Newell Factory

[Pete Masterson]

From my conversations with Macy and Dale, it was clear that they were strongly committed to Wanderlodge. The withdrawal of credit is what killed them. It takes tremendous working capital to build $million + vehicles and even with CCW "doing well" there is only so much internal capital they could raise. (I'm sure that CCW has its own steep capital needs -- as WL owners we all know just how expensive some of the heavy stuff can be. Multiply that by 50 or 100.... and that's what CCW faces.)

Their plan was to use the Ft. Valley facility to increase CCW's transit bus activities in the east -- and it's certainly clear that losing WL hurts that effort.

I take Macy at his word that it was the financing -- and really nothing else -- that ended the WL experiment. With the sale of the factory and loss of the intellectual property (plans, etc.) it is likely that we've seen the last Wanderlodge to be built.

Pete Masterson

'95 Blue Bird Wanderlodge WBDA 42

El Sobrante CA

"aeonix1@mac.com"

On Jul 30, 2009, at 7:40 PM, David Brady wrote:

I agree. I doubt CCW paid much for Wanderlodge. Cerberus
was just happy to get rid of it. CCW probably got it mostly for
free. But then there were so many other factors: Macy's health,
Dale's brother, bank's withdrawing credit, who knows what the
final straw was. Dale probably gave Macy X number of months
to be profitable. It's sad to think that maybe one or two more
RV sales could have done it. In good times that can be done
by simply restocking the channels. The 450LXi could have
been a great bus.

David Brady
'02 LXi, NC

-----Original Message-----
From: Gregory OConnor
Sent: Jul 30, 2009 10:11 PM
To:"WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com"
Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Re: Newell Factory

I was surprised ccw dropped the wanderlodge gig. they are always busy in Riverside. I wonder who ownes the firesale proceeds. might be a llc from socal?
I noticed that CCW even restocked their used transit bus yard to max.

Macie always signd out as a sales man so you cant complain about his snow job . I would be pissed if they didnt refund the yearly and lifetime memberships to wl owners for the birdsnest. proud owners purchased those rights, I hope they were made whole

airial view of busyard

Gregory O'Connor
94ptca


--- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, dmb993@... wrote:
>
> Thanks for the insight. I was referring to Wanderlodge over the past ten years. CCW played only a small part.
>
> David Brady
> '02 LXi NC
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "jcmace59" jcmace@...
>
> Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 21:41:42
> To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Re: Newell Factory
>
>
> The problem was the Newell had several years of production going which was able to carry them through this downturn. Where else can you go for service for your Newell? Much of their building is done in house, so you have to go back to them for servicing. BB was a "new" company as far as production was concerned. They also outsourced much of the chassis, so us owners could get our parts outside of the factory. They didn't stand a chance given what the economy did, in spite of building a superior coach, imho.
>
>
>
>
>
> --- In WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com, dmb993@ wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for the info Marty. Baffles me that Wanderlodge couldn't compete effectively against them. Newell won the Nascar business. I toured the factory and test drove their '08 coach (new at the time). I wasn't impressed.
> >
> > David Brady
> > '02 LXi NC
> >
> >
> > Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: "martingregg598" martingregg598@
> >
> > Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:59:52
> > To: WanderlodgeForum@yahoogroups.com
> > Subject: [WanderlodgeForum] Newell Factory
> >
> >
> > Hi all, I had the opportunity to tour the Newell factory yesterday (that makes the 7th factory I have toured) and they are still making a few coaches. I was really surprised to see some of the basic components of there $1.5 million coach. They do use a rib construction; however the ribs being aluminum and the frame being steel means no welding the rib to the substructure, they use these small tabs. How do they attach the aluminum siding to the rib? They use 3M tape, no space age adhesive, no welding, no rivets, just the tape, wonder how that hold in a rollover? The floor is OBS wood, not marine grade, with 6" or so of foam sandwich between. The lower compartments have a lot of quarter inch plywood in them, not marine grade. They do still spray foam for the insulation and alot of the wiring is embedded in the foam. The only part of the factory that was rally busy was the repair shop, there must have been 10 new style coaches in for work. As for me, I will be sticking with BB even if I have to manually open and shut my door.
> > Marty Gregg
> > 95BMC37
> > Kennewick WA
> >
>