New videos from Sterling RV / Great West Vans

[stanw909]

I was having a Facebook correspondence with someone from Sterling. It ended when she suggested I watch their 3 short YouTube videos and I got back to her asking how they expect to sell motorhomes with 3 little videos. I think they think the videos must be real slick or don't do them at all. They could invite Windcrasher to do their videos and they could sell some vans. I did tell the gal I was rooting for them before criticizing them which I really am.

[wincrasher]

Originally Posted by stanw909

I was having a Facebook correspondence with someone from Sterling. It ended when she suggested I watch their 3 short YouTube videos and I got back to her asking how they expect to sell motorhomes with 3 little videos. I think they think the videos must be real slick or don't do them at all. They could invite Windcrasher to do their videos and they could sell some vans. I did tell the gal I was rooting for them before criticizing them which I really am.

I'd be happy to do some videos for them if they sent me a couple vans!

But if they are like the other's I've seen, I'd have to point out their crappy build quality, so I guess they'd be disappointed.

Oh, and that floor in the front - it's not rubber. Looks like rubber, but it's the same hard polystyrene you find in automotive plastics. Would be nice if it was rubber. But you could get a rubber mat, or a carpet mat - both those options are out there for only a few hundred bucks.

Interesting in that they are offering the Espar - must mean they are settling on the diesel chassis? Too bad that chassis has even less payload than the gas. Looking at these pics, I wonder how low the OCCC is on this one.

And notice no tow hitch. Both this and the Zion omit this feature. I think that is a bad choice. Yes, these aren't great for towing, but you should have the option for a box, bike rack or even a utility type light trailer.

FWIW, most companies outsource their web development. You could get a really nice site up and running for $1500. All you need are some photos. Maybe that is the problem. Getting some vans built, and having some professional photos made. The photos probably cost far more than the website work.

[mumkin]

Espar also makes a gasoline system. So they can use it on both gas and diesel.

[Davydd]

Back in 2012 under the old ownership aboutt 75% of the Sprinter Great West photos in their brochure were mine. It didn't cost them a cent.

[mumkin]

That's funny davydd because their website photos of the side sofa Classic Supreme was my unit. But they took the photos at the factory before I received it.

[mumkin]

Lake Region has posted a video of the new Classic on the Promaster:

http://www.lakeregionrvs.com/pre_own...sp?veh=4220368

It is down the page a bit.

[MarionSSS]

Like the dry bath.

[van]

On the Great West site, they show a Classic Promaster with a bed in the rear that raises up much like the Safari Condo Promaster. But there's hardly info at all on the site about it. Strange outfit.

And the fit and finish of the vehicle on Lake Region RV photos looks pretty laughable and the layout itself is really odd. Roll Tide I guess.

[mlts22]

Is it just me, or are a lot of RV makers making ProMaster prototypes, but not seeming to want to bring them to market?

[avanti]

Originally Posted by mlts22

Is it just me, or are a lot of RV makers making ProMaster prototypes, but not seeming to want to bring them to market?

Well, things take time. You can't develop a market-ready van conversion using only your CAD system. You need to build and iterate. Even ARV, who had the advantage of the existing GWV design on the same Sprinter chassis as a starting point had to build quite a number of "spec" vehicles that appear to have been difficult to sell. (Last I checked, they had maybe seven new vehicles on their website marked "available for sale". Some of them have been there for a long time.) The other manufacturers, faced with a completely new platform, have an even more daunting challenge. It is one thing to build a prototype that you can photograph and shop around. It is quite another to have something that would survive in the market.

The ProMaster models will come

[wincrasher]

Well all the majors have produced at least one except for LTV. Hopefully these majors will have mutliple floor plans.

Hmmm.....used ARV's not moving? Could be any "custom" is a tough sell in the used market considering the prices. Another thing to consider is that if you are using bleeding edge tech, it's quickly obsoleted by subsequent generations. At those prices, I'm sure buyers expect the latest and greatest of everything. Sportsmobile seems to have the same problem - I see them on Craigslist at fairly high prices and they sit for quite a while.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by wincrasher

Hmmm.....used ARV's not moving? Could be any "custom" is a tough sell in the used market considering the prices. Another thing to consider is that if you are using bleeding edge tech, it's quickly obsoleted by subsequent generations. At those prices, I'm sure buyers expect the latest and greatest of everything.

They don't even appear to be "used". They generally show very low miles (like hundreds). Some of them do say "available for rental". I think they are more like prototypes, which was part of my point.

[Davydd]

Avanti and Wincrasher, you two are dangerous when you don't know what you are talking about. Advanced RV has a rental business in Willoughby, OH and California. They'll sell their rentals but they are not actively promoting them other than to prospective customers who might not want to wait with their current backlog of around 1-1/2 years last I heard at Advanced Fest. One of the reasons they will sell the rentals is they are fast getting out of date and the intent was to use them to give customers a trial tour. Also, those vans on their showroom pages were bought on spec to give people a chance at an accelerated production schedule. Most haven't even been converted yet. Otherwise, if you want something specific, a Sprinter order takes 4-5 months just to get the van in for conversion. Oddly though, Advanced RV customers have specific desires for features and colors (any color you want from M-B) that the spec ones do sit. Mikes47's Imagine was one such spec ARV and he managed to jump ahead of me in the schedule on account of it. One thing we know for sure, Advanced RV will be the first out the door with a Sprinter 4x4 and a Sprinter Super High Roof RV. That's because they secured orders with Mercedes Benz and have them.

Speculate all you want. Their business appears to be healthy. As far as high mileage Advanced RVs, I may have the highest already. I just passed 14,000 miles today and all since January 26.

Wincrasher, you will get the opportunity to see three Advanced RVs including one of those "rentals" that Mike Neundorfer will be bringing at the RV.net B12 Rally. You can also talk to FredA who was briefly parked in front of you. He can knock your socks off with an Advanced RV he is having built--a total departure yet in plan and equipment.

Avanti, GWVan has done nothing new in 4 years with the Legend that wasn't "advanced" by Mike Neundorfer when He had his built. You owe him that Espar heating and hot water system, inverter, multiple batteries and compressor refrigerator you enjoy. They had none of that when I bought my Legend just ahead of Neundorfer and was somewhat envious that he was able to get that done. He had more patience than I. BTW, ARV was never a "spin off" you so erroneously keep saying. If anything, it was frustration by one man after all those improvements still with the fact it was impossible in getting what you truly want. Neundorfer, like I, felt GWVan was the best on the market in 2011 plan wise and obviously getting some changes made that the others to this day resist. He was buying it for his personal use. Much has evolved since.

These are solely my interpretation and opinions, BTW. I get nothing from this from Advanced RV. I am a paying customer like everyone else and am now getting envious again with all the creative ideas Advanced RV customers are bringing to the table. Those advances are customer driven and not dealer driven.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Davydd

Avanti and Wincrasher, you two are dangerous when you don't know what you are talking about. Advanced RV has a rental business in Willoughby, OH and California. They'll sell their rentals but they are not actively promoting them

Sigh....
Just the facts, ma'am:

From the advanced-rv.com website [retrieved 14 May 2015]:

Name
Pebbles
Model
Ocean
Chassis
Sprinter 3500
Miles
4,410
Status
Rental, Available for purchase

——

Name
Hans
Model
Ocean One
Chassis
Sprinter 3500 Ext
Miles
107
Status
Rental, Available for purchase

——

Name
Candy
Model
Ocean One
Chassis
Sprinter 3500 Ext
Miles
9,113
Status
Rental, Available for purchase

——

Name
Stewie
Model
Ocean One
Chassis
Sprinter 3500 Standard
Miles
48
Status
Available for purchase

——

Name
BamBam
Model
Ocean
Chassis
Sprinter 3500 Standard
Miles
73
Status
Available for purchase

——

Name
Boba Fett
Model
Ocean One
Chassis
Sprinter 3500 Standard
Miles
49
Status
Available for purchase

——

Name
Chewie
Model
Ocean One
Chassis
Sprinter 3500 Ext
Miles
88
Status
Available for purchase

Hmm...
Seven for sale (just like I said). Three of them "rentals".

Originally Posted by Davydd

ARV was never a "spin off" you so erroneously keep saying.

More facts:

http://www.fmcmagazine.com/back-issu...arch-2013.html

Assisting the company and offering insight into the RV business as a consultant is Mike Ellis, a former general manager of Great West Vans.

http://www.rv.net/forum/index.cfm/fu...655/page/2.cfm

Posted: 01/17/13 12:51pm Link | Print | Notify Moderator
Davydd wrote:
The Advanced RV genesis was the Great West Van Legend.

[/quote]

ARV Newsletter 20 Jul 2012:

Everything You Dreamed
a Motor Home Should Be Advanced RV, LLC?The Ultimate Motor Home Experience
In this issue of the Advanced RV newsletter,
<<<<snip>>>
As always, thank you for your continued interest.
Michael Ellis

Please note Ellis speaking for ARV in their newsletter.

Originally Posted by Davydd

Those advances are customer driven and not dealer driven.

Yeah, kind of like GWV and Neundorfer, huh?

WHY do you insist on taking every comment that doesn't fit with your personal narrative as an attack on Advanced-RV?

You really are quite amazing.

[Davydd]

"You really are quite amazing." If you say so.

"WHY do you insist on taking every comment that doesn't fit with your personal narrative as an attack on Advanced-RV?" Maybe because of your Google cowboyness? You are quick to attack Advanced RV in your insinuating comments with every chance you get.

Mike Ellis didn't go with the new ownership of Great West Van. Why? I don't know but his options were thus open. He had a lot of vision and ideas and gravitated to Advanced RV for a brief period as a consultant as the article states but only through August 2012, never an employee or ownership roll. He is in Winnipeg now developing low-cost videos for the real estate and RV industries last I heard directly from him. That was primarily what he was doing at Advanced RV early on as well as giving advice for starting up. You can be a Google cowboy or you can get out and learn things first hand. As I said, never a spin-off.

If you want to believe your version is true then also believe Advanced RV has moved on with many improvements while Great West Vans has gone onto trailers and evidently Promasters because all the things that made me go with the Advanced RV over the Legend again are still there with the Legend. I know both Bs intimately. You don't. I never said the Legend was a bad Class B. I still like it better than the rest of the dealer network sold Bs. It just isn't in the same class as Advanced RV. And before you bring up cost, you could never get the quality in any other B on the market right now and you do get exactly what you pay for and none of the manufacturers, including Sterling, have made a move to prove otherwise. That is why I say dealer driven. The dealers have to be competitive with their offerings or they can't sell them.

"Yeah, kind of like GWV and Neundorfer, huh?" As I said, you should thank Neundorfer for being a Great West Van customer for what you have. You would not have had it otherwise.

[avanti]

Originally Posted by Davydd

You are quick to attack Advanced RV in your insinuating comments with every chance you get.

I would be very interested in an example or two. You will, I believe, find that you have to stretch pretty far to find me EVER attacking ARV in any way. Why should I? I have great respect of them, as I have said repeatedly. I nearly purchased one. With the exception of their use of double vapor barriers (which, as you know, I believe to be a huge gaff, and I'm sure they would delete it on request), I can't think of ANYTHING much to criticize. There are things that I personally don't VALUE (e.g., the use of vehicle automation), but that is a matter of taste. What else have I ever said that was a negative? Our decision not to purchase an ARV was entirely on cost-effectiveness grounds, as I have said.

My problem with your comments is exactly that you seem unable to interpret anyone's positive comments about any other van as other than an implied criticism of ARV. Your logic seems to be "ARV is the best in every way; ergo anything that anyone else does is inferior." It just gets old, that's all.

As for the rest, what I have posted speaks for itself.

[Iamlarry]

I absolutely love my inferior RT CS. I agree with avanti that this does get old. In every forum there is a smartest man in the room. This one is no different. I'm going camping, see you later.

Lar

[wincrasher]

I did get to chat with Fred for a bit. His project sounds pretty exciting.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[booster]

I have said it before, and will again. I just don't see any significant amount of ARV bashing (although I see a lot of bashing the other way). If questioning the hows and whys of how the various B's are built is bashing, you might as well shut down the forum and all go out for Koolaid!

As I have also said, nobody is always best or perfect. Not ARV, not Roadtrek, not Great West, not NASA, not Apple, etc etc etc. All have things they do better or lesser than others, and to think otherwise is pretty naive in my opinion.

There is a reason there are quite a few B's available. We all want/need something different based on who we are, so nobodies choice of van is either right, or wrong, or even questionable.

[mumkin]

Not to change the subject... but to answer a query above, I talked to LTV and they aren't looking at anything on the Promaster. The reason is likely its weight limits as they are concentrating on the small C market, not Bs. I know that they had a Transit cutaway/cab chassis to experiment with. We will have to wait and see if anything comes of that. But that too is off-topic... sorry.