New President at Crossroads RV

[rob_fla]

ELKHART — Thor Industries announced a series of organizational changes late Friday at Keystone RV Company, Dutchmen Manufacturing and CrossRoads RV.

As part of the organizational changes, Ryan Juday will become president of CrossRoads RV, assuming responsibility for all of CrossRoads’ operations in Topeka, Ind.

Juday, a 14-year Keystone RV sales veteran, most recently served as group general manager for the Fuzion, Sprinter and Springdale brands. Juday will be supported by the key members of Keystone’s operations team to foster improvements in manufacturing operations, quality and product development at CrossRoads.

[Ford truck guy]

I have a bad feeling about this....... Although I have NO personal dealings with Keystone , I have several good friends that absolutely HATE dealing with them ..

I really hope they prove me wrong....


On edit - I agree with Brad ,perhaps my feelings are because a management team of low/middle end line will soon be telling the owners of HIGH END units what is best for them and their units..?

[atom ant]

I admit I had good luck with my Keystone products (Montana), and what I really liked was that they weren't married to Lippert and weren't afraid to drop them and go look for a competitor product when they weren't satisfied with the quality (i.e. Mor-Ryde, Dexter, etc.). I don't necessarily like where they took Montana (definitely middle of the row).,

However, Keystone is big, and I have no experience or feedback from the Fusion, Sprinter, Springdale product. I'm a little concerned that a tin sided RV company management team is here to fix quality on a luxury RV line. Would have much rather heard the Teton, or DRV Manager was coming over. About the first time I see a "flat back" Redwood on the line up with a rear fiberglass cap as an option, I'm moving on

[mhs4771]

Being a former Montana owner, I'm still a member of their forum and the question of Montana/Keystone quality keeps popping up all the time. Also many long time Montana owners now own SOBs because of issues. Soooooooooo, fasten your seat belts and see where the Redwood ride takes us.

[Ford truck guy]

As long as they don't mess with the relationship between us and Christian... that is working out fantastic and should not go away.

She gets us!!!!

[Ford truck guy]

Originally Posted by mhs4771

Being a former Montana owner, I'm still a member of their forum and the question of Montana/Keystone quality keeps popping up all the time. Also many long time Montana owners now own SOBs because of issues. Soooooooooo, fasten your seat belts and see where the Redwood ride takes us.

AND - - - That is exactly why and how Grand Design was started... The 3 who started it were Keystone executives and did not like the way the direction that Keystone was heading...

[r time soon]

Here is a link to the complete article from The Elkhart Truth the other day:

Elkhart's Thor Industries makes personnel moves - Elkhart Truth

Chris

[Dave&Ginny]

That's a real disappointment .......

When Redwood started they were going to be different.......apparently those days are long gone and to make matters worse DRV (a great product and competitor) has been obsorvbed into the mess as well. I guess the motto of the RV industry is to buy out the competition and then bring everyone down to their raunchy level.......lowering the standards and disregarding customer exspectations. I guess we can only hope that new competition causes soom sort of challenge to the powerful companies.

This worries me a great deal.

[ChristianM]

Originally Posted by Ford truck guy

As long as they don't mess with the relationship between us and Christian... that is working out fantastic and should not go away.

She gets us!!!!

No worries- They'd have to pry Redwood out of my cold, dead fingers ;-)

We're staying positive and hopeful over here! Not a lot of information yet on what the next steps will be for the product...but I'm encouraged already at the involvement and experience that I've seen coming in with the "new guys".

Will keep you guys updated as I know more!

[mstan]

The one thing that made me almost walk away from buying a Redwood was the four letter word that is attached to it. THOR. I am still feeling the guilt of going against my teaching and speaking the four letter word. So.... Here we go.....

[travelin' texans]

There aren't many rvs left that don't have that 4 letter word attached to them. In talking around in the parks it really doesn't matter what name is attached to them, the biggest problem is a huge lack of quality control by all manufacturers.

[Grizzby]

I've oftened wondered what the markup was on RV's. Based upon the number of manufacturers, it must be astronomical! Everyone wants to get a piece of the RV dollar.

Bob

[GA1817]

Originally Posted by Grizzby

I've oftened wondered what the markup was on RV's. Based upon the number of manufacturers, it must be astronomical! Everyone wants to get a piece of the RV dollar.

Bob

You know it is very high. A knowledgeable buyer knows they should get between xx% and xx% off MSRP. The thing is there are so many people who have absolutely no idea.

[RoadWarriors]

We did a lot of research before buying our Redwood. We didn't even consider a Keystone product because of the high level of owner dissatisfaction with the products and lack of ownership for the units. Thus far we have been pleased with Redwood. We took our unit in for its annual check up and servicing and the dealership told us they didn't purchase any 2016 models because the price points were too high. Not sure what that means, but we were happy we got in when the RV was affordable. We believe we got a great deal. If were wanted to spend over $115K, we would have bought a Mobile Suites! This new management team will be interesting to watch.

[atom ant]

It's interesting, a few months ago I loaded down a 38RL with all the similar options to what I originally got in 2013 - and the MSRP was close to ours originally. I'm thinking I could negotiate close to the same price we paid if I got to the right Dealer.

[rob_fla]

Since we bought our 2014 38FL the MSRP on a similar equipped unit had gone up about 10% to 12% in two years.

[Dave&Ginny]

I think Thor is trying hard to own the baby boomer market. They own Mobile Suites, Redwood and Landmark. It's going to interesting to watch and see how this is going to work out. They might try to keep these apart by controlling the acquisition costs.

I believe the dealer network will play an important part of the success for each brand. If a buyer has problems getting parts or repairs the brand will suffer.

[atom ant]

Originally Posted by rob_fla

Since we bought our 2014 38FL the MSRP on a similar equipped unit had gone up about 10% to 12% in two years.

That would sound about right, as they did an 12% price drop across the board 05-2013, a few months after we bought ours. (Base price alone for the 36RL dropped over $10K). Today, a 36RL base MSRP is only 2% over what our MSRP was in early 2013.

I think the price drop across the board was a marketing adjustment (Redwood was getting out of the ballpark), or it was to make room for the Tom Montague version of the Carriage which at the time was to come out on top of the Redwood as I understand. That all blew up and Tom now works at Landmark.

[Thumper7]

Heartland has already moved TM out of the Landmark division. Andy Wesdorp is now over LM. Don Emhiser is now at Lifestyle Luxury RV which I find ironic since he came from the old Carriage to start Redwood and now he is at what many call the new Carriage. Although once he got there, he did away with the "Titan " frame and went to a Lippert I beam frame - made a lot of Lifestyle owners unhappy.

[rob_fla]

Previewing soon, the new Montana / "Redwood Edition"