Heaviest Frame?

Peterson Industries makes their own frames for their Excel trailers.

NuWa used frames by Young's Welding.

I'm sure there are others.

The question of finding a trailer with a strong frame is really a good one. Having been looking around recently at new trailers I only found Northwood Manufacturing to have trailers without Lippert (LCI) materials and frames. They build Nash and Arctic Fox (Desert Fox) and few others. They also build their frames and structure to handle driving off-road, and I can't recall any others making the same claim. That speaks to the high quality of their construction. There may be others out there, but I haven't seen them yet. I also haven't seen anything yet by Lippert that yet impressed me, and have friends that had suspension, construction and frame issues on Lippert built materials.

Of course, as Lippert is quick to point out, they build their products to meet the specifications of the manufacturer that requests them. So, if a manufacturer orders a frame from them with lower quality specifications that is what they get. The opposite is also true, that if ordered with higher quality specifications that is what the manufacturer gets also. In defense of Lippert, they are also at the mercy of those manufacturers who install their products.

Regardless of who makes the trailer, check out the build quality of what you are considering. You also might find that there are some manufacturers with excellent build quality, using LCI products.

To find if the trailer you are considering can do as intended you can always contact the manufacturer directly and ask. Remember that you usually get what you pay for, so make your money count as they usually want alot of it.

This is of course, in my opinion.

In that year range I would look at Sunnybrook.
They had Leland frames that were double stacked rectangular steel tubing welded together. Built like tanks!

Old-Biscuit wrote:
Anything with a frame built by Young's or Leland

Anything NOT with a frame built by Lippert

My '04 Komfort has a pre-Lippert Zieman frame, so take a look at them. I'd have no qualms putting a hitch on the back. Don't know if they had any bunkhouses back then, though. Frankly, I'd love to ditch the whole superstructure on my FW and build a completely new box on it, to my specs. :-)

Lyle

We specified a receiver type hitch on the rear of our 2007 Arctic Fox 20-5T and never have had a problem with it. Northwood builds their own frames and they are good as far as I have seen. You see many posts about quality with a lot of major brands, but you just don't see many on Arctic Fox/Fox Mountain, etc.

The Mad Norsky wrote:
Shoot, Mobile Suites has Lippert frame I believe.

Depends more on manufacturers specification. Surely not a whole lot of threads or information on Lippert problems with those two RV's.

DRV uses Lippert, but a box frame on the higher end units. The economy version is a typical 12" I-beam.

I'm not a fan of Lippert, but realistically I haven't heard of a single complaint since they went to a 12" I beam Z-frame. Maybe I haven't been paying that much attention.

Look into Carriage as well. Box frames on all models.

alanmikkelsen wrote:
I'm going to be looking at anything from a 1996-2004 5th wheel, bunkhouse model, 24'-26', slide optional.

I'd like to get some feedback on trailers with heavier frames/construction, vs. those with lighter frames/integrity problems.

the Sunnybrook Titan 5ers of that era featured a triple stacked box tube frame (their TT's had double stacked box tube frames) which was about as strong as it gets .... I don't recall them offering a bunkhouse 5er that was in the 24' - 26' range .... they did offer several TT's that length

Jim

rmoparman wrote:
I thought Jayco uses Lippert frames to there specs?

The Jayco Pinnacle had Lippert frame when I looked at one last summer.

Shoot, Mobile Suites has Lippert frame I believe.

Depends more on manufacturers specification. Surely not a whole lot of threads or information on Lippert problems with those two RV's.

Shaung wrote:
Who makes the frame for a 2008 cougar 278rk.

That is a Lippert I-beam frame - 10" I believe. To be honest, that is a very popular 5er for pulling a boat.