Vagabond Outdoors Drifter
- Thread starter Michael Gibbs
- Start date
SoCalTacoTruck
Active member
Yes. Biggest holdups are windows, canvas material, and mattresses.
parttimedirtbag
Member
Good to see y’all over here. And mad thanks to those of you local who are willing to go see in person and get us some real updates. Here’s to hoping.
Lord Larry
Member
Thanks for the update. Really appreciated it ?
Not here to bash Vagabond as I don't own one and don't have interest in buying one but I've been following their journey since their start and really want them to succeed. Happy to at least see that their operations are still running but looks like they've hit a wall over the last 6 months or so. No recent updates on their IG lately either, they haven't posted since Nov 21'.
There were a lot of comparisons early between them and GFC even if they're very different products but it is at least interesting to see how both companies have evolved. GFC's ethos has always been scalability and sustainability. Pretty much everything they do is in-house. The panels, frame, hinges, latches, fabric etc etc is all done in-house. I think they may have one piece that is outsourced. Because of this they have been able to survive supply chain woes and have come out of the pandemic ahead of the game and just cranking out new products and 40 campers a week I believe. Their operations is smooth. They have 60 something employees? I think what they're doing is incredible. This is in contrast to what Vagabond has done. They have a great product which is more robust and superior in many ways but it's obvious their business sense, operations and overall vision is not as clear as GFCs.
I wish Phil and Vagabond the best but for them to succeed and scale going forward I think they need a much more efficient process that doesn't require so much outsourcing of materials. I think it's killing them at this point. Honestly hope they figure it out, for their sake and all their customers (investors) sake as well.
There were a lot of comparisons early between them and GFC even if they're very different products but it is at least interesting to see how both companies have evolved. GFC's ethos has always been scalability and sustainability. Pretty much everything they do is in-house. The panels, frame, hinges, latches, fabric etc etc is all done in-house. I think they may have one piece that is outsourced. Because of this they have been able to survive supply chain woes and have come out of the pandemic ahead of the game and just cranking out new products and 40 campers a week I believe. Their operations is smooth. They have 60 something employees? I think what they're doing is incredible. This is in contrast to what Vagabond has done. They have a great product which is more robust and superior in many ways but it's obvious their business sense, operations and overall vision is not as clear as GFCs.
I wish Phil and Vagabond the best but for them to succeed and scale going forward I think they need a much more efficient process that doesn't require so much outsourcing of materials. I think it's killing them at this point. Honestly hope they figure it out, for their sake and all their customers (investors) sake as well.
Northern Tundra
Member
How many of those employees are part of the “Product Improvement Tour”?
GFC has certainly had their share of issues as well. Though it seems their customer service is good, and I give them credit for taking care of the issues with the V1 campers.
I’m certainly not defending VO, but it hasn’t been perfect for GFC either.
I'm not sure..? Of course GFC had their fair share of issues like any upstart would. That's why there is a V2 where they addressed many of the early issues. Again, my post is not to compare issue to issue or feature for feature. They're both wedge campers that go about it in very different ways. The point is how both companies went in different directions in production, operations, and scalability. Vagabond Outdoors sells a product. GFC is a scalable business. That's the biggest difference between the two IMO.
SoCalTacoTruck
Active member
Vagabond COULD go that direction. Just haven’t taken the proper business steps. The one-off parts + giant laser-cut alum sides makes it hard.
danneskjold
Active member
The GFC v1 is a pretty simple camper to make, and someone could more or less build it in their garage. Welded steel tube frame for the truck, with an aluminum extrusion top and some hinges. The upper portion is also the same whether you have a 5 foot bed Tacoma, or an 8 foot bed F350. Obviously they use a lot of custom parts, but again those aren’t particularly complicated. From a manufacturing standpoint it’s a much “better” product. Supposedly also the size of the cabover lends itself to shipping much better as it’s within some length limit.
The Vagabond aluminum panels require massive and expensive tooling that forces Vagabond to outsource the bending and forming of the panels. Additionally each camper is custom made for the truck, so the tent portion is made for your 6.5 foot F150 and is different than the 5 foot bed Tacoma version. Additionally, each camper has a ton of custom features on top of all of that no doubt slow the process down.
I’m super biased, but the Vagabond is a much better product for the consumer…but from a manufacturing process it sucks to make. Hopefully they figure out ways to improve it and get leadtimes under control.
Phil also doesn’t have his daddy bankrolling the whole operation like GFC.
czukie
Active member
I agree 1000% that vagabond’s are a superior product to GFC but there is absolutely no excuse anymore. There are so many campers now that offer a plethora of options (windows, doors, awnings, etc.) for multiple truck models and are at the same level or very close to VO‘s build quality. Most of which can produce campers anywhere from 8 to 16 weeks. Topo, Snap!, AT, Camp King, Trailfort, and even Alu-Cab come to mind as companies with a high build quality that can get you a camper in less than a year. All of these companies’ wait times have only declined since their inception whereas VO’s has continued to increase. Thats not how it’s supposed to work.
I agree that VO build quality (esp when including the price point) is top tier and even that Phil really wants to best camper for his customer. The problem is that these campers no longer have the niche market they did prior to COVID. More companies are producing campers which means there are more options. It’s no longer GFC and Vagabond with a bunch of “emerging” companies. VO is now at the point where they are undeniably losing customers to other competing companies and doesn’t seem to care or be doing much to change that. As a customer who has invested in their product, this worries me.
I honestly would prefer they raise prices if it meant they could reduce production times.
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Something positive must be happening. I Just checked thier website and they have since uploaded some new pictures with rigs running thier product. I dont know what to think but it may be a start of something? Who knows at this point. Just found it interesting there were new pictures there.
Im in the same boat. Im retracting my deposit and moving along. Im not going to get the run around especially when other companies are making something similar with great customer service and arent bieng bogged down with supply issues
Groverland
Active member
Did they change the advertised wait time from 12 months to infinity? New pics are nice, but I feel the website has been VERY misleading in that regard.