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Old 08-14-2013, 06:15 AM   #1
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The Big Hershey RV Show in September...

Just curious if any of you are planning to attend "America's Largest RV Show" in Hershey, PA next month?

I went last year for a couple of days, when I was in the shopping stage for my current rig... and am going back again this year, as I'm thinking of upgrading to the Voltage 3895.

The good thing about the show is that factory reps from all of the manufactures are there to answer questions... assist with custom build requests... and in some cases, even make financial deals on new rigs. I saw the latter for myself last year, when my friend got the Keystone rep to knock an additional $8,000 off the price of the rig he bought, AFTER he'd already worked out the on-site dealer's final best offer on a special order unit.

(As my friend was about to walk away after negotiating price back & forth on his custom options for over an hour... the Keystone rep himself stepped in and gave him an $8k factory credit that sealed the deal.)

A nice financial deal like that would be nice... but more importantly to me, hopefully I'll be able ask the Dutchmen folks a lot of the questions I've seen on this forum, along with some very pointed questions I have from experience with this rig in regards to another Voltage rig from them.

By that, I mean... while I like my Voltage 3200... there are definite areas of what I deem as 'deficiencies' that I would want addressed before I invest further money into another Dutchmen product. Things like the very poor A/C ducting in our ceilings, bad TV cable cables & connections, bad caulking in the bathroom showers & TV antenna jacks, the lack of model-specific manuals, etc.

Hopefully I'll get some answers that I can share with the group.
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Old 08-14-2013, 06:35 AM   #2
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Originally Posted by ATCguy View Post
Just curious if any of you are planning to attend "America's Largest RV Show" in Hershey, PA next month?

I went last year for a couple of days, when I was in the shopping stage for my current rig... and am going back again this year, as I'm thinking of upgrading to the Voltage 3895.

The good thing about the show is that factory reps from all of the manufactures are there to answer questions... assist with custom build requests... and in some cases, even make financial deals on new rigs. I saw the latter for myself last year, when my friend got the Keystone rep to knock an additional $8,000 off the price of the rig he bought, AFTER he'd already worked out the on-site dealer's final best offer on a special order unit.

(As my friend was about to walk away after negotiating price back & forth on his custom options for over an hour... the Keystone rep himself stepped in and gave him an $8k factory credit that sealed the deal.)

A nice financial deal like that would be nice... but more importantly to me, hopefully I'll be able ask the Dutchmen folks a lot of the questions I've seen on this forum, along with some very pointed questions I have from experience with this rig in regards to another Voltage rig from them.

By that, I mean... while I like my Voltage 3200... there are definite areas of what I deem as 'deficiencies' that I would want addressed before I invest further money into another Dutchmen product. Things like the very poor A/C ducting in our ceilings, bad TV cable cables & connections, bad caulking in the bathroom showers & TV antenna jacks, the lack of model-specific manuals, etc.

Hopefully I'll get some answers that I can share with the group.
8K are you kidding me. What kind of margins are these guys working with.

I hope your not holding your breath on the quality issue.

Unlit the RV manufacturers have to face a global market, ( like that will ever happen ), they have a captive market.

These things get shoved out the down and they fix some of the defects under warranty and half of the stuff gets fixed by the purchaser one his own.

I am amazed at the number of post that I see about the "little stuff" that "I'll take care of myself".

When are we going to stand up and say "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore".

I keep thinking back to the days when Detroit put out absolute crap fo cars. The came the rest of the wold and they had to smarten up.
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Old 08-14-2013, 07:06 AM   #3
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8K are you kidding me. What kind of margins are these guys working with...
I hear you... if i hadn't been standing there with him during the entire process, I'd have thought he was lying to me.

In my opinion, these guys are working with huge margins... and have lots of markup in their prices. As an example, the MSRP on the rig I'm pulling right now is over $105K... yet I bought the unit for just a little over $60K.

At the show last year, there were over 1,200 different rigs of every type from pop-ups to full blown Class A's being shown, from every single manufacturer in the business... and the final tally from the end of the show was over 3,400 RV's sold that week. That number has steadily climbed each year, and I'm told the brands have a grand wager each year on who sells the most.

While I'm somewhat new to the RV world, I have a few friends who have been going to this show for many years... and also know a few people from my motorcycle groups who work on the factory floors building these things (not necessarily from Dutchmen, but other brands). As such, by what I can gather, I think sometimes they (the manufacturers... not the dealers themselves) will slash the price of a unit to barely making any profit at all, so long as it keeps units moving out the door, and their brand name on the road. I think that began when the economy turned south, and they were doing anything to simply keep their doors open, and their employees paid... but has continued on today.

Bottom line... I know they do it. Hell, I was simply doing some research on an XLR rig at last year's show... asking about options & checking prices... when the Forrest River rep asked me point blank how low he had to go to get my business from him that week. I kept telling him that I was only shopping at that point & doing research, and he kept going lower & lower.

As for the quality issues... I know, and I agree, which is part of what I want to speak with them about. I've been out with my rig 3 times already in the short time I've had it, and so far I like RV'ing. But if things can't get better than they are, there are other hobbies & interests where I can put my recreation dollars... and I intend to let that be known. Oh well.. we'll see.
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Old 08-14-2013, 12:08 PM   #4
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ATC Guy - do you know the dates of the Hershey show??????
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Old 08-14-2013, 12:36 PM   #5
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Sept 10th - 15th

America's Largest RV Show - Public Info

A few friends & I will be bringing our rigs up there and staying just up the road at the Jonestown KOA.
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Old 08-16-2013, 05:56 PM   #6
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We will be there staying at High Meadows Campground. Might be nice if we all could get together?

I was missing a few items from the Voltage when I went last year and the Factory rep sent them to me. Had them a few days after I got home.
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