Toy Hauler legend has passed

[dedmiston]

I'm having trouble finding any news articles to substantiate this, but viral social media is reporting that Weekend Warrior founder, Mark Warmoth, passed away this weekend.

Mark was a legend in the industry and his Weekend Warrior brand was the leader for years, until the bottom fell out of the market.

In addition to building the leading toy hauler manufacturer in the nation, he was also vocal and active in the desert community and was a productive supporter of the OHV sports.

I didn't see eye to eye with him when his team botched the repairs on our first hauler (2005 FS2600), but we had many years of great memories in that hauler and it served us well.

I'm sorry his spin-off companies never came back as strong as Weekend Warrior, but I don't think he ever could have recaptured what he originally built.

Godspeed Mark Warmoth.

[Powertour]

I know I'm late to the issue here but I cannot stand by & not mention the other side of the deceased.

It's appalling how every article about this guys' death canonizes him, conveniently white-washing the fact he screwed thousands of people out of a court-approved class-action settlement literally right before the trailer fixes as per the settlement were to commence? He left a lot of people holding the bag with court-documented defective trailers by voluntarily liquidating the company before we could have our trash WW Trailers fixed per the settlement. I say again, he voluntarily (key word) liquidated the company. The narrative that WW went bankrupt is 100% pure B.S., if you don't believe me, Google it. There's a least 1 interview he gave to an RV publication where he very clearly states voluntary liquidation vs 'bankruptcy'.

It cost me over $10k to unload my WW **** after the severe defects came to light in litigation (That's I had to lay out an additional $10k of my own money along with what I was able to sell it for in order to satisfy the lien & get out from under it). It also cost me many hours of my & my family's time working things related to this issue, & it cost me $s in attorney fees trying to see where we were at & what we could do about being saddled with one of the multiple defective models he sold to people like me & my family.

This man walked off into the sunset a rich man giving not 2 feces about thousands of us affected owners, living another decade+ & even trying to recreate the monster that screwed so many over. It's no secret the RV industry is morally-bankrupt, but with everything written after this guys' death by the RV press, it's also crystal clear they're morally-bankrupt as well.

[nayther]

Sad news, he was a character, always with the black coat and hat. Met him once at the Sand Sports show when the new Warrior started.

RIP Mark

was it Covid?

[william_04_x]

R.I.P. MW.

Still dragging around our 05' FS2600, and use it almost every weekend.

We're always looking for a new off road adventure, and this T/H has been with us the whole time.

[lincster]

RIP.

I personally never had an issue with Mark.
He called me a few times and asked my input on what he could change when he started his new company after WW.
Seemed like a good guy.

[dedmiston]

Nv Guy wrote:
When I was in the industry I met Mark a couple of times. He had a lot of good ideas and he did make the toy hauler a reality. As already been said, him and his company got caught by the economic times, which was unfortunate. The FS2600 we had served us well.
RIP Mark.

Our satisfaction with the FS2600 was pretty near 100% (except for the frame recall thing). On the other hand, every time I get in bed now in our fiver, I thank my lucky stars that I don't need to climb over my wife to get into that FS2600 bed.

[Nv_Guy]

When I was in the industry I met Mark a couple of times. He had a lot of good ideas and he did make the toy hauler a reality. As already been said, him and his company got caught by the economic times, which was unfortunate. The FS2600 we had served us well.
RIP Mark.

[Y-Guy]

Sad to see his passing, like him or not he WAS Mr. Toy Hauler and I think took the whole industry to a new level with them. Bad timing with the issues he had with the company and the recession, but a lot of people got burnt too.

I just checked and see that Omega RV appears to have closed up shop, and post on a WW page from 2018 had a guy trying to get some support for his new WW.

Happy Trails Mark.

[Bedlam]

The larger models in that series had dual AC which required it, but mine was fine with a single 15k unit. When we would camp with hookups, I could run two space heaters on 50A and keep the camper cozy in sub freezing temperatures without using LPG. I also had installed a Hot Rod into the water tank, so I could run hot water on exclusively electric or run both at the same for faster recovery.

[dedmiston]

That sounds pretty great. Do you know why it had 50A service? That seems kind of extreme.

[Bedlam]

We camp in temperatures down to 10 degrees although try to find places in the 30's over the winter. We never stored ours for any season and used it year round (rain, shine or snow). Ours had two large single-pane picture windows and a slide out jack-knife couch section on the other side which was not insulated well either.

The plus side was ours was the shortest wide-body model. This meant the frame was very robust for the size, it had 50A service, 5.5kw genset, 40 gallon fuel plus dispenser, dual 75 gallon fresh, 10 gallon hot water, filtered water dispenser and more. It really spoiled us compared with the fiberglass egg or popup tent trailers we had prior. We are on second truck camper now, but that is discussion for another section of this forum.

[dedmiston]

Wow. That's a lot of LP to keep such a small box warm.

I don't know about you, but our WW was our fist big boy RV. We had a popup before that, but that was a very different category. We loved our WW though and used the heck out of it. Except for the little thing about the frame bending (which WW was very good about repairing), that rig was bulletproof. It survived through eight or nine bikes that I can think of (five at a time), two adults, three kids, four dogs (one or two at a time), and countless guests. Our kids were tiny when we first got it, and now they're all adults.

I don't exactly miss our old WW, but it sure served us well and I'll always appreciate it.

[Bedlam]

I had fond memories of my FB2200, but it was not insulated enough for the places we travel. I could easily draw down the dual batteries for just the furnace overnight and use over 30#'s of propane in two nights. It did spoil me with capacities not found in other 22' toy haulers...