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Old 12-11-2018, 07:52 PM   #1
Suite Sweets
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Cruiser RV to merge with DRV

After a look at Cruiser RV's website, the merger is hard to believe. Where is the synergy in that event ? I called DRV today, and was told by Krista, in parts, that this is what's happening.
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Old 12-11-2018, 08:16 PM   #2
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DRV has ALWAYS owned Cruiser. What's the surprise? They're only about 1 mile apart. On the same highway.

Bill
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Old 12-11-2018, 08:29 PM   #3
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William, Cruiser website says they're a subsidiary of Heartland Recreational Vehicles. Thor owns DRV. How does Heartland fit in the ownership scheme ?
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Old 12-11-2018, 10:23 PM   #4
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Here's your answer, I just Googled Thor Industries.

https://www.thorindustries.com/get-t...the-companies/

Quite an impressive list.

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Old 12-12-2018, 09:26 AM   #5
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DRV owns Cruiser, Heartland owns DRV, Thor owns Heartland. Confused yet?

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Old 12-12-2018, 09:45 AM   #6
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I'm not, I didn't realize Thor owns so much of the RV industry though.

What DOES'NT Thor own??

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Old 12-12-2018, 04:23 PM   #7
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Thor owns a large percentage of the RV industry in Elkhart.
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Old 12-12-2018, 09:37 PM   #8
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What Thor doesn't own, Forest River does. And the leftovers belong to Winnebago-Grand Design, Tiffin-VanLeigh.
The problem is that Lippert/LCI controls so much of the supply chain that everyone uses the same junk. Lippert has 20-30 brand names under them. Their even trying to break into the boating/marine market..... as if Bayliner isn't enough there...
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Old 12-13-2018, 10:18 AM   #9
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Way back the last time I was at the DRV plant, David, the owner had just assembled the plant across the street for making Cruiser, and I was told his son was going to be running that as a seperate operation. I'm thinking that was 2005?
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Old 12-13-2018, 12:34 PM   #10
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Thor owns Heartland and DRV.
Heartland is the management corporation for DRV
DRV is still it's own entity but managed by heartland.

During our purchase this year all of my emails came through with either a heartland or drv domain, sometimes both.

Cruiser RV is 700' west of DRV

Thor buying up all the RV's
Lippert buying up all the suppliers
camping world buying up dealers
Encore buying up campgrounds

Won't be long before zero competition.
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Old 12-13-2018, 05:54 PM   #11
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Stripit=That echoes my memory also.

Cruiser may now have something west of drv's plant, but their main production facility is to the north, and north of the interstate.

Bill
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Old 12-13-2018, 07:10 PM   #12
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Yep, Porkchop is correct. We were at the DRV plant a few weeks ago and the Cruiser plant is just north of the interstate on the right hand side (east).
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Old 12-14-2018, 10:18 AM   #13
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Way back when, took my 2005 to Doubletree for factory work and was told the Cruiser plant just north of I-90 and west of the n/s road was owned by Dave Faught. A lot of this goes back to the old Sunnybrook name/plant as the origin of Doubletree, if I recall correctly. Unsure of how the change took place, but I have always thought that Faught left SB to start Doubletree, leaving Elvie Fry to run SB. SB later went out of business and even later, the name was bought by Winnebago.
SBs, in their time, were noted to be better-quality units--I owned 2 of the SB TTs --and I bought my '05 Suites based on the knowledge that the owner came from that company.
Doubletree later was sued/told to 'cease and desist' using the name by the Doubletree hotel chain, and thus DRV name came about.
Porkchop can probably correct some of the above if I have mis-stated anything.
Whatever, Thor ultimately owns all of it....Heartland/DRV/Cruiser
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Old 12-14-2018, 10:44 AM   #14
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When I bought our last RV I visited 5 factories. Heartland and Sunnybrook were the top two. We also had a Sunnybrook TT and it was well made (2003). I bought it from a partner at work 2 years old, used it for two years and sold it to another partner in 2009, and it is still going strong.

Sunnybrook's were built with the construction DRV uses, screwed and glued aluminum.
In the end the SB was just too big and heavy for our needs at the time, so we got a Cyclone.

At the time SUnnybrook was alos having growing pains. Several of the top management (5?) did not like where the company was going build and quality wise and left and started their own RV company, IIRC it was Glacier Bay.

I think they got 1 or 2 models to fruition and then folded. The Glacier Bay's I saw were very nice and it was only price point that stopped me from buying at the time. I would say they were similar in comparison when comparing DRV and all the lines below them, both in price and build.

Sunnybrook quality was deteriorating, the Sunnybrook forum started to get a bit negative and one day when I logged in the forum was gone. SB had issued a cease and desist order and that was that.
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Old 12-14-2018, 11:12 AM   #15
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When we were at DRV in 2016 these "BOSS" RV's were setting on their lot in the back 40.

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Old 12-14-2018, 12:00 PM   #16
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Duane,
The old Sunnybrooktalk.com morphed into MyRVTalk.com quite a few SB owners/former owners on it now. Nice small forum.
I also heard of the downslide in quality in SBs, that is what kept me from getting a SB fifth wheel, and ended up with a Suites.
My '95 26FK and then the '02 30FKS trailers never gave me a problem, and several friends got an SB from my experience with them--all of us have gone up to fivers or MHs.
Sad that good quality just about can't survive nowadays.
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Old 12-14-2018, 12:25 PM   #17
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I think you got the history of Dave Faught and drv down pretty close wingnut60. If I'm not wrong he is still listed as president of the company for a few years. (5?) That was my understanding of the purchase agreement anyway.

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Old 12-15-2018, 09:07 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Cummins12V98 View Post
When we were at DRV in 2016 these "BOSS" RV's were setting on their lot in the back 40.

When we visit the DRV factory in Oct 2015, we saw the same thing. The reason was Cruiser was limited in the length they could build, thus the DRV plant to build the longer "BOSS"
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Old 12-16-2018, 01:29 PM   #19
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Originally Posted by wingnut60 View Post
Duane,
The old Sunnybrooktalk.com morphed into MyRVTalk.com quite a few SB owners/former owners on it now. Nice small forum.

Ah yup, been there since the end of the SBT.
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Old 12-17-2018, 03:54 PM   #20
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I’m wondering when Elkhart will be renamed Thor or Thorville.😄
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