Cortes Campers, new company?

[Jon in AZ]

Originally Posted by ACZ06

Steve. Do you think the Cortes Camper lineup looks promising to up the quality standards? What are your thoughts??

There is no “Cortes camper line-up.” One unfinished prototype is all I see.

High-end materials do not guarantee reliability. Design does not assure reliability. Both can contribute, but production is what matters. And there is none yet.

[ShelbyM]

Yes, I'll be really surprised if it ever comes to market. Remember the Nest. IIRC, designed by someone who had real knowledge from restoring fiberglass trailers, then all the money in the world thrown at it by Airstream.

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by WaltP

I've had 5 fiberglass trailers. One of them had a window leak after 13 years.

Walt

I am glad you’ve had only one leak . I have probably had / repaired over 20.
The common mantra used to sell people on fiberglass trailers is that they don’t
leak or if they do the damage is minor
A caulk joint or a penetration is as likely to leak on a fiberglass trailer as a stick built.

[ZachO]

Yes, BUT. As I found when I took my Bigfoot door apart, it was completely rotted. The door is the one part or my trailer built like a stick-built. There was just a sliver left of the bottom part of the frame, all the rest had rotted and crumbled to dust.

Hard to imagine owning an entire trailer built that way.

All the same, my Bigfoot has had leaks, and though it's a really nice trailer, any time you peek behind the curtain, you find pretty shoddy craftsmanship. These workers were not finish carpenters, and it shows. Of course they can't be expected to be, or the price would double. My Bigfoot is 30 years old, though, and still going strong.

I'm all for someone building a higher quality camper, but of course there's no way I'll be able to afford it. And I'll stick with companies who don't admire mass-murder.

[ACZ06]

I remember the nest. Advertised to be light.. but i imagine chopper gun built with wood.. and a premium price.. i think thats why it failed..idk

[Steve Carlson]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

I am glad you’ve had only one leak . I have probably had / repaired over 20.
The common mantra used to sell people on fiberglass trailers is that they don’t
leak or if they do the damage is minor
A caulk joint or a penetration is as likely to leak on a fiberglass trailer as a stick built.

Yeah, I have an Escape now which I like very much, but the Escape website bugs me a bit when it says "The trailers are manufactured with a 100% molded fiberglass body eliminating any risk of leaks"... that is simply not true. Yes, water won't leak through the body surface, but the trailer as a whole has a dozen or more large potential leak points such as windows and vents.

[Rzrbrn]

As others have said it is as much about maintenance and pre emptive maintenance (fi there is such a thing). I have seen wood and tin trailers that are 50 years old that had no leaks and no mold or rot. Our current trailer will be our last and only, but I would buy a well made stickie. I really like the Jayco Seneca Super C...Hey, I can still dream...and play the Power Ball...

First thing I did when I bought a new Big Foot 25B was to inspect the seals and I put a bead of caulk around the door edges. Even so a tech was on the roof and said he found a possible hole and caulked it. It just never ends...

[ZachO]

I love the marketing. Just like when the first thread on "roto-molded" coolers showed up here, and most of us were asking "what the heck is a roto-molded cooler??"

I guess now we can add "chopper gun" fiberglass to our arsenal of insider terminology.

[Defenestrator]

Originally Posted by David Tilston

Anthony, do you work for Cortes?

Starting to think the answer is "yes". Not 100% sure, but it definitely smells more and more like astroturfing the more he posts.

[Rzrbrn]

Originally Posted by Defenestrator

Starting to think the answer is "yes". Not 100% sure, but it definitely smells more and more like astroturfing the more he posts.

Ha! I had to look up astroturfing.

[thrifty bill]

Originally Posted by Defenestrator

Starting to think the answer is "yes". Not 100% sure, but it definitely smells more and more like astroturfing the more he posts.

+100 And then there is the entire fixation with "chopper gun" fiberglass. Plenty of fiberglass products have been made with chopper guns including the first 15 years of Chevy Corvette production.

There is no product line, nor is there a single product. What you have is an uncompleted prototype, and some drawings on the web.

And plenty of "chopper gun" fiberglass trailers are not backed by wood. Both chopper gun and hand laid fiberglass need to be done correctly to achieve quality. Neither is inherently "better" for a FG trailer IMHO. And the Cortes product does not even exist, so ratings its construction as higher quality is very funny.

It reminds me so much of the "casein" in pizza commercials. They would show someone enjoying eating a frozen pizza (cooked of course) and then tell them the pizza contained "casein, a major ingredient in GLUE". At that point, the actor eating the pizza would just about spit it out. Great advertising stunt. The part they neglected to mention is casein is the protein in MILK.

https://www.oddballfilms.com/clip/13...85_tonys_pizza

[Rzrbrn]

Regarding marketing: some years ago there was a new all aluminum camper on the market. The name changed over time, and all I can remember is Livin'lite or Campin Lite or something like that. They made different models of pop ups and hard sided trailers. The marketing was great; At last an alternative to Airstream, high quality, no wood, etc. I went to look at them before I bought my first trailer, which was a Casita. The dealership had a number of models on the floor. Upon closer inspection, it was indeed all aluminum, including the floor. But... build quality was butting up against terrible. For instance, sheet aluminum was screwed to an aluminum square structural tube. In more than one place the the screw missed the tube, which left a hole, and was then "patched" by simply putting in a screw. Other places they had screwed into the metal tube structural member but overtightened and stripped the hole; there was no wood backing in the tube to secure the screw to so the surface aluminum sheet was not secured to anything; again a screw will just left in the hole. It had a number of exposed sharp sheet metal corners (but honestly, found this in Airstream trailers also). Indeed the floor was solid aluminum and firm. But it was a cold late fall day and that floor was VERY cold. The mattress was likewise on a flat aluminum sheet.

My point is pretty brocures and wishful thinking do not a trailer make.

[Raspy]

Originally Posted by steve dunham

Judging solely from the trailers listed base price , one could assume that there is a long list of standard equipment / features including tail lights but I’ve made that assumption in the past and been dead wrong .

Steve, Where did you find the prices?

[steve dunham]

Originally Posted by Raspy

Steve, Where did you find the prices?

I went to Cortez Campers .com - clicked on the heading for 14ft trailer and the
MSRP was shown as approx $38,000 .
That’s about double what we paid for our Casita but to be fair a Casita ia a known quantity and in production , the Cortez is a concept without specifics
or details .
Several fiberglass trailers manufacturers have leaped into the market , sold an illusion to willing customers, took their deposits to finance their business and then silently slinked off into the night
Let’s just say I like some of what I’ve read but so far with no proven track record , I remain apprehensive

[John in Michigan]

Reminds me of the term "vaporware":

"Software or hardware that has been advertised but is not yet available to buy, either because it is only a concept or because it is still being written or designed."

This Cortes Campers is part of US Lighting Group Inc. (USLG) which has a common stock share value today of 25 cents per share. Located at the same address.

Would you buy this camper? Would you buy this stock? Go visit and decide. That pretty much sums it up.

[ZachO]

Well Anthony, Cortes employee on an astroturfing (I had to look that one up, too. I love it) campaign or not, don't let us scare you away. You're getting the same treatment any brand-new member with very strong opinions that don't "fit the mold", as it were, would get.

But if you are advertising Cortes, come out with it. We have had multiple new fiberglass rv representatives post here to advertise, try out ideas and get feedback etc. But never yet an astroturfer!

[Glenn Baglo]

So, what is aluminumized fiberglass?

[ZachO]

Marketing. You can find "1208 biaxial fiberglass" online, but they seem to have taken their description that this particular fiberglass is strong like aluminum, and found a way to incorporate that into the name...

[ACZ06]

Originally Posted by ZachO

Marketing. You can find "1208 biaxial fiberglass" online, but they seem to have taken their description that this particular fiberglass is strong like aluminum, and found a way to incorporate that into the name...

Barracuda Aluminized Fiberglass - BGF Industries, Inc. - BGF Industries, Inc.

[ACZ06]

Originally Posted by ZachO

Marketing. You can find "1208 biaxial fiberglass" online, but they seem to have taken their description that this particular fiberglass is strong like aluminum, and found a way to incorporate that into the name...

https://www.newtex.com/npm/fabrics/z...zed-fiberglass