Bates International RV Blog

Customers that need and want to be different dominate this new economy.  They have money; their basic needs covered, and are at the center of the most consumer dominated society that has ever existed.  It’s a weird world where toddlers have cell phones, your personal chef lives in India, and marriages exist in cyberspace.  Four major factors drive this new consumer world:

  A.      Affluence/Aging/Re-Immigrantization

The number of millionaires has doubled since 1995.  The number of affluent households is the highest in history and the number of households living in poverty is the lowest.  More disposable income exists now than before, and the amount of money necessary to cover basic needs is the lowest, thus the demand for different products and services will expand as well as the quality level of all products and services.  Every 6.8 seconds someone in America and Canada turns 50 and will continue to do so until the middle of the next decade.  The Silver Tsunami is the term used to define this rapid aging of the population.  Furthermore, the population has shifted such that one in every eight Americans and one in five Canadians is non-native born.  It’s a world dominated by:

• Aging Populations
• Older/Younger
• Single Headed households
• Work/Living Needs (Yogurt Clusters)
• Market of One

  B.  Brands

Knowledge is doubling every 17 months. Twelve new products come to the marketplace every second as well as 100 new services and 100,000 new webpages.  The choices that customers face are limitless, but their time is limited, therefore consumers will increasingly make product and service decisions based on brand names, trademarks, and reputations.  The factors are:

• More Leisure Time-Leisure Choice
• Working Vacations (vocations)

  C.  Convenience

Increasingly, consumer choice involves the convenience of products and services.  McDonald’s and Southwest Airlines raised consumer expectations.  Consumers know that they can get a consistent product or service delivered quickly and inexpensively, they expect no less from every provider.  However, what is convenient to one person is not to another.  You must differentiate each customer.  The guiding forces are:

• Mass Customization
• Just-In-Time Service
•  On-Site Manufacturing

  D.    Digital/Wireless

The top item desired by teenagers today is a cell phone while college students want iPods.  A cell phone is not just a cell phone; it’s also their personal digital assistant.  The buss phrase just three years ago was B2B-Business to Business, but now the phrase is L2M-Life to Mobile.  It’s a world ruled by:

• Bluetooth/801.11 (WiFi)
• WiMax
• IM (Instant Message)
• RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification)
• Text language

The Impact on RV Dealers

What does all of this mean for the RV dealer of the 21^st century?  Yesterday’s customer might want an RV for retirement recreation, while tomorrow’s customer might want a mobile office/home with broadband WiFi capabilities, that is green, multifuel with a near zero carbon footprint.  Oh, and by the way, three people, in their 30s with dogs, fractionally own the vehicle.  Far fetched?  Not really.

The successful dealer of the 21^st Century is customer focused, flexible, and willing to adapt to the changing world.  My father’s generation was happy to have a folding camper trailer to keep out the rain.  My generation wants consistent 72 degrees and a microwave.  Just as dealers have adapted to these changes, tomorrow’s dealers will change equally as well.

By Dr. Lowell Catlett

With summertime upon us keeping a “cold one” in the refrigerator is one of those blessings of having an RV. When we camped as kids, one never could be sure if the stuff in the “ice box” was going to be cold-or whether the ice had melted down.  Not so with the reliable RV refrigerator.

Nevertheless, RV refrigerators are a special breed of cat:  Unlike the refrigerator “back home,” they don’t use mechanical pumps to move coolant; it’s all handled by heat and gravity.  When they don’t keep their cool, for many it becomes a major mystery.  We’ll cover a few tips that will help you keep your RV reefer happy- and your favorite beverage (and all else that’s supposed to be cold) plenty cold.

Operating Tips

Following a few simple tips can make life with RV coolers a lot better.

Always pre-cool your refrigerator before packing the food in.  Turn it on 24 hours before you plan to head out on your journey.  When you pack, always put COLD food in the unit – it won’t like warm food.  That’s especially true for large items.  Stuffing in a six pack of room-temperature cola is sure to lead to disappointment.

Leave plenty of room around the food inside your refrigerator compartment.  A good flow of air is critical.  Some RVers have found an after-market device that really helps to keep the breeze blowing inside their RV refrigerator.  For about $15 you can buy a FridgeCool unit.  A little plastic brick, the FidgeCool is a portable, battery-operated fan unit that keeps the airflow in the reefer compartment moving. It really can make a difference. 

Keep the cold air inside the refrigerator and the warm air outside.  Here’s where the door gasket comes in.  A worn door gasket can spell real problems – the reefer cooling unit will be working overtime, trying to keep up with an unnecessary load.  George can help.  George who?  George Washington!

Open the reefer door and stick a dollar bill against the door frame edge, with the bill partly hanging out of the colored box.  Close the door and pull on the bill.  If George makes an escape without resistance, the door gasket isn’t up to snuff and should be replaced. 

Food particles and other gunk stuck on the door gasket or the doorframe can give a false impression on the gasket check.  Be sure to clean the gasket and doorframe with soapy water (and an ending rinse) before trying this trick.  Be sure to make George work all the way around the doorframe to ensure 100 percent gasket cooperation.

Keep‘er level, too:  Unlike the home refrigerator driven by a motor and pump, the RV absorption style refrigerator is very much sensitive to gravity.  An off-killer refrigerator is not only inefficient, the effects of operating an RV refrigerator off-level will accumulate and eventually KILL your refrigerator’s cooling unit.  Can you say “hundreds of dollars to replace”?  Use a round level inside the refrigerator and keep at least a half a bubble inside the center of the bull’s eye.

You’ll have a little topside work to do, too.  At roof level, check out the roof vent.  RV reefers pump heat out.  All that heat has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is up, through a roof vent.  RV reefers pup heat out.  All that heat has to go somewhere, and that somewhere is up, through a roof vent directly above the reefer.  Birds have been known to build nest in roof vents, and obstructions like that will really cut down on cooling efficiency.

As with real estate, “location, location, location” is an RV refrigerator mantra.  Is the weather hot? Try to park with the wall area behind your reefer in the shade so your system will have to cope with much less “cooling load.”

Troubleshooting Your Cool

While RV refrigerator problems can go beyond what the average do-it-yourself-RVer can diagnose, there are some things you can check out when things don’t stay cool. 

First, if the refrigerator cools on gas but doesn’t work on electric, or vice versa, there’s usually nothing wrong with the cooling unit.  That’s a good thing, because in the whole system, the cooling unit is the most expensive part.

If the system isn’t cooling well enough on gas or electric, check out a few things.  Is the unit level?  Remember; keep at least half the bubble in the ring.  Is the thermostat set high enough?  Is the door gasket tight?

How about a layer of ice on the fins inside the box?  A layer of ice can raise Cain with keeping the box cool.  Shut the refrigerator off, carefully melt the ice off.  DON’T take a heat gun after it!  We’ve found that directing a flow of air from a fan will often melt the ice quickly and safely.

No cooling on electric?  Make sure you have sufficient electric power at your campsite.  Blown fuse?  Pulled plug?  Open the back door (from the outside of the RV) and make sure the refrigerator’s electric plug is actually plugged in.  Some don’t have a plug, but are hard-wired to a terminal block. 

No cooling on gas?  First make sure you have propane in your tanks.  It sounds silly, but you’d be surprised how many RVers simply forget to check this out.

Got gas?  It could be the burner unit is obstructed.  You’ll need to open the back door on the outside of your RV.  Take a good look at the gas burner (at the bottom of a vertical cylindrical stack).  You’ll likely have to remove a cover plate to access this burner, and when it’s off, you’ll be looking to make sure crud from the chimney stack hasn’t fallen down onto the burner, obstructing it or even causing the burner to not light.

Crud on the burner?  Blow the junk of the burner with a puff of air (a can of “computer dust off” works great) or carefully brush it off with a paintbrush.  Be sure to SHUT OFF the reefer first!

Take a good whiff.  If you smell an odor of ammonia, then you’ve got problems.  Ammonia is a key ingredient in the solution that your RV refrigerator circulates to transfer heat and cold.  If the cooling unit develops a leak – and the older your refrigerator is, the move likely it is to develop one – you’ll often smell ammonia.  There’s no “home fix” for a leaking cooling unit.  Either the cooling unit or the whole refrigerator will have to be replaced.  Those kinds of decisions can be a tough call.  However, if your RV reefer is several years old, the argument is often made it’s cheaper in the long haul to replace the whole fridge because you’ll have the advantage of a new refrigerator warranty.  Crunch the numbers carefully, you might be better off with a cooling unit replacement, depending on how long you plan on keeping the RV.

In any case, take care of your RV reefer, and you’ll enjoy those refreshing beverages – and all else in the cool food arena – a lot longer.

A leading privately owned chain of RV parks and campgrounds is branching out into the amusement park sector as part of its drive to become a major regional destination for families.

Morgan RV Resorts LLC, based in Queensbury, N.Y., in February purchased the Indiana beach amusement park and adjacent Indiana beach Camp Resort and Yogi bear Jellystone Park Camp-Resort near Monticello, Ind., from the Spackman family.  The two west-central Indiana parks contain a total of 1,000 camping sites, while Indiana Beach features a giant water park, sand beach, six roller coaster, shopping and restaurants.

The purchase gives Morgan 36 RV parks and campgrounds, four of which are Yogi bear camp-resorts.  The Company’s other Yogi Bear parks are in Mays Landing, N.J., Aurora, Ohio, and Grand Have, MI.

Morgan added seven parks in 2007 including Westward Ho Camp Resort in Greenbush, WS., Seaport campground in Old Mystic, CT, and Camp Coldbrook RV Resort in Barre, MS, and had contracts at the end of February to purchase five additional parks within the next five years,: said bob Moser, a partner with Bob Morgan in Morgan RV Resorts.

In an interview with RVBusiness, Moser acknowledged that the firm has been operating “under the radar” since it began acquiring RV parks in 2000 and especially over the past five years as it quietly built its RV resort business.

Morgan holdings are now located in Maine, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Indiana.  The company says it will be adding a resort in Colorado, its first park west of the Mississippi River, this year. 

Moser said he was surprised by the attention his firm received for the Indian Beach purchase:  The announcement was carried in at least 28 newspapers and countless electronic media outlets.  Now, the cats out of the bag, so to speak, and the partners welcome the recognition.  “We want to become the best managed RV park company in the country,” Moser said.

To that end, Morgan RV Resorts, which maintains a central call center for reservations at its parks and has adopted campground Manager software, hosted the manager of all its parks for a week-long training session in late February at its office in Queensbury.

Morgan, meanwhile, is coming off its “best year yet in terms of occupancy and revenues,” Moser said, and looks forward to another good year in 2008.

Moser said his company will make a multimillion investment in adding a new roller coaster to Indiana beach and will seek to acquire additional amusement parks.

For his part, Rob Schutter Jr., president of Leisure Systems Inc. (LSI), franchisor of the Yogi Bear parks, welcomed the latest Morgan acquisition.  “Morgan management appears to be very interested in getting into the various components of the outdoor recreation industry,” Schutter told RVBusiness.  “They are very committed to not only the camping industry but other recreation venues.  This fits into their long-range business plans.  We wish them well with their acquisition.”

The deal has been in the works since December when representative of Morgan learned about Indiana Beach through the campground industry and contacted the Spackman family, according to the Monticello Herald Journal.

At this point few immediate changes are in store for the Indiana Beach operation, according to Spackman family spokesman Tom Spackman Jr. “I feel this is a very nice fir for Indiana Beach because of their strength in the camping industry,” Spackman told the newspaper.

Washington, DC – The Travel Industry Association (TIA) launched www.PowerofTravel.org, a new, interactive Web site that, for the first time, presents economic impact data on travel in an easy-to-navigate format that enables the user to see the benefits of travel from the international level down to individual congressional districts.

“It is surprising to find how many policymakers are not fully aware of the power of travel in their own districts,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of TIA.  “It is our responsibility to help America’s leaders understand that travel is a vital economic engine that powers job creation and growth.”

To find the economic impact of travel on a congressional district or state or to learn national or international statistics, visit www.PowerofTravel.org.

Consultants, classes help business owners sharpen their skills, grow their enterprises.

Perhaps your business ran well when you started it.

A couple of years later, though, your work force and your sales are multiplying and so are the issues you face in serving your customers and accommodating your employees’ needs.

For many entrepreneurs who reach such crossroads, one answer can be found in continuing education.  They want additional training to guide them through the rough spots that come with an expanding business.

Options abound for professionals on the hunt for fresh business skills.  Getting the most out of continuing education requires knowing what’s available in the market, and how much it will cost.

Small-business consultants say there’s a sweet spot in the business-startup are during which entrepreneurs should think about seeking additional training.

Plenty of business owners know they need help launching a new company, and businesses that have made it past the five-year mark are often in growth mode and have worked out their biggest operational questions.

Problems generally emerge in the period between startup and maturation – the two years to five years after a company opens, said Anna Seifert, operations manager of the Nevada Micro enterprise Initiative and project director of the Women’s Business Center in Las Vegas.  That “emerging” phase is a potential trap for many business owners.

“For most people who go into business, all they can think of from the start is getting to that growth phase (in five years),” Seifert said.  “They forget to plan for in between startup and their growth place.  They leave a big gap.  That’s why 85 percent of businesses fail in their first three to five years – they didn’t plan for that emerging phase.  They flounder because they didn’t plan.”

Michael Waters, president of Phase 1 Sports in Las Vegas, have attended training through Siefert’s group several times.  He said continuing education has been essential to the growth of his athletic-scholarship business.

“It’s helped me learn about expansion,” Waters said.  “I’ve been trying to progress from a small business that I started and ran for three or four years on m own to bringing in a team and hiring people to handle different parts of the business so we can grow.”

For most entrepreneurs, concentrating on a few key areas can pay major dividends for their business.

Just about any owner or manager of a smaller concern could benefit from even rudimentary accounting training, said Rene Colen, a business counselor with the Service Corps of Retired Executives.

Colen has guided a number of small-business operators whose companies were doing well and began to stumble.  The usual culprit:  Their administrative processes weren’t equipped to properly manage accounting functions as their enterprise flourishes.

“Things start to get out of hand,” Colen said.  “They don’t understand why they’re doing so well business wise, but they don’t have any money in the bank.”

Because financial oversight touches so many aspects of a business, there are benefits to streamlining and upgrading fiscal skills, he said.  Tracking numbers properly can allow business owners to identify  their best customers and vendors – and their worst – and enable swift redirection toward a company’s more lucrative elements.

Inventory management also hobbles many small businesses particularly companies in manufacturing and retail.  The flow of goods and services changes as a company expands, and that can challenge many managers.

Marketing, advertising and sales are also essential to a broad range of businesses, and they’re top issues that drive entrepreneurs into SCORE’s offices for guidance.

Other concerns, such as intellectual-property rights or labor law, are often prime candidates for outsourcing, because they don’t often affect a company’s broader survival.  Rather than developing intensive knowledge in such areas, entrepreneurs should consider hiring consultants to deal with patents or to write or review human resources manuals.

Company owners can establish their own list of continuing education priorities by weighing their particular professional strengths.  Ask where your time is best-used, Craft said.

Any entrepreneur considering continuing education will need to determine whether the expense is worth it.  And there are major differences in the prices business owners will pay to upgrade their knowledge base.

Save money on your next RV rental or make money with your next motor home purchase with Bates International RV Rental Systems, the Good Sam Club’s latest Smile and Save partner.

Bates offers a wide variety of RV rentals, from plush Class A diesel pushers to Class C mini-motor-home.  Good Sam members will receive a 12% to 15% discount on RV rentals at all Bates’ locations in North America and online at www.batesintl.com.  For more details, visit the Bates online listing at www.goodsamclub.com/save.

If you’re ready to purchase a new motor home, consider participating in Bates’ revenue-sharing program.  Good Sam Club members can purchase a new RV factory-direct from a variety of RV manufacturers at a substantial discount saving approximately $5,000 to $15,000, depending on the RV class.  One of the fun benefits of the revenue-sharing program is that you can use your new motor home when you want in and place it in the Bates’ fleet when you don’t need it so you can earn rental income, tax advantages and business write-offs.  As a Bates’ RV fleet owner, you’ll have access to qualified RV renters and receive 50% of the rental and mileage revenue, and bates manages the details, which include mechanical upkeep, housecleaning and storage of your RV.

Bates was recently name by Entrepreneur magazine as on the of he Top 500 Franchises in the Unites States and has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, on CNN television news and in numerous RV industry publications.

Franchise businesses have, over the years, been stable enterprises during economic ups and downs.  As large companies search for ways to streamline their operations and reduce expenses, they often cut jobs and benefits.

One popular alternative in such difficult times has been small-business ownership as a means to pursue financial independence.  Owning a franchised business entails purchasing the right to use the trademark and system of business. Franchisees may receive assistance with site selection of he business personnel training, business set-up, advertising and product supply.  For these services franchisees pay an up-front fee and an on-going royalty, which enables the franchisor to provide support for the entire system.

Even amidst rising fuel prices and higher inflation, franchised businesses continue to operate in communities across the country.  A recent report prepared by PricewaterhouseCoopers for the International Franchise Association Education Foundation titled “The Economic Impact of Franchised Businesses” revealed that franchise business growth between 2001 and 2005 outpaced other business sectors.  The industry expanded by more than 18 percent, adding more than 140,000 new businesses and 1.2 million new jobs to the U.S. economy.  There are now nearly one million franchised establishments in operation in the United States.

Our federal bureaucracy is finally coming to the end of a three-year process to decide what those little “RV Friendly” logos on highway signs will look like – and it doesn’t appear that the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) is going to please the 15 states that have started up their own logo program while the feds dithered.

The existing logos – 12-inch yellow circles with the black letters “RV” inside them – appear along with logos for retailers and the blue highway signs that you see as you approach Interstate exits to indicate they can accommodate RVs in terms of parking, turning radius and vertical clearance. 

Fifteen states, including Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, California and Tennessee, have adopted the RV Friendly program while waiting for the FHwA to make a decision on where the logo should be placed on signs and how large it should be.

A number of clubs and organizations, including the Good Sam Club, Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA), the Escapees RV club and the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA), don’t like that the federal highway folks want to make the logo two inches smaller – and want to move it a few inches to be inside the box with the business advertising rather than more visibly overlapping its border.  That will require the retail logo inside the frame to be smaller.

It’s all very arcane, but RVIA has set up a “grassroots” website (www.ract.com) to engage RVers with the federal government in hopes consumers will use it to fire off e-mails to the FHwA objecting to the new placement.  “The hope is that we’ll get tens of thousands of RVers to do that,” said Matt Wald, RVIA director of government affairs.

And even if the FHwA’s proposed placement becomes final, it’s not likely that the signs already in place will be changed any time soon.  States will have 15 years to comply.

Leadership is highly valued in our society, with leaders usually reaping the greatest rewards in business.  However, while many aspire to the mantle of leadership, we too often confuse some of the perks and byproducts of leadership – social status, celebrity, wealth, visibility, management, or operational fame and fortune.  If you strip away the trappings, leadership boils down to one thing:  The ability to positively affect others, Simply put, in any given organization, community, social group, or field of endeavor, leaders don’t just make a difference; they are the difference.

Leaders don’t chase fortune and fame; they serve missions and are able to articulate a future for that mission in clear, simple language.  They understand that wealth and power are not primary objectives, but inevitable by products of fulfilling a need and making a consistent, positive investment in achieving a larger goal.  Leaders have vision.

Leaders are able to adapt, evolve, and expand to fit the times, without ever losing sight of their mission and core values.  They see change not as a threat, but as a natural part of their environment, and understand that what worked yesterday will not necessarily work today or tomorrow.  They are willing to strike out in new directions to get better results.  Leaders take risks.

Leaders make a tangible difference that goes beyond revenues and profits, measurably influencing and changing lives.   They understand what matters to people, including their workers, customers, and partners, and can get them to act to serve those interests.  Leaders motivate.

Leaders rarely need to actually declare that they are leaders; their work, products, services, personal conduct, and professional performance speak for themselves.  Leaders lead by example.

Leaders don’t do things to, with, or for people, they do things through people.  They are masters at communication the vision, inspiring and equipping their people to serve the mission, welcoming their ideas and contributions, and clearing they way for their success.  Leaders empower.

MATTOON — In light of high fuel prices, conventional wisdom would suggest RV and camper trailer sales — and usage, for that matter — would be taking a hit right now.

However, as camping enthusiasts decide to remain in the area rather than travel abroad, local RV campgrounds are thriving. Camper and RV dealerships, meanwhile, are finding ways to make ends meet, said officials.

“I think we’ll probably just ride it out,” said Becky Shockley, an official at Cross County RV Center in Mattoon. The fuel situation “hasn’t put the business at a standstill by any means. We’re still selling on a regular basis.”
More than half of Cross County’s sales are to out-of-state customers — especially “snowbirds”: people who travel in RVs to warmer climates in the fall and winter months, said Shockley.

“Motor homes and larger luxury fifth-wheel (trailers), those are not affected” by the gasoline prices, she said.

Cross County also continues to sell larger units to traveling workers — such as those installing oil pipelines or cell towers — who invest reimbursements from their employers in mobile homes rather than spend the money on hotels, said Shockley.

But sales of smaller “weekender” RVs and campers have declined, she added. “We can see a little slowdown there” because of the fuel crunch, Shockley said.

The situation is almost the reverse at Owen Motor Sports near Charleston, where smaller units are selling better than larger RVs and fifth-wheel trailers. The gasoline hike “has slowed down everything, but it seems like the used units and small units are moving (because) people are staying closer to home,” said Jarrod Moran, general manager.

At the same time, Owen Motor Sports also deals in fuel-efficient motorcycles and scooters, sales of which “are up tremendously,” said Moran. Although motorcycle and scooter sales haven’t completely offset the RV/camper slump, he added, “It’s definitely helping out.”

And campgrounds that cater to RV and fifth-wheelers are busier than ever.

“To be honest, whenever the gas prices get bad, the camping gets good,” said Barb Galvin, co-owner of Robin Hood Woods Campground near Lake Shelbyville. “People are tending to stay closer to home, (so) camping really is helped by poor gas prices.”

Leases of sites for the entire season seem particularly popular, as renters would rather park their RVs and trailers for the whole summer and commute back and forth in more economical vehicles, said Galvin. “We have had a huge demand this year, to where I’ve got people on a waiting list,” she said.

“It’s a relatively very inexpensive way to vacation. It’s a lot cheaper than taking (the family) to Disneyworld.”

At the Casey KOA Campground, co-owner Cathy Clinkman said, “We feel that we’re probably a little bit up this year. We’re seeing more people who are camping closer to home.

“I think it’s (because of) the gas, from what I’ve heard from people.”