The NEW Carriage

If you guys get this thread closed for so far off topic I will not get ANY info at all. Please play in another sand box, Thank You

The CrossRoads units at first seem quite nice..... until you take a closer look and discover that it's on a Lippert Frame (I-beam frame), sub-standard welding, cheap floor structure, bad cabinet construction, no back end cap, etc, etc. Basically slapped a BMW logo on a prius. THOR did buy the rights to the Carriage brand name and logo/trademarks so I guess the marketing dept are free to deceive all they want.
The closest brand you can get to a real improved Carriage is Lifestyle.

Blackcell wrote:
no back end cap, etc, etc. Basically slapped a BMW logo on a prius.
The closest brand you can get to a real improved Carriage is Lifestyle.

huh? Have you even seen one?



OP- you'll never get a straight answer here - you're just going to have to decide for yourself. There is a Carriage cult here that just can't handle their "bankrupt" name being put on a Lippert frame by a surviving company, followed a few steps by the DRV group that are really nervous they just fell through the same crack. I guess when you sleep on a square tube frame like the old Carriage and DRV, you wake up with an arrogance like those that just put an FMCA or AOPA sticker in their back window, you know, the kind that pull their Motorhome with their Hummer toad up to the only diesel pump and insert the nozzle, pet the poodle, and go in to have lunch disregarding the whole line behind them.

For the rest of us that don't have worlds revolving around us, yes there are the "other" 90% of the trailers that set on Lippert frames. There is a great selection out there and the new Carriage is one of them, probably with a lot more modern features that the old Carriage dinosaurs. Besides, I would much rather have that Prius than the BMW.

Mile High, are you an engineer...probably not. The stacked box frame used by the old Carriage, now Lifestyle and DRV is far stronger than the cheap Lippert I-beam frame. The rectangular sections are more resistant to bending than a simple I-beam.

Rectangular box section material cost more to begin with and then you stack and weld them which adds more cost.

The big manufacturers are run by bookkeepers that keep the bottom line numbers as high as possible. This means they keep production up and cost down by using lesser quality materials.

I just do not like seeing big corporations dupping the public by trying to live off the success of a successful name. You can slap all of the lipstick you want to on a pig, but you still have a pig.

I looked at a NEW Carriage, it is not the same as a previous Carriage. If you want the higher quality of the previous Carriage, look at the Lifestyle line .

Ken

Actually I am an Engineer, thank you, if it actually had any relevance here.

Nobody is arguing with you that the stacked box frame is stronger than the I-beam, that goes without saying, but it doesn't mean that is the ONLY way to build a fifth wheel. As you say, it's expensive, and it raises the floor to a nosebleed level, (we won't mention the rust out potential).

You are a Lippert slammer, and have been for years on this forum, and that is OK, but we all don't have to drive a Bentley man! I'm not a fan of Lippert as a company either, but the 12" Lippert frame design has proven out so far to be reliable, without the additional cost of the tubular stacked type. We all don't have to drop Bentley money on a camper to enjoy camping. We all don't have to live in a gated community. Getting kind of tired of you looking down your nose at anyone with anything less than what you think is perfect - that's called arrogance!

Carriage mismanaged their company and they were liquidated as a result. Perhaps selling their name to Crossroads was the last mismanaged piece of their heritage they left behind for the prior owners! I personally would not have jinxed my Crossroads product by putting that name on it, but that's just me.

PS, we looked at Lifestyle when we were shopping. They were nice, but kind of unremarkable. Styling was pretty dated with the flat front, and this one only came with a queen bed and 2 dr fridge, so we moved on. It's not always all about the frame.

Did either of you ever see a boxed frame on a 53' flatbed, dry van, stepdeck, or any other commercial trailer meant to carry a load. Next time you're around a truck stop look under one of them. Or if there look at one of the RGN double drop trailers hauling 150,000lb on 6 axles.