Chariot was owned by Jimmy Fulks too. According to what I've read, they manufactured them at a different facility, I'm sure MariahPD can verify this.

Paul,
Chariot was originally based in West Frankfort in the old Mark Twain Boat's building. All of the Chariot trailers were built there. Jimmy Fulks was a partner in this venture. Chariot also made the stainless hardware (swim ladders, bow rails, windshield supports) that were used on all of the Mariah Boat's starting somewhere around 1996. When Chariot trailers quit production it was purchased by Sam Wink owner of Prestige Trailers who continued to make Chariot Trailers from his DuQuoin, IL. facility. Trailer parts for Chariot Trailers are still available from Prestige Trailers. The stainless and alum. fabricating unit was moved into Mariah and continued to supply stainless and alum. parts for Mariah's production needs. Building all of the alum. and stainless in-house was a huge benefit and a very intresting process to see evolve. This was one of Jimmy Fulk's dreams to be a self sufficent mfg. and not depend on suppliers and be assured of high quality standards in every step of the building process.

MariahPD

Great to hear your stories MariahPD. This will just make this site even much more interesting to visit.

Thanks Again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow. That is an interesting little story about the trailers. I will have to try and remember this for future posts or information in general.

Sitting around chatting around the virtual camp-fire telling stories. :)

Hi, Mariah PD;

It is great to have some with your background on the site.
First let me thank you for many years of trouble free boating, 8yrs on a ‘95’ Talari 210 and now 2yrs+ on a Z275st! I bet it was great to see the R and D as the plant grew.
I live a couple hours north of you in the Home of the White Squirrel. I am sure many questions are to come; so I will ask one I am sure many would like to know. Do you know who Mariah had to make their signature gold emblem keys? If we knew who to contact, I am sure we could flood them with enough orders they may consider producing some.

I can’t wait to see some of the old pics. I will be watching your post with interest!

I will have to do some checking to see who the vendor was. I will post back on this as soon as I can contact a former employee. I have a W key if anyone is in dire need of one.

MariahPD

WetWilly ,

The Original Mariah came with a gold Mariah emblem key. They made 4 different cuts and each key had a W, X, Y, or Z inscribed on the key. So every old Mariah was keyed to one of these lettered keys. If you have one of each, you can start any old Mariah out there!

Interesting. I never noticed a letter on mine. I'll have to look closer.

Mariah Keys thread <- includes a picture of mine.