Business View Magazine September 2018

268 269 Recognized by UL, CSA, and RVIA A2LA ISO 17025 Accredited 1929 Lakeview Drive, Fort wayne, in 46808 | Phone: (260) 471-1673 Fax: (866) 829-5915 Located in the heart of the rV and Manufactured housing industry Fort Wayne, Elkhart, Goshen, & South Bend, Indiana Proudly serving for over 25 years Specializing in: n Hipots n Meters n Pressure n Torque www.CLC2.COM ing a new one in Idaho and one in Maryland. “So, we’ve got more presence out west and we’re a little further, northeast,”Troyer reports. “That gives us some more exposure in those different mar- kets, and we’re on track to produce between 40 to 50 units, this year.” Troyer adds that, recently, the company has re- designed its interior finish shop, which had been split between two buildings, to operate, now, un- der one roof. “So, instead of driving the units from place to place when we would move the line, we actually drive them up on dollies on one end of the building and push them sideways until they’re completed, then drive them out the other end of the building,” he explains. “Having everybody under one roof has helped increase production, and we’re working on increasing it even more.We have 11 coaches under one roof, now.” Troyer says that over the last few years, the coaches that ShowHauler builds have experi- enced several upgrades.Where once they had laminate floors and countertops, “now they’re con- tinuing to add more and more options,” he notes. “They’re all ceramic tile floors, granite counter- tops, and full-tile showers - if not two. Several units are getting heat in the floor.What they have at home, they want in their coach. It adds a lot more weight, but when your platform has 58,000 pounds of capacity, and you’re only ending up using 47,000 - with water and fuel - you still have a long way to go.” Another shift in the company’s portfolio is the type of motor coaches it’s currently producing. “Last year, we were doing garage units and mo- SHOWHAULER TRUCKS torhomes,” Troyer says. “We have yet, this year, to do a garage unit.We’ve done more toterhomes in place of the garage units. A toterhome has a deck on the back where you can haul a gooseneck or a small, mini-fifth wheel trailer. The motorhome balance is still there, but the garage units have sort of gone by the wayside and the toterhomes have taken their place.” A current challenge for the RV business, and one to which ShowHauler is not immune, are the impending tariffs on raw materials that are beginning to drive up prices. “We’ve gotten price increases from our vendors, already, for aluminum and steel,” Troyer opines. “Our window vendor informed us of an eight percent increase in our windows with aluminum frames. It’s definitely going to slow some things down, I think. Some people that are not as monetarily set as other folks to be able to purchase one of these may shy away. Years ago, when we had the petroleum shortage, anything petroleum-based, whether it was plumbing parts, or pipe - all increased and we had to add a surcharge to our coaches.We in- formed all our dealers that, on every coach, there’s going to be X amount of dollars added on to each one just to cover the increase, and as soon as the waters calm and those increases come back to where they should be, we will remove that sur- charge. And we did.” Another, and continuing, challenge is finding enough skilled workers in a market in which workers, according to Troyer, “are in the driver’s seat. In northern Indiana, there are 7,000 jobs available,” he reports. Companies are poaching