bogeygolfer wrote:
If some company could make a higher quality trailer and sell sufficient quantities at a profit, they'd be doing it. If I could figure out how to do that, I'd be doing it.
Great thing, the free market. The old "invisible hand" works pretty well, when we leave it alone.
I totally agree. We bought a 2011 Earthbound Dillon (26') TT and it is built extremely well with very good quality materials (steel frame, aluminum superstructure, composite floor, roof, and walls, and no wood anywhere). BUT, and this is a BIG but, Earthbound built around 100 units, obviously spent too much on materials and labor, didn't charge enough to make enough profit (even though their least-expensive unit was almost $40K), couldn't afford to pay dealers for warranty work, and closed shop after about 2 years. They tried to "re-invent" themselves as a high end manufacturer with prices 2X higher than before, and I believe did not build one unit after supposedly taking quite a few orders. I guess no one would front them the funds after seeing they didn't make any money on those first 100 units?
We now have an "orphan" RV, but it is still built well, suits our needs perfectly, and is fixable if anything breaks. We plan on keeping it forever and since there's nothing to rot, it should last "forever".
If somebody else wants to try to start a high-quality RV company, I suppose they would have to have enough cash to carry them for the 5 or 10 or more years it would take to build a decent reputation all the while not charging what they need to to make the profit they'd like. Sounds like a great way to make a small pile of money. After spending a large pile! :R
Kirk
