Hats off to you Budman. I too work for a Crown dealer but I do a lot of Raymond work. To the one that stated Raymond was the " unquestionable leader", maybe in your town. But as for the rest of the country - it's a Crown/Raymond split. Yes I'm partial to Crown, but I wouldn't say it's the perfect truck for every application, and neither is Raymond. I do realize it the ' salesman in you talking' so we forgive you!
Seriously, like others have said, check the dealers rep in your area, check what the full maintenance package is, check on a parts consignment cabinet availability. AND make sure the dealers are comparing apples to apples. So many times I have seen a customer go with one brand on price only to find what was compared, was not what was ordered.