I was a RV Tech for a Jay Flight dealer in Montana for 7 years, they sent me to the factory for training and each Dec we had several classes from the component vendors Norcold,Atwood ect. But the trailers were not checked at the factory very well. I had a team of 3 guys and we had to go through each unit that was sold to make sure everything worked or we repaired it. We had water tanks fall out when full, electrical wires cut in half inside the walls. All sorts of stuff. It was a authorized full factory service dealership-we could take all the walls off and do a complete rebuild there.

 

Hi Gary,

I paid for my training being an independent and didn't resent it a bit. I worked on some of everything from high-end diesels right down to plenty of Jaycos. None better than others, just all bad in my opinion.

A couple of times when I was at the dealer's convention in Vegas I asked the factory guys about going along with the dealer guys to the factory training. Said I was willing to pay for it and it would give their customers better service, but no go. Told me it wasn't a space issue, just that their dealers wouldn't like it. But, the factory called me more than one time when they had a customer down and they couldn't get to to a dealer.

Always thought the notion of fighting to control business was lame. My idea was if we all worked as hard as we could to make sure RV owners were happy there would be plenty of work to go around.

I really enjoyed the challenge of working on things that were never designed to be repaired and my customers. I know I will miss it, but like my wife says, "if we don't start RVing ourselves pretty soon, we will never be able too." So this year, as soon as the weather clears, we are off!

Steve

 

Good for you Steve. One of the two reasons we are camping as much as we are now is that by the time I retire, I'm not sure I'll be physically able to travel much. Many paramedics that have been in it as long as I have have not fared well at all when they retire. The other reason is to spend as much time with our son as we can before he leaves the nest. Hopefully exposing him to something other than video games and electronics along the way. I wish you well during your retirement!

 

The camper just left the dealership on it's way back to the factory.

 

One small battle victory in an effort to win the war.

 

Lippert strikes again. The company that owns the largest percentage of the RV manufacturing industry is also doing the most to kill it through inferior engineering and abysmal quality control. Congratulations LCI.

 

Steve, glad to hear you pulled the trigger and retire. Enjoy sleeping in. But can we ask you questions about our rigs. Your the pro.

 

Retired, didn't say dead. I am always happy to answer anything I can.

Steve

 

Steve, will you do any work while full-timing or is it full on retirement?

 

Currently I am planning on just exploring the country, but a lot depends on how our investments do in the current political climate. One of the small dealers I did work for wants to put me on part-time when I am in town, but I have not pursued it so far.

Steve

 

Sounds good Steve. At least you have the option. My Farther In Law just retired two months ago and was telling us he is already bored! Personally, I'd love retirement because I have too many things I want to besides work LOL

 

Its not just the frame, we toured a Ceder Creek Champagne when we were in Quartzite for the for the big tent and the build quality was awful. Trim falling off, wall paper trim pealing off, door latches falling off, plastic floor registers pushed down into the floor, when I stepped on it I thought I was going through the floor, it was in the walkway in the bedroom so you have to walk on it. That was after spending 5 minutes in a trailer with $106+ price tag.

Denny

 

Denny, do you know if DRV/Mobile suites builds their own frames? I used to gasp at their prices, but I'm starting to think its worth the 25-30% more money to get a 100% better trailer.

 

One thing about part time....you can say I am busy ......sleeping

 

No they use Lipert frames. I've looked at DRV trailers and haven't been that impressed . A couple in our Hitchhiker group had their I think a 08 HH Champaign full body painted because they planed like us to keep it until they stopped traveling(they are fulltimers) only to have someone run a stop sign and total it out. They ordered a DRV and had it for about a year and traded it on a used 2013 HH Champagne.

I'm glade we aren't in the market for a trailer because what's out there is scary, the only one I would consider is a Artic Fox so far.

Denny