Hondo Garage's New Thing

Yea that’s rough man..

But at least you get 20mpg! Even when mine was new I was lucky to get 16. Now I’ll be lucky if I can get 10-12 on my 5000 mile road trip. I’m even buying a larger fuel tank so I don’t have to stop for gas every 200 miles.

Yea we’ve wanted to see a show there for a long time but there’s never been anyone we want to see when we’ve been in Denver. I’ve walked around there though, it looks awesome.

 

You should be doing better than that. With the GFC on I averaged a little over 16mpg highway.

 

If I had the diesel it'd be around 28 lol (ZR2 not Taco). Might be worth it then to drive, but I've done that drive before and it sucks driving through Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota. It's like 20 hours just through those three. My truck is stock though, once I get 33's it might go down a bit, but planning on 4.10/4.56 and HPtuners so I can tune it. Wouldn't be unreasonable to squeeze 22-23 mpg on 33's with gears and a tune.

 

Dang... I get about 13.7. But I'm on 33s with stock gears and always have my steel rack and rtt on the back. Plus my work is 3.5 miles from the house, so it doesn't have the time to even come up to temp.

 

LOL, I get around 16 if I'm on the hwy but with such a short drive around town it's not the best. I even added the pedal commander because it could help with mpg but now I just enjoy the more responsive throttle instead of putting it in Eco...

 

Maybe a little less skinny pedal would help. My truck isn’t stock, has no aerodynamics left and I get about 14mpg around town in the summer. My drive to work is short as well, about 4.5 miles.

 

Ok good, I'm not the only one not getting 17 around town. Between the rack, tent, rock sliders, winch and bumper... It's a little heavy. I actually had it weighted on our 2 week Utah trip, 5640 lbs... But I was getting around 16+ on the highway.

But to everyone's point... I shouldn't drive it like I do my supercharged mini...

 

So why have they not ramped up to 5 units a weeks as promised? Or maybe they have now? Regardless with this many outstanding orders and the ever increasing lead time or shifting timeframe maybe I should say, I’m a wee bit baffled. I have no hand in this, i already have my wedge camper , I’m just concerned for all my fellow taco owners and see a lot of room for improvement. And no not trying to stir the pot. I want to see gfc do well as it promotes other companies to follow suit and makes this a better industry for everyone.

Anyways, they should easily be able to produce more then 5 campers a week. These are bolt together items besides the frames. Nothing crazy.

Is it a matter if materials? Secure a small business loan to secure larger order if materials at a time. They have the list, buy materials to batch more then a few at a time. If its a matter of storage, most suppliers will put you on a scheduled delivery ie materials for 20 a month/etc and deliver.

Staffing? Surely there are a bunch of qualified people looking for work in the Bozeman area. Even part time students from the uni. Get some training going on and start up a second shift/crew. Hello night shift, might mean one or two guys would have to switch to nights to oversea production/quality. The leaders don’t need to do this. Get a competent supervisor to oversea at night and spend your time developing new products.

Perhaps they are looking at all these options, but a bit of comms from the owners on what is going on would probably due wonders for the customers. There seems to be a sever lack of this from what I have read/seen.

For an example look at mosko moto, if any of you don’t know who they are look them up. Probably one of the best run small companies I have ever seen They produce amazing kit for adv riders in Oregon(may have moved since then?) anyways, they are open honest, communicate everything with their customers and have nailed down some large contracts and continue to fulfill orders.

 

35’s, 4.56 gears, 6000lbs with all the armor and bumpers and shit, no aerodynamics and normally stuff on the roof. I’m also usually in a hurry lol.

Oh and it’s a 2010 and a dclb

Nice. Yea driving through Nebraska and some other states out that way it’s a 75mph speed limit, so I’ll be doing at least 80. If I did 55 the whole way maybe I’d have better results but it would make the drive suck even more lol.

I hear ya.. I have a 5 minute drive to work. In the winter I’m lucky if I get 150 miles to a full tank.

 

Anyone running a 270 degree awning? Would love to see some pictures!

 

It is tough to predict build times based on the first year. The first delivery was April, but #20 something was not until July. Recently they have increased pace to 5-10 a week when materials allow.

Communication could be much better.

The product has been awesome.


Edit:
I paid full price, don’t have a stake or relationship with gfc, don’t use social media, and am happy with the product. I completely understand the complaints about delivery time, promises and communication.

 

It has nothing to do with other camper companies/etc and as I have said before I have no hand in this one way or another. I want to see GFC do well and customers get what they were promised when they were promised. If my company had this many orders on the books, I would be bending over backwards to ramp up production, before people get fed up and moved onto other products and pulled deposits. GFC has a great situation to be in, most companies would love to be in their position right now, especially in this niche market and they can also learn from other companies whom have failed, not saying they are, but they can handle themselves differently. Sadly failing to produce the campers in a timely fashion (they are bolt together, minus the frame, should only be a week of assembly if that, and yes I have seen them first hand and visited the shop, they just need to have the parts ready to go on, which I presume is one of the issues) and not communicating with their customers and providing free campers/heavily discounted to the social media crowd ahead of paying customers is the wrong move and leaves a bad taste in a lot of people mouths, which is evident on this and other threads by the many complaints about it

The failing to communicate with customers is a major issue that needs to be addressed, sooner rather than later and has been an issue since day one.

Out of curiosity, I believe your camper was the first off the line correct? I can't help but notice you also have a fairly large instagram acct and do write ups for various blogs, forums and your own news letter, etc. To which I may add I enjoy reading your material/trip reports and I think you do a fantastic job at it. But be honest were you given a discount/free one for all the free marketing you provided them? Or are you an investor? Reasons I ask is because you are defending GFC from valid questions/comments and unless you have a stake in the company or an arrangement with them, there is no reason for it, as it is not an attack on them at all. They are all valid points/comments which others have pointed out along the way throughout the thread as well.

As I have stated on this thread before, I like the GFC, I just hate to see customers not being communicated with about what is going on, issues with hold ups, etc when it could all be handled a lot easier. Do I expect an answer from Wiley or Graeme, nope, their customers should, i just happen to be the one pointing it all out. They should address their customers on a frequent basis and learn from Mosko Moto, whom I know they are familiar with as Wiley like to ride his KTM a bit.

 

Per Facebook, GFC's first camper was delivered 29 March 2018

 

Thanks!

I am available most weekends with a bit of notice. So if folks want to get together, I can accommodate whatever works best.

 

It seems that they are over promising and under delivering, not the other way around......

 

With all the bitching and whining going on over here - I think GFC should do away with the leader board all together. My camper was weeks later than anticipated. Err, make that months. But, I kind of expected that. Don't order a small production custom product from a small company that's up to it's ears with orders and expect it to be delivered next week.

IMHO GFC should just go to a 'within 6 months, 1 year, and back ordered' status. Providing too much info is letting everyone get their panties in a twist. Also, if they would change their 'pay 100% upfront' policy it might help out too. Maybe a grand non-refundable deposit or something like that might be a good idea.

If you're listed as March 15 delivery and you're planning a March 17 camping trip - you're not being realistic and just setting yourself up for disappointment.

@I_eat_tacos - I understand your woes (and it sounds like GFC is trying to make it right). Everyone else - quit your bitching. I've been following this thread since the beginning. I was #24 for orders placed and #46 in production. I'm about to unsubscribe because I'm sick of the whiny biatches. If you're in a hurry - don't order.

It's worth the wait. This is the best investment (aside from the truck) I have made. I find the truck 100% more useful being able to access things from the side. I haven't used the tent once - and it's still worth every penny I paid for the damn thing.

 

just fyi its a $500 non refundable deposit and then they bill you for the balance when you give them your options (which is "8 weeks before the build is supposed to start")

 

Thanks! It's been so long I don't remember how I paid. I do know I paid 100% and then waited months. So, anyone who coughed up 500 bucks and is bitching.... So what.

Some people just like to bitch.

 

yea i was hoping i didnt come across the wrong way. I know its changed since the early orders lol.

 

Yup your business relationship with GFC is your business and none of ours, unless it is influencing others decisions then one has to disclose this relationship to the readers. Otherwise ones morale fibre/character tend to get questioned. Not saying this is you, I'm talking in general terms as i know ones whom do not and their reviews are not worth a grain of salt as their is not trust. As I have said I like your articles and will continue to read them, you do a lot of trips that have influenced mine own trips and I would loe to be able to do more. Oh and for the record for everyone else, anything and everything on my truck has been bought with my own money which I worked hard for and nothing has been given or discounted to me, nor have I approached companies to do so. The only thing I have ever had done for me is ARB offered me a discount at cost on some of their stuff due to the countless issues i have been having with their products.

Moving on, talking about production is a joke? I am not talking total numbers here, GFC is king no doubt and have done an outstanding job with it and their marketing. hat is off to them, that have been very successful!! Where they are failing is on their ability to meet the demands of production. Fact production needs to be upped or customers will be waiting a long time to get the I am talking about upping production to meet their demands otherwise they will never get caught up and will lose customers due to the delays. Customers have already jumped ship and moved onto other campers (drifters, treehouse, etc), maybe not a lot but others will follow suit and losing a single customer should not be overlooked as that is revenue for the company and a small company needs everything they can get their hands on to survive, it can mean the difference btw paying an employee or not.

According to the posts here and maybe they are wrong, but let's go loose math here, total orders to date is 508'ish now and if they have completed 120 that means there is 388 left to produce and this keeps increasing. At 4-6 a week right now, that is 64-97 wks for the last customer to get theirs from today, or 16 to 24months (depending on 4-6 gf's produced a week) and this keeps getting pushed out longer and longer by material supply issues, researching new products, not meeting production demands, bumping customers for instagram/social media peeps, etc, lets not forget that there are new customers coming on board probably each day and the delivery date will soon be closer to one year. That is a glowing concern and one I would have as a potential customer, especially with the ever shifting delivery date.

Planning is fairly straight forward, they know the market and the demand they were going to get from all the preorders of the early adopters ( I was one of them, but backed out as it wasn't going to work for me). You can forecast/determine projections of order's etc off that and add in a factor for growth, adjust to be a bit conservative and plan 3-6 months out and voila you have the first step done in forecasting material needs, resourcing, equipment, etc. and you can produce a build schedule from there and secure the materials with the suppliers and figure out material delivery dates, storage, etc. That is the overly simplified version of it all, and in reality applying it is the issue and one where most companies fail as management takes on too many tasks and does not delegate tasks at hand to others and if they do they hover over them as they cannot take a step back, basically the cliche term is micromanage, which is a downfall of a lot of companies.

Customers calling is a major concern, that means there is a major communication break down btw GFC and the company and needs to be addressed immediately. They had a women working there but she either quit or was fired? Anyways that needs to be sorted out ASAP so people can get their questions answered and free up time of management from answering them.

I have no fight with you or GFC, I want nothing more than for them to succeed and do extremely well, as I have stated this entire industry is plagued by companies producing shit and delivering false promises. IF anything I want GFC to continue to succeed, as perhaps it will make other companies strive to do better. The list is longer than my arm on the number of bad companies and we all know them yet are forced to continue to do business with them, we can only hope that others learn by example.

Edited to reflect the leaderboard numbers.

Regards

Steve