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Old 10-10-2016, 01:57 PM   #21
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A dealer I was dickering around with told me that the best prices were right before the show, not during it. Surprised me so I asked him why. His answer was that the dealer has to pay for space at the show and it is expensive. That cost comes off of the negotiating room. If you can buy what you want before the show, then you get the extra savings.

Is this true? I have no idea. But it does make sense to me.
This is true...Im a dealer
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Old 10-10-2016, 02:01 PM   #22
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Hi ttanous! Our closest CC dealer is 50 miles to the south in Salem, OR. Met a great sales person there by the name of Barry and we showed him the email from Couch's with their discount price. The trailer we had specced out at the time was $52k from Couch. After going back and forth a couple times, the best the local dealer could do for that trailer was $57,500. It will cost me approx $2k to drive out to Couch's in Ohio and bring back the trailer so that brings it up to $54k....still $3,500 less than local dealer. Not a huge difference I know and we do like the local dealer. But on the other hand the wife and I are kind of looking forward to making the trip out to Ohio and camping in the new trailer on the way back. It's a tough choice
The difference between your local dealer and Ohio is simply the cost to ship it to the west coast. It costs a dealer approx 1.75 a loaded mile to deliver it from the factory.
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Old 10-10-2016, 02:19 PM   #23
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I'm on the lucky end, as it's closer to the factory than it is my current dealer. That said I've only been to factory service once, and that was because they couldn't do the work at the rally because of part availability.


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Old 10-10-2016, 04:04 PM   #24
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Find out which pin-box is on it, so you can get the right capture plate....Oh, there's a Rockwood dealer here..
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Old 10-10-2016, 04:51 PM   #25
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That's a totally different story. If you can't find a way to patronize the dealer in your local community who employs your neighbors, pays local taxes, most likely sponsors local civil groups etc. you are not trying hard enough. Perhaps your negotiating skills need some work. There is no way that comparing apples with apples you can be that far apart in price. Having spent 40 years in the industry with many of those years spent as a dealer I can tell you that if you shopped me and then purchased out of state to save a few bucks, I would be really quick to tell you to go there for your service. Dealers lose money on warranty service regardless of what you have heard or seen elsewhere. In addition they have to wait to collect what little money they can squeeze out of the manufacturers. With a yard full of paying customers why on earth would they put this type of work aside to take on your warranty work and lose money in particular if you are not even one of their customers. I realize I'm probably on the opposite side of this issue with most people on this site but that's my perspective. The real problem is with the industry that fosters this type of situation with the lack of proper warranty programs and with their propensity to award "franchises" to just about anyone who has the money or the ability to floor plan their inventory with no thought whatsoever to the background and reputation of the individual. However having said that I can assure you it will never change.
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Old 10-10-2016, 04:57 PM   #26
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If it's "most" then what about those who buy local but then move to a different area/state and still need warranty work done? What about full timers, who many are traveling around the country, and need warranty work done far from their purchase place?
They have problems. Stay on this forum a while and you'll see lots of posts from people saying the local dealer won't work on their rig (or will put it at the end of the line) if it wasn't bought there.

Sad, but apparently true.
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Old 10-10-2016, 05:04 PM   #27
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Hmmmmmm. I disagree.

If saving $29,000 on a unit is not enough to get you to buy from a remote dealer, what would? That amount of savings allowed us to buy a very nice unit, one that we'd never been able to afford otherwise. And that was after months and months of using my 'negotiating skills'. They won't budge. Period. I could have swallowed a small percentage higher to buy locally. But 40%? This is my retirement money, and it's almost gone as it is.

And the local dealer that is high?? He has my unit right now for warranty work, pretty major warranty work, and was glad to get it. I asked quite bluntly if I'd be put in the back of the line because I didn't buy it here. He said "No, I don't care where you bought it. I have no intention of leaving units here any longer than I have to".
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Old 10-10-2016, 05:10 PM   #28
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Find out which pin-box is on it, so you can get the right capture plate....Oh, there's a Rockwood dealer here..
That's funny you should mention about the capture plate. Since yesterday I've been swapping emails with Kelly Ware of FR customer service and Garth Collins of Lippert (Trailair). I'll be ordering the 34RL2 with the Trailair pin box option and knew I needed to find out which model does FR use so that I can get the appropriate capture plate for my PullRite hitch. Kelly said contact Lippert and Lippert responded that FR needs to supply the information.

I also contacted Pullrite. They sent me photos of 3 possible Trailair models that FR is using for that trailer with the appropriate capture plate model # for each.

Seems like it would have been easiest for FR to just get a hold of someone at the factory and say, "hey what model of Trailair pin box do we put on the 34RL2's?". Maybe my mind works different than most.
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Old 10-10-2016, 05:18 PM   #29
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That's a totally different story. If you can't find a way to patronize the dealer in your local community who employs your neighbors, pays local taxes, most likely sponsors local civil groups etc. you are not trying hard enough. Perhaps your negotiating skills need some work. There is no way that comparing apples with apples you can be that far apart in price. Having spent 40 years in the industry with many of those years spent as a dealer I can tell you that if you shopped me and then purchased out of state to save a few bucks, I would be really quick to tell you to go there for your service. Dealers lose money on warranty service regardless of what you have heard or seen elsewhere. In addition they have to wait to collect what little money they can squeeze out of the manufacturers. With a yard full of paying customers why on earth would they put this type of work aside to take on your warranty work and lose money in particular if you are not even one of their customers. I realize I'm probably on the opposite side of this issue with most people on this site but that's my perspective. The real problem is with the industry that fosters this type of situation with the lack of proper warranty programs and with their propensity to award "franchises" to just about anyone who has the money or the ability to floor plan their inventory with no thought whatsoever to the background and reputation of the individual. However having said that I can assure you it will never change.
$322 deliver fee vs $4,000 might be one of the reasons.
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Old 10-10-2016, 05:29 PM   #30
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For your situation to make any sense we have to assume that the local dealer was trying to make in excess of a $29,000 profit. In 40 years in the business and many years on the road working for a manufacturer, I don't know a dealer in the country who makes that kind of money on one sale. Yours obviously is a bad example because you have a local dealer who shouldn't be in the RV business to begin with and I don't care how long he has been in business. It's dealers like this (if your numbers are correct) that give a bad name to the business and create situations where people opt to travel out of state to purchase. I would have selected another brand from another local dealer before I would travel the distance you are proposing to save what at most should be the amount of the difference in freight. BTW if that dealer had sold that unit to you for a $29,000 profit the sales guy would have retired LOL. They are lucky if they net 5 to 6 thousand dollars on a unit of that kind. Unless someone just comes in and pays full sticker price in which case they have a huge party after work and laugh all the way to the bank.
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Old 10-10-2016, 05:31 PM   #31
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Originally Posted by Xpresser View Post
That's funny you should mention about the capture plate. Since yesterday I've been swapping emails with Kelly Ware of FR customer service and Garth Collins of Lippert (Trailair). I'll be ordering the 34RL2 with the Trailair pin box option and knew I needed to find out which model does FR use so that I can get the appropriate capture plate for my PullRite hitch. Kelly said contact Lippert and Lippert responded that FR needs to supply the information.

I also contacted Pullrite. They sent me photos of 3 possible Trailair models that FR is using for that trailer with the appropriate capture plate model # for each.

Seems like it would have been easiest for FR to just get a hold of someone at the factory and say, "hey what model of Trailair pin box do we put on the 34RL2's?". Maybe my mind works different than most.
Buy all three...send two back! lol
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Old 10-10-2016, 06:05 PM   #32
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For your situation to make any sense we have to assume that the local dealer was trying to make in excess of a $29,000 profit. In 40 years in the business and many years on the road working for a manufacturer, I don't know a dealer in the country who makes that kind of money on one sale. Yours obviously is a bad example because you have a local dealer who shouldn't be in the RV business to begin with and I don't care how long he has been in business. It's dealers like this (if your numbers are correct) that give a bad name to the business and create situations where people opt to travel out of state to purchase. I would have selected another brand from another local dealer before I would travel the distance you are proposing to save what at most should be the amount of the difference in freight. BTW if that dealer had sold that unit to you for a $29,000 profit the sales guy would have retired LOL. They are lucky if they net 5 to 6 thousand dollars on a unit of that kind. Unless someone just comes in and pays full sticker price in which case they have a huge party after work and laugh all the way to the bank.
OK, well it's clear that you know much more about my sales process and the prices than I do, so I will have to bow out.
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Old 10-10-2016, 06:26 PM   #33
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Buy all three...send two back! lol
Pretty sure I just figured it out. I did a Google photo search of "cedar creek trailair pin box" and compared the photos I found to that of the photos Pullrite sent me. Looks like capture plate #331758 is the one I need.
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Old 10-10-2016, 06:32 PM   #34
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Good deal..
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Old 10-10-2016, 06:37 PM   #35
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I bought 2 RVs from a dealer 43 miles away. They also get all the work I cannot or will not do. I buy at there store for a few pennies more. They know my name when I come in.
When I need something in a hurry they are on it. Normal maintenance an appointment is made and they get me in quickly. If you bought somewhere else they put you on the schedule with no priority. As expected and should be.
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