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.

 

[Chuck52]

Bird,

I remember 1973 (maybe 1974) as the year I decided my Pontiac Luxury Lemans would make a good trade-in on a Subaru station wagon. Driving down I75 in the Lemans with the air conditioning on I could watch the gas guage move. The Subaru was my first car that got 30mpg.

Chuck

 

[dmccarty]

I have been jaw dropping shocked at how many BIG trailer RVs and huge motor home RVs we have seen on I95 over the last few years. As a kid seeing motor home RV was kinda unusual and was usually "small" not like today's HousesOnWheelsWithADiesel. We see quite a few of these huge RVs. And they are new and huge.

I would guess they are rented. I just cannot believe that there are that many bus sized RV's owned by families. If there are they most all go to FLA at the same time we do.

My family had a distant relative selling a good RV with low mileage for a low price. The relative was not able to sell it. We thought about buying it but the RV could only sleep four and we wanted it to sleep six. And we just could not justify the price even as low as it was.

There are still RV and boat dealers around us with inventory. I do not know how. I drive by a U Store It place twice a day. The place used to be completely full of boats, RV and trailers. There still are some but quite a few of them have moved off. Can't imagine paying for a boat, trailer, or RV and then have the monthly expense to park it. :confused2:

Later,
Dan

 

[smstonypoint]

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.

Was it 1972 or 1973 that gasoline was rationed according to the last digit of your license plate (even or odd)?

 

[300UGUY]

Was it 1972 or 1973 that gasoline was rationed according to the last digit of your license plate (even or odd)?

I was working in a factory in 1973, started in September, the oil crisis started in October, and by December, I was laid off. I think the rationing started in late 73 or early 74. It didn't last long. The economic effects are still being felt today. 1973 was the high point for family income in this country. It's been going downhill ever since.

 

[2manyrocks]

The method of rationing was pretty loose--I don't recall any official method around here except that gas stations wouldn't let you fill up--it was limited to X gallons-and not every station had gas. Since a lot of the cars only got 10-15 mpg, it had an impact.

At the time, it was a shock to see gas "jump" from something like .32 cents a gallon to say .50 or .60 a gallon if I'm remembering the prices right.

 

[Bird]

The method of rationing was pretty loose

That's true. In the first two suburbs northwest of Dallas (Farmers Branch and Carrollton), we were limited to 10 gallons, so I could get 10 gallons at one station, go a block or two down the street and get another 10 gallons. But that summer, we made a trip to West Virginia in that little motorhome and I was wondering how much trouble we'd have getting gas on I-30, I-40, and I-81 through Arkansas, Tennessee, and Virginia, and we never had a problem at all. We didn't find a single station with any restrictions.

 

[dmccarty]

I remember the 10 gallon limit and you got gas based on the last number in the license plate. Odd numbers were certain days of the weeks while even where other days of the weeks. Maybe no gas was sold on Sundays.

I was a little kid way back then but I remember the even/odd rule for some reason. We would have been in GA or LA at the time. LA may not have had gas stations open on Sunday. I know we could only buy food on Sundays back then. Skags Albertsons which is now just Albertsons would put sheets of plastic over the shelves with products they could not sell.

Later,
Dan

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Heard an ad on the radio today for an RV dealers "Inventory reduction sale". thought of this thread.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Heard an ad on the radio today for an RV dealers "Inventory reduction sale". thought of this thread.

That may be the trend for a while. I had to drive up through KY on 80/68 to Russelville today for son to leave out for 100th Boy Scout anniversity in DC area for the next two weeks and pasted some RV dealers. I did not see a lot of action and most only had towables now.

Owning one old MH currently makes me more happy than owning/floor planning a lot full for sure.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

That may be the trend for a while. I had to drive up through KY on 80/68 to Russelville today for son to leave out for 100th Boy Scout anniversity in DC area for the next two weeks and pasted some RV dealers. I did not see a lot of action and most only had towables now.

Owning one old MH currently makes me more happy than owning/floor planning a lot full for sure.

I have a good friend in Russelville KY.
The 100th anniv scout parade in DC is this sunday. I'm not going, but some of our scouts will be there. Also the national Jamboree is going on right now at Ft AP Hill in VA.

Regarding campers, etc.. my wife saw a popup with AC, so she wants one with AC. We have always tent camped, have considered a towbehind camper, but maybe we will get a popup. So far I haven't seen any deals that outstanding, and with a camper, I don't want a used one.