Winnebagos designed by Accountants? No hatch-lift for my Access Premier!

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Arne

Arne

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Joined
Jan 18, 2009
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A few days ago I got a minor concussion when I distractedly walked into an open  storage compartment door while installing  my Automatic Transfer Switch.  The reason was that the door (hatch) was sticking out at 90 degrees exactly at the hight of my forehead.  This position was due to the fact that the hatch was supported by a simple mechanical hook.  I remedied the situation by spending one hour and $75 to install two "HatchLifts".  The hatch is now positioned almost upright when open. 

I would gladly have paid several hundred dollars more for an "upscale" rig without this and many similar  shortcuts ( i.e. transfer switch, water fill on left side, light switches, reading lights in bedroom and many more)
 

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Unfortunately you are not alone Arne.  When I replaced my 06' Meridian with my current 10' Journey, I found a long list of items that fell under the accountants chopping block. Some I have replaced myself at a considerable expense.  The coach runs fine, and overall I am happy with it. But you are right, I would have gladly paid thousands more to have the coach outfitted appropriately the first time. 
 
How come people always blame the accountants ? All we do is provide the numbers. It's management that makes the deicsions on what to leave off. Go pick on them.  :mad:  :D ;)
 
We blame the accountants because management never listens to us...  If it is about there bottom line it usually comes from the accountants...  I just could NOT refuse to comment, sorry.  LOL
 
The same thing happens when the lift-gate on my Japanese made SUV is open.  If I don't think about it, I bump my head when I stand up after putting something in the back.  It never occurred to me that this could be the direct result of a short statured cost accountant.    ;) 
 
Couple of comments.

I had a conversation with one of the Winnie designers or perhaps it was an engineer a couple of years ago about the decision to drop the gravity water fill.  He said it was a controversial decision - apparently there was some pushback but ultimately lowering production costs won that argument.

It dawned on me as I was pondering Marty's response about gladly paying more to get more features that if a long list of options was presented to a purchaser, that would call attention to missing features.  In Arne's and Marty's situation, it took a while to discover shortcomings of the product.

Also, model line-ups are crafted from the bottom to the top to specific price-points with features that sometimes don't overlap.  One example is electric compartment locks.  Marty's older Journey had the feature, his new one doesn't.  If you want all of the doo-dads, you move up the the top model.  Features come and go (or migrate up or down) depending on the competition and the economy.

Yup Wendy - management (product planners, marketing, CEO, CFO) calls the shots.  I had a nice chat this summer at the GNR with the principal of a outside marketing firm that Winnebago contracts with, I thought they did everything in-house but not so.  It was fun to share my various opinions with him.

 
I'm a little confused - your fourth picture looks like there's already two gas struts on the door?  Or does the wand mount in place of one of the gas struts?


In any case, couldn't you have accomplished the same thing by moving the bottom mounting bracket up a bit, so the arm engages it when the door is opened further?  This would point more to a production mistake instead of cost cutting.
 
I forgot to take a picture of the position of the door before I installed the gas struts, so I took the picture afterwards.    I tried to erase the struts in Photoshop. Clearly I did not succeed.
 
We have a couple of things that are potential disasters.  One is our front tow bar with the shield when we're in the garage and need to walk in front of it.  Jerry removes the tow bar as soon as possible or puts in on just before leaving, but sometimes it's a hazard.  The other is one of our underbay doors that lifts straight up and sits horozontal to the ground when open.  We have several bright orange towels that Jerry drapes over these items so we won't walk into them.  Get something bright that can be draped over your underbay door so it catches your attention before causing injury.  Goodness knows, we have enough hazards without something like that!

ArdraF
 
The flaw in the standard + options approach is that nearly all RVs are ordered by dealers on spec rather than by actual end users. RV manufacturers build what their dealers tell them they can sell, and [in my opinion] dealers often have a skewed view of what an RV is or should be. And shoppers are more likely to be impressed with a big tv than a gravity water fill.
 
Why not give the customer the choice of a water fill or better struts as a option instead of just to do away with these options.We special ordered ours in 2011 and was shocked the water fill was gone. I mean how much could that have cost .I think the bean counters are trying to do the job they are hired to do.That said dealers do order a lot of these coaches and bigger TV and side cameras make more profit than a lot of other options.I think be fore the take a option away from the consumer they should try to read these post and find out what us RVers want.







 
I think be fore the take a option away from the consumer they should try to read these post and find out what us RVers want.
Click to expand...

I think you would be amazed at how many different things "us RVers want". And how widely the priorities vary.  I spoke with a guy recently who refused to buy a coach because the tv was "only 37". Another who disliked the multi-colored full body paint and would only buy something plainer. Different styles for different RVers, and vastly different wants and needs.

Having spent most of my career in product design and development, I can assure you that options have a significant cost whether anybody every selects them or not. And trying to design something and then set up manufacturing procedures for a large number of options is a nightmare, sometimes leading to defects when some combination of options won't work together.
 
Everything is a compromise. Look how many manufacturers have gone under. They do a delicate dance between cost and features. If the cost is too high then some folks won't even look at a coach.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
I think you would be amazed at how many different things "us RVers want". And how widely the priorities vary.
Click to expand...

How do the wants of RVers make their way to the designing room?  I'd love to find a shorter, maybe 33-35 foot, motorhome with a decent murphy style bed that when stowed left a room suitable for other activities.  For example, the murphy beds that doubles as an office/computer desk when in the upright position. 
 
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