Hondo Garage's New Thing

Nothing that I've seen since the update ~6 weeks ago. But I can do my best to provide a general update: Graeme made a delivery run to the east coast, and picked up a Ford Raptor along the way. Supply issues continued to hold up production. They finished up RTTs/mounts for at least two 4runners, went long travel on the shop truck, had an epic looking camping trip, and somewhere in there they finished ~15 more campers.

There are a lot in production, and it seems like if they can get their supply chain gremlins worked we may see an honest increase in the campers completed per week. I am sure they want to see that number go up more than anyone.

I will agree with @I_eat_tacos sentiments - that it feels like it takes a lot of nagging to get a response as a paid-up early customer, while we see tire kickers on instagram getting responses within hours.

 

I’ve been watching this thread for the last few months and this is the main reason I haven’t put a deposit down even though it’s only $500 now. If I order now it should be ready for pick up in May but I’m not very confident that will happen since they seem more focused on getting new customers and supporting new vehicles.

I’ll probably order one at some point but I’ve been content to keep watching and see how things work out for now.

 

Elsie just called me about my order (paid in full mid-April) and color change, so not sure if it was IG or what, but it worked. I'm just 4 1/2 hrs away, so driving up for install, which she now estimated as last week in October or first week in November.

Keep the faith dudes!

 

I agree with you, I paid in full end of March, early April with an original estimated delivery of June/July. I confirmed my campers specs early August. My delivery recently has been pushed from Early September to Late Sept/Early October and now they are saying late October. I've been following the leaderboard and there have been about 3 campers completed in two weeks, though that was supposedly a supplier issue. Getting responses over email is like pulling teeth, I've only emailed them a couple times, but I have to follow up about 4 times until I get a response. I can see the money isn't being spent on supplier management and customer support but rather new toys (Raptor and Total Chaos Long Travel), boys trips and marketing.

 

Maybe they're just building the campers with the cash flow and not keeping enough building materials on hand. Time for a small business loan to get things moving. They have 295 orders!

Wait two or three weeks is the default response.

 

Thanks! I’ve watched the communication frustration cycles happen a couple times for sure! They definitely seem like good guys, and I wouldn’t worry about not getting the camper at all but I’d be frustrated if I planned on having it in May and didn’t get it until December.

The funny thing is that I traded in my 4Runner for a Tacoma when I saw these new wedge campers pop up (GFC and Drifter) but I probably would’ve had a better chance at getting the GFC roof top tent for my 4Runner before the Tacoma camper and the tent didn’t even exist when I made the trade.

 

Squeaky wheels also get their campers expidited ahead of others too it seems. Shop must be noisy with all the squeaking.

 

#hondobiltfamily

im subscribing to raptor sales in bozeman. want to get that sweet deal before the bk filing, kicking myself for missing out on the pelfrey runner

 

I feel like this is worth mentioning... the vehicles being built by the shop are not being paid for using GFC funds. I didn't mention it super publicly, but I did sell my AeroContinental Ram to do the raptor build. Same goes on Wiley's truck, we are actively reinvesting to grow GFC and make sure that our employees and customers are taken care of.

This forum feedback is incredibly helpful, I am actually writing this message directly after having a meeting with our team to figure out how to avoid having these problems in the future.. If folks are sending emails into a void and are unable to let us know that we aren't responding, that is a closed loop that we can't intervene on. So please, go ahead and be squeaky because it lets us know where to put the oil. Beyond that, know that we are going to use your feedback to improve that support, and we should never see response times exceed a couple of days, let alone a week.

Supply chain and customer service issues are being actively addressed. We have continued a pretty incredible rate of growth, and when you solve one problem another always comes up. In the last few weeks we have ramped production to where some of our suppliers are working to accommodate our growth. We didn't need to order 40 campers worth of extrusion a month, but now we are at that point, and it took some time for suppliers to build inventory to trickle it out to us at a regular rate in order to meet our increasing demand.

If you do have an existing problem, we want to remind folks that existing orders should always use the orders@gfcengineering.com address. If you do not have an existing order, do not use that email for general inquiries. If you have a problem with getting a response from the orders email, please let us know here. We typically get back to customers within two days (not including weekends) and to hear from a couple of folks that they have been waiting longer than that is disconcerting to say the least, and we need to solve that problem.

In order to solve existing issues mentioned in the last two pages of the thread, we have already brought on a full time supply chain production manager, and we are in the process of onboarding another sales/customer service employee currently.

Again, we do appreciate the feedback, and if you continue to experience any issues please let us know.

-graeme

 

...What color did you go with? I've got a cement truck too, can't decide between black or gray.

 

I was debating that for awhile too, I ended up going with black. There’s a guy on Instagram, tacodust, that said the gray doesn’t really match the cement exactly, so I decided black. I have a buddy who owns a wrap shop, we may print some color matched vinyl if I’m not into the black. I’ll be sure to post pictures of it though, I think I’ll be the first one with cement and black gfc. Whenever the day comes.

 

Right on. Thanks. I was thinking about doing the opposite; going with gray and if it doesn't match then getting a wrap to make it match. That way the inside would be gray instead of black which might be better for light on the inside. Was hoping to see someone else with the gray on cement before I needed to make the call. I'm #118 on the leaderboard, so figure I still have a few weeks (at least) before I need to decide.

 

Tell me more about this color matched printing of vinyl. Any idea what just the materials would cost?

 

Ya that is probably a good idea, would be nice to have a lighter color on the inside of the panels.

 

I don't exactly know yet, we haven't really dug into it yet. We should be able to get a color that is pretty close, no guarantee of a 100% color match though. Just because metallics are printed onto a silver metallic base vinyl.

I would imagine a few hundred for materials and ink.

 

Cool. Thank you. I did some googling but couldn't find anyone to do color matching...

Just looking for options if I don't like my grey on inferno.

Just talked to Graeme - looks like a probable Friday delivery.

 

You've seen these right?
https://www.autoanything.com/truck-...MIrpmp35vr3QIVnYizCh1ZuwceEAQYASABEgJqxvD_BwE

 

Time for a loan from Shark Tank?

 

Lol I could see Mark Cuban being into it