Tough times

With this massive downturn in the market there is going to be a huge hit on the rv industry. Between lost jobs and terrible losses in peoples 401k retirement income this is going to be a rough one. Obviously not just for the rv industry. I know many who count on their 401k feeding their retirement with monthly income who have bought Motorhomes , boats etc on a payment plan.  There isn’t really that many RV companies left after all the consolidation from the last hit. I guess if a person wanted to upgrade there will be opportunities coming, especially on the used market. For anyone wanting to sell; well it’s going to be a buyers market for the time being.


Most importantly I hope and pray all come out of this healthy. Financially pretty much everyone will be taking a hit. Both consumers and sellers of goods and services alike.


If you believe.. Pray... if you don’t, why not give it a shot, you’ve nothing to lose.

Since  Yosemite is closed now   I don't feel  as bad about getting shut out this year because of the stupid new Booze Hamilton  national  parks  reservation system. Zion is still open for now, but no rangers, shuttle, or store. We have a riverfont site with  full hook ups reserved for  May, but I  expect we'll be getting a refund instead of using it.

There's a statewide shelter in place edict in California, but they aren't stopping us  from driving around yet. I took the opportunity to go over to my storage lot to put Stabil  in the gas and install a battery shut-off switch. Then  I drove around the lot and ran the generator until the carburetor ran dry after closing the unused  fuel shutoff valve that I installed last year.

Be  safe out there . We'll be back.

I could write pages and pages on this subject matter.  But the only point I would make that really matters, would be the same point Joseph made in his last line.

A few years back, we had an ice storm that knocked out power for about five days.  I like to keep our PC with a full tank of gas and the generator exercised at all times.   During the ice storm, the rv generator and a bunch of 12 gauge extension cords were sufficient to:

1.  Run the blower on the HVAC system in our house and

2.  Run two refrigerators (one in the house and one in the garage)

We accomplished this by running the gen for only a couple hours a day and using the fireplace to help warm the house.   I would power up both refrigs at once, run them a while and then switch to the HVAC to supplement the fireplace.   We kept our house in the mid 50s and did not open the refrig to get anything out unless to do so quickly.   A household freezer or refrig will stay really cold for a long time if you supplement it this way.   Of course, since it was winter we could also put stuff on the back porch to keep it cool. 

Under the current situation, I am preparing for the same possibility of using the rv genset to keep the refrigs running if we  lost power.   That is not a high probability but I am prepared in any event.   Also, a full tank of propane keeps an rv refrig going for a very long period of time.

Just something to think about for those of us that have our rigs at home or stored close to home.  Back then, we had a Class B (before the PC) and it had a 2800 Onan.   With the 4000 Onan in the PC, I  might be able to run all three at once.  I haven't made the calculation and really won't do so until necessary, which I don't suspect will happen in the current crisis.  But preparation and thinking a lot of things through seems to me to be pretty important in planning for the weeks ahead.

 

By the way, I just got a quote on Winnebago Industries to see how the rv stocks were doing.   Thirty days ago, it was a little above 60.  Now it is a little above 20.   That confirms Joseph's original post.   Tough times

A few years back, we had an ice storm that knocked out power for about five days.  I like to keep our PC with a full tank of gas and the generator exercised at all times.   During the ice storm, the rv generator and a bunch of 12 gauge extension cords were sufficient to:

1.  Run the blower on the HVAC system in our house and

2.  Run two refrigerators (one in the house and one in the garage)

We accomplished this by running the gen for only a couple hours a day and using the fireplace to help warm the house.   I would power up both refrigs at once, run them a while and then switch to the HVAC to supplement the fireplace.   We kept our house in the mid 50s and did not open the refrig to get anything out unless to do so quickly.   A household freezer or refrig will stay really cold for a long time if you supplement it this way.   Of course, since it was winter we could also put stuff on the back porch to keep it cool. 

Under the current situation, I am preparing for the same possibility of using the rv genset to keep the refrigs running if we  lost power.   That is not a high probability but I am prepared in any event.   Also, a full tank of propane keeps an rv refrig going for a very long period of time.

Just something to think about for those of us that have our rigs at home or stored close to home.  Back then, we had a Class B (before the PC) and it had a 2800 Onan.   With the 4000 Onan in the PC, I  might be able to run all three at once.  I haven't made the calculation and really won't do so until necessary, which I don't suspect will happen in the current crisis.  But preparation and thinking a lot of things through seems to me to be pretty important in planning for the weeks ahead.

 

We've had an Onan 4Kw genset in our RV's since 2000.  We have always been able to run both RV a/c and microwave at the same time.  I would be confident I could run 2 household refrigerator/freezers and a furnace blower all at once.

The biggest issues I see would be isolating those 3 circuits so when the household power comes back on, it doesn't blow your generator (opening household power panel main breakers) and keeping those 3 circuits and the genset input on the same buss bar in the panel.

I never had to power our house using our PC, but I am always prepared for it.

I had it in-mind to throw the house main 200 amp breaker to isolate everything I would be doing from the line out to the electric company.

My HVAC unit simply plugs into a standard electrical plug.   The thermostat was on "Heat" and the units are nat gas powered and the electricity only runs the control boards and the blower.  So, I just unplugged it from the house circuit and plugged it into the extension cord.   

I pulled out both refrigs and simply plugged them also into an extension cord.   Worked for me.   We left a couple of lights in the house on so we would know when the power came back on, day or night.     It was just about at freezing outside for a couple of days and we used wool blankets at night and dressed properly in the daytime.   Pretty well followed the same life style as when we are boondocking in cold weather.   Our kitchen stove top is gas and with electric igniters but we could light it with a propane lighter.

If Ford is going to be assembling ventilators  instead of E450’s  there won’t be any new B+ or  C’s. Even if it was deemed safe for the auto and rv workers to return to work, the assembly lines are probably out of parts from China anyway.

If Ford is going to be assembling ventilators  instead of E450’s  there won’t be any new B+ or  C’s. Even if it was deemed safe for the auto and rv workers to return to work, the assembly lines are probably out of parts from China anyway.

Good point.  Maybe the RV industry will suffer from a lack of chassis.  Hey, that would mean the used market becomes the hot market.  Hey, I think we would sell our PC at a price that works for us......a very Very VERY high offer. 

Making ventilators does not take over an assembly line. It’s not like you change over the tooling that forges an engine block or forms a unibody.  I don’t believe the issue for Rv builders will be a short term shortage of chassis but a shortage of buyers. IE. Even having conservative holdings many have lost 25% or more. Not enough to jump off a one story roof but enough you won’t be considering a new motorhome for likely several years. Now for the person who’s younger say in his 40’s with a more aggressive stance, if they didn’t stop it right away they may be in the 50% loss category. It will come back and they are young enough to withstand it but on top of this how long before all the jobs come back? This isn’t a statewide or country wide situation. This is a global event and we all have skin in the game. When was the last time most of the world had skin in the game...WW2 I’m betting.

We will get thru this, no question but the financial recovery will take much longer to get over than the virus. Just my 2 cents.

But it takes over the workers.  The E-series are built in Lordstown Ohio where the Governor has prohibited large gathering of people and non-critical industries.   On top of that, Ford only needs X number of E-Series built each year.    They don't run the factory/assembly line 24/7.

So there will be no shortage, other than 25% of the GDP

Which will suck big time for all.

Ford plans to restart  E450 production on  4/14


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ford-motor/ford-to-restart-u-s-truck-plants-in-april-to-combat-virus-cash-squeeze-idUSKBN21D1MS

The E-series are built in Lordstown Ohio

No, they are built in Lorain county.

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The E-series are built in Lordstown Ohio

No, they are built in Lorain county.

Yes, you are correct... Lordstown, OH is/was a GM plant.
My bad.