I live in Elkhart IN near where Bison, Lakota, Shadow, Merhow, and Kiefer are built and almost all LQ trailers have their LQ part done here at one of the places that does RV and horse trailer interiors.
As @endlessclimb said, sourcing materials may cause a delay. RVs and horse trailers are made with the same materials and generally with the same process and the workers who make RVs have the same skills as those who make RVs.
As to your questions --as far as I know, the same people own and run the factories that did before (although I believe Thor bought Kiefer). The Merhow people are the same people now as those who built the trailers before --I have had two sequential Merhow trailers. My newest one is a 2020. No problems at all --I only live 7 miles from the factory. When horse decided to play with his door latch until he broke it (straight load BP) I stopped in on my way north and the parts manager (John) came out himself and put on a new one --no charge --and told me how much he appreciated my business. I’ve had two modifications done on the new trailer since then: My DH is not as careful as I about dropping the ramp, and I was worried about scratches and rock damage from gravel in our drive way. John suggested putting on “bumpers” --big rubber pieces that usually go on the bottom of a step up trailer right on the back ramp of mine, under the upper doors. Perfect solution --and again, no charge. The other item I had modified was the window that goes from the tack area to the horse area --I have nose windows so when it is hot out, I can open the nose windows and the bulkhead window so the wind can blow back on the horses and out the back windows, keeps them cool. The window from the tack to the horse compartment did not have “guard bars” on it. Horse stuck his nose through the screen. I easily repaired the screen, but then went to Merhow and picked up a set of bars (like the outdoor windows have on the inside). I think it was $50. My neighbor who works on the RVs (Jayco) came over in less than 5 min had those bars in. He said he puts in 90 windows a day.
Anyway —my advice as someone who has bought a few horse trailers in the last 60 years --when you go to buy, look at the warranty and figure out where the closes place is that can do your warranty work. As I said, for me, it’s only 7 miles. However, neighbor who owns a brand new Hawke, had to arrange to have hers taken to Wisconsin for interior mats that didn’t stay on like they should. Personally, I’d have told Hawke to arrange to have it taken there, but she agreed to drive it herself, and was thrilled they fixed it under warranty.
One of the members of the hunt had a new trailer --she drove from IN to VA to hunt, and an axel failed. Company told her (not sure which one it was) they would replace it free but she had to get the trailer back to IN (4 horses in the trailer, broken axel). She paid out of pocket to have it fixed in VA and got her self home. The company said they would replace the axel. She said she HAD a new axel --so they GAVE her a brand new axel --it sits in her barn to this day. They did fulfill the warranty, but I think what they did was wrong. They did not pay labor or for the new axel b/c they said if she’d brought it back to the factory (as the warranty said) everything would have been covered.
So check out everything in your warranty.
