NON Lippert frame TT

The difference is that nothing in the trailer will put you beside the road calling a big flatbed tow. One bearing will.

2littletime wrote:
First thing I did with my new Lippert axels was to remove the bearings and race that had China written on them.

Most people never have issues with the bearings on their travel trailers. I pulled mine 5,5000 miles in 8 months with just a few shots of grease.....checked with IR gun at least twice a day. They were never hot.

It seems the hubs and brakes are the least trouble prone parts on the whole rig-compared to everything else inside the rig.

Keystone says it use Paco Steel I-beams for its frames. Not sure if those are made by Lippert or not.

I was told the Lippert bought out Al-Ko recently, so now Al-Ko axles are also Lippert.

There was a problem with long >28' Norco BAL frames several years ago as discussed on this forum. Since then some manufacturers (Kodiak IIRC) have switched to standard I beam frames, and others (like Jayco) seem to restrict the Norco BAL frames to trailers about 28' or less.

2littletime wrote:
First thing I did with my new Lippert axels was to remove the bearings and race that had China written on them.

what did you replace them with ? It's been years since I have had to buy bearings, but I had heard that even Timken are now made in China ?

First thing I did with my new Lippert axels was to remove the bearings and race that had China written on them.

Our new Jayco uses a Norco/BAL frame, the frame is very well made, in fact, of all the trailers we've had, this one has the best frame.

FYI,,,per Jayco at the factory they use Lippert. The problem is with trailers designed on the "standard" lippert frames. Companies like KZ and Jayco use Lippert to manufacture frames they design for each trailer.

Yes, a wise consumer will look beyond "what the name is" on a component, and try to educate themselves on whether the item in question will be best for their particular use.
I generally buy things new, and keep them for a long time. I look for not only what I think will be long term reliable, but also will it be easily maintained and repaired in my own shop ?

There are lots of folks here on this and other forums that buy new campers every few years. Nice, if you can afford that, and certainly that could change how a buyer might look at some of these different designs.

Unique looking frame, but I'll stick with structural channel or rectangular tube frames with standard cross members. That frame appears to be using the trailer structure as a significant amount of the support and rigidity. You will notice the increased height of the frame around the axles along with the minimal cross members (or lack thereof). That is to reduce the weight of the frame, which also saves the manufacturer a lot of money. Try putting a load on the back and see what happens. Many TT manufacturers will put a reinforcement in the same area around the axles. An example would be the old silver Avions. I would gladly pay the price for the extra weight and have a stronger overall frame.