Monaco Plant In Elkhart Closed

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camperAL

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Oct 24, 2011
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Indiana
Greetings,

Just saw this on my local news. A local Monaco Plant in Elkhart was closed. Employees were told when they arrived and are suppose to come back next day to pick up their personal belongings.

My understanding is they made travel trailers and were still doing things based on older equipment to produce modern equipment. All warranties on trailers produced there are going to be honored according to Monaco.

Here is the story.

http://www.wsbt.com/news/local/monaco-facility-in-elkhart-closing-its-doors/24388984
 
ASV shut down the plants with no provision to even finish the units on the production line, some of which were probably customer orders. Makes me start to wonder about ASV management.
 
...some of which were probably customer orders.

Is that conjecture or fact? Orders, if any, come from dealers and are usually for their inventory rather than end-users. I would think that orders for Holiday & R-Vision trailers are pretty slim in February.
 
Gary RV Roamer said:
...some of which were probably customer orders.

Is that conjecture or fact? Orders, if any, come from dealers and are usually for their inventory rather than end-users. I would think that orders for Holiday & R-Vision trailers are pretty slim in February.

Conjecture, but the Holiday dealer we bought from outside of Boston had a lot of customers in January and February. We bought our HR Imperial in late February or the first week of March. No matter what I would think you would keep a few production guys to finish off the product started. Just my two cents.
 
Ken & Sheila said:
No matter what I would think you would keep a few production guys to finish off the product started. Just my two cents.

When Western RV went bankrupt several years ago, they did the same thing.  Stopped the production line, let everyone go and auctioned off the remains, including the unfinished units on the line.

One of our neighbors in WA went to the auction with the idea of buying a slideout to put in his old bus.  He successfully bought the slide, then someone figured out it was supposed to go in an unfinished Alpine Coach motorhome that was being auctioned off later in the day.

Without the slide, no one bid on that unfinished rig.  Before he was able to return with a truck and get the slide, my neighbor got a call from the auction house, asking if he had any interest in the rest of the motorhome.

He wound up buying the slide for $1500, then the rest of the unfinished motorhome for an additional $22,000.  With the help of a couple of factory workers he installed the slide in the motorhome, got a temporary tag and drove it home.

Then he spent a couple of weeks outfitting the interior - it was basically complete except for the dash instruments, some plumbing fittings and cabinet doors, all of which he easily found on the surplus market.  Today he's using it to tour around the PGA circuit.
 
No matter what I would think you would keep a few production guys to finish off the product started.

We are talking relatively inexpensive rigs here, so keeping a plant open to make a few thousand $ each on several trailers probably makes no sense. It's not just the assemblers - you likely need somebody in the cabinet shop making the last pieces, some one to complete building slides and sidewalls, the guy who brings parts from storage to the line, a payroll clerk, etc. And you are also paying for heat, lighting, insurance (including workman comp), etc. while that is happening. A manufacturing plant at much less than full capacity is invariably money losing thing.  This is a situation where a jack-of-all-trades in a small shop could operate OK, but a modern, high volume factory can't function effectively. Somebody will buy those partial rigs and finish them up.
 
I would not count on the vehicles and parts going to auction. When ASV decided they were not going to build the original Roadmaster chassis they scrapped all the finished and unfinished chassis, all the drawings and jigs and all the parts! EXTREME!

Moisheh
 
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