Profits tumble at Winnebago

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
See posts with no answers
They have a lot of company Jeff, but let's hope that Winnebago and other major manufacturers can manage their way through this. However, I doubt any of them can see the light at the end of tunnel right now.
 
I toured the Forest City plant a few months ago and it was like a ghost town. No one was working. On the other hand I just bought a used class A and got it for about way under wholesale NADA.
 
Jeff - thanks for the story.  Winnebago is one of the healthiest RV manufacturers in the country with little to no debt to drag them down.  Olson acted aggressively to lower expenses - unfortunately people are impacted by this since they closed Charles City and went to a very reduced production schedule in Forest City.

Don't know too much about other manufacturers except for Fleetwood.  They are carrying a heavy debt load that might tip them over the edge.  Hope not - we'll have to wait and see though.

For those that are coach shopping - what a great time to be a buyer (be careful of what you buy though - you don't want to wind up owning an orphan.)
 
John,
Would you have any concerns about owning an orphan that is no longer under warranty?  For example a 2006 National that is significantly below the low NADA value.
Delbert
 
I would only be concerned about an orphan if the chassis was made by the coach manufacturer and not, say, Freightliner or Spartan.  Chassis specific parts may become hard to find as the existing inventory is depleted.  FL and Spartan chassis can be serviced just about anywhere and parts are readily available, as long as they stay in business, of course :)

Most of the items in an RV like appliances are not coach manufacturer specific.  Cabinets can be worked on by any competent woodworker.  Engines are, of course, dependent on the engine manufacturer remaining in business.
 
Delbert - I see two situations here:  one is buying a product from a manufacturer in business and you assume they will remain in business; then they're gone like Travel Supreme, Western RV, National, etc.  Second situation is you buy knowing you have an 'orphan.'  I most certainly would consider buying an orphan if the deal was good enough (factoring in no house warranty) and if I was certain I could get the house and chassis serviced.  Obviously most of the components (stoves, ACs, fridges, etc.) are off-the-shelf which present little to no service issues and may even be in-warranty by the manufacturer of the component. If I wanted an Alpine, I would need to be certain I could get the chassis serviced since Western RV (Alpine) produced their own chassis.

Best thing to do is to find other National owners and see how they are coping.  I have driven a Trop-i-cal and thought it was a very nice unit for the money.

EDIT:  Ned - we're thinking along the same lines here!
 
John, that is scary :)  BTW, your site is ready, we moved back to ours yesterday.
 
I think the "orphan" mentality is a rather recent line of thinking. Once the coach is out of warranty, other then maybe front or rear cap issues, everything else can be handled by either the individual equipment manufacturers, or whatever shop (ford, Chev, Freightliner, etc) the coach sits on. I had an '85 Pace-Arrow for 17 years and never once even thought about needing Fleetwood assistance.  Once the infant mortality  is taken care of, and warranty is up, IMO, who cares if the factory is around (sans said caps).

BTW- Hope I don't have to post my pix on this form. Might be worse than a virus... :)

BTW#2- Seems that Preview doesn't work.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 730 (members: 37, guests: 693)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,914
Posts
1,387,314
Members
137,666
Latest member
nativoacai
Back
Top Bottom