maybe you need an expensive infrared gun?

home depot, lowes nor ace here in tucson had the zircon m40
ordered one from amazon and will get back on this project next week

sourdough do you remember if the one you used was "different" looking like this m40 dave posted about?
this thing has good reviews on amazon...

will report back on this when the stud finder gets here

cvin · 05-02-2018, 11:51 AM

wanted to update this

dave was right, this stud finder works!!! yay!!

it does unfortunately look like the window is not supported and i was counting on supports there to screw the L track too...

this is not a good design for the toy box area

Dave W · 05-02-2018, 01:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cvin

wanted to update this

dave was right, this stud finder works!!! yay!!

it does unfortunately look like the window is not supported and i was counting on supports there to screw the L track too...

this is not a good design for the toy box area

Glad that Zircon worked but sorry you couldn't find a window frame stud. Our Montana HC has two where I need them for a handrail going up to the bedroom.

Oh and those Ryobi stud finders - not too great if mine is any prime example

cvin · 05-02-2018, 01:26 PM

i did not try a ryobi stud finder, tried their infrared gun because i had read on a few google searches that it would work to find the studs..

hard to say how quality it was, no temp change on the walls so i returned it

so happy the zircon worked, did not want to drill little holes everywhere

and now seeing where the studs were and expecting to have supports under the window, we would have had a lot of holes for no reason

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