# Layoffs And Consolidations For Keystone And Jayco



## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Keystone Consolidates Operations, Lays off 350 
RV Business
Monday, February 2, 2009

Goshen, Ind.-based Keystone RV Co. announced today (Feb. 2) that it will consolidate manufacturing facilities in order to improve efficiencies as a result of the "weakening economic conditions that have adversely affected the RV industry."

Keystone RV said it will lay off approximately 350 workers effective throughout April, representing approximately 15% of the company's work force.

The Thor Industries Inc. subsidiary will also close several of its plants, including the Howe, Ind., facility, and move production of its Passport Ultra Lite product line to the company's Goshen production complex.

"These layoffs are very disappointing to all of us at Keystone," said Ron Fenech, Keystone president and CEO. "We realize the huge impact this will have on the lives of everyone involved. We have delayed this move as long as we could. However, we can no longer ignore the economic realities of what is happening in all of North America. These changes help us become more efficient and better prepare us for the future."

Fenech noted that the latest wholesale and retail figures show that sales of RVs continue to decline industrywide.

"As part of Thor Industries, Keystone is financially strong and can weather just about anything the economy can throw at us," he said. "Looking ahead, we expect the next six to 12 months will be very challenging for the RV industry. At the same time, I am encouraged by the level of sales activity we see at the early season RV shows. Although sales are not great, they are much better than we would have expected given all the bad news we see in the press." 
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Jayco Cutting 250-Plus Workers at Middlebury 
Dave Barbulesco
RV Business
Monday, February 2, 2009

Jayco Inc. announced today (Feb. 2) that it would be reducing its work force at the company's headquarters in Middlebury, Ind., by around 20%, impacting over 250 workers.

The cutback follows consolidation moves by Jayco late last year that transferred operations from its Entegra Coach and Starcraft RV Inc. subsidiaries to the Middlebury campus.

"Previously, we were able to avoid making significant changes to our Middlebury work force," Marketing Director Sid Johnson told RVBusiness. "We were hoping things would stabilize. But it has become apparent that the industry slowdown and the economic recession will be deeper and longer that anticipated. I guess this a reflection of market reality."

Johnson reported that the cuts would be implemented over the next two weeks, leaving the family-owned company's work force at around 1,200. Over 200 of the lost jobs will be in production.

"Long term, we have faith this market will return and hopefully we can bring some of these people back," Johnson said. "But we do not see any increase in production in the near future. This has been an extremely painful process and certainly one that we tried to avoid."

Johnson said that despite reports from promoters and retailers that the early show circuit was helping move product, credit conditions continued to stifle dealers' buying.

"The credit market is so seized up," Johnson said. "Dealers are unable to get inventory financing, and then when they do sell at retail they have to be creative to get it approved.

"Right now our dealers' inventories are around 14% lower than last year, but because of the credit situation they can't replace inventory."


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Kinda scares me..

They called me back to work hauling rv's today.. Will be in Elkhart Friday to pick one up heading west..

I get home tonight after quiting my trucking job and find this news posted above..

They say they have orders and a need for me.. They say they can keep me busy.... We'll see.

My boss said most of there drivers went bankrupt or quit... So for the few of us that stayed it will be good..

So here goes... I bet I start out doing western Canada..

Pics of a dually with a 5th wheel stuck in a blizzard will soon follow for you all to see.. lol

Carey


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## Justman (Jul 22, 2006)

"Although sales are not great, they are much better than we would have expected given all the bad news we see in the press"

I like this comment. I'd like to see if what the press is reporting is actually the truth...or if they're spinning a tale of gloom and doom to "make" news. Regardless, I don't think it's helpful for the media to keep telling us how bad the economy is doing.


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## bradnjess (Mar 25, 2007)

Colorado~DirtBikers said:


> Pics of a dually with a 5th wheel stuck in a blizzard will soon follow for you all to see.. lol
> 
> Carey










Lets hope not! I'm glad to hear you'll be back out delivering RV's again, I hope it all works out for you. I always enjoy your stories from the road, please keep 'em coming.

Brad


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Justman said:


> "Although sales are not great, they are much better than we would have expected given all the bad news we see in the press"
> 
> I like this comment. I'd like to see if what the press is reporting is actually the truth...or if they're spinning a tale of gloom and doom to "make" news. Regardless, I don't think it's helpful for the media to keep telling us how bad the economy is doing.


Yea agree, I'm plumb sick of it too.. The layoffs I keep hearing about just sucks though.. I sure feel for these people..

I'll be sure and keep posting my times on the road, Brad.. The next couple months are gonna be fun though with all the snow still flying.. 'I'll keep the 4x4 shifter working good. I have chains now for my dually too... I'll shoot ya'll a pic with it all chained up soon enough.

Carey


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Just for you Brad, here is a story posted yesterday on my rv transport forum.. Two of the guys delivered a couple rv's to Yellowknife, NW Territories Canada..

Man, what a trip this two had, lol

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-26C (-15F) was childs play..... er Bikini weather. It got down to -38F ( -39C) between Regina and Saskatoon when we went through..... and that doen't include wind chill w/ 20 mph winds.

This trip sugged and it still ain't over for a few more days but I'm spent for today and stopping for the night.

Trip started OK friday then going through the Chicagoland area on 294, the throwout bearing on the clutch really started howling. We stopped in Beloit WI for a bite to eat and when I pushed my clutch in to start the truck it wouldn't move so I pushed harder and managed to make the slave cylinder explode and blew it completely off the transmission.







!!!

Managed to secure parts friday night and found a Dodge dealer that could fix it saturday morning and was back on the road saturday afternoon. Can't complain too much as I had 177,000 miles on it. Clutch plate still looked great and could have gone another 100k.

Cought up to my running partner in Jamestown ND and headed for the border, no problems there, just a 20 mph head wind killing fuel economy.

Temps were dipping to -20F shortly after crossing the border and I was slam full of winterized #2 diesel (wasn't planning to run #1 until we stopped in edmonton but temps dropped faster than expected... OOPS) so we double dosed it with Power Service and gave the Aux tank a shot of FPPF meltdown to unfreeze the line between my aux tank and main tank. My buddy was already having to change a fuel filter and his aux tank wasn't pumping.

I discovered later my aux tank wasn't freezing in the line but my mounts broke from the rough ride and pinched my fuel line. We used blocks of wood and straps to move it back into place and all is fine for now. His tank still wouldn't pump, his fuel looked like Corn syrup.

In Chaimberlain SK we both lost power and had to swap fuel filters in -38F temps, my fuel wasn't gelled but the filter was full of algea. Evidently all of the additives were really cleaning my fuel system out. We stopped in Saskatoon and bought more spare filters, fortunatly we never had more fuel problems the rest of the trip.

Unfortunatly in Lashburn, SK his chevy blew up the transfer case and had to be towed into Lloydminster AB to the GM dealer, I went to Lloydminster, dropped my trailer and went back to recover his. Towed in Monday afternoon, they pulled it tuesday and it was destroyed. $3500 for parts or $2800 for a reman were his options...... This is where he got extreeeeeemely lucky...... He had just picked his truck up Jan 1st after having his transfercase rebuilt by a GM dealer, it was his first rip with the truck since then and it was under warranty, didn't cost anything but a couple days down time, tons of phone calls and hotel expense.

They found a reman for him in Edmonton, had it shipped and we were on our way about noon local time.

Rest of the trip went OK, 1000 miles of driving on nothing but ice from High Level, AB. to Yellowknife NWT and back to High Level. Made delivery 3 days late but all was OK and no damage.

I will say the McKenzie river ice crossing into Fort Providence was "crunchy" and had a lot of wet spots on the ice. Last ice bridge I crossed didn't make that much noise and was dry. Good news is they are building a bridge there now that will be finished in 2010 so there will be no more ice road to get to Yellowknife, just ice roads to go beyond Yellowknife.

Coming home was going OK until today for me. We parted company at Portal, ND. and I slowed down my pace to save fuel and take a break. Border crossing was no biggie. 45 miles later the road was blocked by a malfunctioning RR crossing and traffic lined up for a mile each side so I decided...... Hey, I don't have a trailer and looking at google maps on the Blackberry I see a way around it by going around the country block on a few back roads, no big deal right...... WRONG!!!!!!..... That was a huge mistake and the beginning of the end of the day for me.

When I got to the RR crossing on the back road there was a foot deep snow drift that caught my right front tire at about 25 mph, ripped off my air dam and spun me out 90* and buried me in deep snow straddling me across the RR tracks RF tire got caught between a tie and the rail...... If you've ever driven a 2wd dually you know they get stuck if you even think about getting stuck. It just ain't gonna move. My buddy is an hour or so ahead of me after my break so calling him is of no use.

I'm was so peaveed and frustrated with this trip at this point I just wanted to watch a train roll over my truck, hey, it's insured and I have gap insurance too right...... A moment later I decided I didn't want to make the evening headlines and called 911 so they could notify the RR, was told no movement on that line was expected for a few days, then they got me a tow truck..... 30 minutes and $90 later I'm free.

About an hour later the adreniline rush wore off and I'm beat so I holed up in a hotel for the night. Will resume the push to Indiana in the AM.

I don't mind a bad day so much as hey, Sheet happens.... But dayum.... A bad couple weeks hurts. Nothing like working for 2 weeks for free EH!!!

So ya say ya wanna be an RV transporter..... It's one of the best ways to ruin a perfectly good pickup! I can't wait to get the pickup off the road and get the medium duty out there.

Good news is freight has picked up, seen a bunch of campers headed to Portal this morning seveal pickups and towhauls but no drive away stuff and the boss wants me to hurry and finish the tow haul, now I still have to work a few more weeks to make the money I was plannning to make this trip to finish the tow haul.

Word to the wise, don't run up in the North West Territories without a full aux tank, spare filters, tools, good trip planning, extreme cold weather gear etc..., you may be very sorry. It's beautiful but could have been very deadly, very quickly up there. It took the both of us, and both of us were experienced in running the arctic which is why we were chosen to do this, almost eveything we had to get this job done, he made some money, I'm gonna barely break even, OH well.

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This guy is building a 40 foot long f800 ford, so he can haul one trailer on the truck and one towing behind.. Make more money that way..

He was hoping to make some money this trip so he could finish his tow and haul truck... Well maybe next time.. lol

Sounds like a really fun trip, eh?

Carey


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## bradnjess (Mar 25, 2007)

Man, I don't envy either of those guys. Thanks for the post Carey, it sure does make me appreciate my TT even more. I look forward to those pics.

Brad


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## FlashG (Jun 23, 2007)

Carey,

Your report sounds like an episode of "Ice Road Truckers"!

I picked up my new MH last month.

Day one
Pick up at Dealer - Des Moines to Kearney, NE - Short day due to the PDI
Day two
Kearney to Laramie
Day Three
Laramie to Ogden, UT
Day Four
Ogden to Baker City, Oregon
Day Five
Baker City to Salem (another short day)
1860 miles total

The scary part was high winds in Wyoming and areas of dense fog.

I would have gladly paid you to deliver it to me ! !


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Lol.. I hear ya... Well now your experienced! Your ready for a vacation!

Yea Ice Road Truckers... I thought that too.. lol Tough trip they had, uh?

Yea those trips accross Wyoming are pretty scarey for me too.. I even get all puckered up from time to time in my semi.. I have been switched to the other lane or shoulder several times on that stretch from the wind.. Looked back and seen my semi tires on the trailer in the air.. I generally find a parking spot pretty quickly after that..

When pulling an rv I pull off way before that would happen.. They flip even easier than a semi..

I do Elkhart To Kearney in one day, then Kearney to Ogden, day 2 and Ogden to Pendelton or Dalles, day 3..

That is if the winds dont force a break..

I generally switch over to running nights when its windy.. Much better generally.

I'm glad ya made it.. Those Jayco Class C's are top of the line in my book.. I think they are even better than Winnebagos.. Jayco makes a really great rv anymore... Well, always have!

Carey


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## Doxie-Doglover-Too (Jan 25, 2007)

Colorado~DirtBikers said:


> Lol.. I hear ya... Well now your experienced! Your ready for a vacation!
> 
> Yea Ice Road Truckers... I thought that too.. lol Tough trip they had, uh?
> 
> ...


ya mean you been close to our neck of the woods Carey?







( Pendelton and the Dalles)

BTW- thanks for what you and your buddies do, it DOES make one appreciate their tt more!


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Colorado~DirtBikers said:


> Kinda scares me..
> 
> They called me back to work hauling rv's today.. Will be in Elkhart Friday to pick one up heading west..
> 
> ...


Glad to hear you are back to the trailer hauling. Now would everyone on the west coast buy a new trailer to keep Carey busy?


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Doxie-Doglover-Too said:


> Lol.. I hear ya... Well now your experienced! Your ready for a vacation!
> 
> Yea Ice Road Truckers... I thought that too.. lol Tough trip they had, uh?
> 
> ...


ya mean you been close to our neck of the woods Carey?







( Pendelton and the Dalles)

BTW- thanks for what you and your buddies do, it DOES make one appreciate their tt more!
[/quote]

Uh, yea...







I actually delivered one to Chief there in Pasco back in like Aug. I slept the night before there at that new walmart in Pasco not far from Chiefs RV.

My excuse: I got into Pasco way late and I had to get back to indy before the weekend to get another for cali.... Sorry

I also go to Seattle all the time cause thats where my daughter lives..

I love running the NW..

Carey


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Nathan said:


> Kinda scares me..
> 
> They called me back to work hauling rv's today.. Will be in Elkhart Friday to pick one up heading west..
> 
> ...


Glad to hear you are back to the trailer hauling. Now would everyone on the west coast buy a new trailer to keep Carey busy?








[/quote]

Thanks Nathan...

Without a new Ford truck engineered by Nathan you cant tow that new trailer!

So go buy a new Ford too!!!

lol

Carey


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

Great stories Carey! Keep 'em coming!









I can't imagine delivering RV's up to Yellowknife in January. Who would want them then? I hope the delivery gig works out for you this Spring. Not only would it be good for you, but a good indicator for our economy. We'll be keeping our fingers crossed!

Happy Trails,
Doug


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

PDX_Doug said:


> Great stories Carey! Keep 'em coming!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I believe Yellowknife is landlocked by water.. I believe all deliveries must be made to Yellowknife in winter on the Ice Roads.. But like Jarrett said in his story, they are building a bridge..

From what the guys say, its best to do them in winter.. The bugs in summer are so bad that its better to be up there when its cold.

Now that a bridge is coming, I bet they have us do em in warmer months and get ate up with monster skeeters.. lol

When I started last year, my company had just finished delivering a bunch way north of Edmonton, Ab. to some oil fields for the guys to stay in during warmer weather while doing explorations. They had to be delivered using ice roads, so hence delivering in Jan/feb.

Its hard to believe where rv's go, uh?

Like my boss said, RV's arent going away.. But we are in a reduced amount being moved right now.. We had 200+ trucks last spring.. Right now they have 50 trucks... Not many left.. So it doesnt take alot of trailers to keep us busy..

Lots of the guys had bought 50k+ dodge laramies with all the options with big payments. Those with paid off trucks which are few, or cheaply bought trucks like my stripped down work truck have made it thru better..

Many of these guys that bought those fancy trucks dont have CDL's either so its very hard to go out and find a job to make that 1000 extra truck payment that rv hauling was supposed to be paying for.. I was very lucky that I could go drive a semi and keep up my truck payment, or I'd have lost mine too.. Even I had factored that rv hauling would pay the truck payment.. Many of the guys just didnt have the ability to handle that big payment without the income of using the truck..

Basically knowone seen this total work stopage coming.. It had never happened in rv history.. All of the plants closed for 3 months.. It has really taken its toll..

Even the company I am leased to is having finacial trouble.. They have had mass layoffs too.. Its amazing how we are all tied together in a big circle when you think about it..

Carey


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## clarkely (Sep 15, 2008)

Glad to see they called you back.........

I wish the doom 7 gloom in the media would stop!!

It is unfortunate and sucks for the people losing their jobs...........but all the reported gloom just makes it worse.......Everyone gets more depressed and worried.....and reality is....for most of us, there is not a lot we can do..........btu work and keep our mind on doing good work............

I am starting to see things picking up in my area in new construction and remodeling and commercial work.........


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## Nathan (Jan 2, 2007)

Colorado~DirtBikers said:


> Thanks Nathan...
> 
> Without a new Ford truck engineered by Nathan you cant tow that new trailer!
> 
> ...


Acutally, I'm ok with any new truck sales since nearly everyone I know is tied to one of the big 3 (although one is a little dearer to my heart







).


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