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It's quite apparent that Wrenchtraveller is not willing to let things be! Thus far he has made the following statements:
1) You people with light tow vehicles will go to any lengths to justify your short comings . . .
2) Another big hole in your warped logic . . .
3) Stupid engineers . . .
4) Why am I not surprized that rickfox now suggests time travel as a way of getting a more stable RV.
Although these types of statements may quite well describe his opinions, I believe they are also quite excellent examples of how far off the mark of reality those opinions are - by the way, this is my opinion! I will let those who are reading this thread come to their own cocludsions on this matter.
Steve,
In trying to better understand your concerns about making changes to a "DOT certified frame", I had a 20 minute discussion with a Lippert engineer (who certainly did not seem stupid to me). Lippert supplies frames as components to trailer manufacturers. Their frames do not meet any specific types of DOT certification, and they do not advertise them to do so.
We also discussed other parts of their frames that are often modified such as change out of hitch pins, installation of generators, drilling of holes in the I-beams, change out of landing gear etc. To all these, he stated that there were no specific warranty issues against doing these things. He did state that connecting something to the frame that might result in a heavy stress to the frame was not recommended and could jeopardize any warranty. He cited the installation of a generator as a significant concern, but that if installed by the "trailer manufacturer" he would assume no problem.
He also stated that connection of a hitch to the rear of their frame was technically not an issue - doing so would not jeopardize the integity of the frame, but could well be a smoking gun. The concern is what might be connected to that hitch. Connecting a load of more than "several hundred pounds" (quotes are his specific words) would definitedly push the situation into a warranty issue discussion!
Although I have not talked with Montana, I assume their trailers meet DOT requirements and are in fact "certified". In researching DOT requirements, it is clear that DOT is primarily focused on various safety issues such as structural dimensions, lighting, braking, tires, and to a lesser degree about components. I found nothing related to frame capacity, structure, materials used, or construction - and no mention about voiding of a certification if modifications were made. The closest thing I could find that perhaps relates to our discussion deals with rear end safety in case of a crash. DOT does have requirements concerning crash bumpers, but the requirement states that at the time of manufacturer, the trailer must meet such requirements.
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