Gorilla Cage Being Phased Out?

[scott]

Originally Posted by drcook

We have a Featherlite aluminum horse trailer and every seam is welded. It does add to the cost as Featherlite's are pricey. Ours was in a hail storm so we got it at a reduced price otherwise we would have chosen one of the other brands

I've seen some of these rigs at Brown County State Park. WOW they are impressive, the capability to haul horses and have plush living quarters!!! I guess you can say the quality is in the welding, hopefullyCR have some skilled welders

[drcook]

Ours is abumper pull. When we bought it, I was a representative for an insuranced agency. Because the dealer that had them, accepted the settlement money from the hailstorm, the trailers were sold at a discount, and because of my affiliation (and because I was an actual prior customer) got a very good discount.



The best thing that if you have an aluminum roof that has hail damage, all you have to do is leave it in the sun and weather and a combination of the heating and cooling and freezing and expansion will remove the dents. At least ours has none remaining.



Ours is a two horse bumper pull with dressing room. Typical MSRP on them is more than we paid for our first TT, an 05 Salem 28ftbunkhouse model which wasn't a bad unit. Now I realize that there is a premium attached to the Featherlite name. BUT still, the Salem had a microwave and a stove and a refrigerator and a water heater and a pump and wall coverings and propane bottles and you get my drift. TheFeatherlite had all welded construction with the beams visible on the inside, a rubber floor, a dividerto keep the two horses separate and some bumper pads.

[crossroadsrv]

I have been a representative of CrossRoads for over 9 years in sales and I have witnessed every Cruiser made since its inception. I was reading this forum sent to me by a concerned customer of ours about the wondering & confusion of what CrossRoads is “up to� these days.

During the factory tour at the Cruiser plant; the discussion was brought up about the construction process. I then notified many of you that we were in the process of changing and in the testing phase of different applications of construction.

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The “Gorilla Cage� seems to be the hot topic in this discussion and I can say that Cruiser still offers that same cage system. We are going to shift to a welding type joint in place of the aluminum “L� brackets screwed to the studs because this will offer us a more efficient process. The reason for this is simply we are growing quickly in retail numbers currently 21% in the states &amp; 48% in Canada so building a wall during the production line is to timely. Instead we have another facility (CrossRoads employed) that will build our walls ahead of time leaving the production line to simply set the wall on the frame. Same 16� on center construction only with welds vs. “L� brackets.



Another topic that had seemed to come up was the process of the welds whether we use a bead or run a weld strip across the joint. Where every other manufacturer I have noticed only “spot weld�; we are running it across the joint giving it the most strength also allowing for a more consistent contact reducing the issue of burning through the aluminum. There was also concerns about the quality of this process vs. our previous method and all I need to say is; “have you noticed that our warranty is still the best in the industry.�



Customers; we have numerous employees that have been at CrossRoads for over 10 years that work on the production line everyday and their main concern is to build the best quality product out there. Our focus hasn’t changed from that, in fact we are working on building you more of the same quality product for more RVer’s like yourselves. This is why we need to look to the future and explore all possibilities to give you what you want and what you are asking for.



Thank you to all that are a CrossRoads owner and for you prospective customers�.please read these forums to see how many faithful customers we have.

[drcook]

so since the couple prior posts happened to be on equine transportation devices, and now since the rep from crossroads rv answered all questions in a forthrite manner, we can now say that we have heard it straight from the horse's mouth............................

[Hunter11]

I believe that is what I said a couple of pages ago and it looks like they have given their explanation as to why the change was made. I see no reason to keep beating the post to death.

[artgpo]

Amen.

[drcook]

or beating a dead horse so to speak ?



sorry, just couldn't resist.

[catscratch]

We just bought a 2013 this week and it is all about the Gorilla Cage construction. I have a couple of minor issues with mine...not serious ones, but I would like to see them addressed.

[Ruck]

Originally Posted by hhh

Could be, I know there were some welded sidewalls inside and I thought they were welded both sides of the tube. I could be wrong but maybe the ones outside were not acceptable for production and that is why they are outside?

My understanding from the tour is that the frames are assembled inside just as they are ready to be installed on the floor. If you look at my pic, behind the floor framing you can see two sidewalls stacked on top of each other. The way they make them is to take an already assembled frame and secure it to the table. They then take the various tubes and lay them on top of this template and assemble the sidewall framing. On one table there was a stack of 5 assembled sidewall frames. From this table they are then moved to install on the floor of the trailer.

As you can see in the below pic, these sidewalls were screwed together.

BTW, that's a pic of me, leaning on the frame. Jul '11 @ factory tour. For anyone who gives a hoot. Surprised me when I saw the pic n post!
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