What happened to FG Kits?

[Thomas G.]

I was looking at the defunct Burro site and was surprised to see that they offered a kit version for a $1000 savings. I've heard that other FG manufacturers have from time to time also offers kits. Given that it seems like it would be an inexpensive option to offer a kit, what killed it? Low take rate, liability or warranty issues?

[Eddie Longest]

Looks like Lil Snoozy still offers a stripped down Cargo Camper but I don't know the cost. I know the Egg Camper offered kits when they started up and Scamp also offered Kits but no longer do so.
The way I look at it, if you have the skills and patience to complete a kit you can rebuild a project camper for a lot less. You just usually don't get the new trailer shine and smell, but if you are good you can also almost match that too.
From the mfg. standpoint I think they want standard products in the field where they can control the quality of their product. If someone does a hack job on a kit trailer it not only has a negative reflection on the owner but the trailer mfg. also.
I also think the demand is not there. If someone has the money to buy a new trailer they usually want it now.
Eddie

[rabbit]

Tom, it seems to me that the "death" of the Burro kit option was coincident with the dissolution of the company. I don't see what basis we'd have to speculate: no production numbers, no company records regarding the desirability or burden of kit sales, nothing much of an anecdotal nature except the occasional attribution of some particular defect (underprotected and rotten flooring for example) to incompetent kit builds. It may be that Burro LLC succumbed to undercapitalization and quality/warranty issues. There is/or was one gentleman from the southwest who claims to have singlehandedly forced Burro to close their operation and literallly "head for the border."

Based on what I've noticed about the body shells on the only Burro I've owned, I'd say that the design of the Escondido molds was in places rather quixotic (the elaborately shaped stiffeners, similar to hanging knees in a decked boat, found adjacent to front of galley overhead, foward of door, and on both ends of the shower/toilet "cutout") and in others simplified and rationalized. As to the presence of voids between gelcoat and glass, one of the common telltails, the roof just outboard of the Pullman riser on my left hand exterior skin is full of them; the curbside half is noticably free of them. Both of the interior hull halves are also free of voids, most amazingly right where you'd expect them in the elaborate cove and bead molding of the stiffening brackets.

I wouldn't generalize build "quality" from what I've noted during my "archealogical studies" of leaking window frames, collapsing supports for water tanks and pumps,etc, but I would guess Burro had some bad Mondays. Problems with their glass work would be (as in the case of many "manufacturers" of glass cruising yachts) attributable to the contracter that laid up Burro's shells.

I wouldn't be surprised if health and safety regulation and initial cost of resin has had a damping effect on the production of diy glass kits (including car body kits).

jack

[Raz]

"What happened to FG Kits?"

I believe Eggcamper would sell you a shell and the base Scamps are pretty close. Shame Heathkits not still around . Raz

[rabbit]

Back again. The problem with kits is the very same problem as living in a decked foundation (basement) underground for five yrs. while the the kids sniffle and you consider how buying a la carte really isn't the bargain of a lifetime. Glass kits are for hobbyists with plenty of money who don't want to get their hobby shop "sticky". Kits generally are for dreamers who believe they can swing the price of the "main thing" if they can determine what that main thing is. Accessory "packages" are priced in and out with not much attention to anything but fitting the project within inadequate financial resources. Not surprising that one gets a "Potemkin" trailer or roadster or boat.

jack

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by rabbit

........There is/or was one gentleman from the southwest who claims to have singlehandedly forced Burro to close their operation and literallly "head for the border."........jack

That's got to be an interesting story.

I appreciate all the thoughts and observations. I guess it really comes down to supply and demand. We all have our ideas of what a perfect TV or camper would be like, but the mainstream decides what is actually offered.

[Byron Kinnaman]

There also the problem with kit resale value. I doubt it all pencils out.

[rabbit]

Tom, I didn't place the material on "the man who killed Burro Trailer" in my "favorites" which is about the only archival activity I'm capable of producing. I happened on to it with routine Google searches for discussions of Burro Trailer. I queried Social Knowledge as to the advisability of archiving the material in the Burro "tomb" to
FGRV (copyright issues?) but haven't received a response to date. Just the bullet points on that site (for example, hgt. ground to frame) can be useful to an Escondido Burro owner. I'm sure the researcher/writer of the awaited Burro epic has this material in a "hard" format but the documentary doesn't seem to be forthcoming. It is hilarious that the site continues to produce the misconception that Burro LLC is an active trailer fabricator.

Raz, I see you're stilling dreaming about that boyhood SuperHet.

jack

[rabbit]

Might want to check this link, Tom. Yahoo! Groups
It is customer recollection of buying a Burro kit trailer.

jack

. . . and a BBB report: Yahoo! Groups

Here's a discussion on site of a likely kit-built Burro: Topic header:
HELP! Ridge Molding, etc Burro Camper

[Francesca Knowles]

The shell is the most expensive part of the trailer to produce...I think that a LOT of the profit in any trailer (regardless of type) is markup on interior bells and whistles. Naturally, mfr.s want folks to buy as much frou-frou as possible.

Francesca

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by rabbit

Might want to check this link, Tom. Yahoo! Groups
It is customer recollection of buying a Burro kit trailer.

jack

. . . and a BBB report: Yahoo! Groups

Here's a discussion on site of a likely kit-built Burro: Topic header:
HELP! Ridge Molding, etc Burro Camper

Wow. I hope your Burro is better, Jack.

[rabbit]

Well, it got to lookin pretty decent for a 5K investment and then all the sudden it just started going to the dogs:

[David Tilston]

I'd say that was $5K well spent.

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

I'd say that was $5K well spent.

Yea, I'm jealous.

[Terry G]

Originally Posted by rabbit

Raz, I see you're stilling dreaming about that boyhood SuperHet.
jack

Ah, Heathkit brings back many memories including a time in electronics school when I set about trying to repair some of the failed kit projects that folks had donated to the school. What a mess! I suspect that the concept of "kit" trailers had the same basic problems--people starting a project for which they lacked the skill and gumption to finish. But in the case of a trailer, and after hours of work and thousands of dollars, they probably all wanted to sue the trailer company rather than admit their own shortcomings. Selling a trailer kit probably resulted in far too much grief for the company.

[David Tilston]

Ah yes, Heathkit. A company that sold a colour TV that cost more then the store would sell one, and required hundreds of hours to assemble, then trouble shoot. An oscilloscope was recommended.
I never did see the point. Maybe I was too young. I got every catalogue though.

[Ron in BC]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

Ah yes, Heathkit. A company that sold a colour TV that cost more then the store would sell one, and required hundreds of hours to assemble, then trouble shoot. An oscilloscope was recommended. .

Ah, well for some of us that bought the oscilloscope kit never got around to trying the TV kit. Not a bad oscilloscope though, gave years of service.

Kits, bought mostly by dreamers thinking that because the kit only costs a fraction of the finished product they'll really come out ahead. Don't ask me how I know I've bought two "empty" fiberglass shells of sailboats and finished them myself and managed to make the cost more than the factory finished ones In my defense though, I did use much higher end materials and equipment than the factory.

Also, times are changing, home renos might be still popular but I think the DIY project building has somewhat diminished.

Ron

[Thomas G.]

Originally Posted by Ron in BC

...........
Also, times are changing, home renos might be still popular but I think the DIY project building has somewhat diminished.

Ron

I think that I lost interest in kits about Post #9 when I read the details of the guy who bought the Burro kit.

[rabbit]

The old Popular Mechanics kit projects appealed to the generation which lived thru the Depression. Popular Mechanics Encyclopedia and Boy Mechanic books were the rage but I thnk a lot of that sense of make do, homemade and diditm'self has got a bit thin on the ground.

jack

[mmeyer]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

Ah yes, Heathkit. A company that sold a colour TV that cost more then the store would sell one, and required hundreds of hours to assemble, then trouble shoot. An oscilloscope was recommended.
I never did see the point. Maybe I was too young. I got every catalogue though.

But it came with its own test pattern generator built in "such a deal". I did learn how to degauss, adjust the color and align the guns which was a somewhat useful skill for a couple of later TV's. I suppose I will just file it back with other useful but no longer needed skills, like adjusting Points and setting the timing and replacing exhaust systems, making calculations using logarithms, using a planimeter to calculate cut and fill on earth moving designs and running a blueprint machine. If I live long enough, One of these days I may be an expert in these archaic skills.
Michael j.