RV Inventories?

[Chuck52]

Interesting thread. My son was recently hired as a salesman by the largest RV dealer in the area. Before taking the job he checked with his FIL who happened to know the dealership pretty well. Son says they roll a fair amount of iron off the lot, mainly the smaller tow-behinds, but also a few of the class A units. Unfortunately for him, most of the sales go to the guys who have been there and have both experience in the business and lots of contacts, but he gets by. So....probably like most things related to the economy, RV sales vary by regions.

I expect son will find another job before the summer sales drop off, as the boss there told him they always do.

Academic football.....now there's a whole other, very contentious thread! I've been at/worked at three major football universities. The football coaches have always been paid more than even the most productive faculty members or administrators....isn't that the way it is suppoosed to be? Selling those TV rights is way more lucrative than curing cancer. I once interviewed for a job at the University of Georgia. I knew the guy I was interviewing with was really powerful when I learned his parking spot was reserved even during home games!

Chuck

 

[Bird]

Chuck, I learned long ago that many RV salesmen are just salesmen. They don't know hardly anything at all about the RVs, just as many car salesmen know nothing about their products. When my brother went to work as an RV salesmen, either the first or second month he was there, he became their number one salesman, even though some of the other guys had been there for years. I think that was due to (1) he had lived in RVs, was familiar with them; knew more about them than any of the other salesmen, (2) he read all the manuals, brochurse, etc. on all their products, and (3) I don't think he ever tried to "sell" anything; just visited with anyone who came on the lot, answered questions, and asked questions (doesn't everyone like to talk about himself? So he encouraged them to do so, and made friends).

 

[QRTRHRS]

Don't know about RV's, but went to Ocean City Md. a few weeks ago and the boat dealers had huge inventorys that would make all the RV's look like popup campers. Millions and millions of dollars worth of boats.

mark

I happened to notice an auction ad today for an out of business houseboat building company in Somerset, KY. The Lake Cumberland area bills itself as the houseboat building capital of the country.

But then, the area has a "double wammy". The economy is in the bucket and the lake level has been lowered for the last few years due to issues with the dam since some houseboats are so big, they get moved only from the factory to the lake.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

The RV industry may never recover to its past peak years.

Three years ago we bought our first every RV. It is a 1993 32' GBM Pursuit on a 1992 P30 chassis. It was only $8K and the kids were asking for one so we bought it.

We have put a lot of hours into it and some money and we have done some fun trips and plan to do more.

The cooling unit of the refrigerator went out but finally I got focused on it and have it setting in the living area where we have been testing all the functions before reinstalling it. RV.Net Open Roads Forum: Tech Issues: Norcold Cold Again (-5/21) Finally!

Just like with the tractors I can "never" just "fix" what is broken but I have to referb the "whole" thing. Instead of just R/R the cooling unit I stripped the box of everything but the doors and cleaned even the computer board, removed any rust and repainted. Overkill, overkill, overkill but I enjoy doing it. :thumbsup: Actually it is better than OEM I think.

Well I had the kids to do a report on how absorption refrigerators work and they have been involved in the referb job.

Bottom line it would have been about $1600 to have a new one installed and the Amish remanufactured cooling unit was $400 for the part then there was our labor but it was more of a learning project than labor.

RV's are expensive to buy and maintain is a fact and with the lower income some of the younger generations are/will experience will make a full recovery of the RV industry very hard.

 

[EddieWalker]

Just to add to what Gale said, my parents have a pretty fancy RV and their refrigerator stopped cooling. It was still under warrantee, so they made an appointment and brough it in to the approved location. They had already ordered the parts from a one day visit and were told it would take a day or two for them to fix it. A week later, it was done.

What was surprising is that the refrigerators are too large to remove from the RV through the door. They have to be worked on inside the RV, so they take it out and set it on the floor and work on it in there.

The reason it took so long is that they are overwhelmed with work. They are not selling them like they used to, but they sure are getting plenty of work on fixing them. I'm wondering if its like the housing market. People are holding on to what they have instead of upgrading and buying new ones?

Eddie

 

[Bird]

Eddie, I reckon problems with RV refrigerators is common. I know my brother "fixes" a lot of them, and also sells and installs a lot of new ones. And in fact, he had to replace his own refrigerator two months ago. amd his cost for the new one was $1,271. I don't know what he'd charge a customer to put one like that in a motorhome.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Eddie you are correct on dealers having more service work because people are keeping them longer. At one point in time a dead/dying frig was a great excuse to trade.

Even with our 18 year old MH we are fine with it now based on our usage and college for two coming up in a few years. Most anyone with a RV under 10 years old will not "need" to trade for another 10 years. Since unlike cars they are never "worn out" in most cases many retired people will not be "required" to trade again based on "need" alone barring an accident etc.

$5-$6 fuel will put a ton of even DP's on the market I expect. Some think banks, etc may be setting on 100K MH's that will get pushed to the market within the next 24 months. IF that is the case it will not be good of new sales.

However RV's are selling like hotcakes IF they are priced low enough. There is demand at the right price for these times.

Bird we found the mark up and installing was going to add about $400 giving us a net cost of about $1600 for our common two door Norcold replacement. As stated the part was $400 to the door. If a person did not have the time or desire the $1600 route would be the best way to go for sure.

 

[2manyrocks]

Bird, there was an Airstream dealer in Cookeville, but I think it went out maybe a year ago. There was another large RV place on I40 around Crossville, and their lot was totally vacated when I drove by last week.

The RV industry has kind of gotten the double whammy like they got around 1973. First, high gas prices, and then a recession.

Lot's of former FEMA trailer for sale around here in the $4000-$6000 asking price range. Somebody posted on our local Craigslist that they were auctioned off for $1500-$2500 and the current sellers are trying for 100% profit.

Having said all this, our local campground was fuller a few weeks ago than I've seen in past years. Maybe folks decided to stay home on vacation because of the oil spill in the gulf and because of the economy.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

The overriding fact is few "need" to trade to continue to have safe and fun filled RV trips. The wealthy often shut down non required spending first and is the main reason they are wealthy. No one is gettting rich selling new pop ups.

At Columbus-Belmont KY state park (MS River bluffs) Saturday we saw our first FEMA trailer in a RV park.

If fuel does the $5 thing one of these days a lot of gas hogs will grow roots.

 

[Bird]

The RV industry has kind of gotten the double whammy like they got around 1973. First, high gas prices, and then a recession.

I bought our first motorhome, smallest Class A Winnebago made, in 1973. It only had a 40 gallon gas tank, and how many of our members remember 1974 when service stations limited gasoline sales to 10 gallons for awhile.:laughing: Fortunately, that didn't last long.