Which Trailer Was The First Laguna Cnc Camp Inn?

I still have not found out which was the first camper that was manufactured using the Lauguna Smart.....inquiring mind (that would be me) wants to know.

 

Bill,

We started using the Laguna in Feb of 2013. It was a "process" to program parts and move them to the CNC from being pattern cut. At that point I believe the first parts cut were the side walls. So, side walls cut in February would be in campers completed in March of 2013. That means the first CNC parts would be on campers around serial number 570.

We probably did not have everything fully in the CNC until around 2015.

Cary

 

I’ve heard hot tubs will be available in late 2022 but you have to choose between a washer/dryer or the hot tub. Apparently there isn’t room for both.

 

When people comment on the small size of our 560, I usually tell them that, "Yes, it's challenging to not be able to stand up inside, but the hot tub is TOTALLY worth it!"

 

"You should see it when it is inflated!"

 

I tell them the basement is bigger than they realize.

 

I once had a snarky kind of a jerk going on and on about how his 35 foot travel trailer was better. I also knew that he had to pay a premium for a heated storage unit to keep it in.

I just commented that I park mine in the garage and even better, it doubles as the in-law apartment when they come to visit.

 

EDIT: Something didn't work I reformatted a bunch of text that was duplciated and in the wrong place...Wierd


Oh, Snark...I like snark.

I found my garage never drops below freezing --- even on the coldest nights my attached garage never drops below 40. In fact, I don't know quite what to do with the 14 gallons of antifreeze I have that I purchased for my ol' 35 foot trailer...or that giant cover that I needed to replace every 1-2 years.

Your insurance costs how much a month? I pay that for a 6 months!

You get 7 mpg when towing? Funny....my cars MPG drops that much, I get 32 when not towing, and 25 when I am.

How much did the value of yours drop in the first year? MSRP was 60000, but you got a "great deal" at 35,000 (the markup on elkhart rigs is crazy) just like everyone else. How much will you be able to sell it for in 2 years? Interesting - Mine only dropped from MSRP to almost MSRP

Did your slides break yet? Oh, they're still under warranty! I'm sorry, I'll ask you again 3 months after the warranty is out. (also, ask about refrigerator, heater, water pump, axles and stove)

1/8" steel frame? I see you are a man of faith!

Frame rusted yet? Of course it is, it was rusted when they started building it. Did you look here behind this gusset? Is that raw steel? Oh, here...at this weld...and wait...is that weld cracked? Was there penetration here?

Leaks? I used to buy dicor by the case! I just gave 8 tubes to my neighbor for his...the 4 he bought wasn't enough.

What is a China bomb? A blowout is bad on any rig. But the big rigs are putting a lot more stress on cheap tires. 8000lbs on 4 tires, or 1500 on 2.

While we're talking suspension...Those equalizers in the trailer suspension -- they look like they are upgrades? Funny...mine is factory, and I forget it is there when I'm towing it. For that matter....I don't even HAVE equalizers.

---

Are Teardrops perfect? No, there are a few creature comforts that would be nice. Bathroom, Shower, built-in-washer and dryer....But at least where Camp-inn is concerned....maintenance is easy, I can't speak for the "super" teardrops which has as much in common with teardrops as chiapets do to gardening.

Washing, waxing, being the worst of the maintenance we have, and some us accept "patina" as a finish.

My 2012, when I sold it in 2017) still looked good except for some corrosion caused by roadsalt. TOTALLY my fault, it sat for weeks without a wash after a snowstorm. Everything still worked after several cross country trips, and over 100 nights use. This is "ordinary" behavior for campinn.

My 35 Grand Design had less than 30 nights use, was to florida and back once....and I had alerady replaced the entire suspension, and a 3'rd set of springs Not to mention control boards on the fridge and water heater. Sadly, my experience there was not an exception here either.

---

My favorite question from people --- how many does it sleep? I always answer "it depends on how finely you chop them."

Considering our "Welcome to Wisconsin" thread -- I think I need professional help

 

I know the feeling, compared to our travel trailer, these are easy to maintain, easy to own, easy to tow, easy to store.

 

Bad Sweeney...bad! No coffee for you!

 

Sweeney, our 560 has ruined us. The only travel trailer we would ever consider at this point would be an Oliver (and even then, that would only be if we went full-time or most-time). Low maintenance and quality REALLY matter, and anyone who has ever had to fix things can immediately see the advantages of a well-built Camp-Inn.

 

We looked at fiberglass trailers too, and they do have a lot of advantages as well....very similar maintenance being once of them. Where they lost was price --- I'm a "cash is king" kind of person -- and $65000 is just a little pricy for us, especially when you consider an F150 is in the same price range and my existing fleet won't pull it.

We considered the other fiberglasses as well (Casita and Scamp primarily) and they all kind of felt into that "too big to be small, too small to be big" -- I know "me" and having to do a bed converstaion on the table would get old REALLY quick. It would turn into a bed and stay that way....In which case...you have a "teardrop"

The ONLY place I see teardrops "loosing" in my decision process is.

1] Rainy days
2] Bathroom/Showerhouse requirement

10 year ago, the rainy days weren't as much a problem -- it was easy to pick up and move, now camp sites need weeks or even months of reservation planning. One of our best trips we relocated due to rain, and the place we went was one of the best stops we've ever made....Chatanooga TN area. Racoon Mountain Campground and Caverns, with all the attractions in the area --- it was a great 4 or 5 days that we stayed there.

 

Now that I’ve absorbed the quality and construction difference between a camp inn and virtually everything else, the only other thing I’d consider is an Airstream. And since I’m not made out of money, that’s settled.

 

Only problem is, Airstream doesn’t measure up either… don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of AS and I’d own one if I was made of money too but I can say from walking through both new and used examples and following many AS forums on Facebook, they have their issues too. I think there are a few TD’s that are close to CI but in the full size trailer world, not really. Maybe Bowlus but there’s very little chance I’ll win the lottery and buy one of those. Even at that, I’ve never actually seen one in person and CI is probably still superior to even Bowlus.

 

Oh no...here goes another rant...darn it! I hate when this happens.

Yah, sadly Airstream was bought by Thor, and while they kept the look they changed the company foundational. I might consider an OLD airstream. The new ones are built with the same problematic components, and poor attitudes. I am curious if Airstream was ran more like a boutique brand back in the day -- my RV epxeireice is post 2009, before that I only had friends who worked at companies like Georgi Boy and Honey.

Here's the thing --- Every manufacturer has problems, even CampInn. Its what they do in their process to ensure the problems don't repeat. Maybe its an engineering change, maybe its training. Whenever you build, things don't always to according to plan. The difference is that CI is the manufacturer and the retailer...they have a vested interest and genuinely care about their customers.

The majority of the indusy is "The dealer/manufacuter model" --- and it is severely broken.

A component manufacturer makes a part to a spec given by the builder. The builder uses the part and it fails either because of a design problem, a spec problem, or a manufacturing error. These two will point fingers back and forth all day meanwhie the dealer is stuck with an angry customer.

Then there is the dealer who is responsible for actually fixing it whatever it is that is wrong. What is an emergency to you, is an every day occurance to him. And he has to go through the process I'm describing below 20 times a day...and it goes something like this:

He has to document, submit for approval the warranty claim. Which will be be denied. He will have to re-document taking more photos, more forms, and more analysis and re-submit the approval. The majority of the time there will be more questions. Finally, he get the authorization. He will order the parts. If he is lucky they will ship the right ones. If not he will reorder the correct part, and pay to ship the wrong parts back.

THEN finally fix the problem where he returns the coach to the customer, who is screaming about how long it took. Unless the customer has become infected with Stockholm Syndrome.

Then the dealer has to submit to paperwork to actually get paid. Of course, he doesn't get paid "retail" rates. He gets paid "book rate" -- the book rate for the control board repair is probably $10-20 in labor. And he doesn't get paid for the documentation/application. That 15 minute part swap takes hours...and then weeks waiting to get paid. Warranty claims to a dealer are a money loosing proposition.

Its a broken system.

The only thing I would consider is some of the other boutique brands. For a driveable, maybe something from "Lazy Daze" (not to be confused with the national dealer of a similar name), and for a towable something like Oliver, Vestibule, or one of the "fiberglass" trailers...basically any company that I can pick up the phone and talk the some one like Cary. Because if it comes from the "big boys" they all are pretty much exactly the same.

I have a high-school friend who works for one of component manufacturers. I won't say any of the names to protect my friend. If you look up "component manufacturer" the list is very small, and you'll proably know who I'm talking about already. There is basiclaly one. His words to me when I said I was thinking about an RV were chillingly simple..."Don't do it --- just....dude...don't. You'll have nothing but trouble."

its tragic seeing people dump their life savings into these things. Especially the "Covid campers" that are filling our state parks today. They havn't been shown how to care for the rigs, I will bet in 3-4 years we'll see a flood of water damaged and worn out campers flooding the used market.

I LOVE RV'ing. There is a freedom of going some place, and sleeping in your own bed. But seriously if you aren't buying quality...Don't do it --- just....dude...don't. You'll have nothing but trouble.

 

Exactly. My wife and I love the looks of the Airstreams, and in fact that's one of the reasons the Camp-Inns first appealed to us. Love the classic Americana feel. We have what is apparently the highest-selling Airstream dealership near us here in Northern California, and before we got our 560, we'd go in there and look around about once a year for an afternoon date. We always left feeling like the quality wasn't what it should have been. Later when we got home, I'd surf the different forums and watch YouTube videos to find that the quality issues were even worse than we suspected. And then there's the cases where unsuspecting people brought their Airstreams in for service and the dealerships would ***take parts*** from their rig and put them in someone else's without telling them!

I use to run nuclear reactors in the Navy. It warped my way of thinking for life. I look for ruggedness, quality, capability, reliability, and parts availability. I'll gladly pay more upfront to get it..."you can pay now or you can pay later, but you're gonna pay!" For a travel trailer, I haven't found anything better than an Oliver; if we ever went full-time or most-time, that's what we would get. When we looked for teardrops, Camp-Inn was a clear winner for us. If we went the van route, it would have been a Sportsmobile. Prior to our 560, we had a Jumping Jack tent trailer. The Jumping Jack was incredibly rugged and simple, and it saw heavy and abusive use (we technically still own it, but now our 5 kids share it amongst themselves for their camping trips). Eventually we decided we wanted a few extra amenities, and the Camp-Inn works great for us. We've never found a class A motorhome that we'd be happy with...they all seem like total garbage. The Newell motorhomes are nice and are very well thought out, but even then there are too many things that could break (and the price!); I think an old bus conversion might be preferable had we gone that route.

Being a data guy, I once made a spreadsheet/chart that plotted "effort" versus "camping type". "Effort" was effectively "energy"...the physical effort to lift and pack things, the initial cost, the extra work you had to do (or pay) for maintenance (based on type of camping AND manufacturer), the extra work you had to do to pay for storage, etc. I then plotted it out for different varieties of tents, tent trailers, teardrops, truck campers, vans, travel trailers, 5th wheels, and motorhomes. The results showed that the sweet spot was in fact the teardrops. Having said that, there are valid reasons why someone might choose something else...for example, some folks may want to bring a big boat with them, and there isn't a good way to do that if you're towing a teardrop. Or maybe you have a large family, and a larger trailer or RV is needed...a two-person solution could look very different than a 5-person solution.

I can happily say that our Camp-Inn 560 Ultra has been nothing but pure happiness and joy for us. Looking forward to many more years and miles of meandering and enjoying the better things in life.

EDIT: Typos and stuff. Gotta maintain the forum's high standards and keep verbiage inline with the quality Camp-Inn products discussed here!

 

I worry I'm too direct some times. Thanks for the affirmation.

I just absolutely can NOT stand seeing businesses acting badly. I heard the stories before I bought one and foolishly ignored my friends advise only to learn he was not kidding. I see the parks overflowing with rigs that are just 1-2 years old and wonder how many will still even exist in 5 years. I've been in "newish" rigs that smelled of mold...won't be long now is all I think, then suggest they find a good and honest RV tech.

If you want to buy one -- its your money. But especially if you read my notes...you've been warned.

Thank Goodness -- our friends in Necedah think differently.

 

Very cool! What did you fly? I served aboard the nuclear-power guided missile cruiser USS California (CGN-36), and spent many hours watching planes take off and land on the carriers in the 1990's (we were often with the Carl Vinson battlegroup, but we also hung out with Nimitz, Lincoln, and Enterprise at various times and locations). We even used to tow wooden crates behind the ship (see "targetpractice" photo below) so the F-14's and F-18's could get a little target practice with their guns...that was just as fun as watching our own missile launches (see pics) at point blank range!

I've added a few fun pics from my time on the ship for your amusement...hoping this is still considered "on topic" for this forum post since I'm comparing the high quality of our Camp-Inn 560 with Admiral Rickover's Nuclear Navy, arguably the greatest feat of quality engineering from the last hundred years. Pretty sure if Admiral Rickover was alive now and had an RV of any kind, it would have been a Camp-Inn!

EDIT: Oops, typos!

 

Mike, as a 62 yr old that never went into the service, I truely appreciate everyone, including yourself, that has served to allow our country to have the freedoms we enjoy. Thank you Sir.

Bill

 

Thank you very much. And I sincerely appreciate you the taxpayer funding my college education and world travel!