Beef up (fish plate) “I” beam frame
Dealer told me some people have done this. Adding 10 or 12 feet of plate centred over axels. This should prevent rear frame sag which I think my 34 foot Cedar Creek has some of. Thoughts?
Forum Discussion
afidel wrote:wing_zealot wrote:
Lippert makes what the manufacturers want. If the manufacturers wanted stronger more durable components, they would get them; as long as their willing to pay for them. Suppliers don't make a bunch of frames then go see if someone wants to buy them. Suppliers build frames to the manufacturer's specs. The price and specs are negotiated before the supplier even turns on the light switch in the plant. Everyone is on the same page and knows exactly what is what. The manufacturer is getting exactly what he wanted and paid for.
Exactly, and the manufacturers are producing what the customers will buy. They are making tradeoffs between price, weight (towability), length, structure vs interior appointments, etc. I know I'm not willing to pay what it would cost for a 16" fully boxed frame and the MDT that it would take to tow it. My problem with the industry isn't with building to a price point, it's poor QA/QC. For example a weld should never break, if it does you've first **** up the welding, and then **** up the QA.
The manufacturer may spec what the frame needs to accomodate, but LCI does the engineering. The manufacturer has 0 liabilty should the frame fail, unless they choose to assume some of it. LCI warrants the frame. LCI sucks and essentially has a monopoly. They bought out almost every other frame fabricator involved with the RV industry or undercut them out of business systematically. The RV industry sucks as well. Birds of a feather.
