5th Wheel Frames

Yes, Lippert is in the 5th wheel frame arena. I believe they pretty much dominate it.

Northwood has frames built to their own spec....beefy.
There may be others that don't use Lippert, so hopefully those in the know will chime in.

Mike E. wrote:
Yes, Lippert is in the 5th wheel frame arena. I believe they pretty much dominate it.

Northwood has frames built to their own spec....beefy.
There may be others that don't use Lippert, so hopefully those in the know will chime in.

Most of the brands under the Forest River or Thor umbrellas use Lippert frames. Some Jayco models were, or were,using Norco frames. Grand Design uses Lippert frames. It sure is easier to list brands that do not use Lippert and any brand can change without notice, so Caveat Emptor. Lippert bought out frame divisions, such as Dexter, and by lowballing/undercutting put many smaller fabricators out of business.

Northwood in house frames. One reason i am ordering one this fall for next year. 2 years for retierment. Had frame flexing on my Forest River Sandpiper. Never own another.

Northwood/Outdoor RV, Spacecraft, New Horizon and Forks. That's it for in house frames.

Smart to bypass the glitz and look at the frames with all the issues out there. As a buddy who is a home builder says, the most important part is the foundation it sits on. His homes don't travel at 65mph either.

Statements above are true. That said, Lippert builds frames to the specifications of the RV manufacturer, so results vary wildly. Our Grand Design fifth wheel is on a Lippert frame and the only problems we've had are with the solid axle/leaf spring suspension - and I'm not a fan of that technology no matter who makes it. If you read the forums a lot, there are very few issues with the frames themselves. Nearly all the issues are with the suspension systems.

Rob

I have not read of any serious problems with Lippert frames in a long time. TT's just don't have the the problems that they did years ago.
I would not hesitate to buy a Lippert frame these days.

The frame thing is one reason we have decided to keep ours for a while longer. Excel used a fully boxed, house made frame that so far has endured about 35 to 40k miles of abuse from some really rough roads without any problems. It costs more to do that which is why most don't so they can stay competitive price wise. I'm sure Lippert can make as good a frame as anyone if specified by the manufacturer, like Rob said about his Grand Design. Bottom line, shop wisely. Research, research and when you are done researching, research some more.

Second Chance wrote:
Statements above are true. That said, Lippert builds frames to the specifications of the RV manufacturer, so results vary wildly. Our Grand Design fifth wheel is on a Lippert frame and the only problems we've had are with the solid axle/leaf spring suspension - and I'm not a fan of that technology no matter who makes it. If you read the forums a lot, there are very few issues with the frames themselves. Nearly all the issues are with the suspension systems.

Rob

No matter if the specs are brick-outhouse solid, someone still has to build it, and that's where Lippert had huge issues. Nice pretty welds in a lot of spots, but they only penetrated one side of the weld. There have been several threads, with pics, over the past few years that show these welds where it can easily be seen that the weld never stuck to one side. Then there were the truly fugly welds that could be seen would fail, but they seem to have never been inspected at the factory for quality, so when they did fail, the mfrs pointed the finger at Lippert, who then turned around a pointed right back at the mfr, leaving the customer in the Oort Cloud. I remember a number of years ago, where people would post about factory tours and watching welding going on and commenting how truly lousy it was. There was at least one that posted that he commented to their tour guide how badly the welding was being done and that killed any chance of him ever buying that brand.

This being said, might I remind people of this recent thread: https://forums.trailerlife.com/index.cfm/fuseaction/thread/tid/28978942.cfm here.

Lyle

About three years ago Lippert made big deal about how now all their frame welders were certified and all welds were inspected.

Of course that implies before, they weren't.

Since that time the number of complaints about new rigs having frame failures has seriously decreased.