Custom RV and Truck Fabrication in Yorba Linda

Because recreational vehicles leave the factory with less payload margin than owners assume. A fifth wheel with a 16,000 pound gross vehicle weight rating and a 13,200 pound dry weight has 2,800 pounds for water, propane, cargo and everything you add. Fill the fresh tank and about 500 pounds of that is gone before anything is loaded.

Gross vehicle weight rating is only half the constraint. Individual axle ratings matter more, and they are where added equipment usually causes problems, because fabricated additions are rarely centred over the axles. A rear mounted cargo rack or spare carrier loads the rear axle and simultaneously lifts weight off the front, which affects steering on a motorhome and tongue weight on a towable.

That is why we weigh, calculate and state the added weight in writing on any significant fabrication. A 90 pound steel rack and a 45 pound aluminum equivalent are different projects on a vehicle with 300 pounds of margin, and the customer should be making that trade with real numbers rather than after the fact at a scale.

• Gross vehicle weight rating and remaining payload established first
• Individual axle ratings checked, since additions rarely sit over an axle
• Tongue and pin weight recalculated on towables after rear additions
• Added weight stated in writing before fabrication begins
• Material choice presented as a weight and cost trade rather than assumed

Steel is stronger for a given section, cheaper, easier to weld and easier to repair in the field. It is also roughly three times the density of aluminum, and it rusts wherever the coating is broken, which on a vehicle means every drilled hole and every weld that was not properly finished.

Aluminum weighs far less for the same volume and does not rust, which makes it the obvious choice for anything mounted high or mounted far behind the rear axle. The trade offs are real: aluminum has no fatigue limit, so a design that flexes will eventually crack no matter how low the stress, and it requires more material and more careful design to achieve the same stiffness. Welding aluminum also demands cleanliness and technique that many general shops do not have.

The decision usually comes down to where the weight sits and how the part is loaded. A frame mounted receiver hitch taking a tongue load is steel. A roof rack on a van is aluminum. A headache rack behind a truck cab could sensibly be either, and we present both with the weight difference stated.

On a truck or a van, the frame rails and factory reinforced body mounts. On a recreational vehicle, considerably less than owners expect, and this is where most aftermarket installations go wrong.

An RV sidewall is a laminated sandwich: thin outer skin, adhesive, substrate, framing, interior panel. It carries its own weight and resists wind load. It will not carry a cantilevered bracket. Fastening into it pulls the skin away from the substrate, which starts a delamination that grows for years and is one of the most expensive repairs on a coach.

Correct mounting means locating the actual framing or the frame itself, distributing load across multiple members, and using backing plates that spread the fastener load rather than concentrating it. Where no adequate structure exists, we add it. That is genuine fabrication work rather than an upsell, and it is the difference between a rack that lasts and a rack that becomes a delamination claim.

In phases with approvals between them, because open ended fabrication is how customers and shops end up unhappy with each other.

The vehicle is assessed and measured, a design is agreed with drawings or a mock up where the shape matters, materials and weight are specified, and a phased quote is written. Larger build outs are broken into stages with their own pricing so you can see where the project stands and stop or adjust at a defined point.

Published pricing on interior build out and conversion work is $2,500 to $50,000 and up across 20 to 250 labor hours for trailers, and $5,000 to $80,000 and up across 40 to 400 hours for full van conversions. Jobs over $2,000 carry a 50 percent deposit at authorization and jobs over $10,000 carry an additional 25 percent when parts arrive.