All good points brought up here. We know owning a Four Wheel Camper won't be the right choice for everyone. Customers have many different wants, needs, and tastes for truck campers. We won't be able to please everyone. Weather and climate plays a role in what individual customers will need too. FWC is always looking to make upgrades on the campers, in every aspect. We try and listen to our customer base and the forums. We're upgrading parts and product designs throughout the year. Changes are happening daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. Most changes are behind the scenes and customers don't even know. New camper colors are coming. We've built 1 camper with smooth red aluminum siding, 1 in Khaki, many in Silver, and couple more colors are coming this fall. Our Flat Bed Models are selling better than ever. And when it comes to using high tech products and the best innovative materials, we are always researching and bringing in samples to work with. But usually the really "cool stuff' comes at a price tag much higher. We want to stay in the sweet spot by building campers around durability & utility, and with a reasonable price tag. Many of the other campers mentioned come with a higher price tag. I do agree that competition helps the industry. I have personally seen it, and that competition has helped FWC grow & get better over the years. And I also agree we (FWC) has things to work on, things to improve. Our staff knows and has a pretty good idea on where our strengths & weakness are, and we try and work on those every week. I like many of the new camper designs coming out the past few years. It is great for customers to have more choices. It will help the entire industry grow. There are plenty of sales and new customers out there for everyone. The Overlanding Community is growing with leaps & bounds. Exciting times.
Stan I really I appreciate your response, the fact that you monitor forums and are open minded to change. I hope FWC does react to changes in the industry in a forward thinking way. I would hate to see FWC become an after-thought as newer and better options from competition pass you by, remember Blackberry phones?
I think the biggest thing holding FWC back from truly significant changes is the tendency to go back to what you're comfortable with. It's the same thinking that stymies other industries. When you go back to the drawing board and there's already an FWC camper drawn on it, you're limiting your design options out of the gate. So you become limited to fitting changes within an existing design. Changes become piece-meal.
You mention in your post above that you're coming out with new colors, "Red, Khaki, Silver...", which is great, but you're talking gravy and I'm talking meat and potatoes. In other words, it doesn't take much design or engineering to say, "let's paint it a different color!"
It's a small step, but it's not a giant leap for mankind.
Significant changes don't always have to equate to greater product costs or the increased cost can be negligible. Some changes can be value engineered, so as to incorporate an added benefit in some other form, less assembly time for example.
So maybe there is an additional cost for some new "space age" material with a higher R-value, but your engineers came up with a less intensive means in which to assemble the end product. So it becomes a wash in terms of your target pricing (material cost vs. labor), BUT you're turning out a better product and you're doing it faster, increasing your unit productivity, the coveted trifecta!
It's hard to do that if there's a tendency to always go back and start with your basic design. And I get what you're saying about recognizing challenges you face as a company. Often times, from what I've seen it turns out the employees with the most longevity are the most difficult to persuade to a new way of thinking. It's often the greatest stumbling blocks in the path of innovation.
Effectively, you end up with the same creative mind from the last 20 years coming up with the design for the next 20 years. That's why other industries where design/ engineering is more competitive and demands creativity for survival, often have new-fresh engineers offering new blood, new direction, new vision. That's kind of what we're seeing in the Overland industry right now with newer, smaller shops that can change direction on a dime and aren't married to an idea or concept.
You company has the advantage in terms of branding, facilities, customer following, reputation and industry knowledge. That's a huge advantage over the newer guys coming into the market.
