The engineering staff at any of the major manufacturers have the design/analysis tools already to compute the performance of their "box" under a myriad of conditions. They probably already have and already know how each unit will behave.
The problem arises when a manufactures has to make design decisions based upon the data they have. Contrary to many "knee jerk" reactions that it is all about cost, there are many other points that must be considered such as weight capacity limits, volume,
producibility and the single biggest consideration . . . LIABILITY! I can tell you from past experience in aerospace (45 years as an ME/Quality Manager), that if for example, Newmar was to tout CD as helping in front blowout situations that the very first time it didn't, because the situation was beyond what was anticipated, they would be sued.
Now, I am NOT trying to say that safety improvements shouldn't be ongoing or necessary, what I am saying though is that sometimes it is not quite as simple as it may seem. Just adding more "steel" is usually not the right answer. I will say that NONE of the manufacturers are adequately addressing crash response within their units to a level that I personally believe is adequate. Recently I witnessed the refer being removed from a MA . . . its installation was a joke. Most microwave installations I've seen are also inadequate from a crash response perspective.
I'd love to "visit" one of the majors with my old "engineering" hat on and just chat with the designers/engineers/operations folks about some of these issues as you'd be surprised how often the right hand doesn't know what the left is doing
My old System's Engineering Manager had a great saying that is applicable in this situation "Don't ask the question if you can't stand to hear the answer".
. It would be interesting to know how Comfort Drive will assist in sudden front wheel blow outs.
Linear Mode
