Hondo Garage's New Thing

Yes its an option you can request

 

Convo.

 

Wow, I just got an email back from Torrey and my camper will be ready a LOT later than I thought. I paid up in December because according to the email I got it said "The shop usually starts cutting and welding parts about 8 weeks after it's been marked as Ready For Production." "At that point it's about a 3-4 week process from start to finish". I realize these are all estimates, but when I asked for a status because I need to start looking at scheduling time off I was told they would be starting around May 6th. 8 weeks from when I was marked ready for production would be the end of this month, and with a 4 week build time I was planning on picking the camper up around the end of March.

It maybe about time for @wileydavis to just give everyone an update on what's going on. It's been a couple months since we've heard from him.

 

I just got an email today saying my camper was going into production. My original production date was February 18th so it's a little ahead of when I was expecting .

 

I saw that on their site at one point, FWIW, I ordered back in Aug, was “Ready for Production” in Nov and started production just recently ; roughly 9-10 weeks including Christmas and New Years. My guess is the site isn’t updated THAT regularly and the list has swelled from ~175 total orders to ~450 in November when the status of mine changed to “Ready for Production”. Checking their site today, it says the estimate for starting production March 2020 with 545 total orders.

 

Could be, but I’m basing this off of email communications not just the spreadsheet. Maybe he looked at the wrong order number?

 

What’s your build number?

 

249

 

Ok cool. I’m 229 and not planning on driving out till June-ish. I want glacier, Yellowstone, etc to be open.

Sorry to hear about your setback though.

 

Rough guesstimate of completed campers right now till 249...is 18 weeks assuming 6 produced/week. Nothing you can do to make them produce faster, unless you have a LOT of Instagram followers . And that's assuming no delays....I would assume there is at least one delay between now and May. Wouldn't be surprised if it was pushed to June/July or even August. Small businesses with little record in their supply chain get last pickings when shit hits the fan. I wouldn't expect to make May by any means, but rather surprised if you did.

 

So I received an email stating that they have a manufacturing update based on a test of a design revision of how the hinge attaches to the camper. They tested it in Baja and it worked well, really well. So well, that they're going to retool the process to include this new design on their current and future production.

Per their email, "because this is a new process that requires tooling, training and testing to implement, we slowed production for the last few weeks."

If this means that the sealing system is better and that this results in a more serviceable camper, I'm happy to accommodate a 3 week delay in order for a better end result.

EDIT: I’m going out on a limb by sharing this info. I presume that they’re busy with this revision in an attempt to ramp up production instead of spending time on this forum. I apologize to GFC if this is shared prematurely.

 

Any pictures of the new hinge design? I’m wondering if the hinge will be totally hidden, which would be cool.

 

Here are some pics:

 

Thanks.

 

Ooh this is good intel. I wonder if this will be available as a retrofit.

 

agree this would be a sweet retrofit if available!

 

I'm 198 and got the same email. definitely worth the wait imo.

 

I’m already at “Components Produced“ and I didn’t receive this email...hope mine comes with theses updates!

 

Graeme was nice enough to reach out and explain some of the delay. Between Christmas, the new tooling and bringing some new people on board they are a little delayed. Hopefully the new bodies will help get production sped up to where they need to be! A little communication goes a long way to making those of us waiting feel a lot better.

 

Did he mention where in the builds this would come standard? I just went in to production yesterday and I'm hoping I get this option. I haven't received any emails as far as the newsletter is concerned. Was this a newsletter update or did you email about something else?