I hope the camper is better than the buying

valkraider

valkraider

Advanced Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2012
Messages
63
Ugh, this has been a frustrating experience.

I hope having the camper is a better experience than buying it has been.

Between the closest dealerships being 650 miles away, and the poor service at one of them, and the bank throwing fits about the unbuilt camper and needing to get a serial number and the serial number give to me not meeting the requirements the bank has for slide-in campers, and then the over 2 month wait and the trip to go pick it up...

After all this I hope the camper kicks butt, because if it doesn't I will probably have an anyeurism.


You would think that when the company is not accessible for 95% of the nation that they would have much more simple processes to help people buy their campers - especially considering the price premium of the FWC vs other options...

Definitely not my favorite purchase process at this point.

Sorry for my message that really brings no value to this forum, I am basically venting because I have been reading all of your posts for a couple years about how great these things are and looking at all your pics of all of you all over the place enjoying the camers.. You have ruined me. :)
 
Ugh, this has been a frustrating experience.

I hope having the camper is a better experience than buying it has been.

Between the closest dealerships being 650 miles away, and the poor service at one of them, and the bank throwing fits about the unbuilt camper and needing to get a serial number and the serial number give to me not meeting the requirements the bank has for slide-in campers, and then the over 2 month wait and the trip to go pick it up...

After all this I hope the camper kicks butt, because if it doesn't I will probably have an anyeurism.


You would think that when the company is not accessible for 95% of the nation that they would have much more simple processes to help people buy their campers - especially considering the price premium of the FWC vs other options...

Definitely not my favorite purchase process at this point.

Sorry for my message that really brings no value to this forum, I am basically venting because I have been reading all of your posts for a couple years about how great these things are and looking at all your pics of all of you all over the place enjoying the camers.. You have ruined me. :)

I can understand your frustration being 650 miles from FWC, I had to travel 2 hours to purchase and P/U. I had to wait 3 months for my Hawk and not being able to P/U until the middle of summer. I also agree that FWC are quite pricey. When I began shopping for a camper, I was only able to compare a Northstar to the FWC. The Northstar is somehat comparable to the FWC, but in my opinion is inferior in quality to the FWC. The other pop-up truck campers that I researched online were quite a bit more expensive, weighted more and quite frankly I could not find new models available here in the bay area to compare. Except for a few items that I won't mention which are trivial, the overall quality is excellant and my experience with dealing with FWC has been top notch. Once you P/U the camper I hope you will feel that it was worth it and I believe you will enjoy using the camper.
 
I suspect not too many folks are taking out a lien against the camper (either cash or a personal loan most likely) which is probably why you don't hear about that one too much. I can't imagine banks are very familiar with FWCs.
 
I had a similar experience since I financed my Hawk. I worked directly with FWC on the purchase, and my sales guy talked with Tom to have a serial number/pink slip generated before the camper was finished being built to satisfy the lender policies.
You might want to get a hold of FWC and see if they can help you out.

Yep, and the campers do kick serious bootie.
 
Hello Valkraider


Thank you for the positing.

Sometime we just have to play by the bank's rules to make things go smoothly.

: )


It seems like all banks work a little bit differently.

Some banks / credit unions are OK with just a camper serial number.

Other banks will sometimes want a VIN number (17 digit number), which doen't exist for most pop-up truck campers.

Some states will want the camper registered through the Department of Motor Vehicles, some states dont require registration.

Four Wheel Campers provides all of our new customers an MSO (Manufactures Statement of Origin).

If you do have to register the camper with the DMV in your state, you (the customer) will need to take the DMV your "MSO" and they can issue you a title for the camper and issue licence plates for the camper.

If the camper does not need to be registered in your state (this is most common) your bank or credit union will usually want us to mail the "MSO" directly to them.

We will list you as the owner of the new camper (on the MSO), and the bank will be listed on the back as the lien holder until the loan is paid off.

If the bank / credit union is still confused, you can tell them that FWC said they just need to file a "UCC-1" with their state. The UCC-1 form is something the bank will fill out and send to the state that "officially" lists them as the lien holder of the camper until the loan is paid off.

Most banks / credit unions are always confused about truck campers, especially pop-up truck campers.

Sometimes they just need a little educating and additional details on the product.

Most of the time the details can be worked out smoothly.

I would be glad to talk with your loan rep. if you think that would be of any help.


Please let me know if I can help with things.

I'm here in the office most days of the week.

Thank you.



Stan Kennedy

1-800-242-1442

stan@fourwh.com



.

.
 
Everything is all squared away, and yes the folks at FWC have been very helpful.

It's just way more effort than going down to a dealership, picking one I like, doing some paperwork, and then driving home with it on the truck. :)

And at ~ $20k moderately equipped I don't *personally* know many people who could buy one _without_ financing. I could have built this thing to $25k easily without some self-restraint. Then add in sales tax and delivery charges and whammo - an expensive camper. Sure, some people might have $20k sitting around but not many and most who do probably put it down on a fancier RV or something...

Then there are the 2 days I will have to take off work and the 1300 mile round trip and related expenses to pick the thing up...

Even the bank was like "Wow, that is an expensive camper" and all I could say was "But I have heard they are good..."

:)


I did get to see one in person and play with it a little bit at an RV show in Oregon last year, so I did have at least some exposure to the physical product.

But this whole process has required a *lot* of faith, and based on what I have read here and elsewhere I don't think it is misplaced.

But hey, for you FWC folks that are reading this - please make sure mine doesn't have any, uhm, "build quality issues" because it will be REALLY hard for me to get any warranty work done. :)
 
I did say "or personal loan" or a equity line of credit, etc. I just hadn't heard of too many specifically taking a lien on the camper but Stan would have much more of a pulse on that, it was just my impression.
 
Banks don't much about the campers? Heck no one does it seems. I still get people thinking its just a different kind shell. Those of us who go out and explore are really a small minority in this country.
 
Banks don't much about the campers? Heck no one does it seems. I still get people thinking its just a different kind shell. Those of us who go out and explore are really a small minority in this country.


Most people think we are crazy - when there are perfectly good RVs for cheap right here in town... ;)
 
Most people think we are crazy - when there are perfectly good RVs for cheap right here in town... ;)


And travel trailers. "It has so much more room than a truck camper''.
 
Ugh, this has been a frustrating experience.

I hope having the camper is a better experience than buying it has been.

Between the closest dealerships being 650 miles away, and the poor service at one of them, and the bank throwing fits about the unbuilt camper and needing to get a serial number and the serial number give to me not meeting the requirements the bank has for slide-in campers, and then the over 2 month wait and the trip to go pick it up...

After all this I hope the camper kicks butt, because if it doesn't I will probably have an anyeurism.


You would think that when the company is not accessible for 95% of the nation that they would have much more simple processes to help people buy their campers - especially considering the price premium of the FWC vs other options...

Definitely not my favorite purchase process at this point.

Sorry for my message that really brings no value to this forum, I am basically venting because I have been reading all of your posts for a couple years about how great these things are and looking at all your pics of all of you all over the place enjoying the camers.. You have ruined me. :)
 
I bought my FWC through Rocky Mountain Four Wheel Campers and Chris Janeway was my sales guy,

We used Bank of the West for the financing and he coordinated everything with the bank seemlessly.

It was a very pleasant, stress free experience all around.

Hope yours goes smoothly
 
A personal loan through a credit union would be your best bet. At least you have a community of pretty competent folks here if you run into issues. I purchased my camper as a floor model from Juniper Overland in Denver which is a whopping 12 miles from my house. It was winter and I wanted to use it to go skiing and spend the night. The heater was not working and I had to drop it off to get “repaired”. I asked to test it before I drove off...turns out they did not fix the problem. Luckily they just took a heater out of another floor model and put it in mine while I waited (and helped some) for an hour. I can’t imagine the frustration of not having a local dealer. Once you use it a few times and you’re handy you can handle it. It’s been the best purchase I’ve made probably ever. Hang in there.
 
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