Quote:
Originally Posted by mtlakejim
Not sure I follow your line of thinking here. OBVIOUSLY if your building it yourself, you have full control of the TYPE and Quality of the materials used AND you also have control of quality of workmanship!!
All the manufactures try to cut corners on cost everywhere they can. That's why we see things like plastic faucets and such. They get materials from the cheapest vendor (certainly not the best vendor). If you have control over what materials you use then you can up the quality of the build by several factors.
I have visited the factories for 5th wheels and for sure there is ZERO quality control. They pride themselves on how many they can turn out per week, not how well they are built!! If you have control of how the unit is built, you can improve the overall quality by several factors as well.
Granted I am NOT saying it is cheaper to build one yourself. I am only saying if you have the expertise to do so (or at least can hire same) your going to end up with a product that is several factors superior to the ones coming out of the factories these days!!
This is why there is such a big trend with folks converting enclosed trailers. Granted that is not completely ground up and it isn't an ideal solution but there are a lot of folks, including me, that look at these rigs today and say "I could build something way better than that".
I will back off of the "I have the expertise" just a bit to say that I have a lot of skills (certified welder, basic carpentry, oilfield plumbing and graduated from industrial electronics). I also have the tools including a woodworking shop I am currently building. There are some things that I would contract out though. Either because I don't feel my skills are suitable for the given task or I don't have the equipment. But I have enough overall knowledge to realize where my limitations are.
Not saying I am going to do it for sure as there are a lot of projects in front of it and this would be a major undertaking but I do like the idea of rubbing the industries nose in a well-built and innovative design. I didn't get any credit when I gave Grand Design the concept for what became the HC381TH at Thor. And Keystone designers total ignored me and said some of my ideas could not be done. I would love to see them somewhere and show them one I had built and say "Oh yes it could be done, and here it is"!!
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It's obvious you have way more skills and experience than I do.
The only caution is a maxim that until you do something you really "don't know what you don't know". The more major the project the higher the risk that the things you don't know might bite big time.
Examples of that are all of the boat building projects that never get finished. A friend of my dad's worked decades on his boat and never finished it before he died. And the boat was only a 25 footer fishing boat.
Again, I have no idea how boat building compares, but I think there are a lot of things that would need to be researched before attempting a 5th wheel project.
Now, if you were to go ahead, I would love to see your progress. I think it would be a great project to follow!
Brad