Hondo Garage's New Thing

6 months with the GFC / 100 nights in camping nirvana

Long term review soon to follow. For now, a pic or two from some recent outings:

 

I wish. I’ve had mine for almost five months and I haven’t been home for 3 1/2 months of that time.

 

Same here. Time to ensure the tailgate is locked.

Good news, the tent is easier and easier to close with all the panels in. Make sure to fold the sides in as much as possible and it is easy.

 

Hey man. Just hooked up with Kinnsman at Expo. They were super pumped to make mounts specific to the GFC.... super cool folks. They’re gonna do some hard looking at my GFC tomorrow and see what they come up with. Let me know when you’re around tomorrow my truck will be in booth S32. See you than.

 

What is up with that other camper?!?!

 

If you lock the latches while they're open, they can't be latched closed, which would prevent someone from locking you in. To latch the panel from the inside you can use a small bungee tied to the hole in the stiffener and knotted to wedge into the slot on the rear striker plate.

 

After walking around SEMA for a few days I found some back roads out of Vegas and ended up at Saline Valley for a quick overnight. The road in is always a nice place to conduct some vibration testing

 

Any ETA on lighting or heater kits? It's getting pretty cold and dark in the PNW

I know folks have come up with clever solutions on their own, i'm trying to figure out if i want to go that route or wait for what i'm sure will be a slick setup from GFCHQ.

 

Currently working on a setup similar to GFC but with white and red. I will make shorter strips to mount on the side panels for cabana mode. Parts are ordered!

 

That's cool, i like the idea of red light as an option when we're trying to look at the stars.

 

There should be a push button switch to toggle between options, red, white and off. Also a dimmer. The controls will be fixed onto the led strip along with an option of wireless remote on/off controller that you can setup zones.

 

The lighting has been pushed into the new year. We rushed out the initial version and it ended up not being as reliable as we need it to be. I actually think really good lighting is a key component of a nice camp experience, and we have plans to develop some very nice lighting options. But the focus for the rest of this year is on improving the build rate of campers. Starting in January we will be hitting the accessories hard. So expect to see a lot of the long-promised add-ons starting in February.

Initial testing of the propex heater shows it can elevate inside temperature about 25 degrees F above outside temperature without any additional insulation. That's not quite enough to my mind to justify spending around $1300 (estimated) on a heater (propex plus mounting components and propane tank). We haven't started experimenting with lower insulation yet.

 

I’m officially on the leaderboard! Number 395!

 

Decided on my lighting solution.

3 of the aimable bars, one one on each panel. Perfect for rummaging for stuff in the bed .

1 of the round, warm toned, dimmable ones at the center of the bed stuck to the bottom of the fixed panel .

Also added another of the round ones in the middle upstairs over the bed .

Works great for me. Hanging out in cabana mode or in bed, the round light is perfect for setting the mood. Just warm soft light.

The other lights are bright, make it easy to see, and can be aimed, so useful when the panels are open or closed. And can light outside the truck as well .

 

Still super happy with my $50 worth of LED tape lighting. Spend an afternoon with a beer or three and install it exactly how you want it. I have a remote control to dim and turn it on and off, works great for getting to bed. Easily expandable, and cheap.

Also, thanks to GFC for leaving a grommet to run wire up to the tent. Didn't even notice it until I went to run the wire.

Also very satisfied with the Mr Buddy setup. Run it for 10 minutes before getting out of your bag and it'll be nice and toasty up there. Used it in several below-freezing nights now.

No need to spend a ton on money on this stuff.

 

So another week gone by and only 4 campers finished. 9 completed in 3 weeks. 34 still in production.

@wileydavis Would love to hear when you think production rates will stabilize at 5 per week, let alone 10 per week.

Also, I'm not sure if or when it was mentioned in these 325 pages, but how long does it take to get a camper from start of production to finish? 3 weeks?

 

It'd be cool if one day they were very specific on timing on when they would be done. People who have to plan ahead for the trip, take time off work, and make a long drive would benefit from that. Anyways, I think production should ramp up after the New Year, or at least I hope! No rush here on my end though - I've gone back to tent camping and don't mind it at all. Plus the long wait time has given me the opportunity to save up, set it aside, and not worry about the payment.

One thing I do wonder though - Should we expect an increase in pricing for attachments such as roof rack brackets or awning mounts? Wondering if it would be better to order that now and just hang onto it.

 

My camper was just completed yesterday. Its in final inspection now. We are driving to pick it up next week. Paid in full in April and build started last week of September.

 

8 campers were checked off between the 4th and the 9th. Two in the week prior. Those weekly numbers should begin to stabilize this month as we got the first of our regular extrusion batches at the end of October. (for some reason our auto counter on the leaderboard is one off... looking into that). As for how long it takes a camper from start to finish that depends. It's about 8 weeks from the time we assign the materials and put it into the shop and vendor schedule. As noted before though, since we'd been waiting on extrusion, some builds are taking longer to go through the cycle because we were front loading parts we could build while waiting for the materials.

 

It would be cool but to be honest there are so many variables at play it's a real challenge. But not impossible and we're aiming for that. Or at least to lengthen the amount of time we can forecast out accurately.

As for price increases on accessories, I wouldn't worry about it. Obviously I can't say what new accessory prices will be but the existing ones will stay about the same.