# Goodbye Funtime Rv



## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

FunTimeRV Closes Doors

For most of us living in Texas - FunTime RV was one of those places that we all thought would always stay in business. I bought all three of my trailers from there. The place was HUGE, and although their service department was one of the worse I had ever seen, their SALES staff was outstanding and their prices was always unbeatable. Three years ago they had almost 100 MIL in sales -- today it was announced on the radio that they didn't actually close their doors voluntarily but their creditors siezed their properties bcuase they owed $472,900 in failed loans.

Unfortunately when they siezed the properties, they also siezed almost 100 RV's that were being serviced and will now have to remain on the property until a judge can work out the details as to who the trailers actually belong to and if there is any outstanding money being owed. And that could take months. One of the guys on the news had just bought his brand new 5th wheel last month and had taken it out for a week, bought it back to FunTime for servicing and the next day the Police had chained the gates. The news was saying that they have no idea when he will get his trailer back. Also - all the pay checks apparently bounced also.

Man - last year Marshal Traveland RV went under after 50 something years, and now FunTime....


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## GO WEST (May 25, 2009)

Last year Tex-All Boat and RV (San Antonio) went out of the RV side of their business, and that included Outback. Their inventory, maybe a half dozen trailers left, went to Ron Hoover RV in Boerne. Marshall went out, they sold Outback, right? Now Funtime's gone. When I punch in my zip code on the Keystone-Outback website only three come up = Boerne, Georgetown, and Abilene. I think with the right business plan someone could make a good business selling Outbacks in Texas. We've got a big population with (it seems) few dealers. If I was a risk taker, I'd do it! No dealer close to the Metroplex or Houston?


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## Lacy286 (Apr 15, 2010)

GO WEST said:


> Last year Tex-All Boat and RV (San Antonio) went out of the RV side of their business, and that included Outback. Their inventory, maybe a half dozen trailers left, went to Ron Hoover RV in Boerne. Marshall went out, they sold Outback, right? Now Funtime's gone. When I punch in my zip code on the Keystone-Outback website only three come up = Boerne, Georgetown, and Abilene. I think with the right business plan someone could make a good business selling Outbacks in Texas. We've got a big population with (it seems) few dealers. If I was a risk taker, I'd do it! No dealer close to the Metroplex or Houston?


Holiday World Houston sells Outbacks - right off of I-10 out of Katy. They're going strong but after reading all of this, I might be leary if I had to bring ours in for anything!


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

GO WEST said:


> Last year Tex-All Boat and RV (San Antonio) went out of the RV side of their business, and that included Outback. Their inventory, maybe a half dozen trailers left, went to Ron Hoover RV in Boerne. Marshall went out, they sold Outback, right? Now Funtime's gone. When I punch in my zip code on the Keystone-Outback website only three come up = Boerne, Georgetown, and Abilene. I think with the right business plan someone could make a good business selling Outbacks in Texas. We've got a big population with (it seems) few dealers. If I was a risk taker, I'd do it! No dealer close to the Metroplex or Houston?


If you have the availabilty to credit and can get floorplan financing, getting started in the rv biz is pretty easy.

Many dealers had a ton of fat. Those are all going away. If you keep it small and compete like Lakeshore or Holman does, youd be very succesful.

Texas is the no.1 rv market in the nation.

Carey


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## Collinsfam_WY (Nov 9, 2006)

That is a real bummer because Fun Time RV wasn't just an RV dealership - it was a destination. Carey is right about trimming the fat though. I had to trim some off of that free Ribeye I ate when we were there last. The dinosaur museum inside the RV showrooms was great too. Fun Time was awesome. Go there, see some dinosaurs, eat free steak, see some RV's, watch them feed their fish in that monster sized fish tank, get free slurpees and cokes. Awesome place.

-CC


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## Ghosty (Jan 17, 2005)

collinsfam_tx said:


> That is a real bummer because Fun Time RV wasn't just an RV dealership - it was a destination. Carey is right about trimming the fat though. I had to trim some off of that free Ribeye I ate when we were there last. The dinosaur museum inside the RV showrooms was great too. Fun Time was awesome. Go there, see some dinosaurs, eat free steak, see some RV's, watch them feed their fish in that monster sized fish tank, get free slurpees and cokes. Awesome place.
> 
> -CC


and we wonder why they went out of business .... for all of those "free" things someone had to pay -- and obvious it wasn't FunTime RV since they wound up 500K in the hole...

600 RV dealers went out of business last year ... anothr 600 this year ... probably not qa good time to be thinking of going into the RV business...

but i bet you a dozen donuts that you could make some great deals wiht the new owners on the exsiting RV's at FunTime...


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Ghosty said:


> That is a real bummer because Fun Time RV wasn't just an RV dealership - it was a destination. Carey is right about trimming the fat though. I had to trim some off of that free Ribeye I ate when we were there last. The dinosaur museum inside the RV showrooms was great too. Fun Time was awesome. Go there, see some dinosaurs, eat free steak, see some RV's, watch them feed their fish in that monster sized fish tank, get free slurpees and cokes. Awesome place.
> 
> -CC


and we wonder why they went out of business .... for all of those "free" things someone had to pay -- and obvious it wasn't FunTime RV since they wound up 500K in the hole...

600 RV dealers went out of business last year ... anothr 600 this year ... probably not qa good time to be thinking of going into the RV business...

but i bet you a dozen donuts that you could make some great deals wiht the new owners on the exsiting RV's at FunTime...
[/quote]

The ownership of all the new rvs falls back on the factories. They will be making smoking deals to other dealers in the vicinity to take these rvs. Then they will contrct with the hauling companies to get em moved. I have moved a bunch all over the country. Most I take less than 300 miles. They will get 5 or so of us to get em all moved. Each factory has a favored hauling company so each company hauls a certain brand only. First though, they will need released from the court.

Most of the time the extra profit these dealers get from these smoking deals just goes in there pocket. A few will pass it on to you. Most will just pocket the money though..
They feel they are putting there neck out so they deserved paid for that.. Cant blame em.

The used rvs for sure will be up for grabs at the bankruptcy auction sometime in the future. There again, the dealers will buy the majority for nothin and sell them to you for somethin.

Carey


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## Carey (Mar 6, 2012)

Ghosty said:


> That is a real bummer because Fun Time RV wasn't just an RV dealership - it was a destination. Carey is right about trimming the fat though. I had to trim some off of that free Ribeye I ate when we were there last. The dinosaur museum inside the RV showrooms was great too. Fun Time was awesome. Go there, see some dinosaurs, eat free steak, see some RV's, watch them feed their fish in that monster sized fish tank, get free slurpees and cokes. Awesome place.
> 
> -CC


and we wonder why they went out of business .... for all of those "free" things someone had to pay -- and obvious it wasn't FunTime RV since they wound up 500K in the hole...

600 RV dealers went out of business last year ... anothr 600 this year ... probably not qa good time to be thinking of going into the RV business...

but i bet you a dozen donuts that you could make some great deals wiht the new owners on the exsiting RV's at FunTime...
[/quote]

Its still a great time to start into the rv biz. All of the dealers that went away had a bad credit rating from too much overhead. If you have the credit, you can easilly get the floor financed. Then if you push them like Lakeshore and Holman does you pay little for your floor plan as the units are moving quickly.

We have all seen dealers that wont budge on there pricing or are priced too high. They have a reason for this.. Overhead or greed.

I often see the top employees or owners cars as they pull up to the dealerships in the mornings. I am waiting for them to open. I have seen em driving Ferraris, Rolls Royces, Lambos, Austin Martins and even private limos. Some of these owners are just filthy rich and that is perfectly fine. But nowdays there profits are down and if those big expensive toys aint paid off these people are in big financial trouble. Lots of reasons they are folding up right now. no.1 is overhead, no.2 is greed. Simple as that.

It makes me laugh somtimes. they park these big expensive cars in there own places away from the eyes of people in the shop or even have a private garage out back that they park all of there toys in. Few would buy knowing all this and they know it.

Now that we have lost so many, we will see a huge surge of new dealerships that are lean and mean on pricing and service.

The industry needed a house cleaning anyway. This will force em to either get off of there rotten attitudes or go down the road.

Many were owned by long time owners. They were looking to retire in the next 5 years anyway. They seen the writing on the wall. They took the money they had and ran. Most all of us would do that. After say 25 years in the biz, many were ready to get out. Why deal with a dealership that was losing money or breakin even. We all would have taken the money and ran.

For all these reasons now is an excellent time to get into the rv biz. But an efficient machine you must be ready to run to be successful.

Carey


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