GNR

Any breaking or interesting news from those attending the Grand National Rally this year? Haven't heard a thing about it on any RV forum this year.

I think you may be a little late for the party. The below is from their website:.
The 2017 GNR - "Welcome to Fabulous Winnebago" - will take place Monday, July 17 - Saturday, July 22 in Forest City, IA

I guess I am a little late for the party as the post was any news coming out of the rally
Sorry Jasper

The big news is the new Executive Leadership Team (ELT), all headquartered in Minneapolis, MN. On the product side of the house the Grand Tour (I think it's 45' long and with a side radiator) is now the big dog or queen of the fleet. Build quality looks quite good, great layout, etc. but the MSRP is about half a mil, I suspect the street price will be somewhere in the low 400s.

Six of us had a private lunch with Ashis Bhattacharya, Vice President-Strategic Planning & Development and we met Chris West,
Vice President-Operations and Bryan L. Hughes, Treasurer & Chief Financial & Accounting Officer.

Ashis wanted to hear from experienced Winnebago owners what we thought about the product, particular problem areas and what we would like incorporated in future products. He has some ideas that he bounced off us but I won't discuss those details. One major issue we all mentioned was the problem getting quality service. He got an earful from us and is well aware of the issues (I suspect more aware now  .)

Chris West spent two weeks working on the assembly line and he certainly has an appreciation for the challenges and the work intensity of the guys and gals on the lines. A major kudo to Chris.

All of the ELT spent the rally week in various Winnebago Class As on rally grounds - this is the first time senior management has ever done this.

I managed to have a long chat with Winnebago employee #1 (the most senior employee) - he noticed my Vietnam Vet hat when I was walking and stopped his Gator. We started discussing our experiences in a war zone and then spent quite a bit of time talking about all of the recent changes at Winnebago.

The towable side of the business is performing quite well and I think the motorized side will do okay. After parsing everything I've heard and seen during GNR I think Winnebago has a very bright future. The stock is generally classified as undervalued and a "buy."

The "breaking" news was the tremendous storm that went thru on Wednesday.  Broke the skylight out of one of the compact coaches in the row west of ours, but then I guess 65 mph winds can do that.  Skewed many of the tents and scattered the poles and chairs inside.  So when the weather radio suggests basements, does that mean I crawl in mine in my Trend??

LOL, the weather certainly caused the GNR team some major headaches.

Friends that went said that weather cancelled two of the entertainment performances. They didn't know how many RVs were present.

There were about 900 units registered for the GNR. The headline entertainment was moved from the ampitheater to the big white entertainment tent due to weather forecasts. As far as I know only some seminars were cancelled due to tent damage.

I was speaking to one of the Winnebago diesel design engineers and he informed me that they will no longer be making a 36m Journey.
He said that they were supposed to be coming out with something new.
I love the 36m Journey, so I will be waiting to see what they come up with to replace it, as I do not like the Forza.

Thanks for the info folks. Lunch with the execs sounds interesting. I would have enjoyed that.