Quote:
Originally Posted by terry and jo
First of all, I think I can see that Jim has a good sense of humor, as he's taking some ribbing here. Good deal.
As for the basement storage and access, just about any of the Mobile and Elite Suites models can also have lots of space, especially if the trailer being looked at is not set up with generator prep or have a generator. Without those options, the Suites also have access to the basement via three doors on each side and under the overhang.
Carriage products were supposed to have had a good reputation when they were in business, but when we did our research, they could not compare in quality with the Suites models. Prior to our ordering our 2010, we made a trip to Dallas to see a model or two that had our interest. We also went on over to Granbury to an RV dealer that had DRV's on that same trip. I couldn't see that the Carriage products were even close to the quality of wood and other features with the DRV's.
Uppermost in my mind was the belief that if the trailer's frame didn't impress me, I wasn't interested. After all, the frame, axles, suspension, tires and wheels are the very foundation of the RV. Styling took a back seat to strength and construction with me. The Mobile and Elite's triple-box frame just seemed to be far superior to the other brands, other than perhaps the New Horizons and Continental Coach brands.
Terry
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Thanks, Terry. THIS is the kind of feedback I need, not broad statements that basically sound like "I like the brand I bought so much better than any other that I just say it's better".
The triple frame comment is reasonably valid at first sight, BUT it too has a flaw. Let me explain.
In the past, all trucks and even cars were built on a 2-rail chassis system. This was indeed strong if the rails were large enough, or were fully enclosed cross-section ("tubular"), but the system was also very HEAVY.
Today, while trucks retain this basic frame structure, virtually all cars, including the new "crossovers", use a "box" type of construction, where the entire body (bottom, sides, and roof) are all part of one welded "hollow beam". This type of construction, besides costing less to build, is immensely strong and rigid when done properly. And, because it is lighter, itrequires less power to move down the highway and up hills.
Airplanes are built on the same principle, but even more so than cars, because airplanes MUST be very lightweight, since fuel consumption is the biggest operating cost and heavy planes take proportionately more power to stay aloft than a car needs to move down a highway.
Trucks are forced to retain the 2-heavy-rail structure because the need to either carry a load right above the chassis, or pull a load whose hitch must fasten above the rear axle, precludes using a box type approach. The typical pickup truck actually used as a hauler (not as a passenger vehicle only) must accept a 3000 lb or higher concentrated load in its 5.5'wide by 6.5' long cargo area, and the robust structure must extend foward of that as well in order to carry both the engine weight at the front, and to not bend or fold in the middle under the passenger cab when that heavy cargo area load is applied.This 3000 lb loading within 36 sq ft is about DOUBLE the loading (pounds per square foot) that a 38 foot DRV places on its chassis. Notice that a pickup truck does NOT use a triple stacked frame that is 12" high in total to handle the load. With good design, it does not NEED that much steel and its associated weight.
The Domani was evidently designed more like an Airstream RV, or like an airplane, than like a DRV. That's why its aluminum wall studs are WELDED versus bolted like in the DRV. And that's why it weighs 9500 lb versus the 13,500 x 31 feet /37 feet = 11,300 lb it would weigh with the DRV frame construction (since the refrigerator, AC units, furnace, bed, sofa, chairs, toilet, shower, etc all weigh about the same in either of the 2 RVs).
When I built my self-designed 2200 sq ft 2-story colonial Saltbox home in Minnesota 20 years ago, I used this "box" construction, by ensuring that all wall and roof sheathing was 1/2" structural plywood, not chipboard or buffalo board, and I overlapped the plywood across the 2 stories. My stud spacing was 24" versus 16" in order to cut the insulation R value drops created by studs. The professional building crew building a house literally across the street from me built their house more conventionally, with buffalo board sheathing, no proper overlap of sheathing between stories, and long-span roof trusses that were flexible enough to bend like noodles in the wind as they were hoisted into position, and nailed with a pneumatic nailer versus the metal Simpson tie plates I used on both the roof to wall connections and the wall to floor connections. They used more conventional 16" stud spacing, and 16" nailed floor OC spacing versus my 24" glued and screwed floors, which to the casual uninformed observer appeared "stronger" than my 24" spacing.
Then the tornado came.
THEIR house, which was blessed with a completely sheathed roof (because they were faster builders than I was), was severely damaged by the tornado. The wall sheathing was ripped off, as were sections of the roof. Pieces of their house were all over the neighborhood.
My house had only HALF its roof sheathing on just before the tornado arrived, as it had gotten dark before we could finish sheathing the roof the previous day, so the half-roof was basically a "sail" in the tornado's wind - the most vulnerable it could ever be. Knowing my roof was so vulnerable because of not being complete, I feared the worst, especially after I saw from a distance the damage to the house across the street.
But when I got to my own house, I was pleasantly surprised. The ONLY "damage" was the loss of the "No Trespassing" sign we had put up for liability reduction purposes. The crew across the street was standing around gaping at their home versus mine.
When the building inspector did our framing inspection shortly thereafter, he made 2 comments:
1. If this house ever catches fire, it will MELT rather than burn, with the number of Simpson plates you have on these walls.
2. This house could take an Atlantic coast hurricane without being damaged.
We passed the inspection with flying colors. The other house across the street had to be rebuilt. Another home next to that one, which had already been completed and occupied, had to be abandoned, razed, and rebuilt, as it had actually been moved off its foundation by the tornado.
That Minnesota house of ours is the type of RV construction we prefer. There are 2 ways to get it. We prefer the lighter weight ways if we can get the other things we want while getting the lighter weight.
Jim G