Parts for "Orphan" trailers.

[Joe MacDonald]

Wow, things must be different over there, In Canada when a brand dies, support usually does as well.
Generally if a business goes bust so does it's brands, and there ain't no 7 year plan.

joe

[mmeyer]

I don't know if it makes any difference whether you call them orphans or dead brands or my preference legacy. when you own one they become your brand. We are Uhaul people and proud of it. Using the inferred logic gleaned from his local media, a Duesenberg is a dead brand and no one should ever buy one.
I have yet to find anything on our Uhaul that can't be replaced using some creativity or digilently cross referencing. It is true that the tail lights are not available but Uhaul sells replacement kits to convert them to round taillights. My stove is new, All my plumbing and fixtures are replaced and look original,my range hood was rebuilt using parts from a similar atwood hood. u haul surge brakes are available and you can get custom made axles. Mine came with Car wheels and the hubs have been cross referenced to napa numbers. Finding replacement items is part of the fun in owning one. If you want to be safe limit yourself to current brands. If you wand to be different, do what many of us have, adopt one of those cute little orphans.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by CNYEggerstobe

Fredrick, you can call them "Orphans" but to me, I still call that Dead brands. It is out in the media. Two days ago, in our local newspapers talking about the Auto show this week and it said, "Saabs, Mercurys, and Pontiacs are not at the show. They are dead brands now...blah blah.." So, they still use the word, "Dead" Sorry to burst your bubble. That is the way it is out there. Maybe in the egg shell RV community, they are called "Orphans" I will still call it Dead. Its my dictionary. That is all. You can say what you want and I say what I want. And that is the way I have to say it in the design community.

You say potato, I say po-ta-toe. Call it whatever you wish, but I can tell you that after nearly 10 years on FiberglassRV... Search will bring up a lot more discussions when searching for Orphan Trailers than Dead ones... I consider a dead trailer to be beyond repair, where an orphan trailer refers to a brand out of production. YMMV

[Frederick L. Simson]

Originally Posted by CNYEggerstobe

Two days ago, in our local newspapers talking about the Auto show this week and it said, "Saabs, Mercurys, and Pontiacs are not at the show. They are dead brands now...blah blah.."

And that is the way I have to say it in the design community.

The AUTOMOBILE design community, maybe. The manufacturer's list of RECREATIONAL VEHICLES uses the term "Orphan".

Link to RV Manufacturers Travel Trailers

Fiber Stream (Fiber Stream Co.) Orphan (1986)

[BCDave]

The automobile community ALWAYS uses the term "orphan" and NEVER, EVER under any circumstances uses "dead"! "Dead" means that I can now start making cars under that brand name without any fear of any consequences .

However, newspapers, as we all know, are always all-knowng and always up on the correct terminology of everything and have never mis-reported anything in the entire history of journalism so in this case the fact that a single newspaper uses the term "dead' must mean all the laws have been changed in every country on earth and I can now start manufacturing cars with a Pontiac badge and not have to fear any of GM's lawyers!

(just try making a car called "Nash", "Packard" Studebaker", "Oldsmobile", "Hudson", "Frazier", "Kaiser", "Edsel" etc, etc and see what happens!)

[Mike Magee]

A zombie website, I like that phrase... watch out or the zombie website will eat your hard drive.

It's great that we have nothing better to do than argue about 'orphan' vs 'dead'. It means our lives are so stable and secure, we have nothing worse to worry about.

Such trailer brands, whichever ya call 'em, are not that big a deal for finding parts.

[Herb Sutton]

I believe the 7 year thing is an urban legend.

When I worked for a car manufacturer, parts were tracked on a computerized inventory control. When a particular part had not moved for a length of time it was scrapped to regain the warehouse space. No one worried about how old the part was.

[CindyL]

Mark,

Sounds like you should make sure to find a camper that is not "dead." I would recommend also that you find a company that has been around for a while. Some come and go. And Burro's website is, as aptly phrased, a "zombie," and makes people think that they are still in business.

Hope your pocketbook is flush. Some of us (I am another Uhaul owner.), buy "dead" trailers, because we can't afford new and then spend a few more dollars fixing them up, sometimes with creativity, to be live. So we have a living "dead" camper that we take camping. I have taken my "dead" uhaul to national parks, historical sites, and volunteering on Pine Ridge.


CindyL

[Mark and Tara]

If Burro is gone, why is that website still running? It should have modified by the current owner of the website to set as a memorial or fan website. Like a shopping mall website a friend of mine from around here owns who is a former mall rat who loved that mall and he owns the former mall's domin and he made it as a memorial. Pictures of old stores, floorplans of the mall, history of the mall.. stores came and went like Two Guys (went out in early 80's I think), videos of that mall he filmed when he was a mall rat. He even has an award winning historical DVD on the mall.

Well, you get the idea that Burro fans should be doing that. Same with others.

There are plenty of brands no longer in operations can be used as memorial websites showing pictures of proud owners with their trailers, history, Who owned the brand, why it went out of business, etc.

[Herb Sutton]

I suspect the owner of the Burro site is probably using it as a "portfolio" to demonstrate his work as a webmaster to potential clients. It is "frozen in time" so he doesn't need to concern himself with updating it.

[Mark and Tara]

Oh ok.

Everyone, you know that there is another new company already in running. It is called Outback made in Canada. It even boasted saying they were based from the Boler models. The name can be confusing because it also said to have Trillium. Not to be confused with the Californian Trillium Company. Here is the link for you to check out! Compact lightweight fiberglass Outback travel trailers Calgary | Trillium Trailers

[Donna D.]

Mark, Outback has been building molded trailers for more than seven years that I know of. If you wish to talk to the manufacturer, he's a member here at FiberglassRV: Outback Builder.

Also Tom Young of TrilliumRV (California) is also a member here at FiberglassRV, although we haven't heard from Tom in quite a while: Tom Young