Another pet peeve

[Roger C H]

I have been trying, sporadically, to get the listings of the trailer brands up-to-date to no avail.

There were two "Trillium" companies, Trillium and Outback.

Well now there is no Trillium only Outback and Sidekick.

I looks like the Trillium website is following the Burro lead in having a website but no company behind it. I guess when you go out of business you don't have the funds to clean up after yourself...

Beyond the announcement by Great West Vans, the Sidekick website has been static, also.

So, what should FGRV do? Move Trillium to the no longer made side and add Outback. Side Kick should be contacted to see if they are still manufacturing.

[Jon in AZ]

Or just wait and see…?

[Cathy P.]

I buy the "RV Buyer's Guide" each year where some of the manufacturers list specs on their units. These ads are expensive to run also. I notice that the Sidekick is listed under the manufacturer "Sterling RV Inc./Great West Van Conversions" They have a listing with photo of the 1300 and the 1500. So either that helps or makes it even more complicated? I don't remember that Sterling RV being listed in last year's guide so maybe there has been some more switching around. Well, that's my best guess but if they ran the ads, good chance someone plans to continue producing them.

[coastsignal]

Before we bought our Eggcamper in November of 2014, we were seriously considering buying a new Trillium Sidekick. I was negotiating with Slade Trimm, a salesman at Great West Vans/Sterling RV/Trillium/Sidekick in Winfield, Alabama and spoke with him several times. He said they were building new Trilliums there at that time. He acknowledged they had a few quality hiccups within the last couple of years but said they are aiming for their quality to be a notch better than the 2 large main competitors, Scamp and Casita. A feature that I really liked is that most of the new Trilliums come with a solar charging system. At that time there were a few 2014 Trilliums at dealers (TN & CA, etc), or, a customer might be able to buy one direct from the factory in Alabama. They had a few leftover 2014 models in Canada, some of which they were importing back to the United States and delivering to their dealers in the US. Tom Young was in charge of Trillium, but I do not know if he is a part owner or manager at this time. The response time for messages and calls was very good.

A Feb. 5, 2015 news report from Ch.13 in Birmingham shows Alabama Gov. Bentley and SterlingRV President David DeBraga ribbon cutting for the Sterling RV manufacturing plant with a comment that they expect to employ 90 people by years' end.


Another report states that Great West Vans was acquired from the old owner Martin H. Guertz, by Sterling Group (owned by Dave DeBraga) in 2012, when Guertz retired. Sterling was/is a manufacturer of fiberglass panels, and was a supplier to the old Great West.

So, it looks like both the Great West RV's and Triilium Sidekicks are planned to be manufactured in Alabama

Mark

[Roger C H]

I phoned GWV today and the lady answering said that all production was moving to Alabama and that they will be updating their website(s) soon.

Apparently these manufacturers don't realize the bad impression that is made when websites are obviously not kept up to date. Customers feel if they can't maintain a website, how can they build a product? Anyone remember the Burro website?

[Raz]

My guess is the name change was to avoid having to honor the Trillium warranty as well as distance the company from any bad publicity from previous poor service. I suspect sales are not stellar with prices listed in the $20k range. Anyone who does there homework will find better value elsewhere. If I'm not mistaken $20k will buy a pretty nice Casita 17 and the company will be there next year should you have a problem. At one time someone said that Tom Young was to be a sales manager. It would seem that didn't work out either. Recently it was reported he wasn't selling parts anymore. It would not surpise me if there were legal issues aswell. Raz

[frank_a]

Originally Posted by Roger C H

Apparently these manufacturers don't realize the bad impression that is made when websites are obviously not kept up to date. Customers feel if they can't maintain a website, how can they build a product?

Exactly. Parkliner is a good example of not seeming to give a hoot!

Frank

[Carol H]

Tom sold Trillium US to Great West who happened to already have their own website.

Perhaps an email to Great West bringing the situation to their attention, may result in them pushing Tom to have the old website taken down if it is still registered in his name and he is the only one with the power to take it down or if they do indeed now also own the rights to the domain name they could at least update it and change it to point to their main website.

[Raz]

It appears Trilliumrv has changed to reflect the current situation.

trilliumrv.com

On the other hand Great West is still selling 2014 trailers???

2014 SideKick Trillium | Great West Vans Conversions Inc.
Go figure, Raz

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by P. Raz

It appears Trilliumrv has changed to reflect the current situation.

trilliumrv.com

On the other hand Great West is still selling 2014 trailers???

Perhaps they trying to clear old stock still , it wasn't a big seller when they first introduced the Side Kick in 2013? in these parts - there were LOTS of them sitting for a long time at the RV lot out in the Valley funny enough not to far from that other very popular fiberglass trailer manufacture thats name starts with an E.