Carriage RV
History
Carriage was founded in 1968 by 4 gentlemen: Wilbur Witmer, Ray Stutzman, George Kurtz and C.T. (Clarence) Yoder. By 1972 Yoder and Witmer had bought out their partners and assumed ownership of the Company. For what will be 42 years in 2010, we have been located in Millersburg, Indiana on a 72-acre campus that contains nearly 25 buildings of various capacities, nearly all of which are still used in some fashion to build our Luxury fifth wheels.
Carriage's first products were two lines of travel trailers, named the Carriage and the Rolls International. Fifth wheels hadn't been invented yet, but even early on anything that had Carriage's name on it was considered well-built and reliable. Over the years we have also built conversion vans (for almost 20 years), Class C motorhomes (3 years), and even a few custom park models for Anheuser-Busch. We built our last travel trailer in the 2005 model year and have focused strictly on our 4 lines of high-end fifth wheels ever since.
Our Belief
Another fundamental belief over the past 40 years is to build as much as possible ourselves. All other RV manufactures in the industry are not truly builders. They are assemblers. They purchase part A from one vendor, part B from another and part C from a third then assemble the pieces to make a vehicle. The problem is two fold: 1) if the part is bad, who will stand behind it? The assembler or the original OEM? 2) As these different parts were built by different companies, they were not designed together.
What does this all mean to you and the customers? We have a history, system and philosophy of building the best vehicles in the world. Apparently, the world agrees with us, as we've won the most quality awards—voted on by dealers and customers—in towables.
Our Facilities
Countertop Shop
A very important part of the coach. As it's a high touch item in particular for women. By having our own shop, we match each counter with the floorplan, décor and cabinets. True corian is hand molded, sanded and shaped for each coach.
Wood Shop and Mill Room
The key to making the Cameo look like a Cameo on the inside. All our wood is stained together providing for an equal and even shading. We build cabinet doors, tables, even chairs. From the hardwood stiles to the raised panel doors, cherry is same color in the entire coach as it's all made by the same supplier...us.
Sewing Shop
Almost all bedspreads, pillows and window valences that you see in our products are stitched, quilted and hemmed in-house in our Sewing Department.
Frame Shop
We build all of our own frames for every Carriage Cameo on the road. To have this in-house quality and the ability to build a frame for a floor plan instead of being forced to build a floor plan around a frame is a great advantage for Cameo. You'll see more in our warranty section about this feature.
Aluminum Shop
Instead of sub-contracting our aluminum wall, floor and roof trusses, we have always built these subassemblies on site. This too gives us the in-house quality that Cameo demands and not a mass-produced, stamped sidewall. It also gives us the chance to inspect every truss, sidewall and weld throughout all of our finished goods.
The Carriage Advantage
What is our biggest advantage? No middle men! Because we do not have to pay other vendors, we can spend more money on the product for every dollar spent. This is why Carriage is the best value on the market today.
