The new TrailManor Company

[cochise]

After having owned a TM Elkmont 24 for nearly 18 months, we have now returned our Elkmont to TM. Actually it happened in November of 2010 right after we had the incident with the bed collapsing. I contacted TM and got to speak to Bob Eickhoff. He agreed that it was not a good situation, and he asked me what I wanted to do. I told him that after all the visits to the repair shop we had been through we wanted to return the Elkmont to TM, for a full refund. He agreed to that and on 11/12/10 they picked up the trailer in Tucson AZ and trucked it back to TN.

After inspecting the trailer there Eickhoff agreed that it was indeed a mess. Our collapsed bed resulted in a new bed design among other things. In February 2011 we received a check for the full amount, and that has now cleared. We now own another brand of travel trailer, almost in the same weight class, but with 2 axles and two bunk beds. The change in trailers resulted in us getting too close to the tow limit of our 2003 Silverado V6, so we ventured out and found a pearl. It is a 2007 F150 but it only has 10800 miles (guaranteed) on the odometer. Power plant is a 5.4 Triton V8 with a 3.73:1 rear end and a tow capacity of 8900 lbs and a super crew cab versus the regular cab on the Silverado. I figured that with the V8 I would get a bout the same mileage on the Hiway as the V6, but when towing it would have to work a lot less than before and thus increase my towing mileage a bit. We were down to 10-11 mpg with the Silverado when towing and 19-20 without. This new F150 gives me 19-20 on the hiway and about 14-15 towing so far.

BUT after dealing with Mr. Eickhoff, extensively, we may well return to a TM in the future. Eickhoff is in this game to turn TM around. He has pumped a lot of his own money into the company and I believe that the product leaving the plant in Lake City will be top notch. Had the turn-around come a little sooner, we would have stayed with the TM Elkmont, but we were running out of time. As a matter of fact we did purchase our new other brand on the same day they picked up our TM, but we were in an other state to purchase our new trailer.

I have enjoyed being part of this board posting comments, taking flak and chatting with others. I have learned a lot about camping do’s and don’ts and will continue here. This board is more serious than many of the others I have visited. Lots of good advice here.

So I think there is a future for TM if they improve the quality as it seems they are. And one person at TM has always stood out: ED LYTLE. One way or another we were always able to talk to him, either by phone or email. I truly did not envy him his job, but he always tried to make the best of any situation.

In closing Mr. Eickhoff told me that there were other Elkmont owners that had had serious problems with their product, but he assured me that he was doing everything in his power to make it right. And I believe him. He certainly did it for us.

A thank you to everyone here for good and (perhaps not so good) times here. I will continue here as a member of this board.

Cochise.

[Virginia Deacon]

I appreciate your post for at least two reasons:

You chose to inform, rather than go on a rant! Too many folks in your situation can't seem to resist "a parting shot." This board has been invaluable in letting us say what's on our mind about the products AND helping us move ahead to enjoying our TrailManors. I'm thankful that you see it that way, too.

Your post is helpful to those of us that bought aTrailManors in good faith and are hopeful that the company will prosper and stay consumer-oriented. Too many businesses take our money and walk away. My experience has been that TrailManor - especially Ed - has taken pride in their products and is willing to work with customers, "above and beyond."

Happy Camping!

[mcgyver210]

I can honestly say I haven't been satisfied in the past with the half way service received at TM Corporate. They supposedly fixed stuff on my TM but it was temporary fixes & I actually had to work on it my self for a more permanent fix.

My 2008 has been good but quality control was not up to the price I paid & I am not sure I will buy another TM in the future due to the service we received unless they really stand behind it better.

Now with all that said we have enjoyed our TM & still do.

[cochise]

Originally Posted by mcgyver210

I can honestly say I haven't been satisfied in the past with the half way service received at TM Corporate. They supposedly fixed stuff on my TM but it was temporary fixes & I actually had to work on it my self for a more permanent fix.

Now with all that said we have enjoyed our TM & still do.

Had we received the service we received towards the end, we most likely would still be camping in an Elkmont trailer. It is no secret that we had our share of problems, and perhaps more than others here. I know of one other person here that encountered problems similar to ours, albeit not to the same degree. That person chose to deal with the problems on his own, but I know that it was mainly due to distance from a dealer.

I think that going forward TM will regain their reputation of the time of the older Hulsey, prior to his stroke. Mr. Eickhoff is a dedicated man and he has allocated a lot of money to "upright the ship" so to speak. As far as Ed is concerned, I have never had a problem with him. If no one else wanted to answer my emails I could always CC him and the word would get out.

Give TM a chance to work out the problems, it may still take a little time but I think they will get to it.

WOW 100 % refund. That says a lot.
Good luck.
PS. So what did you buy?

We took delivery of our Elkmont 26 in late October from Custom RV, Anaheim, CA. Since then we've experienced some quality control issues which TM has corrected under warranty. Ed Lytle has has been phenomenal is his prompt and professional responses to all of our issues.

Our first warranty refund check was delayed for nearly two months. We received a call from Bob Eickhoff and we had our check a week later.

Based on Chochise's post and our experience TM is clearly making a top notch effort to turn things around.

We look forward to our first outing the first weekend in April and the camping season beyond.

As we've mentioned we've been working w/Ed and a local RV service place to correct our warranty issues, but when we sent Ed the attached picture of what appears to a bulge and delamination on the front of the trailer, he instructed Custom RV to come and pickup the trailer and take it back to Anaheim (900+ miles roundtrip), repair the delamination and reseal the entire roof and return it to us.

[cochise]

Originally Posted by Shandysplace

As we've mentioned we've been working w/Ed and a local RV service place to correct our warranty issues, but when we sent Ed the attached picture of what appears to a bulge and delamination on the front of the trailer, he instructed Custom RV to come and pickup the trailer and take it back to Anaheim (900+ miles roundtrip), repair the delamination and reseal the entire roof and return it to us.

What can I say....Had we received the same service from the beginning of our ownership of an Elkmont 24 (September 2009) we would still have been in one. I just hope that Mr. Eickhoff doesn't have to spend too much money on fixing for "leaders" problems so that there is no money to run the company.

But I think that the gesture mentioned above, clearly shows that he is serious about TrailManors reputation. I wish him the best.

Our '11 Elkmont 26 was manufactured in early October 2010 and delivered to us by Custom RV, Anaheim a couple of weeks later. We stayed in a local campground for a few nights to get the feel of things and check for warranty issues.

We discovered a few things (mostly misaligned cabinet doors and the entry door) that were addressed. On arriving home after the first heavy rain, we noticed a small leak in the front right wardrobe. Since making a nearly 1,000 mile round trip for warranty service was out of the question, working with Ed Lytle at the factory, we found a competent RV service outlet just 3 miles from home. Ed felt the cause was probably less than the best caulking on the forward roof lights. The service outlet removed the lights, cleaned out the old caulk and reinstalled the lights. Then we discovered an even smaller leak in the bathroom Fantastic Fan. That was cleaned and recaulked--no more leaks until we moved the trailer from storage to have a custom mattress installed and discovered water leaking into the over-the-sink cabinets. At the same time we noticed that the horizontal front seam was wrinkling and the vertical front seam separating.

We took pictures of all this and sent them to Ed. TrailManor decided that it would be best to return the trailer to Custom RV to deal with these new issues. All covered under warranty, Custom RV came to Petaluma and returned the trailer to their dealership in Anaheim. They resealed the top front of the trailer and then placed a new single aluminum sheet over the entire top front of the trailer with a new totally seamless professional look.

We got our trailer back this am w/all issues taken care of. Our trailer was driven back to us by Scott Eckhoff (our CEO's son). Since Custom RV has to place out for display each day several TMs and put them back each night in a very small space, Scott showed us how to back our trailer into our driveway, saving us nearly $1,000 in annual storage fees.

The were some other issues which were all addressed promptly as they became apparent. Ed was helpful and responsive to our issues and promptly shipped parts when needed.

I recently read the posting concerning the bed collapse and quality issues on the Elkmont model TM. I have a 2008 2720 TM. I am not a lightweight, and neither is a camping friend of mine.

Is there any information available about weight limits in the beds? Especially the rear, queen sized bed that could easily allow two people to sleep comfortably.

Although it is not an issued with my TM, I was wondering what was the cause of the bed failure in the Elkmont?

I have gone over my 2720 pretty closely. I have made some changes, ie, upgrade to LED taillights, rear vision camera, added recepticle to dinette area and secured some panelling with a more substantial design. So far I have been satisfied.

This forum provides a lot of good information, some not so good. But keep up the good work and interest in TM camping.