Thor Forums

[The Gritz Carlton]

High volume for a specific market will encourage truck/chassis manufacturers to build the correct chassis length and wheelbase for the application. Body builders (Thor as example) will conform their coach designs based on wheelbases for a few models. In cases where the two don't meet, they will modify the chassis length and/or add additional frame rails to the ends. This practice goes back years and the companies that specialize in it are professionals...their reputation "rides" on it. In my commercial truck sales days, we would order more "cab and chassis" configurations with longer wheel bases as it is more feasible to "shorten" a frame than extend it. Not sure about MB but every chassis that comes into Thor's Staging Lot gets put on hold until Ford engineers physically inspect any frame modifications done to their chassis and approve it for their warranty consideration. The frame itself would be the least concern to me with all the other build quality issues most RV manufacturers encounter from the frame up. Units that have the frame "hump" over the rear axle are less desirable to modify and coach bodies are probably built on the factory's frame. JMHO.