EarthCruiser is closing!?!?!

[Photomike]

a 20 year loan on a van! good lord. What banker would think that is a good idea.

I know a number of RV dealerships that were/ are doing 20, 25 and even 30-year loans on rvs.

People think it is great because they never read the fine print.

If they read the fine print they would find that for the first 10 years they're only paying off interest / service charges like the FREE yearly winterizing. After 10 years they start paying down some of the principle but they're still paying interest till the final payment.

Many people are now finding out that they got roped into this because they're trying to sell their spur of the moment purchase. When they check how much is left on the loan they're finding out they owe more than what the units worth NEW and they have been paying for 4 or 5 years.

In fact even before Covid a number of RV dealerships were offering amazing refinancing deals for people who already owned rvs. They were knocking their payments down half or even a quarter of what they were paying. Paying off their credit cards. Or even giving them "FREE" trips. Again people never read the fine print to find out that they're paying two to three times what they owed just in interest on the so-called good deals and their 8 year old unit that they refinanced is going to be 34 years old before it is paid for.

 

[Ozarker]

even with great credit, the bank is going to want its collateral worth something. A 15 year old RV on a 20 year note isn't worth much. At 8% on a $200K rig in 15 years you still owe $82K.

Have you seen what people are asking for a 20 year old vehicle that is "expedition ready" on this site? lol

I didn't mention terms, how about a 20 yr. amortization with a 5 year balloon?

But, seriously, there is more to such a note, credit score is only part of it, ability to repay is the primary concern, income over a period of time might be limited, that's where a balloon may be necessary. Loan reviews annually can bring about any call feature. 8%, lol!

Is someone making 20 year fixed rate loans on RVs that are fully amortized at 8%? Folks ought to jump on that if you find that lender.

 

[Dendy Jarrett]

Gents - I don't know what is happening ... or what you think is happening in this thread but I'm throwing down the warning gauntlet. Pull it back together and start treating each other like gentlemen ... or face being perma-banned. Act like you got some smarts.

 

[Deleted Member 183]

WHOW! Not again! I haven't even posted on this thread until right now!

I will say that I feel sorry for the guy! I have empathy, I was in the same place a couple of decades ago and it's NOT FUN!

Lets face it, making cool stuff (it's still okay to say "stuff", right? ) is the easy part... Making money at making cool stuff, is where it gets tough!

Dendy, I think the best metaphor for your, Scott's, ExPo's situation is a shovel...

We are all "grown up's" here!

 

[ReluctantTraveler]

I’m confused about what’s happening right now? I saw some bickering over loan terms but nothing overtly hostile.

 

[utherjorge]

Wow. The mod comments are another one of those things that is prettttty peculiar about this whole entire situation. Permaban? One might think some things about all this.

 

[Ozarker]

I’m confused about what’s happening right now? I saw some bickering over loan terms but nothing overtly hostile.

Me too, I'm totally clueless and I've read the financing posts 3 times and still can't see any bickering or rudeness going on.

@plh I don't know what that collateral would be worth in 20 years, but judging from ads on this site, there are folks that seem to be pretty proud of 20+ year old vehicles.

Sometimes the collateral isn't the determining factor in making a loan, it could be the borrower. I had a 6 figure loan with a medical doctor that was personally guaranteed by him and his wife that was unsecured, paid off as agreed, no issues. Here's why;

high income earnings, over ten years on the job, excellent credit, both borrowers were active in community affairs, Acid Test (assets/liabilities) 3+ to 1, life insurance assignment, sufficient professional liability coverage and personal risks coverage.

All this meant the likelihood of default was slim, under contract he wouldn't lose work, income and debt to income, considering business risks, this guy wasn't going bankrupt in the next 5 years! Even if he did, there were enough assets to sell off to pay unsecured creditors. Evaluating risk is what loan underwriting is all about, it's an art as well as a science.

BTW, EC could also be heading to Chapter 15 bankruptcy as they may have foreign debt, if so, they could be hung up for several years.

 

[Deleted Member 183]

On further thought...

I suspect that there may have been some posts eviscerated that most of "us" don't know about.

 

[ReluctantTraveler]

On further thought...

I suspect that there may have been some posts that were eviscerated that most of "us" don't know about.

I get notifications by email whenever there’s new posts here, I didn’t see anything come through.

 

[TheDeliverator]

If I was an EarthCruiser owner I’d focus some energy on getting the private support forums and all the valuable information out to a public forum. I can’t imagine all that info being lost.

I imagine future owners would appreciate as well.

 

[waveslider]

Yeah. It’s a shame the owners didn’t create and join an independent owners forum to store all that valuable information. That would have been smart.

 

[Adventr.us]

Regarding the forum: I seem to have found it - at least the one hosted on groups.io if that's the secret stash. However, membership is restricted to current Earthcruiser owners (or employees) only. Fair enough. I understand the difficulty of a wide open group full of non-owner keyboard warriors - and the forum moderator's desire to preserve the utility of the forum for actual owners. But unless that forum content is opened to prospective buyers - such as myself - it's not doing anything to help owners support the resale value of their investment. In that case, as buyer demand further erodes, I'm not sure who the joke is on, actually ...

 

[wfv56]

So what’s the story on the customers that had big deposits on builds in progres? Did Earthcruiser steal their money?

 

[Howard70]

Regarding the forum: I seem to have found it - at least the one hosted on groups.io if that's the secret stash. However, membership is restricted to current Earthcruiser owners (or employees) only. Fair enough. I understand the difficulty of a wide open group full of non-owner keyboard warriors - and the forum moderator's desire to preserve the utility of the forum for actual owners. But unless that forum content is opened to prospective buyers - such as myself - it's not doing anything to help owners support the resale value of their investment. In that case, as buyer demand further erodes, I'm not sure who the joke is on, actually ...

It's called the "EarthCruiser Owners Group" (ECOG) for a reason. You could easily start a "Potential EarthCruiser Owners Group" (PECOG) if you wish. Once done an announcement could be posted on ECOG informing members that they're invited to join PECOG and those that are interested would do so.

Howard Snell

 

[utherjorge]

But unless that forum content is opened to prospective buyers - such as myself - it's not doing anything to help owners support the resale value of their investment. In that case, as buyer demand further erodes, I'm not sure who the joke is on, actually ...

Yeah, man, you're not going to get any information out of those guys, and that's just fine. This is a whole ownership level beyond Raptor and TRX owners; these people have disposable income, and your posts read like you're trying to find out what they're doing.

Same level of interest on their end as those guys with private jets who had that kid tracking their movements.